Samuel Looney Handsaker

1887 - 1954

Samuel was an interesting person and I have spent a lot of time proving or dis-proving everything I have heard or read about him!

Samuel was born 13 May 1887 at Jasper, Lane, Oregon to Edward Baker and Annie (Smith) Handsaker. Annie died suddenly in January 1888 of typhoid fever before Samuel was a year old. Samuel was bounced back and forth between his Dad Edward, and both sets of his Grandparents when he was growing up.

In March 1907 he married Mabel Neff. Six months later he was off to prison! The family story was that when Samuel was 14 years old he shot and killed a man. The actual story is when he was 20 years old he and another friend tried to rob a man. Samuel told the Sheriff he had no intention of shooting the man but he was so excited and was gripping the pistol so tightly his finger pulled the trigger and shot the man in the shoulder (he survived). An article in the “The Morning Register”, Eugene, Oregon said:

         “Handsaker is a young man, only 20 years old, and was married about

           five months ago. He comes from one of Lane’s best families and feels

          very badly to have so disgraced the family name. When the party

          arrived at the sheriff’s office there was a good sized crowd of friends

          there who were willing to go his bail, but he preferred to have the matter

          go at once to the court. Some six or seven of the number to greet him

         were women and all felt very badly over the unfortunate affair".

         (I’m sure Mabel was not happy about that!)

Samuel was sentenced to six years in prison and served two years.

By 1910 he and Mabel were living in Butter Creek, Umatilla County, Oregon. He was a laborer on a farm. In 1912 he participated in the Pendleton Round Up and rode in the "Wild Horse Race". In this contest the rider picks a wild horse, puts a saddle on him and rides him around the track, then returns the horse to the corral. I have not been able to find out how he did.

June 1915 Sam married wife number 2, Ethel Quillen in Kalispell, Montana. Three years later in 1918 they had a daughter June Leona. When they split up Samuel told Ethel not to worry about getting a divorce because he was still married to his first wife because they never divorced.

Samuel served in the Army during World War I. He enlisted in 1917 and was honorably discharged in June 1920. He was a mechanic.

Wife number 3 was Myrtle Delena Wheeler, also known as Sybil. They were married in Gering, Nebraska in December 1920. Samuel’s second child, a son, Keith Samuel, was born May 1921 in Kingman, Arizona. According to his son Keith they moved around quite a bit. About 1927 Samuel left Myrtle and Keith. Keith only saw him three more times the rest of his life and was unaware he had a half-sister (June). (I will profile Keith sometime in the future).

Samuel and Myrtle divorced in 1928 in Flathead County, Montana and by 1929 he lived in Portland, Oregon. He was a truck driver. He married wife number 4, Molly Schwartz in 1930. They divorced on March 20, 1947 and two days later on March 22, 1947 he re-married Myrtle Wheeler Handsaker, so she was wife number 3 and 5. I was told by a relative that Myrtle had been diagnosed with breast cancer and Samuel married her so she would have health insurance benefits and support. She died in November 1948.

Samuel married his 6^th and last wife, Loretta Wright in February 1950. Four years later in May 1954 Samuel passed away in Portland, Oregon.

I was told by a Sister-in-law of Samuel’s that he was “a very nice man and also very good looking”. I have never been able to find a picture of him.