Lou’s View – July 24, 2014
The Unfortunate Summer of Carson Quiggle
by Lou Bernard
I know the actual anniversary date was last month, but 2014 is still the anniversary of Clinton County’s founding. I thought I’d bring it up, as it’s been almost twenty minute since I’ve mentioned it. And also, on Saturday Wayne Township is jumping on board with their celebration.
I’ll be there, too. I enjoy Wayne Township. It’s got a long, rich history, most of which I’ve written about before. If you’re a regular reader of my column, you’ve already heard all about the Pine Camp Meetings, and Henry Shoemaker, and all the rest of that. Since I don’t want to be known as a one-trick wonder, I thought I’d try something a little different this time.
I checked out the newspapers from one hundred years ago—The summer of 1914. I like looking back that way, on anniversaries, finding out what was happening so long ago. I began with the Clinton County Times, because they loved to report bizarre incidents. They ran years worth of interviews with the stone statues on the Civil War Monument. When it comes to strange news, the shopping-aisle Elvis-following papers have nothing on the Clinton County Times.
One of the things that stood out, during the summer of 1914, was a terrible run of luck from Carson Quiggle.
Quiggle was a lifelong citizen of Pine, the son of Robert and Margaret Clark Quiggle. He was a farmer, and one of the owners of the Pine Camp Meeting Grounds, where they used to hold religious meetings in the early days. He was forty-nine years old in 1914, and working on his farm. Or attempting to, anyway—It didn’t go so well.
The Clinton County Times, in their Wayne Township column, put it fairly succinctly: “Trouble upon trouble is the experience of Carson R. Quiggle.”
In late spring, he broke his leg doing some work in his barn. The papers were sketchy with details about this—People were breaking bones every hour on the hour back then; safety hadn’t been invented yet. It wasn’t really news when someone broke a leg.
They only mentioned it later, in an article on Friday, July 17, 1914: “Not long since, he suffered a broken leg.”
They then elaborated on some of the other injuries he had received a week previously. This, remember, was after the leg had healed and he was back to work. Carson was standing in a large wagon, unloading hay on his farm, and using a long hook designed for exactly that purpose. My dad had one of these on our farm; a hook on the end of a chain, running to a pulley on the barn.
Something startled the horses. They suddenly jumped, and attempted to run. With Quiggle still standing on the wagon. He did the right thing, he attempted to grab the reins, except….Remember the hook? The one Quiggle was using to unload the hay? Yeah, in a very Three-Stooges sort of moment, the hook caught on his clothes, and to some extent his skin. You may take a moment to cringe now.
So the net result of this was the Quiggle wound up being hooked like a fish, and suspended while the horses bolted, pulling the wagon out from under him.
“The horses galloped and pranced until the harness gave way,” the article said,”And Carson fell to the ground unconscious.”
The paper neglected to comment that it’s probably a good thing Carson didn’t play the lottery.
Some of the other people around witnessed this, and came rushing to the rescue. They gathered up the unconscious Quiggle and carried him to the house, sending for help. Apparently figuring one doctor was not enough, the called three: Doctors F.P. Ball, Corson, and Yost were summoned. (With the run of luck Quiggle was having, they probably assumed at least one doctor would be killed on the way and not make it.) They did arrive safely, however, and treated Quiggle.
“They all made record time and gave him a thorough examination,” the paper said. “The ligaments of his left leg were torn and his body was a mass of bruises. He is now resting fairly well. He will be able to be up and around, but will not be able to work for some time.”
Quiggle healed, and went on to run his farm until he died on March 10, 1936. His burial was delayed for well over a month, however, due to the bad conditions of the roads at the time. Seriously, let’s hope the rest of Wayne Township was luckier than Carson Quiggle. This guy just could not catch a break.
