WOODMANCY, ROBERT H

WOODMANCY

Posted By: Robin (email)
Date: 3/30/2026 at 20:53:49

"The Daily Nonparell"
Sun, Jan 27, 1929 ·Page 7

Reuben H. Woodmancy

R.H. Woodmancy, a Hero of Remarkable Kansas Rescue Trip, Dies at Macedonia stories of Kansas Indian fighting.

Reuben H. Woodmancy, hero of one of the most remarkable stories of Kansas Indian fighting, promoted for bravery in the Civil War, who survived war and tommyhawk wounds and an automobile accident which killed his wife, died at his home at Macedonia Friday, on the day following his ninetieth birthday.

Mr. Woodmancy, who entered the civil war as a private, was promoted to a captaincy for bravery at Shiloh, and while before Atlanta, near the end of the war, was shot through the foot. This injury affected him throughout his life.
Mr. Woodmancy was one of the first purchasers of an automobile in the county, and was nearly killed when the machine he was driving slipped from a grade in September, 1910. Mrs. Woodmancy was killed instantly and Mr. Woodmancy was not expected to live.

But it was during the remarkable rescue of two white girls from a band of Indians in Kansas that Mr. Woodmancy received the injury that was most serious. As a young man of 17 years old, he and four friends helped rescue two girls who had been kidnapped by an Indian party. Part of his skull was crashed in by a tommyhawk blow, and for some time he was unconscious. A comrade lifted the skull bones with a knife, and young Woodmancy roped to the back of a horse, was carried back to Fort Scott, where he recovered. He carried the scar through life.

Mr. Woodmancy had gone into Kansas during the bloody days before statehood, when "free-staters" and "Missourians" were fighting to keep each other out, until the state had voted whether it should be free or slave.

Mr. Woodmancy, who entered the Civil War as a private, was promoted to a captaincy for bravery at Shiloh, and while before Atlanta, near the end of the war, was shot through the foot. This injury affected him throughout his life.

Mr. Woodmancy had lived at Macedonia since 1866, coming to Pottawattamie County immediately after the Civil War. He enlisted with Company F, 15th Ohio Regiment, for three months. At the end of the period, he re-enlisted in September, 1861, becoming a member of Company F, 20th Ohio. At Atlanta, July22, 1864, he was wounded by gunshot in the right foot and was in the hospital for some time.

He had been bedfast for more than a year following a paralysis stroke three years ago Christmas. Funeral services will be held at the Macedonia Methodist Church, Monday at 2:00 o'clock, with the burial in the Macedonia Cemetery.