Ross County OhArchives Obituaries.....Wisecup, Harry May 5, 1912 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/ohfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ralph W. Cokonougher rcokon@hotmail.com March 30, 2010, 2:39 pm From an old newspaper clipping without a date or name of paper. May 1912. ASLEEP ON THE TRACK. --------------- Harry Wisecup, a Harpers’ Youth Is Run Down By B & O Passenger Train. ------------------- Was On His Way Home When Killed. -------------- Body Was Terribly Mangled By The Train – Coroner Renders Accident Verdict. ------------------ Harry Wisecup, aged 20, of Harpers’s station, was killed by B. & O. S- W. west bound passenger train No. 1 about a mile west of Lyndon on Sunday morning at 5:47 o’clock. Wisecup is thought to have been in this city on Saturday and had returned to Greenfield on Saturday night. From Greenfield he had set out to walk back to his home at Harpers but went to sleep on the track at the point where he was killed. Engineer Hathorne on train No. 1 saw the man lying on the track and blew the whistle and rang the bell to arouse the man, who merely raised his head once or twice and then sank into slumber. His train was running at the rate of about 12 miles an hour but was very close upon the man and though he applied his brakes to stop it, the train struck the man killing him instantly. Wisecup’s head and chest were crushed in and both arms and legs were broken. His body was covered with cuts and bruises. The body was carried to Greenfield and prepared for burial there. Coroner Franklin went to Greenfield this afternoon and viewed the body, rendering a verdict of accidental death. The remains were then sent to the home of Wisecup’s parents at Harpers station. The man was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Wisecup and besides his parents, leaves several brothers and sisters. Additional Comments: The name of the newspaper from which this clipping comes was not on the clipping. Neither was the date. However, the death certificate of Harry Wisecup shows that he died 5 May 1912. The wording of the article indicates that the newspaper was probably located in Greenfield or Chillicothe. An interesting story goes along with this death. Oral family history says that Harry Wisecup was very unhappy in the months leading up to his death. The story goes that Harry’s father was very controlling, very strict, and very mean. He allegedly forced Harry to work long hours without relief and refused to allow him to leave the home farm to socialize, and to blow off steam like a normal 20 year old would do. On the weekend of his death, Harry decided that he had had enough. He informed his father that he was going to town. The father refused to allow him to leave, and ordered him to stay at home. An argument resulted, and, in the heat of the argument, the father hit Harry’s hand with his walking cane and broke several bones in the hand. Harry then stormed off to town without seeking medical attention for his broken hand. Once in town, Harry began hitting the bars. He became very drunk. The long hours and days of the weekend passed. Eventually, Harry finished his “recreation” activities and decided to go back home. His hand was swollen, throbbing, and probably infected by then too. He started walking home. The path that he chose was the B&O railroad tracks. Somewhere on the way home, the combination of alcohol, pain, and infection became overwhelming, and Harry passed out. He lay down on the train tracks, and he was still laying there when the Sunday morning train came along. The train hit him head- on. The story ends by saying that when Harry’s body was brought home, the only part of the body that had been untouched by the train was the hand that his father had broken in his fit of temper. Other oral family history offers the opinion that Harry was so badly abused at home that he used the train to commit suicide. Either way, Harry left home in a distraught condition and never made it back alive. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/oh/ross/obits/w/wisecup1421nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ohfiles/ File size: 4.4 Kb