The Beheading of Davey Wood

 

Bradford County, a rural county straddling the New York state line, is one of the most peculiar locales in Pennsylvania. It is the traditional home of the infamous "Pool Tribe"-- a notorious family made famous (perhaps unfairly so) by local newspaper stories of the era for inbreeding, lawlessness, and all-around mental deficiency. Of this clan, which includes the Vanderpool, Johnson, Heeman and Benjamin families, a newspaper reporter in the early 20th century once wrote:

The Pools are of swarthy complexions, so much so as to indicate a mixture of Indian or negro blood. Whatever their origin they have degenerated into a lot of ignorant, dirty, uncouth people, many of them only about half-witted. They have intermarried for three or four generations, which would account for their mental calibre. For fifty years or more they have been known as a generally worthless set... Years ago on circus day it was almost as much of a sight to watch the Pools come to town as it was to see the show. 

The antics of the Pool Tribe reportedly ranged from drunken debauchery to murder, with all things in between, but it was one bizarre incident in the summer of 1945 that led to one of the members of this extended family quite literally losing his head.

The tiny village of Durell in Asylum Township is located just a few miles southeast of the county seat of Towanda. Durell has been the stomping grounds of the Pool Tribe for over two centuries, when the first Johnsons and Vanderpools arrived from the Mohawk Valley of New York in the 18th century. Originally named Benjaminville (for the Benjamin family), Durell's graveyard represents perhaps the largest collection of Pool Tribe members in any one cemetery. It is here where a 29-year-old man named David R. Wood was laid to rest after his gruesome demise at the hands of his brother-in-law, Francis Johnson.

David was the son of John and Lulu Wood, who lived on a farm in Liberty Corners with their large family. This included six sisters and a brother. It one of David's younger sisters, Hettie Irene, who married Francis H. Johnson of Towanda in 1942. Though Francis was six years older than David, the two men had been childhood friends. Their long friendship was interrupted only by the Second World War, when David enlisted in the army, joining the engineer combat battalion. While overseas, Francis Johnson married Hettie, who was employed as a sewing machine operator at Blue Swan Mills in Sayre.  
In late July of 1945, David returned home from the war. He had fought in Italy, France and Germany in a combat unit and had seen some of the heaviest fighting of the war without being wounded. Though he never rose above the rank of private, his four years of military service were not without accomplishments; during the war he had earned the American Defense Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern service medal and the Good Conduct medal. Like many young men who had stared down death and walked away without a scratch, Davey Wood undoubtedly felt invincible. Little did he know that his luck was about to run out.

On the afternoon of Saturday, August 4, Davey and his brother-in-law were riding in the truck of a mutual friend named Myron Northrup. They had been making trips hauling lime from Durell to the Wood family farm in Liberty Corners. At around 5:45 the men were transporting their final load of the day, and their spirits were high. Hard labor soon gave way to childish horseplay, and Johnson, sitting on the right side of Myron's truck, picked up a chain that was in the cab and playfully put it around Davey's neck, who was sitting in the middle. Like many Johnsons of the Pool Tribe throughout history, Francis' next action defied any measure of common sense; for whatever reason, he tossed the other end of the chain out the passenger side window.

 As Davey's luck would have it, the end of the chain somehow got tangled in the wheels of the moving vehicle as the truck chugged along the uphill grade on the Durell road, and before anyone knew what had happened, David Wood's head was torn clean from his body and hurled through the window, landing 20 feet in front of the truck. Francis was so horrified by the instant decapitation that he hadn't noticed that the chain had also tightened across his own body and lashed his face, causing serious injury. Francis Johnson was rushed to the Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, where he was treated for a broken nose and jaw and several lacerations in the chest and neck. The body of David Wood was taken to the Maryott Funeral Chapel on Court Street in Towanda.

Trooper Michael Ryan was the policeman who responded to the call, and who, ostensibly, recovered Davey's severed head. He took the driver, Myron Northrup, into custody and a technical charge of involuntary manslaughter was lodged against him by Justice of the Peace V.L. Grenell. Northrup was released later that night under $1,000 bail and a hearing date was set for August 15. A similar charge would be also be lodged against Francis Johnson after his release from the hospital, stated Trooper Ryan.

That evening, an inquest was held by the coroner, Dr. Dann of Canton. After hearing the testimony of five witnesses, the coroner's jury found that neither Myron Northrup nor Francis Johnson would be charged in the decapitation of their unfortunate friend. Francis Johnson passed away at the age of 58 in 1980. Ironically, his 20-year-old son, Dale, who had also been a combat engineer in the U.S. Army, died from head injuries sustained in an automobile accident in Colorado in 1964. 

Myron Northrup was the driver in another serious truck accident less than two years later. In February of 1947, Myron was driving a stake truck owned by Thomas Vanderpool when he lost control of the vehicle, causing it to overturn near East Towanda. Myron escaped injury by jumping from the vehicle, but Vanderpool was critically injured with a severe brain injury. Myron Northrup passed away in 1998 at the age of 79.

On August 8, 1945, two days after the United Stated dropped the bomb on Japan, David Wood was laid to rest at Durell Cemetery. He was buried with full military rites by the Towanda Post of the American Legion. Though he had survived the war, he never lived to see the end of it.

 

Sources:
Sayre Evening Times, August 6, 1945.
Sayre Evening Times, August 8, 1945.
Sayre Evening Times, August 13, 1945.