"Wild Bill" Stinson, the son of Irish immigrants, was born in Kentucky and moved with his parents to Pike County, Indiana, when they relocated from Spottsville, Indiana. Bill worked as a coal miner and was a miners' union representative in Indiana. Newspaper clippings of the day, along with family lore, tell of a violent, law-breaking man who was likely an alcoholic. He worked in Illinois with John L. Lewis for miners' rights and was often arrested for violent acts and at least once for theft.
On April 6, 1894, he entered a brief marriage to Wyoming Mayberry at Winslow, Pike Co., Indiana. On November 16, 1896, he married Lina Horstmeyer of Oakland City, Indiana. (Her name was entered as "Lydia" in error on their license.) Together they had eight children, and of those, two were adopted out to Lina's sister, Lena, during hard times in 1910.
Bill and Lina divorced on May 21, 1921; they remarried in Arthur, Indiana, on December 16, 1922.
Bill's permanent address was in Evansville, Indiana, when he died of acute nephritis at a VA facility in Indianapolis and buried in Marion County. His death certificate details were reconstructed from his V.A. records, as he was estranged from his family at that time. Because the hospital relied on V.A. records, Bill's birthdate on his death certificate is incorrect. He was born May 6, 1873, per the journal of delivering physician Dr. Thomas Clayton McCarty of Henderson, Kentucky. Bill's death record incorrectly shows May 6, 1882. When he decided to enlist in the Army, he knocked ten years off his birth year to qualify for a stint in France. The family story goes that he told his wife he was going out for a loaf of bread and didn't return for two years. Destitute, she had to put her young children in the Catholic orphanage at Terre Haute, Indiana, until his return.
On April 6, 1894, he entered a brief marriage to Wyoming Mayberry at Winslow, Pike Co., Indiana. On November 16, 1896, he married Lina Horstmeyer of Oakland City, Indiana. (Her name was entered as "Lydia" in error on their license.) Together they had eight children, and of those, two were adopted out to Lina's sister, Lena, during hard times in 1910.
Bill and Lina divorced on May 21, 1921; they remarried in Arthur, Indiana, on December 16, 1922.
Bill's permanent address was in Evansville, Indiana, when he died of acute nephritis at a VA facility in Indianapolis and buried in Marion County. His death certificate details were reconstructed from his V.A. records, as he was estranged from his family at that time. Because the hospital relied on V.A. records, Bill's birthdate on his death certificate is incorrect. He was born May 6, 1873, per the journal of delivering physician Dr. Thomas Clayton McCarty of Henderson, Kentucky. Bill's death record incorrectly shows May 6, 1882. When he decided to enlist in the Army, he knocked ten years off his birth year to qualify for a stint in France. The family story goes that he told his wife he was going out for a loaf of bread and didn't return for two years. Destitute, she had to put her young children in the Catholic orphanage at Terre Haute, Indiana, until his return.
"Wild Bill" Stinson, the son of Irish immigrants, was born in Kentucky and moved with his parents to Pike County, Indiana, when they relocated from Spottsville, Indiana. Bill worked as a coal miner and was a miners' union representative in Indiana. Newspaper clippings of the day, along with family lore, tell of a violent, law-breaking man who was likely an alcoholic. He worked in Illinois with John L. Lewis for miners' rights and was often arrested for violent acts and at least once for theft.
On April 6, 1894, he entered a brief marriage to Wyoming Mayberry at Winslow, Pike Co., Indiana. On November 16, 1896, he married Lina Horstmeyer of Oakland City, Indiana. (Her name was entered as "Lydia" in error on their license.) Together they had eight children, and of those, two were adopted out to Lina's sister, Lena, during hard times in 1910.
Bill and Lina divorced on May 21, 1921; they remarried in Arthur, Indiana, on December 16, 1922.
Bill's permanent address was in Evansville, Indiana, when he died of acute nephritis at a VA facility in Indianapolis and buried in Marion County. His death certificate details were reconstructed from his V.A. records, as he was estranged from his family at that time. Because the hospital relied on V.A. records, Bill's birthdate on his death certificate is incorrect. He was born May 6, 1873, per the journal of delivering physician Dr. Thomas Clayton McCarty of Henderson, Kentucky. Bill's death record incorrectly shows May 6, 1882. When he decided to enlist in the Army, he knocked ten years off his birth year to qualify for a stint in France. The family story goes that he told his wife he was going out for a loaf of bread and didn't return for two years. Destitute, she had to put her young children in the Catholic orphanage at Terre Haute, Indiana, until his return.
On April 6, 1894, he entered a brief marriage to Wyoming Mayberry at Winslow, Pike Co., Indiana. On November 16, 1896, he married Lina Horstmeyer of Oakland City, Indiana. (Her name was entered as "Lydia" in error on their license.) Together they had eight children, and of those, two were adopted out to Lina's sister, Lena, during hard times in 1910.
Bill and Lina divorced on May 21, 1921; they remarried in Arthur, Indiana, on December 16, 1922.
Bill's permanent address was in Evansville, Indiana, when he died of acute nephritis at a VA facility in Indianapolis and buried in Marion County. His death certificate details were reconstructed from his V.A. records, as he was estranged from his family at that time. Because the hospital relied on V.A. records, Bill's birthdate on his death certificate is incorrect. He was born May 6, 1873, per the journal of delivering physician Dr. Thomas Clayton McCarty of Henderson, Kentucky. Bill's death record incorrectly shows May 6, 1882. When he decided to enlist in the Army, he knocked ten years off his birth year to qualify for a stint in France. The family story goes that he told his wife he was going out for a loaf of bread and didn't return for two years. Destitute, she had to put her young children in the Catholic orphanage at Terre Haute, Indiana, until his return.
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