Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1878-03-15
An Cnlucky Man.
Chicago Times.

A man named William Woodville
stumbled down a step in the sidewalk
on North Clark street, on Saturday,
and broke his right 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 a brief notice as showing how i'll
luck follows some men in a peculiar
way through the whole course of their
life. This mans misfortune has been
from his earliest infancy to be contin-
ually 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 he expects, nay, he knows,
that just about once in so long he will
have a new call for a physician or the
saw and sythe OF a surgeon. The story
of his life would seem incredible were
it not vouched for by several reputable
persons.
One of his first exhibits was when he
vas a little boy on his fathers farm, in
Orange County New York. He was
reaping me day with a sickle, and con-
trived to cut off the little finger of his
left hand. \ few years later, in wrest-
ling, 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 indi-
vidual when he got married and started
west to settle in Cedarsburg, Ozaukee
County, Wis, in 1855. A railway ac-
cident on the road came near ending
his acquaintance with splints and band
ages, for, beside breaking his leg, it so
injured his spine that for months his
life was a matter of chance. He re-
covered and was getting around well
again. when one day. at a raising a
log which had been 'skidded' almost to
the top of the barn broke away from
the ralsers, and when it fell he was the
only man that didn't escape. He wasn't
hurt much, however, only had some of
his ribs and his nose broken, and he be-
gan to hope for better things.
In 1860, while engaged in s%toning a
well 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 offered to volunteer. He wasn't
handsome enough after all that had
happened to him to be accepted among
the first $4,000 men. In 1862, Hon.
Joseph Rankin of Manitowoc, now a
State Senator of Wisconsin, raised a
company, and Woodville made a per-
sonal appeal to him to be allowed 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 Fit. Donelson, and
was sent home. Shortly after his return
his wife died, and being unable to follow
farming with a wooden leg, he sold out
and moved to Chicago. He started a
small grocery store on South Halsted
and was getting along passably,
when II night, just as he was about
three bold robbers entered and
went for his wealth. In the row that
ensued a blow of a bludgoeon Knocked
out his right eye and left him senseless.
The robbery and loss occasioned By
closed his grocery. He started
a small book stall on West Madison
street, and was patching out his pension
with it's small profits when, in 1874,
took hold of all that was left
of him, and carved him even more fer
.ociously than the surgeons had done.
Since then he has boarded on tho
North Side, living on his pension most
of the time The winter of 1856 he
spent at the soldiers Home, Milwaukee,
and there had the misfortune to lose
both ears, and the toes of his remaining
foot, by frost. For a year past he os,
injury, possibly because there
vas so little of him left. The breaking
IF his timber member was tho first re-
he had had, since his return,
he was not forgotten. J.
A Times reporter, having heard some
hing of his eventful history from Ser
stor Rankin, sought him at his board
ng place on yesterday. The ancient
wreck was as cheerful as a cricket. as
le sat there patching up the brob en- leo.
lie shows no signs of Encouragement.
md remarked that, though bloody and
,reathless he was still in the ring"
A belief that he was born to be hacked
md broken has taken fixed possession
It his mind, and he regards accidents as
part of his personal property. What
'emains OF him is fifty-eight years old.
md looks as if it would stand some more
.non01inr hoforo - fon-. -