The rattlesnake that bit Josiah Allen's nose

I haven't shared a rattlesnake story here for a long time, but rest assured that there were plenty of them in Lucas County when our Euro-American ancestors arrived to settle in the late 1840s and beyond. 

I've documented at least four deaths, all of them children, commencing with a little cousin of mine, Alonzo Miller, age 7 when he was fatally bitten during August of 1869 near Brownlee Cemetery, English Township, where he reportedly was buried. The most recent occurred during July of 1922 when a four-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Shadrach Nelson sustained a fatal bite near Olmitz.

This story was found in the Memphis (Tennessee) Public Ledger of Sept. 21, 1871, under the headline, "Dangerous but Successful Remedy" and attributed to the "Chariton (Iowa) Patriot." Back issues of The Patriot for 1871 have not survived.

"Mr. J. Allen" most likely was Josiah Allen, a prosperous farmer, age 50, living in Washington Township with two adult children, Martha, age 22, and James, 24, when the 1870 census was taken. The family seems to have moved farther west after that.

Here's the story:

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We learn that some days ago Mr.  J. Allen, residing in Washington township, went to the stable after nightfall to feed his team. He proceeded to a barrel to get some corn and while stooping to do so he felt something strike him on the nose. He paid no attention to the matter, however, thinking that some of the men on the farm had thrown something at him in jest.

He fed his team and started for the house, his nose having become by this time very painful, and he experiencing a strange sensation throughout his system. Becoming alarmed, he stated what happened, and fell senseless.

On looking about the corn barrel, after a light had been procured, a rattlesnake was found coiled up in or near the barrel, and there was no longer any doubt that Mr. Allen had been bitten by it.

A man, whose name we are sorry we could not learn, fearing that medical aid could not be procured in time to be of any avail, and having heard that the poison of a snake bite could be extracted by the application of the lips to the wound and sucking of the blood, he resolved on this dangerous operation.

He succeeded in extracting the poison from Mr. Allen's wound with no evil results, save a slight feeling of sickness, which soon passed away. Mr. Allen, we learn, has entirely recovered.