Sunday's Obituary - Frank R. Vestal

Tonight's obituary post is a two-for-one deal.  I have 2 obituaries for my great-grandfather, Frank R. Vestal.

What I know about my great grandfather:

Frank R. Vestal was born on Feb. 1, 1904 in Longton, Elk, Kansas.  He married my great-grandmother, Ruby Irene VanRoyen on August 3, 1923.  Together they had 3 children, but only 2 survived.  One of their sons only lived 5 days. Ruby died in May 1929.  He remarried to Eleanor Marie Baker on Feb. 2, 1931 also in Longton, Kansas.  They had 4 children, however one died at birth.  According to Census records, he lived in Elk County, Kansas all but the last 10 years or so of his life before dying on January 23, 1972 in Dodge City, Ford, Kansas, and a brief residence in Chautauqua County, Kansas between 1920 and 1930.  Below are two obituaries I have for him.

Transcription for the above obituary:

FRANK R. VESTAL

DODGE CITY, Kan - Services for Frank R. Vestal, 67, employe of Ford County Highway Department, will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Hulpiett-Swaim Funeral Home. Burial will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Longton (Kan.) Cemetery. He died Sunday. 

Born at Longton, he came to Dodge City about 10 years ago.

Survivors include his widow, Marie; three sons, Francis E., Salina. Kan., Ralph Jr., Dodge City, and Gary R., Denver; two daughters, Mrs. Chet Harris, Amarillo, Tex., and Mrs. Wilbur Persinger, Longton, and two brothers, Nathan and Garrett, and a sister, Mrs. Frank Kimzey, all of Longton.

Transcription of the above obituary:

Frank R. Vestal

Frank R. Vestal, 66, of the Prairie Village trailer court, died Sunday evening in Trinity Hospital, after a very brief illness. He was born Feb. 1, 1904, at Longton, in Elk county, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Hilary Vestal.

Mr. Vestal grew up in Elk county and lived there, where he was a farmer and stockman, until about 10 years ago. He and Miss Marie Baker were married Feb. 2, 1931, at Longton.

They moved to Dodge City about 10 years ago. Here, Mr. Vestal was employed by the county highway department.

He was a member of th Dodge City First Christian Church and of the Masonic Lodge of Elk Falls.

Survivors include the widow; three sons, Francis of Salina, Ralph Jr. of Dodge City and Gary R. of Denver, Colo.; two daughters, Mrs. Chet (Lois) Harris of Amarillo, Tex., and Mrs. Wilbur (Marjorie) Persinger of Longton; two brothers, Nathan and Garrett, and a sister, Mrs. Frank Kimsey, all of Longton; 14 grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

The Funeral has been set for 2 p.m. Tuesday in the Hulpiet-Swaim Funeral Home chapel with Sheldon Thomas, minister, officiating. Burial with Masonic graveside rites, will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Longton cemetery.

Thriller Thursday: Sexton C. Vestal

My great-granduncle Sexton C. Vestal was born in 1879 and died in 1923, at the age of 43.  During the 43 years of his life, there are at least 2 major accidents that I know of, the 2nd one was the cause of his death.

The first incident, I was able to find a description of through an old news article printed in The Sedan Lance on July 16, 1896 describing the accident.  In July of 1896, he was bringing a hay rake from one field to another on his father's farm.  While coming down a hill, the horse ran away, turning the rake over on him hurting him internally.

I received a copy of a letter, sent to me by a distant cousin in the Vestal lines.  The letter was sent from Hillary Vestal to his mother Delanah (Gross) Vestal.  He wrote it in October of 1896 and it confirmed the accident, mentioning that Sexton was badly hurt on the 6th of July.  According to my great-great-grandfather Hillary Vestal, Sexton was just getting able to return to school in October and his accounting of the hay rake accident was that a horse had run away with him  and threw my great-granduncle Sexton against a tree.  The letter says that Sexton had been close to death for several days, but given the great care he had been given and a good doctor, he was able to "get up one more time".

The second accident was the fatal one.  My great-granduncle owned a coupe that had to be crank-started.  On January 25, 1923, farmers found his body crumpled under his own car at the bottom of a hill a few miles from Winfield, Kansas.  Apparently, the car either died or was stopped on an incline and he had to get out to hand crank it to get it to start.  When it did start, it ran him over, dragging him to the bottom of the hill and killing him.  According to the article, Sexton's wife and relatives were notified by phone of the accident and they were going to go into town to claim the body.