OBIT: James Francis RYAN, 1941, Husband, Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

Copyright 2009.  All rights reserved.
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JAMES FRANCIS RYAN

Found Dead in Mountain Shanty
James Francis Ryan's Frozen Body Discovered By A School Boy

  The dead body of a 62-year-old mountaineer, James Francis Ryan, was discovered 
in the snow covered Laurel Hill mountains near Husband in Somerset County, 
Monday afternoon, by a school boy who had tramped through several miles of deep 
snow to reach the isolated shanty.
  The boy hurried to his home, notified his grandfather, H. E. Dunmeyer, who in 
turn made an investigation and found Ryan with a gaping wound in his left chest.  
The frightened man notified the office of Sheriff Merle K. Glessner.
  Coroner F. E. Sass listed the death of Ryan as "suicide by shooting" and 
announced his death some time ago was the result of a self-inflicted wound of a 
.32 calibre pistol, which was found beside the frozen body of the recluse in a 
shanty on the Charles Skaptaukas farm in Somerset Township.
  Ryan's shanty is located two miles from any road passable by automobile.  He 
lived alone in this little mountain home for the past four years.
  The officers said they found adequate food in the shanty.  Eggs, buns and 
other food necessities were found in the shanty.  Of course, the fire in the 
heating and cooking stove had long since burned out and the shanty was intensely 
cold.  Water in the water bucket was frozen solid and even the eggs were frozen 
until cracked.
  Pvt. Schmoyer said the fact that the body had been there long enough for mice 
to have nibbled at the end of the man's fingers and nose also pointed out that 
he had been dead for some length of time.
  Ryan's body was removed by officers and Mortician Charles R. Hauger to the 
undertaking establishment in Somerset early Tuesday morning.  Because Ryan has 
no relatives no funeral services were held.  Burial was made Wednesday in the 
Somerset County Memorial Park.

Meyersdale Republican, March 13, 1941