A story appeared in the Harrisburg Evening News, 25 February 1937, describing the funeral which took place in Dauphin Borough, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, for William H. McElwee, murder victim. The murder was committed by Clair Guy Wingert, a trapper from that area, who claimed that the persons he fired shots at, McElwee and his wife, had poisoned his toe. Today’s post is the third of a multi-part series in which newspaper images and articles of the time are used to describe the affair.
M’ELWEE RITES HELD AS WIDOW IS NEAR DEATH
Plain, simple services today marked the last rites for William H. McElwee, 40, of near Dauphin, slain in his modest Clarks Valley log cabin home as he and his widow, who lies critically wounded in the Harrisburg Hospital, sat down together at their breakfast table with “a friend.”
As the body of McElwee was buried in the Dauphin Cemetery ending one episode in the wild shooting orgy, his young widow, Mrs. Dorothy [Strickler] McElwee, continued to wage her courageous fight against death in the local hospital, still unaware of her husband’s death. Held for the murder of McElwee and the assault on the victim’s wife, C. Guy Wingert, 51, peculiar valley character, occupies a cell in the Dauphin County Prison.
Scores of relatives and friends of the slain man attended the funeral services this morning at the Charles C. Baker Funeral Home, Third and Maclay Streets. The services were simple and were conducted by the Rev. Jacob Weaver, pastor of the Dauphin Evangelical Church, who delivered a brief eulogy “to the living rather to the dead.” He used as his text Psalm 85:8, “I will hear what God the Lord will speak for, He will speak peace unto His People.
Two favorite hymns of the slain man, “Sometime We’ll Understand.” and “I Will Say Goodnight Here but Goodmorning Up There,” were sung by Mrs. S. E. Stence, a member of the choir of the Dauphin Church and a friend of the McElwees.
Six nephews of McElwee served as pallbearers. They were Omar Strohm, Paul Strohm, and Earl Strohm, all of Altoona; Charles Hummel, Charles McElwee, and Samuel McElwee, all of Dauphin.
The body, viewed by several hundred persons at the funeral home last night, was banked with floral tributes to his memory. Those who attended the service this morning were persons from the valley in which the victim and his wife were widely acquainted.
Mr. McElwee, wounded with her husband in the shooting affair, has shown no improvement at the hospital. Wingert, more quiet in his cell, is reported by jail authorities to be eating and sleeping regularly.
The mothers of the two shooting victims were not at the funeral, both being confined to their home by illness. Mrs. Barbara McElwee has been informed of her son’s death, but Mrs. J. A. Strickler, the mother of Mrs. McElwee, has not been informed of the shooting because of her condition. She has a weak heart and recently suffered an attack of influenza, it was said, and it is feared any knowledge of the affair may prove fatal.
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For other parts of this series, see: The Poison Toe Murder, 1937.
News articles are from Newspapers.com.