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Week two of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, and I´m writing a second post. I will take all of the small victories.
This weeks’ prompt is ¨Challenges¨ and I have had several ideas churning in my head all week, but one seems to have pushed itself forward. It’s a story involving a broken family, rumors, mystery, and possibly even murder. The challenge is in trying to solve the tragedy of a nearly 100-year-old event that saw a family forever altered.
My great great grandfather Herschel Joshua Wooley was born 10 September 1892 in Sand Run a part of Ward Township, Hocking County, Ohio to coal miner Richard Wooley and his wife Ida Florence Dailey. Herschel was the fourth child of the couple’s five known children.
As is often the case, Herschel became a coal miner like his father. In the 1910 census record of his parents’ household, Herschel is 17 and already employed in the mines. Herschel was 23 years old when he married 17-year-old Helen Rife on 12 June 1916 in the neighboring county of Athens, where Helen’s family lived. Herschel and Helen had four known children between 1917 and 1923: Elza Leo (20 Oct 1917), Venus Margaret (22 Apr 1920), Verna Lacey (23 Apr 1921), and Robert E (1 Dec 1923). Verna Lacey Wooley was my great grandmother.
Now let’s set the stage. In October 1924, the Wooleys were a young family of six, living in the rural area outside of Ward Township, Hocking County, Ohio. Herschel was 32 and had been working for the Haydenville plant of NATCO. Helen, who would turn 25 on the 25th of October, was at home caring for four children ages 7, 4, 3, and 10 months. At some point prior to the evening of Sunday, October 12th, Helen had undergone a surgery of unknown purpose in Columbus and was recuperating at the home of her parents in Buchtel. The children were staying with her and her parents as well.
On the night of 12 October 1924, a tragedy would occur that would alter not just the lives of the young Wooley family of six, but also the lives of their extended families, and create ripples that affected the lives of their descendants.
To tell the story of that night I have had to rely on contemporary newspaper articles over a four year period of time, 1924 to 1928. That in and of itself is quite the challenge, especially when it comes to copyright laws. Due to those laws, the articles I have found cannot be reproduced in full here, but I will do my best to tell the tale as written in these articles.
On Sunday 12 October 1924 Herschel had been visiting his wife and children in Buchtel. He had just started a new job at the Logan Pottery the week before, and so he left Buchtel around 8 pm Sunday evening to walk to Logan so that he was ready for work on Monday. Without knowing exact addresses or having a contemporary map of the area, Google Maps tells me that there a few walking options from Buchtel to Logan, with mileage ranging from 13 to 17 miles. Let’s assume that he could walk a mile in 15 minutes, or about 4 miles per hour.
(You weren’t expecting to have to do math, were you?)
Let’s go with the upper end of the mileage, and say that it should take him around four hours to make the trek, putting him into Logan around midnight. His exact destination is likely lost to time, but we do know he didn’t arrive at that final destination in Logan.
Around 1 am Monday 13 October 1924, Herschel was found about 200 yards west of the Union Furnace Rd (which I believe to be currently known as OH-328) off of the Logan-Nelsonville Pike (old US33) lying unconscious in a pool of blood, with glass shards around him. According to the newspaper accounts, a man by the name of Will T Matthews and three unnamed companions discovered Herschel and took him to Cherrington Hospital in Logan, Herschel had received multiple skull fractures, and the prognosis was very grim.
Herschel remained in the hospital without regaining consciousness. Surgery was considered far too risky, until Monday 20 October, a week after he was found on that dark roadside. During his hospital stay, a bad bruise was observed on his right leg, leading to a theory that Herschel was hit by a machine and thrown headfirst onto a windshield. Decompression surgery was performed as a last resort to try to save him. The surgery was temporarily successful, in that Herschel regained consciousness for a short time. even recognizing an unnamed brother, making “rational remarks” but had no answer for the event that caused him to be so injured. The descriptions of his multiple injuries and this attempt to save Herschel’s life were provided in an article from The Logan Democrat Sentinel on Thursday, 23 Oct 1924 which I found digitized on the subscription site NewspaperArchive.com. Unfortunately, the title of that article is “H.W. Wooley Dies At Hospital On Wednesday.” Herschel Wooley, 35, succumbed to his injuries on 22 Oct 1924, nine days after he was found in a pool of his own blood and shattered glass.
The challenge has only just begun though. What happened that night? A tragic accident? A hit and run? Or something more nefarious perhaps? Only one rumor made it down through my branch of the family, which hints at the latter, but will newspaper articles solve the mystery, or only deepen it?
Contemporary newspaper articles I was able to find detailing Herschel’s tragedy are as follows:
- Webb, Clinton. “Mystery Surrounds Finding of Injured Man Near Logan: Herschel Wooley, 35, Discovered Lying in Road With Cracked Skull Early Monday Morning.” The Athens Messenger. October 13, 1924, p.1.
- The Logan Democrat Sentinel. “Mystery Surrounding Accident of Mr. Wooley: Found Unconscious Monday Morning.” October 16, 1924, p. 1.
- The Athens Messenger. “Herschel Wooley Goes Under Knife.” October 21, 1924, p. 3.
- The Logan Democrat Sentinel. “H.W. Wooley Dies at Hospital on Wednesday.” October 23, 1924, p.1, 8.
Braiding Trees 
Keep it up, Jodie. This was very interesting and well-written. Can’t wait to see where you take this.