Oscar McCrary Stricken

MCCRARY

Posted By: Volunteer: Sherri
Date: 9/26/2016 at 06:30:27

**Handwritten: KEOS. REP. 7 NOV. 1918
OSCAR McCRARY STRICKEN

Last Friday Oscar McCrary, a life long and well known resident of Van Buren county, whose home has been in Keosauqua for many years, started for Richmond, Virginia, where he had been appointed as guard in a government munition factory, and on Monday afternoon of this week a dispatch was received here from the chief of police at Washington City, that he was there in his charge and he had lost his mind. Relatives here at once sent William Elerick to Washington to bring him back and they will likely reach Keosauqua by the last of this week. People will hear with sorrow of this affliction that has come to Mr. McCrary. Intimate friends have know of a decline in his health the past year, with an apparent laps of memory along with loss of flesh, and the report prevailed that he had what is termed "hardening of the arteries," but the public generally did realize his serious condition not prove as now feared and that he may soon become better.

LATER: Since the above was put in type we have the following dispatch which we take from the Des Moines Register:

Washington, D.C. Nov. 4.

According to the bank book found in his pocket bearing his name, Oscar McCrary of Keosauqua is in Washington in the hands of the police suffering from aphasia and unable to remember how he got here. He was at first unable to recall his name. He wandered into the office of a physician and asked for treatment. The doctor took him to a police station. He could not recall his name until the bank book was found in his pocket and then he said he was Oscar McCrary and that, he came from Keosauqua but could not remember how or when. "I don't remember riding on a train at all" he said. He was sent to Washington asylum hospital for observation and authorities at Keosauqua were notified.

**Handwritten: 1918 also see 101B and 103B

Source: Van Buren Co. Genealogical Society Obituary Book G, Page 205, Keosauqua Public Library, Keosauqua, IA