From the Lodi News-Sentinel, 10 Feb 1977:
Jacob Bechthold, 65, 941 Woodrow St., died early Tuesday evening in a local hospital following a lengthy illness.
A native of Russia, he left his Siberian homeland as an infant with his parents and nine siblings on a transcontinental journey which took them to China, Japan and the United States.
Upon their arrival in the U.S., the Bechthold family settled in Peabody, Kan., where Jacob was reared. He also grew up on farms in Oklahoma and Texas.
In 1942, he and his twin brother, Carl, joined the U.S. Army Air Force. Upon his discharge Bechthold opened a body and fender repair business in Garberville. He married Mary McFarland in Eureka in 1953 and the couple soon moved to Napa, where he was employed by the government.
In 1962 he was transferred to Tooele Army Depot in Utah where he worked four years before retiring on a disability pension and moving to Salt Lake City, where he worked as a security guard.
He moved to Lodi in 1974 and was a member of the Disabled American Veterans, Chapt. 59, of Lodi.
Survivors include his wife, Mary; a daughter, Elvena Marie Bechthold of Lodi; a son, William M. Bechthold of Ft. Campbell, Kan.; five brothers, John Bechthold of Emporia, Kan., Henry Bechthold of Hutchinson, Kan., Fredrick Bechthold of Edna, Tex., Carl Bechthold of Napa and Alexander Bechthold of Rio Vista; and four sisters, Mrs. Mary Geisbrecht of Marion, Kan., Mrs. Caroline Kusch of Fairview, Okla., Mrs. Josephine Tondre of Lodi and Mrs. Elvena Wilson of Somerset.
Services will be held Friday at 11 a.m. in the chapel of the Lodi Funeral Home with Rev. Larry Baker of First Southern Baptist Church officiating. Burial will follow at Cherokee Memorial Park.