Posts Tagged ‘Lockwood’

10
Feb

Death Angel Enters Hovel

   Posted by: admin    in Death, Disease, Organizations

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Feb. 10, 1906

Death Angel Enters Hovel

Old Man Discovered Friday is Dead.

Was Sad Affair – G.A.R. Will Take Charge of Burial – Try to Find Relatives.

Last night shortly before the hour of eight, the death angel entered a miserable hovel on Central avenue where in a lowly room, Eugene Lockwood, a veteran of the civil war, had struggled for week, unattended and uncared for with the dread disease of pneumonia.

Lockwood’s case was reported in last night’s Messenger. The unfortunate man was alone in the world with the exception of distant relatives whose names or address are not known. For three weeks he has lain gasping for breath and almost with the death rattle in his throat, practically on the street where hurrying crowds rushed by, and nothing was known of his condition by those who were in a position to do anything to aid him. The members of the G.A.R. who would have done anything within their power to aid their comrade did not discover his plight until Friday and the county officers were not informed until the same day. It was then too late. Pneumonia had closed its grasp upon him, and it merely remained for him to gasp out his closing hours of life the same as he had his days of sickness before.

The local G.A.R. will have charge of the burial unless relatives come to claim the body. It is understood that distant relatives live in Mason City. An attempt will be made to learn who they are, but this seems unlikely. Lockwood has lived in this city for about five or six years. He had supported himself by doing odd jobs about town. He was last employed as a porter at the Freeman and Schureck saloon.

(Editor’s note: The G.A.R., or Grand Army of the Republic, was a fraternal organization of veterans of the Union Army during the Civil War.)

Tags: ,

9
Feb

Old Man Dying in Dirt and Squalor

   Posted by: admin    in Disease, Hospital

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Feb. 9, 1906

Old Man Dying in Dirt and Squalor

Pitiable Case Called to Attention of the Police Last Night.

Man is Ill With Pneumonia

Lies Gasping for Breath in Miserable Room Right on Central Avenue – Not Room for Him at Hospital – County Takes Up Case.

One of the most pitiable cases on record of the winter was brought to the attention of the police last night, by parties employed in the Peschau cigar store, w ho reported that an old man homeless and friendless lay deathly sick with pneumonia in a narrow room over the cigar establishment. Chief Tullar visited him and found the report all too true. An attempt was made to do something for him last night, but it was learned that the hospital was full, and as it was late when the case was discovered, it proved impossible to remove him to any other place. An officer was detailed to go up to the room every few hours to keep a fire burning and render whatever aid proved possible.

The case was brought to the attention of the commissioner of the poor and the associated charities this morning and it is probable that the sick man will receive prompt attention.

A Messenger reporter visited the place this morning and learned that the name of the sick man was Jean Lockwood. He is a veteran of the civil war and is a man about sixty years of age. He was unable to talk, but lay gasping for breath, which the inexorable hand of pneumonia strove to hold from him, on a hard bed in one corner of the miserable room. Broken panes of glass, poorly patched with boards and stuffed with clothing failed to keep the bitter air from sifting into the room, and a rusty stove burned at the bedside. August Hassher, a laboring man who resides at the place, has been the only attendant of Lockwood during the three weeks that he has been sick until yesterday when a physician was called. He states that Lockwood has lived here for about two years during which he has supported himself by doing odd jobs about town. When he was taken sick, Hassher out of pity allowed him to stay at his place.

The case is an example which it is to be hoped will not soon be found again in Fort Dodge. It illustrates plainly the need of an institution in the city for the care of such unfortunates.  The hospital, the only place where such can be taken, is at present almost daily overcrowded. An institution of the proper kind would undoubtedly find itself plentifully supplied with work.

Tags: , ,