Grayson County TXGenWeb

The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, April 22, 1888
pg. 6

EARTH TO EARTH
Obsequies of the Late Henry G. Henicke
In last week's Gazetteer the prediction was confidently made that not only would Conductor Henicke recover from his injuries sustained in the Pottsboro wreck on Friday week, but that the limb broken in the accident would be saved. This prediction was made upon the assurance of his doctors, but how little is in the forecast even of the wisest amongst us the document will illustrate. At 4 o'clock p.m. on Saturday the paper containing that hopeful message was printed. At 7 o'clock mortification and gangrene was discovered to have set in, and a half-hour later the fiat had gone forth from Drs. Acheson and Nagle that unless were resorted to immediately the patient would not live. Mrs. Henicke objected to having the amputation performed at home and asked that her husband be taken to the hospital at Fort Worth to undergo the operation, which the doctors after holding a consultation consented to permit being done. A special was ordered for 2:30 a.m. Sunday, to which both Conductor Henicke and brakeman Oliver were conveyed, and accompanied by Dr. Acheson and Conductors Charles Loomis and C.N. Knowlton, they were taken to Fort Worth.
An examination of Mr. Henicke's condition by Chief Surgeon Volker and Dr. Acheson, after his arrival at the hospital, convinced these gentlemen that an amputation would be attended with some considerable danger, and this fact was gently explained to the patient to the end that if he had any disposition of his earthly affairs to make it might be made before the operation took place. He accepted the intelligence calmly, and being left alone with his wife proceeded to make known his will. He named C.N. Knowlton, Chief Conductor of Lone Star Lodge No. 53, O.R.C., and C.H. Loomis, ex-secretary of same, as trustees to wind up his affairs; he stated what he wished to have done with his little boy, and entered into the adjustment of his fiscal affairs in the minutest details, even to the mentioning of two or three meals for which he owed at lunch counters down the road. When he had arranged everything, he stated that he was now prepared to die if death came, but he didn't intend to do anything of the kind. He was going to live, he said, and assured his wife that she needn't fret about him any.
At 11:20 a.m., amputation was resorted to, and after the operation he rallied surprisingly, and for a time it was thought that he would survive the ordeal through which he had passed. At 2 o'clock, however, he began to sink and passed away, apparently without a pang at 7:50 p.m. His remains were taken charge of by Conductors Loomis and Knowlton and brought back to this city, arriving at 12:30 Monday afternoon. The intelligence of his death reached the city at an early hour, and by its unexpectedness created a profound sensation.
The family residence, No. 105 Morton street, was besieged by sympathetic friends, bearing each his sad yet eloquent token of respect, and ere the hour named for the funeral services the handsome casket in which he lay inurned was buried beneath a wilderness of flowers. Such floral tributes are seldom lavished upon the dead, and the heartfelt sympathy which accompanied them the greatest of earth might have been proud to receive.
The funeral took place from the family residence at 3 o'clock, the obsequies being participated in by almost the entire membership of the Order of Railway Conductors and Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the religious services being performed by Rev. W.E. Tynes, of the First Baptist Church. A concourse of citizens, the largest that has been brought together in this city for many a day, followed the hearse to Oakwood Cemetery, and with tearful regrets laid to rest all that was mortal of Hank Henicke.
Henry G. Henicke was born in Cook County (near Chicago), Illinois, in March 1856. At the age of 16 he entered the railroad service, which continued to be his field of labor uninterruptedly up to the time of his death. In Illinois and Kansas, in California and Texas, he followed the fortunes of the rail, and wherever he went was known as a reliable officer, a gentleman of honor, and a credit to the railway craft. In 1874 he came to Denison, and four years later married Miss Sadie Bates, and during the subsequent years of his life, continued to make the Gate City his home. During the fourteen years that elapsed from the date of Mr. Henicke's arrival in Texas to the time of his death, he served as conductor on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, the Houston & Texas Central, Texas & Pacific, and Denver & Rio Grande, winning in every instance the confidence and esteem of his employers, and the highest regard of his fellow craftsmen. In Denison, where he had lived and was best known, he had his truest friends; his enemies existed nowhere. He was a man of quiet speech but adamantine nerve, and in the awful hours that marked his final agonies the courage of a hero was displayed. His likes and dislikes were positive and pronounced, and his expression of these open, candid and manly. He had a heart as big as his own caboose, and a hand that never faltered in lending assistance to a needy brother. Before the world he was an honest, manly man, and the love of his brethren followed him to the grave like a well-earned benediction. His love of friends was surpassed only by his love of home and family - his fidelity to both was unswerving and true. Generous, without ostentation, gentle, without being weak, brave without pretense, panegyric can supply no higher tribute - he was a whole man.
Conductor Henicke leaves a wife and one child, a boy, 8 years old; a brother, Mr. H.F. Henicke of Chicago, who arrived in the city too late to be present at the funeral, and his mother and father, who reside in Southern Dakota. To these bereaved ones, the Gazetteer extends its sympathy, and offers the condolence of this community.
The following resolutions were adopted by Lone Star Division No. 53, Order Railway Conductors, at a special meeting April 17th:
WHEREAS, God in his providence having removed from our midst our beloved Brother, Hank G. Henicke,
Resolved, That this Division has lost a valued Brother, his wife and child a loving husband and father, and Railway Company a trusted employe.
Resolved, That the thanks of this Division are hereby tendered
Bros. T.J. Ray and J.C. Nicholas, Supt. and Train Master, Mo. Pa. Ry.
To R.C. Volker and A.W. Acheson Surgeons, Rev. Dr. Tynes, to Mesdames Swartz, Lyall, Case and others for courtesies rendered.
Resolved. That we appreciate the sympathy manifested by the B. of L.E. Div. 177
Resolved. That our charter and Regalia be draped in mourning for a period of thirty days in memory of our departed Brother.
Resolved. That a copy of these resolutions be furnished the Conductors monthly, the Sunday Gazetteer, and spread on the minutes of the Division.
A.B. Garrettson
C.H. Loomis
S.E. Kinsinger,
Committee on Resolutions
Approved,
C.W. Knowlton, C.C.

The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday August 5, 1888

EDDIE HENICKE DEAD

Eddie, the eight-year-old son of Mrs. Henry Henicke, died at the home of his mother on Morton street, Saturday, 28th instant, at the hour of 9:20 p.m. The little fellow had been complaining of pain in his side for several days, and on Wednesday, 25th inst, he took to bed, and Dr. Birch was summoned. An obstinate constipation of the bowels set in, which resisted all attempts at its relief by medicine. This condition continued until Saturday afternoon, when a consultation of physicians resulted in a decision to operate. The patient was placed under the influence of ether at 2 o'clock, and the most important surgical operation ever rendered necessary in Denison was performed upon him. An ulcerated condition of one of bowels on the left side had caused its rupture, and the discharge of its contents into the abdominal cavity. The rent was trimmed and reunited, the intestines cleaned and the abdominal incisions sewed up, the entire time of the operation being nearly two hours. Drs. Birch, Acheson and Nagle were the operating surgeons. The little sufferer rallied very nicely from the effects of the ether, but the shock occasioned by the operation proved too great for him, and he began to sink, dying very quietly at 6:20 o'clock.

Eddie was a bright, precocious little fellow, and being an only child, was the object of a more than common parental affection. His death, coming so soon after that of his father, is an almost unsupportable blow to the afflicted mother and widow, whose grief is heartrending to behold. Sorrow is a very common ingredient in this life, and none escape it, but the calamities which have recently come to the home of this afflicted lady are such as, fortunately, few are called upon to endure. The funeral took place Sunday afternoon, at 3 o'clock, the hearse being followed to Oakwood by a very large concourse of sorrowing friends. The Gazetteer extends to the unhappy and childless widow its heartfelt sympathy.