After a long and painful struggle with a serious complication of diseases, resulting at last in typhoid fever, Bert Sisley passed to the silent beyond last Saturday afternoon. He was taken to the hospital four weeks ago, and has been unconscious most of the time since. It was a magnificent fight between strong vitality and death, but the scythe of the Reaper again proved the weakness of mortal man. Sunday afternoon the body was escorted in honor by the Bemidji Tribe of Red Men and the Bemidji Firemen, of which orders he was a member, to the west bound train and shipped to St. Cloud for burial. A brother of the deceased and Fred Brinkman went with the corpse and assisted in the last sad rites.
The deceased was 35 years old, having been born near St. Cloud in its pioneer days and his parents still live near Foley. He came to Bemidji in the fall of ’98 and joined Fred Brinkman in the saloon business and continued with Fred up to his death. He was unmarried. Two brothers and three sisters and his parents survive him. His father returned with Mr. Brinkman to Bemidji.
Bert was a man whose greatest gift seemed to be the making of friends. And we doubt if in his whole career in Bemidji he has made one enemy. Everybody liked Bert and the whole community mourns as brothers his untimely taking off. (Bemidji Pioneer, July 19, 1900)
Sisley, William
William Sisley, lately of St. Paul, is conducting an employment agency in the Dewey House. He has several large contracts to supply men for logging and other jobs. (Oct 26, 1899)