Category: Morbid

Black Sheep Sunday: Mysterious Deaths of George and Hazel Lowry

Posted on by spuddled

Almost two years ago, as I’m sure you will recall, I published a blog post regarding the death of Marguerite Lowry and noted then that the story of her brother George would fill a post of its own one day. That day has come, just in time for our fifth theme, “Black Sheep Sunday.” Though whether he can really be called a black sheep is unproven.

George W. Lowry, my sixth cousin 3 times removed, was born in December 1891 in Illinois1; or on 29 December 1892 in Spring Lake, Tazewell County, Illinois2; or on 28 December 1893 in Spring Lake3; or on 29 December 1893…somewhere4. He was the son of John Clayton and Josephine West (Golden) Lowry.

In 1900 the family was living in Isabel, Edgar County, Illinois. John was working as a farm laborer; rounding out the household were Josephine (who was listed variously in different records by her full first name, Jossie, or Josie); Bessie, 12; Jessie, 10; George, 8; Walter, 5; Marie, 3; Addie, 11 months; and a boarder named Trent Wallace.5

By 1910 George was working as a hired man for the family of Gurdin Woodruff in Sand Prairie Township, Tazewell County, Illinois.6 During World War I, George was a private in Company H, 121st Infantry. U.S. Army Transport Service documents record his departure on 18 September 1918 from Hoboken, New Jersey, listing his residence as Manito, Illinois.7 By 1920 George was living back home with his parents in Spring Lake. His father was now working as an electrical engineer at a pumping station. Both George and his brother Walter were listed as general farm laborers. New children added to the household since George was last a part of it were Margaret, 17; and Blakesly, 12. Mable Dwyer, 5, daughter of George’s now-deceased sister Bessie, was also part of the household.8

What happened to George over the next 18 months remains something of a mystery, and the sources I’ve found can only piece together so much. What is known for sure is that in Peoria on 31 October 1921, George was found dead in his bed, asphyxiated by gas from two open jets. He was 28 (maybe). With him was a woman who was either his current or former wife. I’ll run down the variations on this story as they appeared in different newspapers at the time. The Decatur (Illinois) Herald and Review of 1 November stated that George was 29 and Hazel was 27 but referred to the later as “Hazel Burhans.” The article noted that police believed the couple had “been married and divorced.” George was described as a grain sampler at the local board of trade and noted that John Bailey, a railroad switchman who had been living with the couple, discovered their bodies when he came home at the end of his workday. The article, titled “Double Suicide in Peoria,” stated that a double suicide was indicated because all windows were closed but two gas jets were turned on.9

The Chicago Tribune of 1 November 1921 stated many of the same details,10 and a similar article appeared in the Dallas City [Illinois] Review of 22 November 1921, explicitly stating that the couple were believed to have been married and divorced and to have made a suicide pact.11

A much different spin is given by a 1 November 1921 article in the Freeport (Illinois) Journal-Standard. In this article, what appear to be more correct ages for the couple are given (29 for George and 32 for Hazel), and Hazel is described as George’s wife. No mention of them having divorced is provided, though the author states that Hazel had been divorced “last August” from “a man named Renz,” and that George and Hazel had had many arguments in recent days. The biggest divergence, however, is that the author of this article noted that the coroner’s investigation had led him to believe that, rather than being a double suicide, Hazel had turned on the gas while George was sleeping.12

So what really happened that Halloween night? It’s no clearer now than it was in 1921. Death certificates for George and Hazel, signed by the aforementioned Coroner William Elliott, confirm some details. Both have 304 Warner Avenue in Peoria listed as their place of residence, and they are listed as married to each other. Hazel’s certificate lists her birth as taking place on 2 November 1887 in Braidwood, Illinois. Her parents were Peter and Ellen (Ryan) McLaughlin, both born in New York City. Her full name was listed as “Hazel Frenz Lowry,” so the account of the prior divorce appears to be correct, though the spelling of her first husband’s name is not. Her burial took place 3 November in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. George, however, was buried in the Springlake Township Cemetery in Tazewell County.

Could Hazel’s burial far from her husband suggest that her family (or his?) thought this was not just a tragic incident but a criminal one? The cause of death provided by Coroner Elliott does not offer much clarification; both death certificates state the cause of death as “Asphyxiation from illuminating gas – found dead in bed,” with a contributory cause detailed rather helplessly as “gas turned on in some unknown manner.”13

  1. 1900 Census. ↩︎
  2. FamilySearch Historical Records, Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947. ↩︎
  3. www.ancestry.com, World War I Draft Registration Cards. ↩︎
  4. www.findagrave.com, www.findagrave.com. ↩︎
  5. 1900 Census. ↩︎
  6. Year: 1910; Census Place: Sand Prairie, Tazewell, Illinois; Roll: T624_328; Page: 12a; Enumeration District: 0153; FHL microfilm: 1374341 ↩︎
  7. The National Archives at College Park; College Park, Maryland; Record Group Title: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985; Record Group Number: 92; Roll or Box Number: 520 ↩︎
  8. Year: 1920; Census Place: Spring Lake, Tazewell, Illinois; Roll: T625_410; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 183 ↩︎
  9. Decatur [Illinois] Herald and Review. 1 November 1921, pg. 9 ↩︎
  10. Chicago Tribune, 1 November 1921, pg. 6. ↩︎
  11. The Dallas City [Illinois] Review, 22 November 1921, pg. 5. ↩︎
  12. Freeport [Illinois] Journal-Standard, 1 November 1921, pg. 11. ↩︎
  13. “Illinois, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9KB-6GSM?view=explore : Feb 1, 2026), images 120-121 of 522; Illinois. Public Board of Health. Archives.
    Image Group Number: 004008167 ↩︎
V Is for…Victim

V Is for…Victim

Posted on by spuddled

Herbert Linden Moody, my eighth cousin twice removed, was born in Baltimore, 50 years to the day before my birth. For those not in the know, that means he was born 4 April 1924. He was the son of Elmer Jean and Beatrice P. (Bell) Moody. I stumbled across Herbert’s story when continuing my work on my shared ancestry with my sister-in-law Cheryl; Herbert was her fourth cousin once removed.1

In 1930 he appeared with his parents, an older sister Jean and a younger brother Elmer. His father was a mechanic in an auto shop.2 By 1940 the family was in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and youngest child Betty Ann had joined the household. Elmer was now listed as an automobile mechanic for a truck factory. Herbert then served in the military during World War II.3

About 1947 Herbert married Grace Evelyn Depew. He was 23, and she was 19. In August 1948 Grace gave birth to a son, Herbert Linden Moody, Jr., in Texas. Sadly, Herbert, Jr., lived only 5 months, dying in Maryland on 1 March 1949. By the 1950 census, Herbert, Sr,’s parents, Elmer and Beatrice, had divorced. In that year’s enumeration, Beatrice is listed as a Spooler Inspector for a plastic company. Living with Beatrice are Betty Ann, Herbert (now himself an auto mechanic at a garage), and Grace. Grace’s occupation is as a spooler for a plastic company. Was her mother-in-law her supervisor? Seems plausible. Two other children would be born to Herbert and Grace: Larry Herbert Moody and Gary Dennis Moody.

National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Odenton, Anne Arundel, Maryland; Roll: 1607; Page: 9; Enumeration District: 2-57

From Herbert’s Find a Grave memorial, I learned he had died at age 28, on 5 August 1952 and was buried at Baltimore National Cemetery. His widow’s obituary on her Find a Grave memorial, however, was what sent me down a rabbit hole: “Grace and Herbert were separated….In August of 1952, she learned that her estranged husband Herbert Moody had been murdered in Brooklyn, NY.” (!!) So off I went to Newspapers.com to investigate.

Contemporary accounts of the incident appeared in several newspapers. According to these accounts, a Mrs. Lucille Parsons, 28 years old, had left her husband and started a relationship with Herbert, who was then estranged from Grace. Mrs. Parsons was also from Baltimore, and the pair moved to Brooklyn. For some three weeks before Herbert’s death, he and Mrs. Parsons were sharing a basement apartment at 29 Louisiana Avenue with another couple. According to statements given by Mrs. Parsons, on 5 August 1952, she and Herbert spent much of the day “drinking and quarreling.” The other couple who lived there went out for the evening, after which things escalated.

Mrs. Parsons stated that she was cutting up liver in the kitchen when Herbert “turned off the lights and struck her.” According to the Brooklyn Eagle, Mrs. Parsons claimed to have lunged at Herbert with the knife and stabbed him in the chest.4 The [New York, New York] Daily News, however, has Mrs. Parsons claim that after Herbert turned out the lights, she “accidentally ran the knife into his body.” Herbert then collapsed on the front stoop of the apartment and was taken to Beth-El Hospital but died soon after.5 Mrs. Parsons was charged with homicide, but I haven’t been able to determine yet whether or not the case went to trial.

The Brooklyn Eagle, 7 August 1952, pg. 3

Either way, it appears Grace’s story had a much happier ending. The year after Herbert’s death, she married Eugene Prowant, and she had Eugene had three children of their own. Eugene died in 1992, and Grace in 2004.6 Interestingly, the house at 29 Louisiana Avenue still stands. It appears on various real estate websites which provide photos and specifications about the property: built in 1901; list price $871,500; 3000 square feet. But nary a word about the victim who collapsed on the front stoop in 1952.

  1. Find a Grave, Herbert Linden Moody, Memorial ID 1006305 ↩︎
  2. Year: 1930; Census Place: Election District 1, Baltimore, Maryland; Page: 9B; Enumeration District: 0001; FHL microfilm: 2340580 ↩︎
  3. Year: 1940; Census Place: Anne Arundel, Maryland; Roll: m-t0627-01501; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 2-18 ↩︎
  4. The Brooklyn Eagle, 7 August 1952, pg. 1-3 ↩︎
  5. [New York, New York] Daily News, 7 August 1952, pg. 231 ↩︎
  6. Find a Grave, Grace Evelyn Depew Prowant, Memorial ID 89055408 ↩︎
Life and Death: Marguérithe Kurtz…and Lizzie

Life and Death: Marguérithe Kurtz…and Lizzie

Posted on by spuddled

Today’s main anniversary is the birthdate of my 3G-grandmother, Marguérithe Kurtz. She was born on 4 August 1820 in Butten, Alsace, the daughter of André and Marguérithe (Bauer) Kurtz. She had younger siblings named Caroline and André. She appears with her birth family in the 1836 Butten census.

Marguérithe Kurtz Birth Record
France, Bas-Rhin, Parish and Civil Registration, 1525-1912

On 18 July 1845 Marguérithe married Philippe Schmidt, also from Butten. The couple appears in Butten census records from both 1851 and 1856. They had at least four children: Christian, born 1847; Christine, born 1851; Philipp, born 1858; and Andreas, born 1863. Christine would marry Jacob Hoffmann in 1875; they were my 2G-grandparents who would emigrate to the U.S. in 1883.

By that time Christine’s father was no longer living; he died in Butten in 1864 at age 46. Marguérithe, however, was still living. She would die on 18 December 1895, still in Butten. Christine’s three siblings also remained in France, dying in 1907, 1933, and 1898.

To me, though, August 4 will always be “Lizzie Day.” It was on this day in 1892 that Andrew and Abby (Gray) Borden were killed with an axe in Fall River, Massachusetts. I’ve found the story of Lizzie Borden fascinating since I was very small (see my earlier post), so imagine my excitement when I discovered that she was my half sixth cousin 5 times removed. My mom and I shared this true crime/mystery addiction (Lizzie, the Michigan Murders, Trixie Belden and Ginny Gordon), and even though my connection to Lizzie is on my dad’s side, Mom and I spent a night at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast and even “celebrated” Lizzie Day once by preparing a replica August 4 meal (minus the mutton broth). So tomorrow I’ll remember Mom, her great-great-grandmother Marguérithe, and our Lizzie Day celebrations.

Tragedy in the Umpqua River: the Death of Orland Higginbotham

Tragedy in the Umpqua River: the Death of Orland Higginbotham

Posted on by spuddled

We have another tragic anniversary today. On this day 85 years ago, Orland George Higginbotham, my fifth cousin three times removed, died, aged 26. He was the son of George Henry and Dolly (Taylor) Higginbotham and the grandson of William Riley and Lovey Marvel (Davis) Higginbotham. He was born 11 September 1912 in Gold Hill, Oregon. He appears in the 1920 census in Lane County, Oregon, along with his parents and his older brother John. George Higginbotham is listed as a laborer in a sawmill. In 1930 George (still working in a sawmill), Dolly, and Orland appear in Cottage Grove, Lane County, Oregon.

On 23 August 1932, Orland married Versie McCoy in Lane County, Oregon. Orland was 19 and Versie was 16. Versie was born in Kamiah County, Idaho. Orland and Versie had one child, also named Orland George. He would also marry young; he was 18 and his bride, Donna Mae Miller, was 15 when they married in Medford, Oregon.

By that time Orland, Sr., had been dead for 11 years. The Eugene [Oregon] Guard from 15 July 1939 explains what happened. Orland and two other passengers were riding in a car driven by George R. Kerr when it plunged off the Drain-Reedsport Highway, down a 20-foot bank, and into the Umpqua River east of Reedsport, Oregon. George Kerr was able to assist the other two passengers to escape the automobile. Meanwhile Orland was attempting to escape from the other side of the car when it rolled over, preventing his escape. The car would eventually sink in about seven feet of water. Orland, Sr., was buried at Eugene Pioneer Cemetery in Eugene, Oregon.

The Eugene Guard,
15 July 1939

Orland’s widow would remarry in 1959, to Lloyd Terrill in Lewis County, Washington. She later worked as an antiques dealer in Kelso, Washington, passing away in June 1978 in Longview, Washington. She is buried at Fir Grove Cemetery in Cottage Grove, Oregon.

Death in Iowa: the Drowning of Leolin Van Horn

Death in Iowa: the Drowning of Leolin Van Horn

Posted on by spuddled
Des Moines Tribune-Capital,
1 July 1929

Today is the anniversary of another sad death in family history. This time the deceased is Leolin Van Horn, my fifth cousin once removed. He was the son of Lewis Alexander and Mary Aldie (Knight) Van Horn and was born 26 October 1907 in Tama County, Iowa. Leolin’s mother was the granddaughter of Mary “Polly” (Davis) Knight, a descendant of William “Bottom Billy” Davis, who has appeared in this blog in the past.

Leolin was one of 10 children born to Lewis and Aldie, though by 1910 two of the children had passed away. In that year’s 1910 census, 2-year-old Leolin appears with his parents and siblings in Carlton, Iowa. The family was still in Carlton in 1920, the household consisting then of Lewis and Alda; Lewis’s mother Mary (then 81 years old); and children Orel, Leolin, and Alvin. Lewis would die on 12 June 1924 at age 63, followed by Leolin five years later.

According to the Des Moines Tribune-Capital of 1 July 1929 (a Monday), the previous weekend had been a tragic one for many across the state. Twelve individuals had died in various incidents in Iowa: five in automobile accidents, four in drownings, and two by suicide. The article then goes on to detail each of the twelve deaths. Regarding Leolin, it is noted that he was swimming with three companions near LeGrand; exactly what happened is not clear, but one of the friends rescued the two others but was unable to save Leolin. His death certificate notes that he died of “drowning or possibly heart failure” at 4:10 p.m. He was 21 years old and working as a butter maker.

A letter uploaded to Leolin’s Find a Grave memorial, written by Zelma Peterson, who appears to have been the older sister of the companion who was unable to save Leolin, tells of the effects the tragedy had not only on Leolin’s own family but those of the others involved in the incident. Leolin is buried at Garwin Union Cemetery in Garwin, Iowa.

Another loss would take place less than a year later when Leolin’s older sister Martha Inez died in Janesville, Wisconsin, at age 36. She had married her fourth cousin Luen Lippincott in either 1914 or 1915, and they had had three children together. Her cause of death is unclear, but must have been a sad blow coming so soon after the loss of Leolin.

Aldie herself died unexpectedly 14 years later at age 77. She had been visiting Janesville and was preparing to return home to Iowa when she passed away. Her body was taken back to Iowa where she was interred at Garwin Union Cemetery. The other Van Horn family members lived on for quite some time; the next of the siblings to die was Frank, in 1964. Most of the others lived into the 1970s, and the youngest would not pass away until 1991.

“Drove to Death”: The Fyfe Railroad Tragedy

“Drove to Death”: The Fyfe Railroad Tragedy

Posted on by spuddled

Today’s grim tale concerns William Edwin Fyfe and his daughter, Dora Josephine Plummer, my fourth cousin 5 times removed and fifth cousin 4 times removed, respectively. William’s 3G-grandfather, Jerimiah Willson, was my 8G-grandfather. William was born 10 August 1837 in Bolton, Massachusetts. He appears with his parents in the 1850 census in Clinton, Massachusetts. His father is listed as a yeoman.

By 1860 William’s father (also named William) had died, and the younger William was living with his mother Sarah in the household of William and Nancy Snow. The 22-year-old William’s occupation is listed as “cracker peddler,” which is fun. Sarah died in 1862, but a year before that William married Mary Josephine Carruth on 7 November 1861 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. William’s marriage record lists his occupation as “grocer,” which I assume is a step up from peddling.

By 1870 William and Mary are living in Cambridge with their 7-year-old daughter Dora Josephine, as well as a domestic servant from Prince Edward Island, Canada. Dora had been born 25 October 1862 in Cambridge. William’s real estate value is listed as $6000, and his personal estate as $2000. If the inflation calculator I used is accurate, the total value of his property would be about $200,000 today.

In 1880 the family was enumerated in Clinton, Massachusetts. William is now listed as a real estate agent. In the household with William, Mary, and Dora is a nephew, Walter Rivers, 14. On 7 November 1886 in Clinton, 24-year-old Dora married 26-year-old Edward L. Plummer, a merchant who had been born in Sandwich, New Hampshire.

Since nearly all the 1890 census was destroyed by fire, this is the last time we will see William or Dora in a census enumeration. The bare facts of their deaths are given in their Massachusetts death records. There, listed one after the other, we learn that on 23 June 1899 in Lancaster, Massachusetts, both William and Dora died of shock from a railroad accident.

For the specifics of the accident we have to turn to contemporary newspaper accounts. The Boston Globe of 24 June 1899 calls the railroad accident “one of the most shocking tragedies in this community [Clinton] in years.” It also notes that William was the “wealthiest citizen of the town and one of the most influential men in the community.” According to the article, William and Dora had gone to Lancaster, starting back home about 4:30 p.m. On the way William began to cross the B&M railroad tracks but never made it to the other side. A woman living near the tracks indicated that William’s horse either stopped directly on the tracks or was pulled, and then she heard a train strike the Fyfes’ carriage.

William and Dora’s bodies were thrown 250 feet and the carriage was destroyed. Somehow the horse was unscathed and ran home. Similarly William’s body was “very little bruised,” though Dora was unrecognizable. The medical examiner who had been quickly summoned stated that both had been killed instantly. Investigation into the accident found that the engineer saw the carriage on the tracks and tried to reverse the train but was unable to do so in time to prevent the accident. A warning bell had been rung, but according to the newspaper article William was slightly hard of hearing and may not have heard it.

The Globe also detailed how Dora’s husband came racing to the scene after hearing of the accident, only to be overcome when he realized the extent of the tragedy. Others went to notify Mary (described as an invalid) of the death of her husband and only child. At the time of her death Dora was the mother of three children, listed in the newspaper as ages 3, 5, and 7. The Plummer family were then living with the Fyfes in their “mansion at the corner of Prescott and Water Streets,” which had just been built.

The newspaper account had harbored fears for the invalid Mary’s life after the tragedy, but she would live another 15 years. In the 1900 census Mary is living at the “mansion” at 237 Water Street in Clinton. This house still stands (though broken up into apartments) on the corner of Water and Prescott. Only a few households away from Mary on the census form, though at 133 Prescott Street, Dora’s widower Edward is enumerated, along with with Dora and Edward’s three children. It seems the newspapers account got the ages of the two youngest Plummer children right but not the eldest; in 1900 George was 4, Josephine was 7, but Helen was 12.

By 1910 Edward has moved in to the house at 237 Water Street. He is listed as a retail merchant of groceries. With him is a new wife, Susan; they are listed as having been married for two years. Edward and Dora’s children Helen, Josephine, and George, are still living at home. There is also a son named Richard, age 14. It’s possible he is the son of Susan from a previous marriage. Mary is still here, too, in the same house, though she is enumerated as the head of her own household with her own income.

In July 1915 Mary made out her will. She appointed Helen Plummer as her executrix. She bequeathed “the cottage house and land numbered 18 William St. Clinton, Mass” to her grandson George. She bequeathed $300 to her granddaughter Josephine, and gave to Josephine and Helen “the home place at the corner of Water and Prescott,” as well as two house lots and part of a lot on Beech Street in Clinton. Helen was to distribute Mary’s personal property. Mary died about six weeks after making out her will, and she and William are buried at the West Burying Ground in Bolton, Massachusetts.

William and Mary Fyfe Gravestone
Find a Grave Memorial 69329737
Tragedy at Resort, Michigan: the Death of Bert Burdell Jones

Tragedy at Resort, Michigan: the Death of Bert Burdell Jones

Posted on by spuddled

I have another sad story for you today. The subject this time is my third cousin three times removed, Bert Burdell Jones. He was born 3 November 1867 in Mason County, Michigan. He was the eldest child of James E. and Margery M. (Taylor) Jones. Margery’s parents were Elias and Sally (Willson) Taylor. Elias’s sister Mary Eunice was the second wife of my 4G-grandfather John Wilder Wilson, and these Taylor/Wilson connections produced the “Moses Taylor letters” I’ve discussed here before.

Bert appears in census records with his parents in 1870 in Kalamo, Eaton County, Michigan, and in 1880 in Little Traverse, Emmet County, Michigan. In the column in the 1880 census where infirmities are noted, next to Bert’s father’s name is noted “rupture.” This is one of those mystery medical descriptions I have yet to pin down; according to the Find a Grave website, James Jones died in 1883 at the age of about 45; whether this was related to his “rupture,” I do not know.

On 27 March 1890 in Harbor Springs, Emmet County, Bert married Minnie Caroline Dietz. He was 22; she was 19. Ten years later Bert and Minnie were enumerated in Resort, Emmet County, along with children Harold V., born July 1893; Dewey M., born April 1898; and what looks like Vyolynn (born April 1900), but in later records appears to be Verlyn. Bert is working as a day laborer.

The 1903 Petoskey, Michigan, City Directory lists Bert B. Jones as a farmer with 70 acres of land and a total property value of $1200 in Resort. In 1910 the family is still in Resort; no street names are given for the section in which they appear, but the enumerator has labeled it the “Jones Neighborhood.” Bert is listed as a general farmer; son Harold, 16, is a laborer in a lime kiln. M. Dewey and Verlyn E. are still in the household; Minnie is listed as having given birth to four children, but with only three still living. A daughter, Lottie L. Jones, had been born about 1896 and died 15 March 1897; she is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Petoskey. Others in the Jones household in 1910 included Minnie’s father Amos Deitz [sic]; a German neighbor, Frank Newman; and a 5-year-old niece, Agnes Jones. Agnes was the daughter of Bert’s brother Sidney; though Sidney was still living, Agnes’s mother had died sometime between 1900 and 1908, and it was not unusual in these situations for motherless children to be taken into other households where they could continue to benefit from the influence of a mother figure.

Interestingly, by 1920, 14-year-old Agnes seems to have become so much a part of Bert and Minnie’s family that her relationship is listed as “Daughter” in the census. Verlyn is still living in the household, as is Amos Deitz, now 84, and a new addition, 5-year-old James Bradford Jones, Bert and Minnie’s last child.

It is difficult to say what happened over the next two years, as I have yet to find any newspaper articles or other sources that would provide more context. All I have is a very clinical death certificate for Bert. His death is noted as taking place on 5 May 1922 in Resort, and he is listed as a 54-year-old farmer who had lived in Resort for 41 years. Mrs. Minnie C. Jones is the informant, and the coroner has listed Bert’s cause of death as “Suicide by strangulation (hanging).” Bert’s Find a Grave memorial adds the detail that this death took place in his barn.

A couple of years after Bert’s death, Minnie married Peter J. McEwen, before dying in 1930 at age 60. Eldest son Harold, by age 24, was missing the fingers off his left hand at the first joint but worked as a railroad telegraph operator until his own tragic death in 1949 at age 56 when he was struck by a freight train in front of his station. Merton Dewey died in Kalamazoo at age 57, Agnes Jones at 59, and Verlyn at 69. The baby of the family, James Bradford, lived until 2001, dying at age 87; one hopes he found sufficient joy in his own life to mitigate so much tragedy.

Find a Grave Memorial ID 128957467
Another Victim Added: The Death of Myrtle Barrow

Another Victim Added: The Death of Myrtle Barrow

Posted on by spuddled

Today we return to our regularly scheduled program of morbid deaths. Specifically, in this case, the death of Myrtle Barrow, my fifth cousin twice removed. She was born 29 August 1899 in Athensville, Greene County, Illinois, to Robert Newton and Fannie (Canatsey) Barrow, part of the Sweeney line on my paternal side.

In 1900, 9-month-old Myrtle appears in the census in Athensville along with her parents and 3-year-old brother “Loyd.” In 1910 the family was enumerated in Barr, Macoupin County, Illinois. Myrtle’s older brother (Lloyd Irvin) is now listed as Irving, and three more boys have joined the family: Robert, 9; Carlos, 5; and Ebert, 2. By 1920 the family is back in Athensville, but Lloyd is living on his own with his wife and family, and Myrtle now has a sister, 8-year-old Fannie.

Myrtle would not survive long enough to be enumerated in 1930. Ninety-seven years ago this past Friday at a little after 12 p.m., a series of tornadoes struck central Illinois, in particular Calhoun and Greene Counties. The Jacksonville Daily Journal of 20 April listed eight known dead at that time, including a schoolteacher, Annie Keller, who died when she was struck by a falling rafter as the Centerville schoolhouse collapsed. She had ordered the schoolchildren to get under their desks and had only just gotten them all in place when the rafter fell; all the children survived.

Myrtle Barrow did not die in the initial storm. Instead, 97 years ago today, she succumbed to the injuries she had sustained in Greene County two days earlier. Again the Jacksonville Daily Journal provides a detailed account. According to an article that appeared on 22 April, Myrtle’s brother Robert testified in the inquest held after her death (aside: wouldn’t her cause of death be fairly obvious?), stating that he had been in Athensville when the tornado struck his home. He returned home afterward to find his father at a neighbor’s, but received word that his sister had been injured. Myrtle was found 100 yards from the family home lying in a couple of inches of water. Flooding made it impossible for anyone to take her to the hospital until the afternoon of the following day. Though Myrtle was unable to provide a lot of detail, she was lucid enough to tell doctors at the hospital that she had seen the tornado approaching and taken shelter in a shed.

Though doctors had originally thought Myrtle was improving, this improvement did not last, and she died at the Passavant Hospital in Jacksonville about 2:30 p.m. on 21 April 1927. The inquest, unsurprisingly, blamed the tornado for her death, but provided detailed specifics: “shock and hemorrhage, the result of disarticulation of right knee joint, fracture of left tibia and fibula and the left humerus. Injury acquired in tornado in Greene County.” According to the National Weather Service, the storm was an F4 and claimed a total of 11 lives, including Myrtle’s. One small consolation is that by surviving the initial storm, Myrtle did not die alone; the Daily Journal article tells us that her brother Robert was with her in the hospital when she died. A very small consolation, but a consolation nonetheless.