Theodore W. WESTCOTT (1852-1904) and Florence Holland ASPINALL (1865-1947) updated

Theodore W. WESTCOTT (1852-1904) 

and Florence Holland ASPINALL (1865-1947)

Theodore and Florence are my sort-of great-grandparents as their daughter, Mattie Jane Westcott Ridlebaugh, raised my mother. 

Theodore W. WESTCOTT is 3rd of the 3 sons born to John Jerauld WESTCOTT, of the Rhode Island Westcotts, and Eliza COUSE. John was an Ohio State Representative from 1858-1861. He was a Mason.

    b. 29 July 1852 Vanlue, Hancock, Ohio

    d. 4 August 1904 Vanlue, Hancock, Ohio

    m. 8 December 1885 Vanlue, Hancock, Ohio to

Florence Holland ASPINALL, who is 5th of the 7 children born to Frederick ASPINALL and his fourth wife Caroline STITZEL.

    b. 11 July 1865 Warsaw, Kosciusko, Indiana

    d. 24 January 1947 Findlay, Hancock, Ohio

Florence must have had a hard life as she was 6 when she became an orphan when her parents died within 10 months of each other. I know she spent time with her sister Mattie STAFFORD. Florence's husband committed suicide when she was 39. Her youngest child and only son died at the end of World War I when she was 53. She was a widow for 42 years.

Theodore and Florence had 5 children:

1. Florence Marguerite WESTCOTT 

    b. 13 December 1886 in Vanlue, Hancock, Ohio 

    d. 11 July 1974 Vanlue, Hancock, Ohio

    m.  21 October 1905 George W. EGBERT 

She went by the name Marguerite and I vaguely remember her.

2. Glenna Corine WESTCOTT 

    b. 1 December 1888 in Vanlue, Hancock, Ohio 

    d. 13 May 1969 in Amanda Township, Hancock, Ohio

    m. 12 January 1907 to Ray G. SHULL. I remember visiting them on their farm.

3. Mattie Jane WESTCOTT (my Grandma Findlay) 

    b. 20 June 1891 Vanlue, Hancock, Ohio 

    d. 22 January 1972 Findlay, Hancock, Ohio

    m. 8 June 1909 Howard Hayes RIDLEBAUGH (my Grandpa Findlay) 

4. Lucille WESTCOTT 

    b. 31 January 1895 in Vanlue, Hancock, Ohio 

    d. 31 March 1987 in Findlay, Hancock, Ohio

    m. 12 December 1952 Carl Henry SHANK

5. Theodore WESTCOTT 

    b. 11 October 1897 in  Vanlue, Hancock, Ohio 

    d. 4 November 1918 in Ostend, West Flanders, Belgium, Killed in Action

    buried in the Van Horn Cemetery in Amanda Township, Hancock, Ohio

Aunt Lucille was much loved by Deni and me. We even spent a few nights at her place when we were in Ohio. She had married later in life to a widower (she was 57 at the time), but became a widow just 14 years later when Carl died in a plane crash. We had never met him. Aunt Lucille was disabled by the time we knew her and had braces on her legs and used a walker. She had a parakeet named Tweety. 

Uncle Ted, I guess we would call him, enlisted on 20 July 1915 in the National Guard. Private Westcott departed for the war on 22 June 1918. His tombstone says he was in Company A 2nd Ohio Infantry (Company “L” 145th Infantry 37th Division National Guard). The sad thing about the situation is he was only there for a few months and he almost made it home from the war. He was killed one week before the Armistice was signed, only 4 ½ months after shipping out. He had just turned 21.

"In Flanders Field" by Lt. Colonel John McCrea

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

      Between the crosses, row on row,

   That mark our place; and in the sky

   The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

   Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

         In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

   The torch; be yours to hold it high.

   If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

         In Flanders fields.

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The Indianapolis News  

Indianapolis, Indiana  

17 August 1904, Wednesday   Page 7

FEARED TO FACE FRIEND

Politician, and Alleged Forger, Ends His Life.

  FINDLAY, O., August 17--Theodore Westcott, who, for a quarter of a century was the dominating force in Democratic politics in the eastern part of Hancock county, and reputed to be wealthy, committed suicide in his home, in Vanlue. A member of the family discovered him dying yesterday morning, and aid was summoned, but he died before a physician could reach him.

  It is said Mr. Westcott had received money on notes to which he had signed his friends' names in an amount reaching nearly $10,000. Mr. Westcott, it is alleged, attempted to dispose of a note at a bank in this city for $1,200, to which he had signed the name of a farmer residing in Amanda township. The bank refused to lend the money on the note. It, no doubt, became clear to him, it is said, that his acts had been discovered and he could not face his friends once the facts became public.

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News-Journal 

Mansfield, Ohio  

18 August 1904, Thursday  Page 3

Findlay--Theodore Westcott, a prominent Democratic politician and merchant of Vanlue, committed suicide by taking morphine.

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News-Journal

Mansfield, Ohio

9 December 1918,  Monday  Page 11

Sunday List

    Killed in action--

. . . Privates Theodore Westcott, Vanlue; . . .

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The Lima News

Lima, Ohio

Thu, Feb 03, 1966 ·Page 1

Plane Crash in Hancock Claims Duo

     FINDLAY- Two person [sic], including a Findlay man, died when their single-engine Beechcraft plane crashed in a  field 2.25 miles west of Arlington today.

     Victims were identified by the highway patrol as Carl Henry Shank, 72, of Findlay, and his son, Charles M. [sic] Shank, 46, of Lake Bluff, Ill. They were believed to be bound for Florida.

     The plane crashed at 9:10 a.m., the patrol reported. Reason was not determined immediately.

     “It just came down,” observed an airport official here. Landing gear hadn’t been lowered.

     Bodies of the two men were thrown from the plane, and wreckage was scattered over the field.

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Lancaster Eagle-Gazette

Lancaster, Ohio

Thu, Feb 03, 1966 ·Page 2

2 Lose Lives In Plane Crash

     FINDLAY, Ohio (UPI)-- An Illinois man and his father from Findlay, Ohio, were killed today when their light plane crashed in a farm field north-west of Arlington in Hancock County.

     The victims ere [sic] identified as the pilot, Charles B. Shank, 46, Lake Bluff, Ill., and his father, Carl Henry Shank, 72, Findlay.

     The two men had taken off from Findlay Airport for Atlanta, Ga., about 10 minutes before the plane crashed in a field on the farm of Bernard J. Cotner.

     The plane, a single-engine craft, was demolished.

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back: Mattie, Lucille, Glenna seated: Florence and Marguerite

Theodore W Westcott

Theodore Westcott

Lucille (seated) and Mattie

Glenna, Mattie, Lucille, and Marguerite Ohio, August 1962