Halloween Special : Cartoonist Death, Dismemberment and Insanity

Here's a special edition of News Of Yore just for the ghoulish:

Fourth Estate 6/6/1914
Robert Bruce McClure, formerly head of the McClure Newspaper Syndicate. New York, was found dead in his Yonkers home Saturday of a gunshot wound. His family believes he was shot accidentally while cleaning a gun. Mr. McClure was a brother of S.S. McClure, publisher of McClure's Magazine, and the two founded the McClure Newspaper Syndicate which they disposed of a short time ago. [actually they were tricked into giving up control of the company by a group of sharp investors, which might explain that 'accident' - ed.]

Fourth Estate 4/4/1914
S. Frank Yeager, who has been connected as a cartoonist with the New York World, Boston Globe and St. Louis Republic, has been committed to the Western Washington Asylum for the Insane of Steilacoom by Court Commissioner Westover in Chehalis. Mr. Yeager was found on the streets acting queerly and with a bundle of pencil sketches under his arm of scenes in California.

Washington Post 11/26/1905
Louis Dalrymple, the cartoonist, whose wife is a Baltimore woman, was removed from his home at 138 East 29th Street this afternoon, to a Long Island sanitarium. He is said to be violently insane, and small hope is given for his recovery. His condition had given much anxiety to his friends for several weeks. He brooded, they say, over the troubles caused by his divorce from his first wife, formerly Miss Letitia Carpenter, of Brooklyn. He became violent to-day, and was found wandering in the street near his home.

Dalrymple was married to Miss Carpenter about fifteen years ago, at the time when his work was making him well known to the public. Shortly after the marriage Mrs. Dalrymple obtained a divorce. The court denied Dalrymple the right to marry again in this state and awarded $75 a week alimony to his wife.

Seven years later Dalrymple married Miss Ann Good of Baltimore. The wedding took place in New Jersey. He moved to Greenwich Connecticut. In the years that followed he worked at different times for papers in Chicago, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Then he drifted back to New York. He had become a prey to all kinds of hallucinations, and was so changed that his friends hardly knew him. [Dalrymple was one of the best artists working for Puck and Life in the 1890s-ed.]

Washington Post 8/18/1900
Ernest Wilkinson, cartoonist for the Atlanta Constitution, died suddenly of heart disease this morning at Afton, where he was spending the summer. He was about 25 years of age.

Washington Post 9/12/1910
John E. Scanlon, aged 47 years, a cartoonist, was found dead in his studio in the business section of the city today. He had evidently been dead for several days. Two bottles of laudanum, one filled and the other partially empty, were found in the room. It is not known whether Scanlon committed suicide or died from natural causes.

Fourth Estate 3/10/1917
Albert Beck Wenzell, painter and magazine artist, died on March 4 in Englewood N.J. in his fifty-third year. His work was well-known to readers of Life, Heart's, Truth, Scribner's, Ladies Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post.

Fourth Estate 11/25/1916
DeVoss Woodward Driscoll, well-known cartoonist, died in a Dayton hospital on November 22, aged 43 years. He had been ill about a month. He originated the mule Maud cartoons. [no, he didn't, but he did have a very colorful career otherwise-ed]

Fourth Estate 7/15/1916
"Bud" Fisher, the creator of the Mutt And Jeff comic strip, escaped with a broken rib when his automobile overturned near Saratoga, N.Y., pinning him under the steering gear.

Washington Post 10/2/1904
George Kerr, famous a few years ago as a cartoonist and illustrator, is dead at the Soldiers Home in Dayton Ohio. He served in the Northern Army throughout the war, and at its conclusion became an illustrator for an eastern magazine, going later to a New York comic paper. He was a friend of Thomas Nast.

Washington Post 10/23/1914
Roy W. Taylor, a cartoonist, who has made thousands laugh and think, died at the home of his mother, Mrs. A.L. Marshall, on Tuesday. He was 36 years old. The funeral was held at 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon at the home, and the body was taken to Richmond Indiana, the old home of the family, for internment.

Mr. Taylor was on the staff of the Philadelphia North American. He had been suffering for some time from Bright's Disease, and a few weeks ago, when it was seen that he could not survive long, he came here. Mr. Taylor also had been attached to the staff of the Chicago Tribune and the New York World. His most popular work was done for the Sunday comic sections. [a descendant of Taylor tells me that he in fact died of alcoholism - ed.]

Washington Post 3/1/1918
Robert Carter, cartoonist of the Philadelphia Press, died suddenly in a hospital to which he was taken last night when he became suddenly ill from an arterial ailment. Mr. Carter was 44 years old.

Washington Post 10/10/1915
Stewart W. Carothers, a cartoonist for the Chicago Herald, fell to his death from a fifth story window of a downtown hotel early Monday. Two of his companions said he was sitting in the window seeking relief from a headache when they retired. It is believed he lost his balance. He was unmarried.

Washington Post 7/2/1922
Thomas Cyril Long, widely known among newspaper men of the South and East as "Cy" Long, creator of a new comic cartoon strip in which Southern negroes are the figures, was killed by lightning late today at Newton South Carolina, his home town, while participating in an amateur baseball game.

Washington Post 1/29/1919
Leon A. Searl, a newspaper and motion picture film cartoonist, who had been employed on the Kansas City Star, the Denver Rocky Mountain News, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Press and the Evening World and Evening Telegram of New York, died yesterday of acute indigestion at his home. Mr. Searl was 27 years old. He specialized in comics, and was the originator of "Bugs In Movieland" and "Mr. And Mrs. Homebreaker." [actually the features referred to are Bugville Closeups and Mrs. Timekiller; and as pointed out by a correspondent it is much more likely that he was 37 years old, not 27 - ed.]

Fourth Estate 2/7/1914
Henry Richard Boehm, an illustrator, shot himself through the heart Sunday in his home in Briarcliff Manor N.Y. Boehm was engaged in newspaper illustrating until about three years ago. He worked for the New York Herald, did some work for the Evening World and was employed on the New York American for several years.

Fourth Estate 12/27/1913
D. C. Bartholomew, better known as "Bart," a cartoonist for the New York Globe, died last Friday at his home in White Plains.

Washington Post 11/13/1890
Mr. James S. Goodwin, aged forty-five, employed as a cartoonist on Puck, and who lived with his wife and family in Mamaroneck New York, while walking along the track of the New Haven and Hartford road, last night, was struck and instantly killed by a train. His body was found this morning by one of the trackmen.

Fourth Estate 1/13/1917
Luther D. Bradley, for many years a cartoonist for the Chicago Daily News, died in Chicago on January 9, aged 64 years. [he was a perennial front page editorial cartoonist-ed]