Tell everyone I said hello

I was incredibly touched when a woman in Ohio reached out to me in October 2022 to ask if I would like to have a postcard written by my late cousin Owen Douglas Huls, to his maternal grandmother Ann Shriner in our hometown of Logan, Ohio. Yes, please!

Written on a U.S. Navy postcard, it has no stamp just a notation of "Free" in the top-right corner. The postmark appears to read Nov. 1, 1943 from Jacksonville, Florida

Sun.

Dear Grandma,

I received your cookies & candy yesterday and they sure were good. I enjoyed them all eve. You sure can bake good. I also received the candy from Grace (possibly his maternal aunt Grace). Thank her for me will you. Tell everyone I said hello. How are you by now? Has it turned cold there yet. It is cold at nites [sic] here & warm in the day time. I graduate this Thursday. Then I'll move about 15 miles to the Air Base. I'll start to fly then. I'll be in a PBY (a flying boat and amphibious aircraft that was used in the 1930s and 1940s). Later I'll be transferred to either B-24 - B25 or B-26. Hope to get in a B-26. That's all for now so I'll sign off.
                                                                Love, 

                                                                        Owen

This is the only thing we have left of Owen. Tragically, he was executed on June 6, 1945 while serving in the Pacific and his body was never recovered.

Rest in Peace cousin.

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Ohio is going dry

Writing these blogs in 2021, I tend to forget the changes that have occurred during the past century. I was briefly puzzled while reading Charley's letters home when he mentioned certain people being either "dry" or "wet."

Oh yes, prohibition.

The Prohibition Era began in Ohio on May 27, 1919 -- nearly six months before the 18th Amendment was passed by Congress to become a national law on Oct. 28, 1919. One of the major reasons that Ohio went dry ahead of the rest of the country was the influence of the state’s temperance movement, including such groups as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Ohio Anti-Saloon League.

The Ohio whiskey war

I have long adored this Feb. 21, 1874 illustration from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper; the ladies of Logan singing hymns in front of barrooms in aid of the temperance movement. Looking at it I can't help but wonder if any of my ancestors are in it. I know my family at that time was supposedly dry.

Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933. Not all alcohol was banned though; for example, religious use of wine was permitted. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol were not made illegal under federal law, but local laws were stricter in many areas, with some states banning possession altogether.

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Quaker buttons

I can find absolutely no reason why the seeds of the Strychnos nux-vomica, the strychnine tree, are also known as quaker buttons. I can only surmise the symptoms of strychnine poisoning reminded someone of the shaking and dancing of the early Quakers.

The Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, began in mid 17th-century England.  They traditionally wore plain dress; "Ruffles and lace and other forms of ornamentation, as well as unnecessary cuffs and collars and lapels and buttons, were forbidden."*

A group broke off from the Quakers in 1747 when the Quakers began weaning themselves away from frenetic spiritual expression. The Wardley Society became known as the "Shaking Quakers" because of their ecstatic behavior during worship services. Eventually they became known as Shakers, and there are only two known Shakers left in the United States.

Oh, and the strychnine tree is in the family Loganiaceae.

*Thomas D. Hamm, The Quakers in America.

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Skull and crossbones

A strychnine label from Logan, Ohio.

Death by strychnine is not an easy death.

Retired Stanford neurologist Dr. Robert Cutler, wrote in The Mysterious Death of Jane Stanford what took place upon the arrival of the hotel physician when the co-founder of Stanford University became violently ill in Oahu:

"As (Francis Howard) Humphris tried to administer a solution of bromine and chloral hydrate, Mrs. Stanford, now in anguish, exclaimed, 'My jaws are stiff. This is a horrible death to die.' Whereupon she was seized by a tetanic spasm that progressed relentlessly to a state of severe rigidity: her jaws clamped shut, her thighs opened widely, her feet twisted inwards, her fingers and thumbs clenched into tight fists, and her head drew back. Finally, her respiration ceased. Stanford was dead from strychnine poisoning."

According to the Centers for Disease Control:

• Following the ingestion (swallowing) of strychnine, symptoms of poisoning usually appear within 15 to 60 minutes.
• People exposed to low or moderate doses (emphasis mine) of strychnine by any route will have the following signs or symptoms:
  • Agitation
  • Apprehension or fear
  • Ability to be easily startled
  • Restlessness
  • Painful muscle spasms possibly leading to fever and to kidney and liver injury
  • Uncontrollable arching of the neck and back
  • Rigid arms and legs
  • Jaw tightness
  • Muscle pain and soreness
  • Difficulty breathing
  • Dark urine
  • Initial consciousness and awareness of symptoms
• People exposed to high doses of strychnine (emphasis mine) may have the following signs and symptoms within the first 15 to 30 minutes of exposure:
  • Respiratory failure (inability to breathe), possibly leading to death
  • Brain death
• Showing these signs and symptoms does not necessarily mean that a person has been exposed to strychnine.

It might be tetanus or spinal meningitis.

Or murder.

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Seniority

I had forgotten when I wrote the post *Deceased January 31, 1925 that Grandpa Fred was editor of the Senior Pages for the 1925 Makio. I can't help but think that when Charley was complaining in letters home about how hard Fred was working on the Makio, that Fred was working hard on the Makio because of his senior brother Charley.

1925 Makio

School newspapers and yearbooks have long been a fertile proving ground for aspiring journalists and photographers and Charley and Fred both worked on the OSU Lantern and Makio. Did they also work on their Logan High School newspaper or yearbooks? So far I have only found one online edition of a 1922 Aerial and Grandpa Fred was its business manager. Personally, I bet Charley couldn't wait to get involved with both OSU publications, and Fred just followed along because he could.

Since the 1925 Makio was dedicated to Uncle Charley, David, and the others who died that year I can only imagine how hard it was for Grandpa to keep seeing his brother's face haunting him from the yearbook pages as he worked on them.

Worked for a brother who would never see the final product.

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Purple and white

218 E Seventeenth Avenue

The fraternity Phi Gamma Delta (ΦΓΔ) has changed a lot since 1925, as has 218 E. Seventeenth Avenue. The Omicron Deuteron Chapter began there in 1878 as Ohio State's first fraternity. Charley quickly became involved when he went to OSU in 1921 and Grandpa was happy to follow in his shoe steps the next year.

Fred (upper left) and Charley (lower right)

Uncle Charley was a "Fiji" as was Grandpa Fred. They both seemed to live the Greek life to its fullest. If you look through their Makio yearbooks, you see the epitome of 1920s stereotypes: jazz age kids with raccoon skin coats, bobbed and shingled hair, and lots of pomade.

I wonder, did the fraternity colors of royal purple and white resonate with the brothers since those were also the colors of Logan High School.

I find myself staring at the above pictured fraternity house and wonder if one of those windows looked in on their bedroom or bathroom. Did Uncle Charley or Grandpa Fred look through them and what did they see? A bright future?

I then look at the photo of the brothers with their Brothers in this 1925 Makio photo. I'm glad they did not know what was coming, other than a desire to warn them.

I believe the original Phi Gamma Delta  building was torn down in the mid '60s, because the current apartment building on that site was built around 1966. The current Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house is nearby at 94 E. Fifteenth Ave.

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Whitewash

A.E. Huls was a broken man. He built his fabulous new fire-proof Huls Printing building at

A.E. Huls

 51 E. Main Street in Logan (which still stands and is currently used for county records) in 1923 in anticipation of Charley's graduation and joining the family business. 

Now Charley was dead. (1925 was a doubly bad year for Great-grandpa Gene when his younger brother, William Miller Huls, died unexpectedly on July 16, 1925 in California.)

At some point after Charlie's death he wrote and published am extremely long, maudlin, almost Victorian eulogy, "To Our Boy." Not surprisingly I cannot find it online.

I also know that he was furiously writing letters. I don't know if he typed, but I can see him churning out letter after letter. (See all the responses that were saved under Additional correspondence.)

I do not know when my great-grandfather finally became convinced that Charley had died from strychnine poisoning, but it wasn't until December 15, 1926 when Great-grandpa Gene started complaining about a "whitewash" and filed a $15,000 claim against the state of Ohio, according to newspaper reports.

        "My son's death was purely the fault of the university and the State Board of Pharmacy. They were running a cut-rate drug store there with a clientele of 10,000. It was not Inspected by the state. Had it been Inspected my son would not have died."

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The printer's devil

A.E. Huls, Millville, Ohio

A. E. Huls was understandably upset. Not only was his son dead, but now his dead son's name was attached to a growing scandal.

My great-grandfather, Alpheus Eugene Huls, was born in 1866 after his father returned from the Civil War. A. E., or Gene, started his printing company (above) where he also published the Millville Tomahawk out of a tiny office in Millville (later Rockbridge) in 1883. To supplement his income he was issued one-year teaching certificates in 1885 and 1886. He eventually moved to Logan, Ohio where he published the Logan Republican and ran the Huls Printing Co.

Charley was born Dec. 13, 1902 in Logan, Ohio to Gene and Anna Rebecca Troxel Huls. He was Gene's first surviving child from his second marriage. Grandpa followed on Aug. 10, 1904. They, and their older half-brother Walter Harrison Huls, were groomed to become printers and newspaper publishers.

However, the boys had other plans. Walter became a life-long teacher and Grandpa was more interested in his erector sets and wanted to become an engineer. That left Charley, who thankfully wanted to follow in his father's footsteps.

Charley started as a printer's devil -- an apprentice in a printing establishment who performed a number of menial tasks, such as mixing tubs of ink and fetching type. Grandpa worked there too, but his heart wasn't in it.

After Charley graduated from Logan High School in 1921, he enrolled at Ohio State University in its Commerce and Journalism program, where he quickly became involved with the university newspaper and yearbook. Grandpa enrolled there as an engineering student the following year.

Neither got to follow their dreams.

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Big Man on Campus

Charles H. Huls

It has been ninety-six years since my great-uncle, Charles Henry Huls, died in agony on Saturday, January 31, 1925. Ninety-six years since my late grandfather either telephoned or telegraphed their parents, who lived fifty miles southeast of The Ohio State University, and basically told them to drop everything and get to Columbus.

NOW.

Did they rouse their driver and have him drive them up to the boys' fraternity house? Did they have any car trouble or flat tires? Or did they catch a late Hocking Valley train and frantically wonder if their Golden Boy, the Heir Apparent, was okay as the train slowly chugged towards Columbus.

Was it forced to stop at each and every single town and crossing?

• Logan
• Enterprise
• Rockbridge
• Sugar Grove
• Lancaster
• Hooker
• Carroll
• Lockville
• Winchester
• Groveport
• Edwards
• Valley Crossing
• Columbus!

Sadly, my great-grandparents did not make it to the fraternity house in time to say their goodbyes. Understandably, my late grandfather, Fred E. Huls, didn't like to talk about his brother's death. I know he was in their en suite bathroom about to take some cold medicine when the doctor called him back in for Charley's death throes at 10:30 p.m. Ninety-six years ago Grandpa held his adored older brother and roommate while Charley died. Charley was 22. Grandpa was only 20.

But what happened? Sure, Charley had felt poorly all week due to a cold and an abscessed tooth but healthy young men don't die from that, do they? As it later turned out, they did not.

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