Sad News from WI

[WayneK]

Some of you know the Klessig family--David, Tracy, Emmet, and Gus, from Eagle River WI either through NAVC, Grand Portage, the Eagle River event, Pine City MN, or DeChartres, among many events. Dave has asked me to post this in order to contact as many friends of the family as possible.

Early this morning, January 5 at 4 am, Emmet Klessig passed away at the St. Joseph's Children's ICU in Marshfield WI of complications of blastomycosis. This young man, a high school student, accompanied his family on numerous history events and was an avid hunter and trapper as well as having a strong interest in the history of the fur trade.

We don't know just how Emmet contracted this disease, an infection caused by microscopic spores found in moist soils especially in the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys. To lose such a young and vital person is always perplexing and extremely tragic.

Please keep the Klessigs in your thoughts and prayers. I'll post further information when it becomes available.

Yours,
Wayne Krefting

[ditmurier]

Wayne,
Please let them know that our thoughts are with them and we will keep them in our prayers. I only meet Emmet a couple times but he was fine young man. The Tharps

[KarlK]

It truly was a sad day yesterday. I knew Emmet as a fine young man, a friend, a guy who loved hunting, be it deer or bear. He did wonderful at NAVC teaching many how to skin critters, I myself learned from this gentleman. We educated the public together at Eagle River's Klondike days, he role-played the young voyageur flawlessly in an impromtu skit.
I will miss him. A GREAT young man from a GREAT family. Dave and Tracy raised a wonderful boy. My heart goes out to the whole family.
Here is Dave and Em last February educating school kids in Eagle River;

[David Brown]

I met Dave and Emmett at Fort De Chartres. Dave bought a gun from me. Very sad and stunned to hear this news.

_________________
Everybody needs to believe in something.
I believe I'll have a beer.

[Sieur Phillipe Chenier]

What a great young man. He will be truly missed by us all.

Here is a photo of when I saw him last at Pine City's NWCo's Fall Gathering.



A wonderful family and some of my best of friends.

[Berit]

This event has broken all our hearts. ...but hopefully, soon we'll be able to follow Tracy's example, and get to the point where we can think of Emmett and smile and laugh rather than weep. We've known Emmett since he was a little boy, and have delighted in watching him grow up, and become a really wonderful young man. He has been such a partner to his dad ~ They hunted, worked, trapped and did their skinning together. Watching them teach skinning at NAVC was to see what a team they had become. Emmett was a great help at home, and despite some misgivings about a new baby in their house, he was the best big brother August could have had.
He was interested in so many things, and the NAVC gathering this fall introduced him to something new. Otter and Christian taught a class in silversmithing, and Emmett took to it like he'd been born with that tiny saw in his hands. He spent the rest of the weekend immersed in making as many pieces of trade silver as the scraps would allow. I had looked forward to seeing his talent grow. We all did.
Dave and Tracy's dearest hope is that Emmett won't be forgotten.
.... no chance of that

with a heavy heart,
Berit

[LaFrenierre]

Emmett was a wonderful young man, a son anybody would have been proud to call their own. Quiet, unassuming, eager to help even in the mundane tasks. He hunted and shared the meat. As Berit said, he was the best big brother little August could have hoped for. Courteous but more than willing to bang bodies on the lacrosse field. An adventurer in the true sense of the word he savored his first winter trek last year on Savanna Portage. A young man just coming into his own. He will be missed.
John

[Traci324]

I just wanted to say I think this is a wonderful idea to create this blog for people to talk about Emmett. I am a family member from Michigan and I feel so awful for Dave and Tracy. I can't even imagine the pain they are feeling right now. Just know all of us in Michigan are thinking of you and praying for you.

Deepest Sympathy,
Traci (Osborne) Springer

[Beowulf65]

Wayne,
Please let them know my thoughts are with them and I will keep them in my prayers. God Bless them.

_________________
Finnias (Black Finn) Duggan. I fear no man, no beast, I call no man master.

[LaFrenierre]

Mes amis -
What follows are the words I gave, on behalf of the reenactors who knew and loved Emmett and know and love Dave and Tracy and August, at Emmett's funeral yesterday. If I had a fraction of the composure of the young lady who followed me, the delivery of the words would have matched their intent.
LaFrenierre

* * * * * * *

Words for Emmett

We should be in the forest, not far, about a mile or so in. Deep winter. Snow enough for good snowshoeing. Cold. Not bone-rattling, wish we were back in the warm cabin cold. But the winter cold that hones life down to the keen, black and white crispness of the north woods. That draws you out into the wild with its stark simplicity. That makes you glad you are alive, here and now, and nowhere else.

“We’ll camp here. Emmett, you and Zach and Colton, gather up boughs for bedding.” And you watch as the young men set to their work. This is Emmett’s first winter camp and he takes to it as though born to it. And perhaps he was.

Born here at the headwaters of the mighty Wisconsin River—Emmett was from and a part of this special place.

He was a hunter. A fisher. A trapper. A feller of trees. A builder of camps. He was a son, a brother, a grandson, a nephew, and a friend. He was a scholar, an athelete, and probably a reluctant and awkward dancer. And so much, much more. But I do not know of all those things.

We who knew Emmett through our shared love of history and the outdoors, we knew him as someone…

Who could skin a bloody muskrat at one moment, and then in the next carefully make fine silver jewelry.

Who would hold brother August and care for him, and then go out and bruise bodies playing lacrosse.

Who’d proudly share the venison he had killed. Ah, don’t you just think the critters here about have issued forth a great communal sigh of relief? They are so much safer now that Emmett is gone. But, somewhere, in a quiet woodland glade, you know they have gathered, to pay their respects, to an honored and noble foe.

We knew Emmett as a teacher, sharing his knowledge of skills he had already fine-tuned at his young age.

We knew him as someone who mended his own breeches in a scrunched-up, man’s ham-fisted sort of way, and when kidded about his lack of sewing skills, replied, in that soft, understated way of his, “Well, the hole is closed.”

We knew him as someone who probably didn’t sing much with his friends back here in Eagle River, but joined in around the fire when Chris and Berit would lead us in a fine tune.

We knew him as the son who shared the path his father walked, but, when the chance came, opted not to portray an independent fur trader, but, instead, a scalawag voyageur. Asked why, he said with an eager grin, ”It’s more fun.”

We knew him as someone who would willingly do any chore around camp. If he grumbled, it was in a language that only Dave and Tracy understood.

My god, they raised such a splendid young man.

And that winter campsite? In summer it is a canoe portage. Rich in history. Connecting two great watersheds. Through the centuries it has been crossed by the Dakota, the Ojibwe, the voyageurs and traders. We are honored to be there. We are doubly honored, for we are there in the company of good friends. And there, close among the bright and weary faces around the blaze, his face sketched by the flickering firelight, is Emmett. Notre cher ami.

[ditmurier]

Thank you John. It helps those who could not be there.

[Angus Holmes]

Thank you all for your loving support in our time of need . It Is not an easy path that we must now follow , however We know we are not alone . If we stumble or need help with or burden , there are many with us to lift us up dust us off and keep us going . Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we continue our journey .
Angus Holmes and Family

a.k.a. David A. Klessig

[Wm. Joe Batterton]

Dave,

You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers.

Your Friend,
Joe Batterton