Wheatcroft.Irving.H.1952.Webster.OBIT

Irving H. Wheatcroft 27 Sep 1952
Providence Journal-Enterprise, Thursday, October 23, 1952.

               Irving H. Wheatcroft Dies in Canada


Information has been received regarding the death of Irving H.
WHEATCROFT, founder of the town of Wheatcroft, on September 27 at his
home in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  Death was caused by a heart attack.


Mr. Wheatcroft built the first railroad through Webster county
1901-1905, from Blackford to Dixon and from Wheatcroft to Providence.
He founded the town of Wheatcroft which was named for him and owned
and operated mines there which later were sold to West Kentucky Coal
Company. 

After he left Wheatcroft he moved to Oklahoma City where he operated
banks and was extensively engaged in oil and refining in the state of
Oklahoma.  In recent years he had lived in Toronto and had been
operating a string of tank cars in the United States hauling crude oil
and gasoline. 

He is survived by his second wife, her daughter, Sylvia, and a son,
Irving H. Wheatcroft, jr., by his first marriage.

 Information concerning the death was sent by E.C. RUFF who formerly
lived in Dixon and Wheatcroft and worked for Mr. Wheatcroft for
nineteen years.  He now lives in Shelbyville.  A stop on the railroad
just out of Providence, known as Ruff was named for Mr. Ruff.  Another
station on the railroad, Jolly, between Providence and Dixon where
Highway 41 crosses the old railroad bed was named for a dog owned by
Mr. Wheatcroft which bore that name.  The big dog, older residents of
Wheatcroft recall, was a favorite of the children of the town and was
often seen hitched to a small wagon carrying groceries or on other
errands.

Contributed by: Carole Palmer <cpalmer@ix.netcom.com>

Additional from Carole:

According to Robert M. Rennick's book "Kentucky Place Names", Irving
Horace Wheatcroft, an Englishman, was the probable founder of the town
of Wheatcroft.  In 1899 he laid out and founded the town on land
acquired from Elijah CULLEN, opened one or more area coal mines, and
built the Kentucky Western Railway from nearby Blackford to Dixon.