All's well that ends well

The Ohio Democrat

Logan, Ohio

28 Aug 1902, Thu • Page 2

As I was going through the old clippings and photographs that I still have, I noticed these three newspaper clippings. All are from late summer and fall of 1902.

First my great-grandfather tore down "the old Kinlie house" around August 28 to build his new family home, financed with his wife's inheritance.

The Ohio Democrat

Logan, Ohio

Dec. 4, 1902, Thu • Page 3

Amazingly, his "handsome dwelling" was mostly* finished probably just in time for Thanksgiving on Thursday, Nov. 27 . . . but it burned on Sunday, Nov. 30.

The Hocking Sentinel

Logan, Ohio

04 Dec 1902, Thu • Page 4

Then my poor great-grandmother gave birth to her eldest son, Charles Henry Huls, just two weeks later on Sunday, Dec. 13, 1902.

All this makes me wonder if Uncle Charley was born in Logan as we thought, or was he born in Millville/Rockbridge in her childhood home?

*I say mostly because my grandfather had early memories of assisting with finishing touches around the house and he wasn't born until 1904.

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Homestead act

Well, my last post might have been little incorrect.

According to my father, another amateur genealogist, William Henry King was homesteading in Independence, Kansas not serving with the Grand Army of the Republic. Additionally, the GAR was a social fraternity for Union veterans of the Civil War.

Whoops.

I think I saw somewhere (and now I can't find where -- dratted memory loss) that W.H. King was involved with GAR post #4, named after General James B. McPherson, causing my earlier assumption.

The GAR was founded in 1866 in Decatur, Illinois, and included hundreds of "posts" in every state and even a few overseas. Its highest membership was 410,000, but it ended by 1956 when its last known member died.

W.H. King and his family, was shown in the 1870 US census as a farmer in Brush Creek township, Scioto County, Ohio. Apparently W.H. King took advantage of his possible signing bonus for the 53rd OVI and moved his wife Angeline and toddler son Horace out to Independence, Kansas.

According to my father, at some point a previously unknown to me child (it wasn't Horace and it wasn't Franklin) was bitten by a rattlesnake and died, causing the entire family to return to Ohio by 1874. That is where his first wife Angeline died in 1874 and buried in her family cemetery in Brush Creek township, Scioto County.

Just what happened to that poor family within a span of four years?

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Declaration of Independence

Oh my! My brain just exploded.

William Henry King

Apparently, my great-great-grandfather William Henry King was stationed in Independence, Montgomery, Kansas with the Grand Army of the Republic in 1871 -- exactly when Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family were there in Little House on the Prairie. They were my very favorite books in the late 1960s and 1970s.

I can't help but wonder if "Pa" Charles Ingalls met or knew W.H. King. Laura mentioned the soldiers there.

Did W.H. King's first wife, Angeline Smith King help "Ma" Caroline Quiner Ingalls give birth to Caroline Celeste "Carrie" Ingall's on August 3, 1870?

Were the Ingalls family still there and did Mrs. Ingalls return the favor and help Mrs. King give birth to her second son, Franklin Forest King, on February 11, 1871?

Angeline King died February 13, 1874, and W.H. King married my gggrandmother, Mary Alice Hazelbaker, on July 21, 1874. (Their granddaughter, Alice Thelma Hamilton, married my grandfather, Fred Huls on February 6, 1928 -- the same year William Henry King died on August 26.)

Those two King boys weren't motherless for long!

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Camera obscura

I was genuinely flabbergasted and gobsmacked when glancing at old photographs on eBay on Wednesday when I spotted what I thought was a familiar face. A quick glance on my ancestry.com account verified my suspicion and I purchased my great-great-grandmother's photograph.

Uncle Charley's paternal grandmother.

Even better is it replaces the only copy we had that was destroyed in our 2016 house fire. Thankfully I had a fairly low resolution copy I had made of the photo before the fire which is what I had on ancestry.com.

Elizabeth Roberts Weltner Huls was born on January 3, 1843 and married my great-great-grandfather, Captain William Harrison Huls, on July 31, 1864. They had six children, starting with my great-grandfather Alpheus Eugene Huls.

A.E.'s son Charles Henry Huls was born in 1902, so she knew him before her death on January 7, 1904. (The paternal grandmother known by uncle Charley and grandpa Fred was Capt. Huls's second wife, Eliza Potter Binder Huls.)

Now in the past 20 years I have kept an ongoing search for family names, but the only name on this was the photography studio in our hometown.

Friends have asked me how her albumen cabinet card ended up on eBay. The answer is: who knows? She might have sent copies to friends or family. Since her name wasn't on it someone discarded it at some point. I'm just relieved it wasn't thrown away, someone listed it, and I happened to recognize her.

It does make me wonder about other missed opportunities that have possibly passed me by.

Finally, the eBay seller is from Kansas. My g-g-grandfather's widow, the second wife, moved to Kansas after his death. Did she take a box of photos with her? I shall probably never know.

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Quizzed in Ohio death probe

I have been lucky twice now to score on eBay old press photos relating to the murders: the photo of David Puskin which I primarily use, and now this photo of Dr. S. [sic] Shindel Wingert.

Dr. H. Shindel Wingert

The caption pasted on the back of the photo reads:

With the deaths of two students at the Ohio State University, supposedly from strychnine poisoning, and the illness of at least three others, after partaking of capsules for cold cure, issued from the pharmacy colle(g)e dispensary, university and police officials are engaged in a vigorous investigation. Because of the baffling manner in which only a certain number of the capsules have been found to contain poison out of the bottle supposedly containing nothing but capsules of quinine, has led the authorities to believe the strychnine was administered intentionally. The medicine was issued to students upon prescriptio(n) from Dr. S. [sic] Shindel Wingert, head of the University health services.

Poor Dr. Harry Shindel Wingert apparently never recovered from the scandal. He went on leave after a breakdown in 1926. He returned to OSU in 1928 but died within two months. He was buried in Lancaster Cemetery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

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Moving past murder

I recently stumbled across an amazing podcast called Moving Past Murder with Collier Landry.

collierlandry.com

His story is heart-breaking. Collier Landry was the unfortunate victim of violent crime when his father murdered Landry's mother on New Year's Eve 1989. Eleven-year-old Landry was woken by his mother's scream and two loud thuds. Landry's father then came to his bedroom door, ostensibly to check on him but Landry is convinced he, too, would have died if his father had seen him awake.

Landry told the police, who were dubious, but Landry's persistence and amateur sleuthing paid off and three weeks later his father was finally arrested after his mother's decomposing body was found buried in the basement of the house recently purchased by Landry's father and his pregnant mistress.

Landry testified against his father who was sentenced to life. Landry was then placed in the foster system and adopted. He later moved to California where he became a model and videographer.

He eventually collaborated with two-time Oscar winner Barbara Kopple to create the documentary film, A Murder in Mansfield.

Landry's persistence with the police and his courage on the witness stand are impressive by any standards. He has since started his podcast in the hope of giving others who have suffered similar trauma a voice and a means to move on.

I have reached out to Landry but have yet to hear back.

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May his soul be bound up in eternal life

David Isaac Puskin

David slept in, popped an R&W and went to shave.

Within 30 minutes he was dead on the bathroom floor.

1903 - February 1, 1925

Buried at the Canton Hebrew Cemetery.

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