SIXTEENTH GENERATION

459. John Finis Weedin ⁽²²⁹⁾ was born on 13 Oct 1870 in Butler, Missouri. He was a police officer on 29 Dec 1893 in Seattle, Washington.⁽²⁵⁰⁾ He died on 24 Jul 1916 in Seattle, Washington.⁽²⁵⁰⁾ Officer Weedin (then a sergeant) and a friend, Officer Robert R. Wiley, were off duty. They had been working 12-hour days because of a longshoreman's strike and the near hysteria of the approaching war (World War I). Off duty (after a 12 hour day) officers Wiley and Weedin, with 5 others went for a drive. Near a warehouse that was owned by some known bootleggers, two suspicious men had been seen by the night watchman. For reasons that were never established, the officers stopped their car and Wiley went back towards the warehouse. A gunfight followed between the watchman and Wiley, resulting in Wiley being shot in the groin and the watchman being wounded. The watchman then went to the waiting car and shot John F. Weedin in the mouth as he attempted to stand. The other friends in the car scattered and the watchman fell to the ground. When other officers arrived, Weedin was dead and Wiley was rushed to the hospital. The watchman had been hit in the arm and chest by Wiley's bullets and died a short time later in the hospital.


A long complicated investigation followed in which the owners of the warehouse and bootleg operation, brothers Logan and Fred Billingsley, were arrested and charged as accessories to the murder of Weedin and Wiley. Charges against the Billingsleys were eventually dropped because of insufficient evidence. Weedin's widow sued the brothers for monetary damages in the death of her husband based on the fact that the watchman was in their employ. It was said that the brothers were making upwards of $1,000 per day. In fact, the two were able to post a total of $20,000 in cash for their bail within 5 minutes of being booked. The Billingsleys had been arrested a total of 17 times for various illegal bootlegging operations. After the shooting, various police squads went on a series of raids, totally destroying several retail outlets that were suspected of selling products produced by the Billingsleys. The brothers had to go to court to get an injunction against further property damage by the police.


He was buried in Washellis's.⁽²⁵⁰⁾ Services were conducted by Butterworths. Presumably that was a mortuary or funeral home in Seattle. We also assume for the time being that "Washellis's" is a cemetery in the Seattle area. Two of John F.'s sons and a grandson also became Seattle police officers. A street in Seattle was named for the family.

He was married to Agnes Keil on 31 Jan 1892.⁽²²⁹⁾ John and Agnes has nine children. We do not have information on all of them at this time. John Finis Weedin and Agnes Keil had the following children:

512 i. Harry J. Weedin⁽²⁵⁰⁾.
513 ii. John K. Weedin⁽²⁵⁰⁾.
514 iii. William M. Weedin⁽²⁵⁰⁾.
515 iv. Richard G. Weedin⁽²⁵⁰⁾.
516 v. Joy E. Weedin⁽²⁵⁰⁾.
517 vi. Bertha (Birdie) Weedin⁽²²⁹⁾ was born on 8 Sep 1907. She died in Feb 1975 in Edmonds, Washington. Birdie gathered most of the imformation provided by Eric Cowles for this branch of the Weedins.
+518 vii. Daphne Weedin.
+519 viii. Ivy Weedin.