Woll, Frankie 1905-1909

WOLL

Posted By: Linda Ziemann, volunteer (email)
Date: 1/9/2011 at 21:20:22

SHOT THROUGH THE HEART
Little Frankie Woll the Victim of a Tragic Accident Friday Afternoon

Little Frankie Woll, the four years and five months old son, of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Woll, was shot through the heart last Friday afternoon and died instantly.

The little fellow had been to Merrill Friday, with his mother. After returning home in the evening he toddled out to the potato patch where his older brother, John, was at working digging potatoes. At noon John had taken his 22 caliber rifle intending to shoot a hawk that he had seen flying around. He put the gun at one end of the field with some sacks.

At about five o’clock in the evening little Frankie came into the field and noticing the rifle called to John saying, “Here is your gun.” John told him to leave it there and not to touch it. But the little fellow had already taken hold of the muzzle of the rifle and before John could get to him the weapon was discharged and as the smoke cleared away he was horrified to see little Frankie sink to the ground.

He ran to the boy’s aid but the spark of life had fled. With a heart choking with sorrow and thinking that possibly something could be done to bring his little brother back to life, John, although only twelve years old, gathered up the limp and bleeding from of his little brother and carried him to the house, and the frantic mother. Mr. Woll, who was threshing for a friend nearly five miles away, and kind neighbors were notified by telephone, and came as quickly as possibly.

Death always brings sorrow, but when it comes as it did to little Frankie Woll, the pangs of affliction seemed to sink deeper into the hearts and souls of the bereaved.

The funeral was held Saturday morning at Ellendale and the body laid to rest in the church yard nearby.

~NOTE: This little one is buried at St. Joseph Ellendale Catholic Cemetery, Plymouth County, Iowa. His tombstone reads with these dates: Born 3/24/1905; Died 9/30/1909