The wicked stepmother

It's February, and as always my thoughts turn to the deaths of Uncle Charley and David, as well as the other men who were poisoned but survived: Robert, Edward, Del, Timothy, and Harold. It has been 99 years since the two men died and five more were poisoned.

Ninety-nine years and no one was ever arrested and convicted.

However, while poking around the internet for clues, I came upon yet another strychnine poisoning in Ohio in 1925! While I sincerely doubt there's a connection, maybe the OSU poisonings eight months earlier were a cause of inspiration?

Find a Grave

On Saturday, October 3, 1925 a 13-year-old girl named Esta Winifred Strome died abruptly and painfully at her home in New Carlile, Clark County. By Tuesday, Oct. 6 (the same day Esta was buried.) her step-mother, Birdie Gardner Strome, was arrested and accused of poisoning Esta with the strychnine found in the girl's intestinal track.

The next day the bodies of Birdie's former husband and sister-in-law were exhumed from Enon Cemetery in Enon, Clark County: George Frock, who died on Sept. 14, 1922, and Mary Frock Faulder, who died on Aug. 28, 1920. Apparently both had died under similar grim circumstances, and I found testimony that strychnine was found in George's body.

After the death of her first husband George, Birdie lived briefly with Henry Homer Baltzell before his arrest and conviction in 1923 on robbery charges. At Birdie's trial, pharmacist Arthur E. Smith stated he sold Henry a quantity of strychnine, and Henry testified that he gave it to Birdie prior to Frock’s death.

Esta's father Carrie Strome testified he married Birdie in 1923, a year after George died. He understandably sued Birdie for divorce on Friday, Feb.5, 1926.

Birdie was arraigned on October 31 and pleaded not guilty. Her trial started on December 7 and she was convicted on Dec. 17, 1925. The jury of nine men and three women recommended mercy.

Birdie died two years later on Feb. 15, 1927 aged 60 in Union County, Ohio at the Marysville Reformatory. She is buried in an unmarked grave in Oakdale Cemetery in Marysville, Union County.

Her father died 33 years after Esta and shares his headstone with his daughter.

-30-

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.

-30-

Genealogy 101

It has been suggested that I introduce myself, in order to share why this story has had such a huge influence in my life over the past 50-plus years.

My name is Greta Huls, but I strongly believe my story begins in Hocking County, Ohio when it was newly formed on March 1, 1818. Its name is from the Hocking River,  which is said to be from a Delaware Native American word "hock-hocking" meaning "bottle river."

My great-great-great-grandfather William Huls moved to Ohio from New Jersey in 1827 to assist in the building of the Hocking Canal.

Capt. William H. Huls stands to the front left.

His son, my great-great-grandfather Capt. William Harrison Huls, later served in the Civil War with the 58th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Co. H.

A.E. stands behind his father William H, Huls.

His son, my great-grandfather Alpheus Eugene Huls (also known as A.E. or Gene to family and friends) began printing and publishing (Millville Tomahawk, Logan Republican) in 1883 and built his Huls Printing building in 1923.

Great-grandpa Gene married Mary Jennie Frasure in 1889. They had two children: Walter Harrison Huls, who was born in 1890, and an unnamed infant who died with its mother either in birth or the same day. They were buried together at Centenary Cemetery in Hocking County   

Gene and Anna R. Huls

Great-grandpa Gene married my great-grandmother Anna Rebecca Troxel in 1899. They had three children: Anna Troxel Huls who was stillborn in 1900, Charles Henry Huls who was born in 1902, and Frederick Eugene Huls who was born in 1904.

(Anna Rebecca's father was Henry Troxel who was born in Hocking County, Ohio in 1825 -- where he also later died in 1900. He made the "family fortune" when he was a young man who bought the salvage rights to a barge that sank on the nearby Hocking Canal. He deeply regretted his lack of education so made certain his four children received one. He even waited until all four were college age before sending all four to college simultaneously!)

My grandfather, Fred. E. Huls, reluctantly went to work for the family business in 1926 after he completed his term as editor for the 1926 Makio yearbook. He never got his engineering or journalism degree. He married in 1928 and had his first child, a girl, nine months later. However, it was another 12 years before my father was born.

My father Frederick "Fritz" Eugene Huls II was born in 1941. Grandpa Fred did the same thing his own father had done, and forced my father to join Huls Printing in 1963 despite my father's own interests. It might have gone better if Grandpa had left my dad back in the print shop, but Grandpa wanted Dad in front running the business and being a Family Face. Sadly, that business arrangement collapsed within 10 years.

Meanwhile, I was born in 1964 to Fritz and Patricia Anne Taylor Huls of Bay Village, Ohio. My earliest, happiest memories involve the print shop and the people there. I was crushed when Grandpa Fred retired and moved to Arizona in 1971. Dad didn't seem to feel the same way, and the business was eventually sold to Evans "Sandy" Hand sometime between 1971-1975. We moved to Arizona in 1975. 

The Huls Building today.

Sandy successfully ran the Huls Printing Co., until he retired and sold the building in 2001 to Hocking County. Separated by a parking lot with the Hocking County Court House, the Huls Building now provides the county with much needed storage space. Even when I last visited in October 2001 that building was still impregnated with the smell of inks and solvents.

In my opinion, Grandpa Fred gave up too soon on the family dynasty. My late aunt (his firstborn) wanted to go into the family business, but grandpa discouraged her saying girls could only write for women's pages -- typical for the 1940s and 1950s. I became interested in journalism, writing, and photography early on. I think knew I had ink in my blood. When I did receive my bachelor's degree in Journalism with emphasis in Photojournalism from Northern Arizona University in 1989, I sent Grandpa Fred an additional tassel with a card that said, "It took 64 years, but we finally got the journalism degree!"

Meanwhile, I grew up hearing about my Hocking County ancestors. Every street or road in Hocking County seemed to have a personal story. Even as a young child I had a sense of pride in what my ancestors had accomplished in the region. I became interested in family genealogy before I even knew what genealogy was! Part of that was the oral traditions passed down. Hocking County is in the Appalachian foothills so we had a strong sense of family and oral tradition -- something my Cuyahoga county born and bred mother didn't understand for decades. I knew stories about my 19th century ancestors that made them real, not just grim-faced people in albumen cabinet cards.

I grew up hungry wanting to know more, so I keep digging....

-30-

Grave concern

courtesy of Find a Grave

Uncle Charley was buried on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 1925 in Lancaster, Ohio at Forest Rose Cemetery in his mother's family Troxel plot.*

FUNERAL SERVICES HELD IN LOGAN FOR CHARLES H. HULS

SIX FRATERNITY BROTHERS ARE PALLBEARERS FOR DECEASED SENIOR.

Many University Students Attend Ceremonies—Burial Is Made at Lancaster This Afternoon.

Charles H. Huls was buried today in Lancaster. 

Ceremonies attended by many Ohio State University students, preceding his interment, were held in Logan at 1 p. m. 

His death, caused by tetanus, threw a gloom over the large group of University students with whom he was acquainted. 

The pall bearers were all Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity brothers of the deceased student. They were John N. Heed. Darrel D. Loeblein, Lester W. Taylor, Arthur E. Davis, Joseph M. Downs, and Leroy W. Hendershott. 

The fraternity members attended the services in a body. There were also representatives of Sphinx, Bucket and Dipper, Pi Delta Epsilon, Sigma Delta Chi, and the Makio staff present; all organizations of which Huls was a member while in school. 

Y. M. C. A. and Boost Ohio sent representatives to the funeral services, while a number of social fraternities, friends of Huls were present to pay their last respects to their lost friend. 

The services were held at the Huls' home in Logan, with the Rev. G.W. Blair of the Logan M.E. Church conducting them.

When authorities asked to perform on autopsy on Charley after his burial, my grieving great-grandfather said,

"We do not wish to take any part in the investigation," Huls declared, "we are satisfied that an infected tooth led to his death."

Great-grandpa quickly changed his mind, but the autopsy was never performed.

*Charley and their deceased infant sister were moved in August 1934 (same cemetery, new location) when their parents, A.E. and Anna Huls, died from car accident injuries. Charley's brother Fred moved them to a new Huls plot.

-30-

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.

-30-

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.

-30-