Memorial services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Friday, February 12 at Cornerstone Christian Church in Redwood Falls.

Visitation will be held from 5-7:30 p.m. Thursday at the church and will continue one hour prior to the services on Friday.  Interment is in the Redwood Falls Cemetery.  The Redwood Valley Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. In lieu of flowers, memorials preferred to Seasons Hospice House.

Horace Thaine Wetmore – Long time farmer, inventor, salesman – born on the family farm on April 6, 1917 to Everett & Lenore Wetmore. He attended school district 47 in Paxton township and graduated from Redwood Falls High School in 1934.  He was baptized in the Church of Christ in 1930.  He married Lucille Caroline Johnson on June 6, 1936 in Crown Point, Indiana.  They lived in Chicago for 6 months, the Morgan area 6 months, and then they moved to the family farm and lived there until the fall of 2006, at which time they moved to Garnette Gardens. In the early 50s, with his inventive mind, Horace made the first of its kind hydraulic front end loader for an F20 tractor for cleaning cattle barns.  He also made a hammermill for grinding corn and oats for livestock.  In the early 60s he invented the rolling shields for cultivating corn & soybeans and showed the invention at the MN Inventors Congress. His motto was “There isn’t anything that can’t be fixed”.  He loved to weld, build & fix things with iron and continued to come up with new ideas and inventions. In 1976 Horace helped establish A & W Irrigation Co. on his farm. This equipment was sold in MN, WI & SD.  Grain bins were added in 1977, and eventually the business expanded to NW MN where he sold grain drying bins with centrifugal fans to wheat farmers.  While semi-retired, Horace took on a hobby selling a new 5th wheel camping trailer named the “Shadow.”  The hitch on the top center of the car was a unique good selling feature and became a very busy hobby. Horace was the kind of person who helped someone in need, or needed a break.  He didn’t expect a plaque or anything in return.  He was a silent giver. Even though he opposed the building of the new school that we have now, when the vote was approved to build, he supported it & gave from his farm tons and tons of clay fill for the entire foundation and parking lot. In addition to an active membership in the Cornerstone Church, he was a Board member for Pinehaven Christian Camp on Long Lake near Park Rapids, a member of the Masons, Nat’l Farmers’ Union, NFO, Groundswell, 4-H supporter and original board member of the MN Corn Processors Ethanol plant in Marshall. He retired in 1998 and enjoyed fishing, spearing, ice fishing & staying at the cabin on Lake of the Woods near Warroad, MN.  He invented a boat trailer that could carry two boats on top of one another.  He loved deer hunting in NW MN for 45 years.  He enjoyed bowling on Sandvig’s team. He and Lucille loved to travel the US, Canada and Mexico.  They saw all but one National Park. Horace was a faithful, life-long member of his Church, a life-long friend to many, a husband for almost 74 years and a father who taught his children a variety of skills and values. Horace was a man of his word; as friend Buzz Rieppel said:  “If Horace said he was coming to beat you up, I’d get ready, or get out of town, because he WAS coming.” “Let love and faithfulness never leave you.  Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man”.  Proverbs 3:3.

Survivors include his wife Lucille C. Wetmore; children, Janice (Greg) Boynton, Robert (Mary) Wetmore; grandchildren:  Bill (Karen Hass)Wetmore, Jr., Michelle (Tom) Shrider, Scott Wetmore, Joy (Don) Vinson, Jackie (John) Votapek, Emily (Mike) Davis, Tim Wetmore; Lisa Boynton, Scott (Lindsi) Boynton; great-grandchildren:  Isaac Shrider, Alicia & Alexandra Vinson, Maya & Ella Votapek, Sam, Zachary, Madeline Boynton, Mason Davis.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Everett & Lenore Wetmore; sons Bill & Glenn Wetmore; grandson Steven (Johnson) Boynton; sisters Inez Sorenson & Evelyn Boudreau.