Oh fudge

While searching for information about the Ohio State poisonings I came across this article in the Nov. 14, 1925 edition of the Defiance (Ohio) Crescent News:

9 GIRL STUDENTS AT OHIO STATE ARE POISONED

Mystery Veils Cause of Sudden Illness at University Fudge Party -- Unsolved Drug Deaths at Same Place Are Recalled

(By The Associated Press)

    COLUMBUS, O., Nov. 12 -- Officers of the Ohio State Board of Health today were asked to investigate the poisoning of nine young women, all of the Ohio State University students, four of them upper classwomen of the College of Law, at a party staged by Miss Helen McDermott, Stockport, O., Wednesday night, at the home of her sister here.

    Complete mystery surrounds the cause of the poisoning as one theory gave way before another, which for a time seemed certain to result fatally for four.

    The mystery is made more complete by the fact that no food or liquid of any kind had been served when the illness seized the girls one by one. The girls taken ill all ate dinner at different places, precluding the theory that food might have been the cause.

    The only clew remaining is in the fudge made in the McDermott home before the party began and partaken of by all the girls who became ill. Sample of this were submitted to the Board of Health and examination of them to determine the presence of foreign matter is to be made.

    The theory of poisoning by carbon monoxide fumes from a gas stove was scouted tonight by Fred Berry, Chief of the Division of Laboratories, to whom all the evidence thus far attainable has been submitted. He expressed the opinion that some sort of metallic poisoning might have been responsible.

    Those made ill included Miss Helen McDermott, Stockport, her sister Alice, also of Stockport; Blanche I. Harris, Ravenna; Rhea Pettit, Logan; Mrs. Baldwin Dickinson, Columbus and Esther Pinkey, Bellaire. Names of the other three were not available tonight.

    The condition of all the young women was reported as good tonight. All the students poisoned are among leaders in university life here. Miss Harris is President of the Pan-Hellenic Council and a leader in campus activities.

    This is the second poison mystery that has stirred university circles within a year. Early in the spring two Ohio State students, Charles H. Huls of Logan and David Puskin, Canton, died of the effects of tablets [sic] received from the university dispensary. Four other students also received the tablets, but recovered after serious illness. How the students obtained the tablets never has been explained and responsibility for their issuance never established. State pharmacy authorities still are investigating the case. Officials never were certain whether the tablets were issued maliciously or by mistake.

I can only imagine the terror of the girls, their parents, and the campus as they all thought, "Not again!"

And Logan! My poor hometown! (I was delighted to see Rhea later passed the bar and became a judge.)

Thankfully it wasn't strychnine or any other poison concealed in their fudge. A faulty gas fireplace was finally revealed to be the culprit. Natural gas is colorless and odorless unless an odorant is added to make it smell like rotten eggs. The addition of odorants was mostly optional until the New London, Texas school explosion which killed more than 295 children in 1937.

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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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And so it begins

Sadly, it becomes apparent from this article in the Monday, Feb. 23, 1925 edition of the OSU Lantern that the criminal investigation was over and that the investigation itself is more concerned about the dispensary itself:

POISON INVESTIGATION

    WILL START WEDNESDAY

TO CENTER ATTENTION ON DISPENSARY IN ATTEMPT TO DETERMINE LOOSENESS.

    M. Niles Ford, investigator for the State Pharmacy Board, will resume investigation of the strychnine mystery Wednesday, at the request of the governor, even though no new light has been uncovered or clews* developed since early in the first investigation by John T. Chester, Jr., of the city police.

    Secretary Clarence M. Brown of the Pharmacy College feels confident that the Dispensary is, and has always been conducted to conform with tho state laws, and does not believe that the ensuing investigation will result in any conviction of the supervisors, or throw any new light on the poison cases.

    Mr. Ford's investigation will take place on the campus, centering at the Pharmacy Building, and dwelling chiefly on whether the Dispensary was conducted under the proper regulations of the State Pharmacy Board. 

    The investigation this week will be carried on through the instructions of Governor Donahey, in the hopes of clearing the name of the University of all charges of loose or careless operation.

Pardon my language, but why the h*ll was the criminal investigation dropped so early?! I can certainly see why great-grandpa Gene accused the state of a "whitewash."

*I see clew in many newspaper stories in the 1920s. According to Merriam-Webster, the word clue was originally a variant spelling of clew, meaning “ball of thread or yarn.” Our modern sense of clue, “guide to the solution of a mystery,” grows out of a motif in myth and folklore, the ball of thread that helps in finding one's way out of a maze.

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