Two Aces and Three of the Worst Kind: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Full House”

The Tragedy of the Wing Brothers: Two Good Guys and Three Killers 

Edward Rumsey Wing: 1843-1874 (Maternal Second Cousin 3x Removed)
Theodore Weir Wing: 1845-1867 (Maternal Second Cousin 3x Removed)
William Wirt Wing: 1851-1881 (Maternal Second Cousin 3x Removed)
Charles Fox Wing: 1854-1897 (Maternal Second Cousin 3x Removed)
Albert E. “Bert” Wing: 1860-1920 (Maternal Second Cousin 3x Removed)

 

While the Wing brothers were distant relatives-- what genealogists call collateral, as opposed to direct, ancestors-- their lives were so fascinating I felt they deserved a blog post. Five of the brothers’ lives were cut short under sad circumstances -- I guess I could describe them as “collaterals, damaged”, if you will excuse the pun.

The Wing brothers were born to Samuel Morrison Wing and Emily M. Weir, who was a first cousin several times removed on Lorene Jandy’s side of the family. Samuel and Emily married September 2, 1838, and had seven children: six sons and one daughter. Of those sons, two were heroic and showed great promise, but died tragically young. Three others were literally killers. This combination of good and bad comprises a truly bizarre “full house”. As for the final brother, his life was filled with loss and attempts at reinvention, and ended in suicide—his story will be covered in a separate post.

The Aces: Edward and Theodore

The eldest Wing brothers, Edward and Theodore, were born in 1843 and 1845. When the Civil War began, they were the perfect age to enlist. Edward Rumsey Wing, who had just graduated from Centre College in 1861, served as the aide to Union General James S. Jackson, and participated in the Battle of Perryville where General Jackson was killed. Following the war, Edward became a lawyer and politician, and married Louisa Scott. After an unsuccessful campaign as the Republican nominee for Kentucky State Treasurer in 1869, President Grant appointed Edward to be the U.S. Minister to Ecuador. He was only twenty-six and was the youngest foreign minister ever appointed.

Edward had been dealing with poor health for some time—apparently some sort of heart condition—and according to an article in the Owensboro newspaper, had hoped the Ecuadorean climate would improve his health. Sadly, it did not. The newspaper stated that he “had several severe spells of inflammatory rheumatism, the last one so severe and of such long continuance that it determined him to come home.” He had tendered his resignation to the government, but died October 5, 1874, in Quito before he could return home. He had served five years as the Ecuadoran minister, and was only thirty-one years of age. The newspaper described Edward in glowing terms as a “very handsome person, of strong, clear, and vivacious intellect, a very ready, fluent and attractive public speaker, and of a chivalrous and enthusiastic disposition…”  

Theodore Weir Wing attended West Point in 1862 and enlisted with the Kentucky 35^th Infantry at the age of only eighteen. He was commissioned as a First Lieutenant in 1863, and served in the Civil War. Before he was mustered out in 1864, he was promoted to Adjutant. Following the war, he first attended law school at the University of Michigan, and then decided to enlist in the regular army—his military file contains letters from various individuals recommending him to receive an appointment as a 2^nd Lieutenant. He received his commission in May 1867 and was stationed in New Orleans. He contracted yellow fever there and died September 26, 1867 at the age of twenty-one.

Both Edward and Theo are buried in Rosehill Cemetery in Owensboro, Kentucky and their graves have large monuments.

Three of a Kind--the Killing Kind: Charles, Albert and William

William Wirt Wing was born in 1851 and attended college at Kentucky University; he appears on a class list in 1869 when he would have been eighteen years old. At some point, he decided to leave home and travel out west. His obituary explained the decision as follows:

…he was always regarded as a peaceable, harmless and honorable young man. Several years ago he became slightly demented on the subject of religion, but, recovering, he left his home to seek his fortune in the wilds of the far West. He was not addicted to drinking…” (See “A Terrible Encountre” below)

A more hostile article about the brothers stated that William “was always regarded as a little off in the upper story…” (See “Brothers in Blood” below.)

Whatever the truth about his early years, he moved to the New Mexico Territory and was employed by the Prairie Cattle Company as a cowboy. On October 18, 1881, William and a friend and co-worker named Burney were practicing marksmanship at the mess camp, recklessly shooting at each other’s hats. Burney had enough and quit the game, which angered William. The newspaper reported:

“At this, Wing pointed his pistol, a forty-one calibre, at Burney and fired, the ball entering Burney’s breast. Burney attempted to defend himself, and fired two shots at Wing, one of which did not take effect. The other was better directed, however, and entered Wing’s side, passing through his left lung and his heart, and came out at the left breast. He died almost instantly…Burney survived his antagonist only twenty-four hours…”

William Wing was only thirty years old at his death. His burial location is unknown.

Charles Fox Wing was born November 16, 1854. His mother died six years later, and he was sent to live with his uncle, Edward Rumsey, in Greenville, Kentucky. Rumsey sent him to college at State College, and Charles became a lawyer. He was admitted to the bar in 1877 at age twenty-two, and married Annie Hawthorn later that year. They had two children, Emma and Charles.

Charles’ legal practice was successful at first, and he decided to run for office. He entered the Democratic primary as a candidate for the state legislature. He lost the nomination in a very close vote, which provoked hard feelings between Charles, his brother Albert, and a precinct captain they blamed for Charles’ loss. Albert stabbed the precinct captain and fled to avoid prison. The incident led Charles to begin drinking to excess.

He relocated to Louisville in 1879 to practice law with his brother Samuel, but as the Louisville Courier Journal reported, “the drink habit had by this time such a strong hold on him that notwithstanding his brilliancy as lawyer and the influence of friends and relatives, he failed to make a success.” Another article was harsher, stating that Charles was “always considered the most blood-thirsty of the [Wing] boys, and his whole life has been rounded in a heap of disgraceful rows and fights. On several occasions he had attempted to take the life of his fellow-man, and has been heard to express himself that he never would be happy until he killed somebody.” (See Brothers in Blood below.)

Charles moved his young family to his wife’s hometown of Princeton, Kentucky in 1882 and took a position as City Attorney. On December 29, 1882, Charles “became drunk and while in that condition went out upon the streets and was soon engaged in using disgraceful language in a promiscuous crowd.” The City Marshal, W. R. Crugar, took him into custody, and was escorting Charles to the second floor of the police station when Charles pulled out a gun and shot Crugar in the head, killing him. Charles fired several more bullets, barely missing other officers, and was eventually captured and disarmed.

Charles’ family connections helped to secure the finest legal representation and repeated postponements of his trial. He was finally convicted in June 1885, two-and-a-half years after the murder, but he was only convicted of manslaughter, receiving a ridiculously light sentence of ten years in prison.

Following his release from prison, he moved to Greenville without his wife and children, but remained a violent drunk. The Courier Journal reported:

“He was a very troublesome and dangerous character in his sprees, and was liable to hurt his best friends or closest relatives. He had been incarcerated in jail for a number of months under the charge of trying to kill his old aunts, the Misses Wing, with whom his had lived since coming back here”.   

Shortly after he was released again, he travelled to St. Louis and took a room in a boardinghouse. His body was pulled out of the Mississippi River a few days later. It appeared he died October 3, 1897. Whether he had been murdered or had committed suicide couldn’t be conclusively determined, but suicide was the most likely explanation. His jacket pocket held a case containing a photo of a beautiful woman—his wife?—and a notepaper reading “I love thee and will leave thee never, Until my soul leaves life forever.” Charles was forty-two years old. His family did not bring his body back to Kentucky. He was buried in St. Louis.

Albert E. Wing was born February 24, 1860. His mother died shortly after his birth, and he was sent to Greenville to be raised by his father’s unmarried sisters. He seems to have been close to his brother Charles, for supposedly at the age of 19 he stabbed a precinct captain who Albert felt had disloyally voted against Charles in a political nomination fight in 1879. Albert also shot a schoolboy the same year. Still, he didn’t serve time until he murdered a man in April of 1883 in a fight over a woman. His life of crime continued, and included prison breaks and another murder. His complicated rap sheet deserves its own blog post, which will follow this one. Bert ended up dying in prison at age sixty, the only brother to live that long.

It is mind-boggling to imagine how a family with so many advantages could produce such a motley bunch of sons. One newspaper article defended the family, stating that “the wound given the dear old father by the late conduct of his two sons, was deep enough without adding insult and falsehood…” The writer was criticizing the lurid “Brothers in Blood” article.

While I’m sure Samuel Wing Sr. was wounded by his sons’ crimes, he had to bear some of the responsibility as well, if only for abandoning the two youngest boys to be raised by family members. And some of the gossip in the “Brothers in Blood” article seems to have been true in some respects. The article claimed that the Wing brothers had always been wild, stating:

“…while in their tender years the boys…were terrors to the neighborhood. At home they had full sway, and abroad they went armed with pistols and generally conducted themselves in desperado style. Sam, Weir, Charles and Albert usually went together, and made a practice of invading the public highways and shooting hogs, cattle or any brute that happened to come within the range of their pistols. They had a reckless disregard for human life..”

The news item below reporting that nineteen-year-old Albert shot a schoolboy would indicate that at least some of this gossip was based in reality. 

Samuel Wing, Sr. seems to have been an indifferent parent at best to have permitted such violent behavior. He was fortunate that at least two of his sons stayed on the right side of the law and were worthy of respectable burial in their hometown cemetery.  

 

Sources:

“Tributes to Rumsey Wing”. Louisville Commerial , Louisville, KY.  Reprinted and revised in the Owensboro Monitor, Owensboro, KY.  Nov. 11, 184 issue. Accessed via Newspapers.com.

Theodore Weir Wing headstone photos by CAWatkins on Findagrave.com

https://www.fold3.com/unit/160580/kentucky-35th-volunteer-infantry-company-fs-union-civil-war-stories

“Brothers in Blood”. Louisville Commercial, Louisville KY.  Apr. 6, 1883 issue. Reprinted in St. Louis Globe Democrat. St. Louis, MO.  Apr. 7, 1883 issue. Accessed via Newspapers.com.

“A Terrible Encourntre: A Former Citizen of Owensboro Slain, and in Return He Kills His Slayer.” Owensboro Messenger Examiner. Owensboro, KY. Nov. 9, 1881 issue. Accessed via Newspapers.com.

“The Tragic End of an Ill Spent Life Came to Charley Wing of Greenville”. The Owensboro Twice-a-Week Messenger. Owensboro KY. Oct. 6, 1897, issue. Accessed via Newspapers.com.

“The River Claims the Life of Charles F Wing.” Louisville Courier-Journal. Louisville, KY. Oct. 4, 1897, issue. Accessed via Newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-courier-journal-death-of-charles-f/122035834/

“At St. Louis the Body of Charles F. Wing Will Be Buried”. Louisville Courier-Journal. Louisville, KY. Oct. 5, 1897, issue. Accessed via Newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/32971111/?match=1&terms=charles%20f%20wing

“Albert Wing, Wanted Here, Is Arrested”. Frankfort State Journal. Frankfort, KY. Apr 30, 1914 issue. Accessed via Newspapers.com.

Defense of the Wing Family. Owensboro Messenger. Owensboro, KY. Apr 10, 1883 issue. Accessed via Newspapers.com.