- Born: April 26, 1903, Kane, McKean County, Pennsylvania
- Died: January 17, 1937, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
- Relationship: My great-granduncle
Howard J. Wegley was my great-granduncle, the son of John W. Wegley and Helen Elizabeth “Bessie” Swanson. He was born on April 26, 1903, in Kane, McKean County, Pennsylvania, where the Wegley family had become established during the late nineteenth century.
Howard’s life was comparatively short, ending when he was only thirty-three. Even so, the records that survive allow us to reconstruct a life that included family, marriage, fatherhood, personal difficulties, incarceration, and a sudden fatal illness during the winter of 1937.
Born in Kane
Howard’s original birth record provides unusually valuable information about both him and his family. It records Howard J. Wegley, born April 26, 1903, to John W. Wegley and Bessie Swanson, and identifies both parents as Kane residents.
The record also states that Bessie had given birth to seven children, six of whom were living when Howard was born. This is important because earlier research had securely identified only six children of John and Bessie: Minerva Pearl, Frederick, Ruth Leona Victoria, Clarence John Leroy, Raymond Walter, and Howard.
An earlier family reconstruction also included a child named Rush Wegley, reportedly born around 1897. Howard’s birth record now proves that there was indeed another child in the family who had died before April 26, 1903, although the birth record alone does not establish that the deceased child was Rush.
This again is another important lesson in why you want to gather all the official documents you can from every family member (not just your direct line) because you never know what information that may reveal.
The Youngest Wegley Child
Howard appears to have been John and Bessie’s youngest child. His brother Raymond Walter Wegley was born in Kane on June 1, 1901, less than two years before Howard.
Howard grew up in a family already deeply connected with Kane. His parents had been associated with 507 Biddle Street since at least the 1890s, and his father worked at different times as a merchant, laborer, oil-well pumper, grocer, and oil and gas producer.
Howard’s mother brought a more recent immigrant story into the family. Bessie Swanson had been born in Sweden, while Howard’s Wegley ancestors had lived in Pennsylvania for generations.
Howard’s birth record specifically supports that Swedish birthplace. Interestingly, his later death certificate incorrectly gives his mother’s birthplace as New York, demonstrating why records created at different points in a person’s life sometimes disagree.
Military Service at Sixteen
Howard entered military service at a remarkably young age. On March 22, 1920, he enlisted in Company E of the 16th Infantry, and his service record reported his age as eighteen. His original birth record, however, establishes that Howard was born on April 26, 1903, meaning he was actually only sixteen years and ten months old when he enlisted for what appears to be a 3-year enlistment.
The discrepancy in his age strongly suggests that Howard reported himself as eighteen to enlist. Underage enlistment was not unheard of during this era, particularly among young men eager to enter military service, although Howard’s surviving record does not explain his reasons.
This seems to have been common back in the day. My grandfather and his brother both lied about their age when they enlisted. So Howard lied about his age to join the military, doesn’t suprrise me.
Howard enlisted during the immediate aftermath of World War I rather than during the war itself. The fighting had ended with the Armistice in November 1918, more than a year before he joined.
On April 1, 1921, Howard was transferred to Company M of the 112th Infantry, a Pennsylvania National Guard regiment.
Howard remained in military service for more than two and a half years. His service card shows that his original term was scheduled to expire on March 21, 1923, but he was discharged on November 9, 1922, approximately four months early. The surviving card does not clearly explain the early discharge, and nothing in the record currently indicates it was disciplinary.
His service card also gives an unusually detailed picture of the teenage Howard. He lived at his parents’ home at 507 Biddle Street in Kane, worked as a laborer, and was described as five feet five inches tall and 120 pounds, with blue eyes, light brown hair, and a light complexion.
Marriage to Olive Rush Hooks
As an adult, Howard married Olive Rush Hooks. Together, they had at least one known child, Leroy G. Wegley, born on September 16, 1930.
The surviving records suggest that Howard and Olive’s marriage later broke down. Howard’s 1937 death certificate explicitly records his marital status as divorced, providing contemporary evidence that the marriage had legally ended by the time of his death.
However, an interesting contradiction remains. Howard’s obituary reportedly described him as being survived by his wife, while his death certificate says he was divorced.
Rather than choosing one record and ignoring the other, we should preserve both. The death certificate is stronger evidence for his legal marital status, while the obituary may simply have used “wife” informally, may have relied on information from someone unaware of the divorce, or may have reflected a complicated relationship between Howard and Olive that the surviving records do not fully explain.
Olive later married William Macaluso in 1948, more than a decade after Howard’s death. Further marriage or court records may eventually establish when Howard and Olive divorced and clarify the circumstances surrounding their separation.
Fatherhood
Howard became a father when Leroy was born in 1930. He was twenty-seven years old at the time.
Unfortunately, the surviving records presently tell us much more about Howard’s difficulties during the 1930s than about his relationship with his son. That imbalance is common in genealogical research because legal, institutional, and death records often survive when the ordinary details of family life do not.
The Allegheny County Workhouse
Howard’s life took a difficult turn in 1935. On March 11, 1935, they committed him to the Allegheny County Workhouse and assigned him prisoner number 39227.
His institutional record provides a physical description that gives us an unusually personal glimpse of Howard. He stood approximately 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed about 113 pounds when he entered the institution.
The records indicate that Howard gained nearly ten pounds during his confinement. Details like these may seem minor, but they allow us to picture someone who otherwise survives largely through names, dates, and official documents.
What Was Howard Convicted Of?
Unfortunately, the handwritten entry identifying Howard’s offense has not yet been deciphered with enough confidence to include it as fact. Earlier attempts to interpret the handwriting have not produced a reading that I consider sufficiently reliable.
For that reason, I am leaving the offense unidentified rather than guessing. The workhouse record establishes that Howard was convicted and incarcerated, but until the handwritten entry can be reliably read or another court record is located, the specific crime should remain an open question.
An uncertain transcription could easily become repeated as fact in family trees, and Howard deserves the same evidentiary care as everyone else in this family history.
I asked AI to analyze the document to see if it could figure it out, and it thinks it’s a “Dr” an abbreviation for drunk or drunkenness. The clerk was abbreviating many offenses:
- Vag = vagrancy
- Forgery
- N.S. = likely nonsupport
- Fel. B&E = felonious breaking and entering
- Rob. = robbery
- Lar. = larceny
- A&B = assault and battery
- Dr = drunk/drunkenness
So basically that means he had to serve time for drunkenness. These two documents are the full U.S. Prison, Reformatory, and Workhouse Records. Hard to read, for sure, but I know many of you will appreciate seeing the real records for inmate 39227 (Howard Wegley).
| Detail | Record |
|---|---|
| Prisoner | Howard J. Wegley |
| Register no. | 39227 |
| Offense | Recorded as “Dr”, apparently drunkenness |
| Date sentenced/committed | March 11, 1935 |
| Sentence | 2 years |
| Actual time served | 532 days |
| How discharged | Paroled |
| Prison occupation | Kitchen |
| Weight on admission | 113 pounds |
| Weight at discharge | 127 pounds |
The discharge docket explicitly gives 532 days under the column “Time Served in Prison.” That’s about 17½ months, or roughly 1 year and 5½ months.
Since his original sentence was two years, Howard served roughly three-quarters of it before being paroled. The mark in the “How Discharged” section lines up with the Paroled column, not expiration of sentence.
If we count 532 days forward from March 11, 1935, that puts his release in late August 1936.
Howard received a two-year sentence, considerably longer than a brief jail term for a single night of public intoxication might suggest today. The surviving record does not explain the circumstances of the offense or whether previous incidents influenced the sentence, so those details remain unknown.
A separate discharge docket shows that Howard did not serve the entire two-year term. He spent 532 days in the workhouse, approximately seventeen and a half months, before being paroled. His prison occupation was recorded as Kitchen.
The records also preserve an unusual physical detail. Howard weighed approximately 113 pounds when he entered the workhouse and 127 pounds when he left, a gain of about fourteen pounds during his confinement.
Howard would have been released around August 1936. Only about five months later, in January 1937, he became seriously ill with pneumonia and died at Allegheny General Hospital at the age of thirty-three.
That last timeline really stands out. Howard spent much of 1935 and 1936 in the workhouse, was paroled around August 1936, and died in January 1937, so his death came only a few months after he regained his freedom.
Pittsburgh
By the time of his death, Howard was living in Pittsburgh rather than his hometown of Kane. His death certificate records his usual residence as 22 Mission East Parkway, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the same address reported in his obituary.
The certificate states that Howard had no occupation at the time of death. That does not tell us what kind of work he had performed earlier in his adult life, so it would be inappropriate to interpret the entry as evidence that he had never had an occupation.
The Illness Begins
Howard became ill in January 1937. His death certificate gives January 10, 1937, as the onset of the illness that eventually killed him.
His condition worsened over the following days. On January 14, he came under medical care at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, where doctors treated him for pneumonia.
The certificate identifies the principal cause of death as lobar pneumonia. Before antibiotics were widely available, bacterial pneumonia could progress rapidly and was far more dangerous than it became after effective antibiotic treatment was introduced.
January 17, 1937
Despite medical treatment, Howard’s condition continued to deteriorate. He died at Allegheny General Hospital on January 17, 1937, only about a week after his illness began.
He was just thirty-three years old. His death brought an unexpectedly early end to the life of John and Bessie’s youngest known son.
Howard’s obituary appeared in The Kane Republican on January 18, 1937, the day after his death. Although he was living in Pittsburgh by then, publishing his obituary in Kane reflects the family’s continuing connection to the community where he was born and raised.
Conflicting Information on His Death Certificate
Howard’s death certificate is extremely valuable, but it also demonstrates why no single genealogical record should automatically be accepted as completely accurate. The certificate identifies his father as J. W. Wegley and his mother as Betty Swanson, clearly corresponding to John W. Wegley and Bessie Swanson.
However, the certificate gives Bessie’s birthplace as New York. Howard’s original birth record and other family research establish that Bessie Swanson was born in Sweden, making the New York entry almost certainly an error supplied decades after Howard’s birth.
| Field | Information |
|---|---|
| Full name | Howard J. Wegley |
| Date of birth | April 26, 1903 |
| Sex | Male |
| Legitimacy | Legitimate |
| Father | John W. Wegley |
| Father’s birthplace | United States |
| Residence | Kane, Pennsylvania |
| Mother | Bessie Swanson |
| Mother’s birthplace | Sweden |
| Residence | Kane, Pennsylvania |
| Children born to mother, including Howard | 7 |
| Children living at the time | 6 |
A Life That Was More Complicated Than the Records
Howard’s surviving records do not present the simple progression often found in a family tree. His marriage ended in divorce, he spent time in the Allegheny County Workhouse, and he died of pneumonia at only thirty-three.
Those facts should not define his entire identity. The records preserve particular moments when government agencies, courts, hospitals, churches, or newspapers had a reason to write something down, but they cannot tell us everything about Howard as a son, brother, husband, father, or individual.
We do know that he was born into a large family in Kane, married Olive Rush Hooks, became the father of Leroy, and eventually made his way to Pittsburgh. We also know that his life ended with remarkable speed after he became ill during the first days of 1937.
Howard’s Place in the Wegley Family
Howard belonged to a generation far removed from the Pennsylvania frontier on which his Wegley ancestors had once lived. His great-grandfather, Joseph William Wegley, was born in Brothersvalley in 1802, while Howard was born more than a century later in an industrial Pennsylvania town shaped by lumber, railroads, petroleum, and natural gas.
He was also part of the final generation raised by John W. Wegley and Bessie Swanson. Howard’s newly examined birth record adds an important piece to their family history by establishing that Bessie gave birth to seven children, not merely the six whose identities have so far been securely reconstructed.
Howard J. Wegley lived only thirty-three years, but enough records survive to keep him from becoming merely another name and pair of dates on the family tree. His story remains incomplete, particularly regarding his marriage, occupation, legal troubles, and the unidentified seventh Wegley child, but those unanswered questions are reasons to keep researching rather than to fill the gaps with assumptions.