Compiled and Edited by Virginia Ross
Registrar for Daniel McMillan Chapter, N.S.D.A.R.
Stronghurst Graphic, Oct. 3, 1912
DEATH'S SUDDEN SUMMONS: Almost without warning, the messenger of death entered the village while the majority of our citizens were mingling in the streets with the crowd which had assembled to view the horse show and claimed as his victim one of the best known citizens and businessmen in the person of C.P. Hollingsworth... The deceased was at his place of business the day before and while he did not come down town the next day, those who noticed his absence did not think it was occasioned by anything serious, as it was known that he had not been feeling well for something over a week past. He had complained of pain in the region of the stomach which was diagnosed as appendicitis with an operation advised. He expressed a desire to wait further developments before submitting to surgical treatment and remained home the remainder of the week. The disease seemed to be responding to treatment and Mr. Hollingsworth had ventured down to his store one day. His condition did not appear to be alarming until an hour or two before his demise which the physician attributed to ruptured appendix.
Mr. Hollingsworth was the last man expected to fall victim of a fatal disease, as he seemed the personification of health and vigor. His general disposition and kindly nature won for him the friendship of all and his untimely death cast a gloom over the entire community...
Calvin Piatt Hollingsworth was born in Keithsburg, March 1, 1867, and died at Stronghurst, Sept. 26, 1912, aged 46 years, 6 months and 25 days. His early life was spent in Keithsburg, Monmouth and Bloomington. He came to Stronghurst in April 1897 and from that date was engaged in the jewelry business. For a number of years he had also conducted an ice cream and soda water parlor in connection with his business.
Mr. Hollingsworth was twice married, his first wife being Nellie Wharton of Aledo, to whom he was married in Oct. 1891. This union was blessed by three children who survive him, viz. Shore W., Lorena May and Chauncy Raymond. His second wife was Miss Nellie P. White to whom he was married Dec. 18, 1901. There also survive three children from this union, viz. Edith Louise, Eldah Idelle and Helen Virginia. Three sisters, Cereta M. Hollingsworth and Mrs. R.D. Keith of Monmouth and Mrs. H.L. Cable of Chanute, Kan., survived too... Funeral services were at the U.P. Church with interment in the village cemetery...
BADLY BURNED: Mrs. Dora McKim of Lomax was nearly burned to death by ignition of the oil in a small oil heater which she had picked up and was going to put out when the catch came loose and the oil ignited, setting her clothing ablaze. Luckily, she had on a woolen jacket which saved her head and face. She ran out on the street and up the alley yelling fire, but as everyone had gone to the 10 o'clock train, no one saw her. She then ran back and started to her husband's store, but before she got to the alley, a stranger happened along and she asked him to save her life. He jerked off his coat and threw it around her body to save her face and head. She fell to the ground, exhausted, with nearly every stitch burned off her body from the waist down. When her husband arrived, she was lying in the street with the doctor standing over her, and he and Mack Scott got wraps and carried her to the house, screaming piteously from the pain. They tried to quiet her screams, as the uproar had brought out a mass of people. Examination disclosed that she was badly burned from the waist to below the knee on her left side, her left arm and both hands were almost burned to a crisp where she had been using them to beat out the flames from her body. What she suffered and is still suffering cannot be told in words... The Dallas Review
LOCAL AND AREA NEWS: The ladies of the M.E. Church announce their annual bazaar will be held at Harter's Hall on Dec. 14th. Workmen have been busy excavating a basement under the church preparatory to installation of a new furnace. Lost one red male hog, weight about 250, no ear mark W.J. McKeown. Chester Steffey and family and Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Pressman, parents of Mrs. Steffey, drove their automobile up from Basco for a visit at the Douglas Steffey home. Mrs. Millie Wilson has secured the return of her children from her husband, who is now a resident of Seaton, and expects to resume housekeeping and make a home for them. John Groendyke, a former well known resident of this county and who was proprietor of the hotel at Raritan where he resided from 1863 to 1885, died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. W.L. Butler near Monmouth. He was 86 years of age. Interment was in the Raritan Cemetery.
Miss Hilda Johnson, who went with her sister, Freda, to Sweden last summer for a visit with homefolks, has returned to this country and will now make her home with the Ed Links family; Miss Freda will remain for a longer visit. Marshall Putney was called upon to take charge of two hoboes who had been captured in a refrigerator car by the crew of a freight train and who were suspected of breaking into some cars which had been side tracked at Smithshire. The men were placed in the calaboose and held until a special railroad officer arrived from Kansas City. The officer did not find sufficient evident to hold the men, so they were released. (Published in this issue is the legal notice to sell real estate of the late Lydia A. Lant; all the heirs are listed; this notice is a gold mine for family historians.)
COUNTY NEWS: Word has been received of the death of James Shoemaker in Wilsonville, Neb. The stork called at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Warner of Gladstone, leaving a fine baby boy. Ruth Lant and Gladys Watson took the prizes at the Stronghurst horse show in the riding Shetland pony race. Clyde Galbraith and family are expected to move back to the Gladstone area from Kansas. Miss Mary Black of Media is in a critical condition suffering from a poisonous goiter. She is now confined to her bed. (By the end of the column, she had died.) At the ten-cent medicine show in Media, a diamond ring was given away to the most popular lady with Vera Winders being the lucky one.