I don’t know if any of you remember Daddy and Aunt Gin Gin talking about their relative who was shot in the South. I vaguely recalled it was someone from Grandma Lilley’s side of the family and I always thought it was because he got robbed or was a horse thief, or something along those lines. Why I thought the person was a horse thief I don’t know; it wouldn’t have been a good thing, for sure, but the horse thief sounded a bit romantic to me at a young age. I recall hearing he was walking down a street somewhere in the South and someone came up to him and shot him. I also thought it was someone from further back in history and not a mere hundred years in the past when our Dad was six years old……
Two years ago, when I began my research for DAR I subscribed to Newspapers.com, a website that contains newspapers from all over the country. One of the articles I came across was heart wrenching. It was from a Lebanon County newspaper from 1916 and was about Harry M. Forry, the son of Emma Delia Hosler Forry, the widow of Andrew Forry, who was noted in the article as Mrs. Andrew Forry, and the brother of Effie Forry Lilley, noted in the article as Mrs. William Lilley. For reference, Emma Delia was the grandmother of William Arthur Lilley, Sr., the father of the six Lilley siblings. Effie Forry Lilley was the grandmother of the six Lilley siblings and the mother of William Arthur Lilley, Sr. With this information I will let you figure out how you are related to Mrs. Andrew Forry and Mrs. William Lilley, two of the survivors noted in the newspaper article.
Two years ago, when I began my research for DAR I subscribed to Newspapers.com, a website that contains newspapers from all over the country. One of the articles I came across was heart wrenching. It was from a Lebanon County newspaper from 1916 and was about Harry M. Forry, the son of Emma Delia Hosler Forry, the widow of Andrew Forry, who was noted in the article as Mrs. Andrew Forry, and the brother of Effie Forry Lilley, noted in the article as Mrs. William Lilley. For reference, Emma Delia was the grandmother of William Arthur Lilley, Sr., the father of the six Lilley siblings. Effie Forry Lilley was the grandmother of the six Lilley siblings and the mother of William Arthur Lilley, Sr. With this information I will let you figure out how you are related to Mrs. Andrew Forry and Mrs. William Lilley, two of the survivors noted in the newspaper article.
I have sons and I have a brother, so I could imagine the pain and heartbreak the event described in the newspaper article above would have caused our not so distant family members. It was hurtful to read about, even 99 years after the occurrence, despite not knowing personally any of the people in the article.
At the time I came across the article, however, I was mired in my DAR research and I set the article aside for another time.
Two years later I came across the article again. The impact was still the same. What happened to this young man who in 1916 was the same age as my my son was in 2015, when I first read the article?
The newspaper says that Harry M. Forry, twenty-eight years old and single, died suddenly in Virginia and that his body was brought home to Lebanon by the local funeral director and taken to the Forry home there. A dispatch was sent to Emma, whether prior to or along with the delivery of her son’s body the article does not say, “announcing that the young man was shot, and no details as to how the shooting occurred, whether accidental or during a riot, were given.”
At this reading I had the time and the desire to learn more about this sad occurrence. I went to my go- to research tool, Ancestry.com, and found a marriage license for Harry M. and Vera DeHart, who was born in Virginia. The age for Harry was right, the parent’s name were correct, but I was confused because the article said he was single. Nevertheless, I added it to my pile of genealogy docs for further scrutiny.
I googled for information on riots in Hopeland, Virginia, and not only discovered no riots reported for the time frame, but learned that Hopeland, Virginia does not exist. There is a Hopewell, Virginia, however.
I also wondered what a carpenter was doing working for a munitions company as the article advised, so I googled DuPont Powder and discovered two interesting things, one of which is the excerpted article below, from a paper out of Virginia, but I also discovered that the Hercules company, which acquired Simmonds Precision, a company I worked for in the 1980’s, was affiliated with the DuPont Powder Company. The second is of no import, really, but just interesting to me.
At the time I came across the article, however, I was mired in my DAR research and I set the article aside for another time.
Two years later I came across the article again. The impact was still the same. What happened to this young man who in 1916 was the same age as my my son was in 2015, when I first read the article?
The newspaper says that Harry M. Forry, twenty-eight years old and single, died suddenly in Virginia and that his body was brought home to Lebanon by the local funeral director and taken to the Forry home there. A dispatch was sent to Emma, whether prior to or along with the delivery of her son’s body the article does not say, “announcing that the young man was shot, and no details as to how the shooting occurred, whether accidental or during a riot, were given.”
At this reading I had the time and the desire to learn more about this sad occurrence. I went to my go- to research tool, Ancestry.com, and found a marriage license for Harry M. and Vera DeHart, who was born in Virginia. The age for Harry was right, the parent’s name were correct, but I was confused because the article said he was single. Nevertheless, I added it to my pile of genealogy docs for further scrutiny.
I googled for information on riots in Hopeland, Virginia, and not only discovered no riots reported for the time frame, but learned that Hopeland, Virginia does not exist. There is a Hopewell, Virginia, however.
I also wondered what a carpenter was doing working for a munitions company as the article advised, so I googled DuPont Powder and discovered two interesting things, one of which is the excerpted article below, from a paper out of Virginia, but I also discovered that the Hercules company, which acquired Simmonds Precision, a company I worked for in the 1980’s, was affiliated with the DuPont Powder Company. The second is of no import, really, but just interesting to me.
This article was a disclaimer by DuPont to alert land speculators and real estate concerns that, despite the seeming boom in housing and work in Hopewell, it would be foolish to speculate on a building boom there because the plant would in all probability be shutting down production in the area after the end of the ‘European War’. It did state that they were building houses and workshops in Hopewell, which convinced me that Harry would have been working for DuPont.
Although the initial article regarding the return of Harry’s body is not fake news, in today’s vernacular, there are so many errors in the article it is almost tough to believe anything at all. The pathos of the family was the truth, I think, but that is really where the truthfulness ended.
I searched and searched and searched to the point of fuzzy eyes and a headache and could find nothing about a trial or even an investigation into the occurrence. I was angry that no action had been taken on behalf of the family who had lost a son and a brother.
I wrote to the Lebanon County Courthouse to inquire if they had any information in their legal archives referring to Harry or his death. I haven’t heard anything from them yet.
This past Tuesday there was a meeting of a group I belong to, the Genealogy Work Group, whose purpose is to help each other overcome the hills and hurdles in any genealogy research we undertake. I prepared my paper on my newest bump in my genealogical road and presented it to the group. They suggested I try Virginia death records. Smart, and a little embarrassing that I didn’t think of it myself.
I went home and looked for Virginia death records for Harrison M. Forry, or Harry Forry or H. Forry, and found his death certificate, below.
I searched and searched and searched to the point of fuzzy eyes and a headache and could find nothing about a trial or even an investigation into the occurrence. I was angry that no action had been taken on behalf of the family who had lost a son and a brother.
I wrote to the Lebanon County Courthouse to inquire if they had any information in their legal archives referring to Harry or his death. I haven’t heard anything from them yet.
This past Tuesday there was a meeting of a group I belong to, the Genealogy Work Group, whose purpose is to help each other overcome the hills and hurdles in any genealogy research we undertake. I prepared my paper on my newest bump in my genealogical road and presented it to the group. They suggested I try Virginia death records. Smart, and a little embarrassing that I didn’t think of it myself.
I went home and looked for Virginia death records for Harrison M. Forry, or Harry Forry or H. Forry, and found his death certificate, below.
I noted that the doctor who signed the death certificate was named Hargrave and that the death occurred in Prince George County. I saw they had his birth date as 1881 (it should have been 1888), put his marital status as married (unlike the newspaper article which stated he was single) and listed his occupation as ‘merchant’. Keeping in mind the information from the original article, I supposed one might, at a stretch, consider carpentry skills as merchandise. It did state he was born in Pa., which I knew was the case. But the heart of the matter (not really an intended pun) was the cause of death, which was “shot through the heart” and the notation alongside it of “Homicide’.
The death certificate reaffirmed my perplexity and, truly, my anger, about no further investigation into the shooting. So I wrote to the Sheriff’s Department in Prince George County, regarding a possible cold case in 1916 and asking for any information they might have in their archives.
Last evening, still feeling incensed about the apparent callousness of the world in the face of the Forry tragedy, I determined to look through all Virginia newspapers on the dates between February 6 and February 16, 1916, with the keywords Hopewell, shooting and Forry. What I found was both heartening and very confusing.
The death certificate reaffirmed my perplexity and, truly, my anger, about no further investigation into the shooting. So I wrote to the Sheriff’s Department in Prince George County, regarding a possible cold case in 1916 and asking for any information they might have in their archives.
Last evening, still feeling incensed about the apparent callousness of the world in the face of the Forry tragedy, I determined to look through all Virginia newspapers on the dates between February 6 and February 16, 1916, with the keywords Hopewell, shooting and Forry. What I found was both heartening and very confusing.
I found an article from The Times Dispatch out of Richmond, Virginia, below, titled “Hopewell Murderer Makes Good His Escape” that covered an inquest into this shooting which advised there were no witnesses who saw the shooting though there was one person who “heard sentences spoken apparently in anger” before he heard a shot fired. That person called the police after Harry died in his arms. When the police arrived they surrounded the area of the shooting but found only a raincoat and a vest belonging to the possible suspect. The victim, however, was identified in the article as Harold Bixler of 202 Savory Street in Pottsville, Pa or POSSIBLY H. M. Forry of Palo Alto, Pa. Coroner Hargrave (remember him from the death certificate) advised he had obtained the name of a man who said he knew the dead man and stated the man was named Bixler. That man also said Forry and Bixler were brothers-in-law who came to Hopewell to open a small fruit stand. That would explain the ‘merchant’ notation on the death certificate but only adds to my confusion over the initial newspaper article saying he was a carpenter. I did not find any of Harry’s wife’s family with the name of Bixler, nor any of Harry’s sister married to anyone named Bixler, at least not yet, anyway. |
4 You will note the police wired to Bixler’s home regarding ‘his’ shooting and received no reply.
I found another article from the Times Dispatch from Feb. 7, 1916 out of Richmond with the headline “Body Is Identified As That of H W. Forry” , still not quite correct, but closer than Bixler, advising a positive ID of Harry was made by his brother. It doesn’t say which brother, but it might have been William Andrew, the future Mennonite minister, or Raymond Sylvester, who was only 19 in February of 1916.
The rest of the article is interesting, but you can read it for yourself.
The rest of the article is interesting, but you can read it for yourself.
The question then, is the credibility of that first newspaper article about “Harry M. Forry Shot and Killed in Hopeland, Va.” That article and the article about the identification of the body were published on February 7, 1916. Emma would have known of the shooting prior to the arrival of Harry’s body because her other son identified him. Most likely they would also have known some of the other details as well; i.e, not shot in a riot, not working as a carpenter, and have possibly known the police were actively looking for a suspect.
The whole marriage issue is still something that confuses me, so I’ll look further into it and see what I can find.
I have come away from this research adventure with three observations or maybe life lessons.
1. Take everything you read in a publication with a grain or twenty of salt.
2. Before you become incensed about something and waste emotion and time, get all the facts you can about the incident. Don’t go off half-cocked.
3. There is a lot of truth in all those saying our Mother repeated for us; i.e.,
“Take it with a grain of salt”
“Don’t go off half-cocked”
“Ass over tin cup” which is my personal favorite, although not relevant to this story.
In the end, though, every little tidbit I find out about our family generally leads me on an exciting adventure of discovery.
Hugs to all!
The whole marriage issue is still something that confuses me, so I’ll look further into it and see what I can find.
I have come away from this research adventure with three observations or maybe life lessons.
1. Take everything you read in a publication with a grain or twenty of salt.
2. Before you become incensed about something and waste emotion and time, get all the facts you can about the incident. Don’t go off half-cocked.
3. There is a lot of truth in all those saying our Mother repeated for us; i.e.,
“Take it with a grain of salt”
“Don’t go off half-cocked”
“Ass over tin cup” which is my personal favorite, although not relevant to this story.
In the end, though, every little tidbit I find out about our family generally leads me on an exciting adventure of discovery.
Hugs to all!