1919 Hoyt Lee Parsons

 MAN'S HEAD SEVERED

Delmar Railroad Yard Brakeman Found Beneath a Car

Special to The Morning News DELMAR, Del., Dec. 14 Hoyt L. Parsons, aged 29 years, a Delaware Railroad yard brakeman, was found dead early this morning beneath a car here, his head having been severed. There were no witnesses to his death, and it is not known how he came to be killed. He leaves a wife and a little daughter. Funeral services will be held on Tuesday morning in the M. E. Church.

Above from The Wilmington Morning News 15 Dec 1919

 

Hoyt Lee Parsons (1890-1919) is buried in St Stephen Cemetery.  He was the son of Washington Irving Parsons and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Ellen Carey Parsons.  Washington Irving Parsons was a farmer in the Delmar area with a large family.  Hoyt had married Mattie Ruark about 1912.  They lived in Delmar Maryland on State Street and had one daughter, Frances J., who was born in 1913.  He worked as a fireman for the railroad.

After the death of her husband something happened to Mattie.  She either could not afford to care for her child or she died, but Frances passed to her Aunt Bessie Parsons Brittingham and Herman Eramrus Brittingham to be raised.  In the newspaper she is described as an adopted foster child of Herman Brittingham.  It is not known if she was legally adopted but she begin to use Brittingham as her last name.

Herman Brittingham ran a successful auto repair shop called Salisbury Auto Body Works.  Bessie was the sister of Hoyt Parsons.  Herman would die in 1939 leaving Bessie to run the business.   Frances would marry John C. Dukes about 1932, have a daughter Norma L Dukes in 1934, and in 1940 get a divorce.  In 1940 she married again this time to Ralph Andrew Chandlee (1905-1994) and they lived in Baltimore.  Both had been married before. In 1944 Frances Chandlee died. 

In 1950, Bessie Brittingham would marry George Hart.