Mangled

#52ancestors Week 43—Cause of Death

Mangled 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2018 

Walter D. "Buck" Fricks (1884-1914), left; brother, Edward W. Fricks (1885-1963; sister, Dora M. Fricks (1892-1955)

Photo taken about 1910, Muskogee, Oklahoma

The headline of the page 1 story in the Muskogee Times-Democrat (Muskogee, Muskogee County, Oklahoma) on 18 September 1914 reads: MANGLED: Body of Man Identified as ‘Buck” Fricks, Muskogee Lineman and Well-Known Character, Found on Railroad Track at Wells, Okla., South of Here. 

Many years ago, I walked the Greenhill Cemetery in Muskogee, Oklahoma and recorded all of my known kin buried there. I had also walked it as a child many times with my grandmother, but after I became an adult and a professional genealogist I wanted to verify the information, double-check names and dates, and not rely on memory. 

Greenhill Cemetery is resting place of many of my Fricks relatives — and I knew the man called “Buck” was the brother of my grandfather. I also know that he had been killed in a railroad accident. It was a subject that was never discussed much, so I did not know any details. I had never read the newspaper account until years later. From it I learned that W. D. “Buck” Fricks, whose given name was Walter, was run over by a Katy (Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad) train at small station named Wells, located just north of Eufaula, and about 25 miles south of Muskogee where the family lived. His body was found on the track by trainmen. 

Fricks was either asleep on the track or was thrown beneath the wheels while trying to catch a moving train, according to the newspaper account. George Miller, of the county attorney’s office at Eufaula went out to look at the body and found a letter in Fricks’ pocket from a young woman in Muskogee. The body was fearfully mangled, according the news story. 

The Katy Limited, ca 1910 

It further noted that “A brother of Fricks, who lives in the country near Muskogee was notified by telephone and this afternoon passed through town on his way to Eufaula.” That brother was my grandfather, Charley. I know because my grandfather told me about that sad trip he made to identify his brother and see to it that he was buried in the family plot in Greenhill Cemetery. 

Also per the newspaper account, “Buck Fricks was a well-known character here, and was employed from time to time as a lineman by local public service corporation.” The family history claims he worked as an oil rigger and as a lineman for Western Union Telegraph. He never married and left no known children. 

He was only 30 years old when he died, and I sure wish I knew what the newspaper meant by calling him a “well-known character.” I could use a “character” in the family tree, especially a good one.