A morbid anniversary

It occurred to me this morning when I got up, made my coffee, saw the date, and began a leisurely Saturday. Today is the 101st anniversary of my great-uncle’s murder. He, too, got up and had a leisurely Saturday as detailed in this partial, final letter home which was found after his death.

This letter still gets to me, no matter how many times I read it. He would be dead by 10:30 p.m. He was only 22.

And David Puskin was also out and about, maybe going to synagogue, but getting sicker. He violent death would be less than twelve hours after Uncle Charley's.

Rest in peace gentlemen and may your memories be a blessing. I am trying to keep your memories alive. 

Charles Henry Huls

Logan, Ohio

January 31, 1925

Dear Folks:

Just a few hospital notes from the son who isn't quite all here. I lost a tooth since I wrote to you last. An abscess had formed at the root of the gold crown in the lower jaw and I had an X-Ray taken and then the tooth was pulled. It certainly was arelief [sic] to get [rid sic] that pain and get a nights rest.

I didn't go to bed either Wednesday or Thursday nights and all I've had to eat since Thursday noon is tomato soup and milk toast. Went over to see Dr. Wingert again this morning and he gave me a dose of salts and some capsules and told me to go home and stay in bed today. Took the medicine at noon and was going to say that up until 5 there had been no action but it came just as I finished the sentence. Really I don't see where there will be much good done as I haven't exactly eater [sic] for over two days.

Besides having the tooth raising cain I blistered the whole inside of my mouth with camphor and toothache drops and it just finished peeling this afternoon. And then I burned a blister on the outside of my chin with the electric light bulb. It's funny but the tooth hurst [sic] so much that I didn't feel it when I cooked the other parts. I hd [sic] to get a hot water bottle.

Dr. Love, the dentist who pulled the tooth said it never should never have been crowned. He said the abscess had started over a year ago. Said it was getting dangerous and would have caused very serious trouble if it had been neglected any longer. The X-Ray showed the sac extending over to the roots of the adjoining teeth and when I saw the tooth I wondered how the sac ever came out the same hole.*

*typed on letterhead

Charley's letter ends here.

Sadly, Charley was dead by 10:30 p.m.

It was found after his death.

I thought there was another page but I have not been able to find it since our 2016 house fire. 

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Hocking Hills, 43138

Logan Town Center

I don't know why it never previously occurred to me to include a small map of our mutual hometown of Logan, Ohio. Thankfully, the city of Logan has helped me with that with its excellent Historic Walking Tour.

My great-grandfather, A.E. Huls, built the Huls house at 212 E Hunter Street (upper right, #24) in 1902, just in time for Uncle Charley's December birth. My grandfather was born there in August 1904.

Years later, in anticipation of Uncle Charley's June 1925 graduation from The Ohio State University with a degree in journalism, he built the Huls Printing building at 51 E. Main Street (center, marked with a ⭐️). While it is not currently noted on the walking tour, the building still stands and houses the county's records.

Sadly my grandfather traded the house in 1947 (it cost too much to paint!) but we got a funny story out of it. Doc Yaw, with whom Grandpa had traded houses, was furious when he found out how much it would be to paint his new house.

Even sadder was Grandpa also sold the family business between 1970 and 1975. He didn't know he had a budding printer and journalist in the family....

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