Appendix C: Coatesville Newspaper Articles about Vern McAninch, October 1912 |
[Thursday, 17 Oct. 1912] [Note C.1] |
“Back from Alaska” / Vern McAninch, son of Mr. and Mrs. D. A. McAninch, living west of |
town, arrived home this week after a long trip from the far north. Vern has been a member of the |
U. S. signal corps with headquarters at Signal Corps Rapids, Alaska [Note C.2], the past two years. |
Every member of the corps was poisoned from eating canned meats and all but two or three died |
[Note C.3]. Vern came south as soon as possible on a hospital boat and was taken to a hospital in |
San Francisco where he remained until able to make the trip home. He was given a discharge |
from further duty on account of disablement, and it is hoped by his many friends to see him soon |
the ‘Breakie’ they once knew. |
Source: Coatesville Herald, Coatesville, Indiana, Vol. III, No. 42, Thursday, Oct. 17, 1912, pg. 1 |
[image online: McA-Vern-1912-Back-From-Alaska.jpg] [Note 8.d. (image)] |
[Thursday, 24 Oct. 1912] |
“A Brave Life Ended” / As has been repeatedly stated in these columns . . . To leave home |
and friends and be faithful to duty in a foreign field . . . this is the kind of bravery that counts in |
life’s battles . . . and this is the kind should be given to a young life just ended in Coatesville. |
Two years ago, then a boy in his teens, Vern McAninch, son of Mr. and Mrs. D. A. McAninch |
of this place, joined his services with those of the government of the United States. He was sent |
to the far north, after a year or more of duty in the States, to do duty as a signal officer in Alaska. |
It required many weary weeks to reach his destination. Here he remained serving the government |
faithfully until January, 1912, when the entire signal corps, numbering twenty-two men, were |
poisoned by eating bad meat. Out of the entire number Vern was the only one who lived to reach |
home [Note C.3]. He was sent down to San Francisco in a hospital boat and placed in a hospital |
in that city, where he remained a patient sufferer during all those months from May to October, |
when he had sufficient strength to make the journey home. His friends were greatly rejoiced to |
see him again, but it seems the poison had a deep hold upon his system and affected his kidneys, |
and on Sunday morning at 5 o’clock his spirit took its flight to the God who gave it. |
This is the story of a young but brave life, the last sad rites of which were held at the |
Methodist church on Wednesday morning, Oct. 23, 1912, the Rev. C. O. Smock officiating. |
Source: Coatesville Herald, Coatesville, Indiana, Vol. III, No. 43, Thursday, Oct. 24, 1912. |
[Friday, 25 Oct. 1912] |
“Came From Alaska To Die” /”Signal Corps Member Dead After Eating Bad Beef” |
Vern McAninch, age twenty-one, son of Mr. and Mrs. D. A. McAninch, of Coatesville, died |
Sunday morning. He had been a member of the United States signal corps in Alaska for two years. |
In January all the twenty-two members of the corps were poisoned by eating bad beef [Note C.3]. |
McAninch was brought in a hospital boat to San Francisco, where he remained until a week ago, |
when he was sent home. The poison resulted in a disease of the kidneys, which was the |
[unreadable] at his death. |
Source: Plainfield Friday Caller, Plainfield, Indiana, Friday, 25 Oct. 1912, pg.4 col.4 |
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McAninch Family History NL v.XX n.3 / July 2012 / Frank McAninch, Editor / page 2012-37 |