River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1878-02-14
A Strange Tradition.

StTdHge IfaultI0n.
r a man named William NoodVille
stumbled down astep in the sidewalk on
North Clark street, on Saturday! and
broke his leg just above the ankle. 1t
didn't hurt him much, for the member
was made of steel springs and English
willow, but his history is worth brief
notice as showing how ill-luck follows
some in a peculiar way through the whole
course of their life This mans misfor-
tune has been from his earliest infancy
to be continually getting broken or
mangled when others escape without a
scratch, So peculiar and continuous has
been his experience in this that his mind
has yielded to the stern teachings of hard
events, and expects, nay, he knows,
that just about once in 50 long he will
have a new call for physician or the
saw and scythe of a surgeon. The story
of his life would seem incredible were it
not vonched for by several reputable per-
sons.
One of his first exploits was when he
was little boy on his fathers farm, in
Orange county, N. Y He was reaping
one day with sickle, and contrived to
cut off the little finger of his left hand.
A few years later. in wrestling, he got a
heavy fall and broke his right collar
bone. A runaway horse broke his two
arms, and a fall while skating slightly
fractured his skull all before he reached
maturity. He was a pretty well-patched
individual when he got married andstart-
ed west to settle in Cedarsburg, Ozaukee
county, Wis, in 1866. A railway ac-
cident on the road came near ending his
acquaintance with splints and bandages
for, besides breaking his leg, it SO injured
his spine that for months his life was
matter of chance. He recovered and was
getting around well again, when one day,
at "raising," log which had been
s1skidded" almost to the top of the barn
broke away from the raisers, and when it
fell he was the only man that didn't es-
cape. He wasn't hurt much then, how
ever only had some of his ribs and his
nose broken, and he began to hope for
better things.
In 1860, while engaged in stoning ii
we'll on his farm, the windlass broke and
the bucket came down. He had time to
dodge and only had his shoulder broken
His courage never seemed to fail HIM.
Bothered and worried as he was, when
the war broke out he tried to enlist,
being the only man in his town who offer
ed to volunteer He wasn't handsome
enough after all that had happened to
him to be accepted among the first 10000
men. In 1862, Hon. Joseph Rankin, of
Manltowoc, now State Senator of Wis
consin, raised company, and Woodville
made personal appeal to him to be al
lowed to enlist. He was accepted. In
the army it was the old story over again.
He was always getting hurt. He wound
up by losing a leg at Fort Donelson, and
was sent home. Shortly after his return
his wife died, and being unable to follow
farming with wooden leg, he sold out
and moved to Chicago
He started a small grocery store on
South Halsted street. and was getting
along passably, when one night, just as he
was about closing, three bold robbers
entered, and went for his wealth. In the
row that ensued a blow of bludgeon
knocked out his right eye and left him
| senseless. The robbery and loss occa-
stoned by illness closed his grocery He
started a small book stall on West Madi-
son street, and was patching out his
pension with its small profits, when, in
| 1874, the small pox took hold of all that
was left Of him, and carved him even
more ferociously than the surgeons had
done.
Since then he has boarded on the North
Side, living on his pension most of the
time. The winter of 1875 6 he speLt at
the Soldiers Home, Milwaukee, and
there had the misfortune to lose both ears,
and the toes of his remaining foot by frost.
For year past he escaped injury, posi-
bly, because there was so little of him
left The breaking of his timber mem
Der was the first reminder he had had,
since his return, that he was not for
gotten.
A Times reporter having heard some
thing of his eventful history from Senator
Rankin, sought him at his boarding place
on yesterday. The ancient wreck was as
cheerful as a cricket, as he sat there patch
ing up his broken leg. He shows no signs
of discouragement, and remarked that,
though bloody and breadthless, he was
'sstill in the ring" A belief that he was
borne to be hacked and broken has taken
fixed possession Of his mind, and heregards
accidents as a part of his personal proper
ty. What remains of him is fifty-eight
years old, and looks as if it would stand
some more maDgling before it follows
what his gone before Chicago Times.