Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024
Charles Joseph Theis was born Aug. 6, 1898 in Louisville Township near Marystown. His parents were Charles S. Theis (1866-1930) and Mary Caroline Pieper Theis (1870-1943). Charley spent all his life in the community, including attending school at St. Mary’s of the Purification Catholic School in Marystown, along with his three brothers and three sisters. He enjoyed living near Marystown.
On May 19, 1925, Charles Joseph Theis married Mabel Anna Cress (1906-1996), who was born Sept. 5, 1906 in Clear Lake, Wisconsin. They married at St. Mary’s Purification Catholic Church in Marystown. The two of them had five boys: Donald Charles Sr. (1926-2006); Kenneth Anton (1927-1951); Norman Edward (1930-2000); Charles Joseph Jr. (1932-1955); and Leon Martin Theis (1935-2018).
A devoted Catholic, Charley was a member of St. Anthony’s Benevolent Society in Marystown and was a member of the Knights of Columbus in Shakopee. He was a treasurer of Louisville Township and was one of the moving spirits in the organization of the Minnesota Valley Elective Cooperative, an REA project this this section.
According to a 1941 article “Charles J. Theis Killed in Ditch Cave-In Tuesday,” Charley, who was 43 years old, was digging a trench across the road to lay a culvert with his neighbors, Henry Heibel and Joseph Grommesch. They had almost completed the ditch when the fatal accident occurred.
They were laying the culvert to drain a field on the Theis farm. Charles Joseph Theis was in the center of the nine-foot-deep trench when the sidewalls caved in and buried the Marystown man beneath tons of dirt.
Joseph, who was working near the end of the ditch, was also caught in the cave-in, and suffered a broken shoulder as a result.
The accident occurred on July 1, 1941 at about five o’clock in the afternoon. Henry frantically worked to release the men, and after a doctor arrived, he said that Charley died of a fractured skull.
The doctor also set the fractured shoulder of Joseph.
The grief-stricken wife, Mabel, and the five children, the oldest who was 13 years old, were saddened by the untimely passing of a kind, loving, and devoted father.
According to “Chas. Theis Funeral Largely Attended,” over half of the people attending were unable to get into the church, which was July 4, 1941 at St. Mary’s Purification Catholic Church in Marystown. The requiem high mass was presided over Charles Joseph Theis’s remains by Rev. Father Ziskovsky, assisted by Fr. Savs and Fr. Klein. Charles was buried at St. Mary’s Purification Catholic Cemetery.
Mabel Anna Cress Theis later married Joseph Henry Grommesch (1908-1980), son of John B. Grommesch (1865-1936) and Mary Ann Geis Grommesch (1874-1947).
Mabel Anna Cress Theis Grommesch died Nov. 10, 1996, and was buried at St. Mary’s Purification Catholic Cemetery.