William Henry Poole

William Henry Poole (February 19, 1876 – June 12, 1921) was a college football player while a divinity student, and later a minister.[1][2]

For other people named William Poole, see William Poole (disambiguation).
William Henry Poole
Sewanee Tigers
PositionCenter
Class1899
Career history
CollegeSewanee (1899–1900)
Personal information
Born:February 16, 1876
Tallahassee, Florida
Died:June 12, 1921(1921-06-12) (aged 45)
Graham, Virginia
Height6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight185 lb (84 kg)
Career highlights and awards

Early years

He was born on February 19, 1876 in Tallahassee, Florida to Augusta Jane Anderson and William Gaither Poole.[3] His family later moved to Glyndon, Maryland.

Sewanee

Poole was a prominent center for the Sewanee Tigers of Sewanee:The University of the South, a small Episcopal school in the mountains of Tennessee. At Sewanee he studied theology.[2]

In 1899 he was a member of the "Iron Men" of 1899 who went undefeated, winning five road games in six days all by shutout. One source reported Poole "drank heavily" on the one day off.[4]

In 1900 Poole was selected All-Southern.[5]

Minister

He became assistant at Christ Church, Cincinnati, in 1906,[6] and while there he married Shirley Nelson Morgan.[7] They had a son, Morgan.

He became the rector of St. Paul's Church in 1910 in Jackson, Michigan.[8] One source called him "one of the leading orators of southern Michigan."[9] In Jackson, he was a member of the Rotary Club.

During World War I he served as YMCA chaplain in France.

Nervous breakdown and death

He had a nervous breakdown and was taken to a sanitarium in Graham, Virginia in 1920.[7] He took his own life with a gun, in a bout of depression on June 12, 1921.[1] His death certificate lists the cause of death as "suicide, shot through base of skull" caused by "partial insanity, melancholia". He was buried in Mount Evergreen Cemetery in Jackson, Michigan.

References
  1. "Jackson Pastor Ends Life. Ill Health Cause. The Rev. W. H. Poole Prominent Episcopal Rector Commits Suicide in South". Battle Creek Enquirer . Associated Press. June 13, 1921.
  2. "William Henry Poole". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 1993.
  3. "Stowe's Clerical Directory of the American Church". A.D. Stowe. 31 October 2017 – via Google Books.
  4. Wendell Givens (2003). Ninety-Nine Iron: The Season Sewanee Won Five Games in Six Days. University of Alabama Press. pp. 32, 121. ISBN 9780817350628.
  5. "All-Southern Eleven for 1900". Outing. Outing Publishing Company. 37: 616. 1901.
  6. Venable, William Henry (31 October 2017). "A Centennial History of Christ Church, Cincinnati, 1817-1917". Stewart & Kidd – via Google Books.
  7. "The Living Church". 31 October 2017 – via Google Books.
  8. (http://www.lwis.net/free-css-drop-down-menu/), Tom@Lwis. "History - St. Paul's Episcopal Church - The Episcopal Church Welcomes You". www.stpauljxmi.org.
  9. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:q_PjpRXpBQkJ:https://digital.bentley.umich.edu/midaily/mdp.39015071755685/1039/download_text+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.