Family feud

I apologize for the lack of a post yesterday, but I went down several productive rabbit holes.

Firstly, I finally made contact with someone from David Puskin's family! I certainly hope to bring their perspective and experiences to this blog.

Secondly, I found another "clew" about a long-rumored family curse. (I adore that archaic spelling!) Well, it turns out to be more of a family feud that thankfully didn't go the way of the Hatfields and McCoys.

Grandpa Fred once told me that there was a family curse. Supposedly, someone cursed the men in the Huls and Troxel families to die horrible deaths. (Strychnine, anyone?)

Do you remember Joseph W. and Emma Frasure Huls? Emma was the sister of great-grandpa Gene's first wife, Mary Jennie Frasure Huls.

Joseph, who was great-grandpa Gene's first cousin, married Emma on April 13, 1884. Their one and only child died within two days in 1892. 

(Joseph is also the man who built a nearly identical version of great-grandpa Gene's house. This feud must have been awkward for these close cousins.)

A.E. (Gene) and Mary Jennie married in 1889, and Walter was born in 1890. Cousin Joseph and sister Emma raised Gene's son Walter after Jenny died, either in childbirth or shortly thereafter in 1895. Gene and Anna married in 1899.

My great-grandparents' first child, Anna Troxel Huls, was a stillbirth in Jan. 5, 1900. That's when things possibly fell apart.

My first clew was a weird, tiny newspaper article I almost skipped on page 7 of The Stark County Democrat from Canton, Ohio on Friday, Dec. 28, 1900,

Sent Improper Letters.

       A strange family feud has been disclosed through a warrant issued by United States Commissioner J.L. Adler and an arrest made by order of United States Marshal V. J. Fagin. Mrs. Anna E. Huls, wife of Joseph W. Huls a resident of Logan, O., and one of the most prominent citizens of Ohio, is charged with sending through the mails improper letters, postals and drawings to her sister-in-law, the wife of Capt. W. Huls, of Rockbridge, who is a man of wealth and prominence in social and church circles. 

    There is to be a hearing on Dec. 29, in which District Attorney Bundy and Assistant District Attorney Mouliniar will represent the government, and it is said the evidence will be of a very sensational nature.

Okay, that's weird. Especially when I could find nothing else.

Until today, when I found this in the Sunday, Dec. 30, 1900 edition of the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune:

MRS. HULS IS ARRAIGNED.

Family quarrel at Logan, O., Gets Into United States Court.

Special Despatch [sic] to Commercial Tribune 

    COLUMBUS, O., Dec. 29. -- Mrs. Anna E. Huls, of a prominent family of Logan, was arraigned before United States Commissioner Johnson today on the charge of sending obscene drawings and letters through the mails. Mrs. Huls is said to be worth $100,000. The objectionable matter reflected upon Mrs. Joseph Huls, a cousin by marriage. The defendant was a Miss Toxen [sic], and is said to have jilted by Joseph Huls.

    A.E. Huls married a sister of Mrs. Joseph Huls. This sister died, her last request being that her child was to be taken by Mrs. Joseph Huls, if A.E. Huls married Miss Toxen. He did so and a struggle for possession of the child followed.

Sadly, that didn't clarify much for me. Dates, names, and relationships are a jumbled mess. Personally, I strongly suspect that great-grandpa Gene's editor friends played with the names as a favor to him, but Miss Toxen instead of Troxel? Seriously?

The other weird thing is the first article mentions "the wife of Capt. W. Huls," my great-great-grandparents. Were they also somehow involved?

How does this relate to Charley? Well, he was the first child to live of my great-grandparents' marriage and he died a truly horrible death. I somehow doubt that 25 years later Emma Cordelia went to the O.S.U. pharmacy and spiked the quinine capsules, so that lets her off the hook as a suspect.

But I still want to know more.

 

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