The Strange Case of Bill Zurick

The following slightly abridged account, bylined “Punta Gorda, Fla.” and originally published in the Sept. 9, 1913 issue of The Tampa Daily Times, was recently discovered by Graham Segger during his historical research.

Harrison Jones came up from the Burnt Store district on lower Charlotte Harbor yesterday and spent the greater part of the day going about town making purchases and laying in a stock of provisions to last him through the fall season. Mr. Jones is a busy man, so busy that he gets to the city but two or three times a year. He is operating a small sawmill at the Burnt Store, clearing off a good farm and already has some sixteen acres of a citrus grove well along toward the age of bearing.

Mr. Jones related a story of the peculiar affliction which recently befell one of his neighbors, and it is a story very interesting to the laity and very puzzling to the medical profession here. The name of the neighbor is Wilhelm Zurick, a Swiss, who something over a year ago moved upon a section of land in township forty-two, range twenty-two, a distance of about a mile from Mr. Jones' residence. Zurick has a large family and a very small house; in fact, he seemed content to take up his abode in the tumble-down shanty which had been erected by the former owner of that section. Although there is splendid timber on the place, Zurick did not have any of it made into lumber with which to repair his abode, neither did he trouble himself about putting out crops or bringing his place into a state of cultivation. How he managed to procure sufficient food and clothing for his family has been a wonder and a topic of discussion among all who knew him or of him.

Some of the neighbors thought Zurick's disinclination to work was the result of ill health, while others declared that his ill health was the result of his disinclination to work. As a matter of fact, Zurick is a sort of hypochondriac, and besides his morbidness and melancholy, he believes himself the victim of many different forms of disease. Having no money with which to purchase medicines, or drugs, he has been in the habit of hunting through the woods for medicinal herbs, barks and roots. These he would take home and boil in a large kettle which he picked up from the beach near Cape Haze light. On many occasions he professed great relief after dosing with the brew thus obtained.

One day, several weeks ago, he came in with an armful of a peculiar and suspicious looking plant. It was not unlike, in appearance, the black snake root, which abounds the entire length of the Appalachian mountain system. His wife cautioned him about fooling with strange herbs, but Zurick himself immediately put the plant to boil and seemed eager to test its medicinal efficacy. He was then complaining of shooting pains and lameness throughout his entire muscular system. In nearly every instance Zurick's illness affected his muscles. Having boiled the herbs two hours and twenty minutes Zurick pulled the fire from under the kettle so that the liquid could cool. Later he obtained a piece of cloth from his wife and strained the concoction into a small pail. Just before supper he drank a glass of the liquid, and early the next morning he took another, followed by one at noon. Toward evening a great change came over Zurick. He was seized with an unconquerable desire to work. He arose from his chair on the porch and briskly walked to the woodpile, where, within half an hour he split a heap of wood as large as the slab pile of a small sawmill. This strange action frightened his wife, who had for years gathered up or spilt the wood with which to cook the meals. She tried to get her husband to come into the house and lie down, but he refused and, seeing a shovel leaning against the fence, he grabbed it and began digging a ditch to drain the water away from the house. This ditch had been needed ever since the Zurick family took up its abode at that place.

Having finished the ditch and straightened up the gate post, Zurick suddenly remembered that it was about time to make up the seed bed. Streaming with perspiration, he attacked the bed, which is about twenty-five feet square, and, although the sun was sinking, and his wife was calling supper, he stuck to the work until he had the bed entirely spaded and raked as smooth as a floor. Next morning Zurick took another glass of the mysterious brew, ate a hearty breakfast and by 7 o'clock was in Punta Gorda buying wire to fence his northeast quarter. In the afternoon he ran the fence up and cut a good road one-half mile long on his way in.

Mrs. Zurick had never before seen such symptoms manifested by her husband and her fright bordered on hysteria. She was sure the strange herb was the cause of it, and she knew her husband would kill himself in a week by overwork. She sent for a physician, who arrived at noon on the third day after Zurick began taking the juice of the unknown herb. The doctor took the sick man's wrist and began to count, but Zurlck, happening to glance upward and seeing light through the roof, jerked his arm away from the doctor’s grasp and in an incredibly short time was on top of the house, nailing shingles over the hole.

After he came down, the doctor completed his diagnosis, but not without several interruptions caused by the patient seeing something to do and immediately doing it. The doctor asked to see some of the juice, but it could not be found. It seems Zurick had hidden it.

Up until August 26, Zurick had grubbed, burned, plowed and drained ten acres of his land, had felled over 600 trees, and hauled half of them to Mr. Jones' sawmill. It is impossible for him to resist doing work that strikes his eye, and seems to be under some uncontrollable impulse. That explains why he was found doing unfinished jobs on the farms of his neighbors. He cannot sit still if his eye falls upon something that should be attended to, no matter what or where it is. The physician thinks that Zurick's nerve functions have been completely changed around by the action of the mysterious herb. This seems to be the correct diagnosis since Zurick's reflex nerves are now dead and refuse to act. Flies, bugs, mosquitoes, and other insects strike him in the ball of the eyes without receiving any opposition from the reflex action of the eye lids, and Zurick never winks until after the object has lodged on the outer membrane of the eye. While on the other hand, all the common nerves have been changed into the kind possessing reflex action. At least this is proven by the effect which the sight of undone work has upon Zurick. He cannot resist pitching into it, and cannot stop himself until all work in sight is done.

A number of our prominent physicians discussed Zurick's case informally at a meeting held last night. They unite in the belief that Zurick is impelled by some stimulus or excitation entirely without the usual intervention of consciousness, and that he performs the work involuntarily, impulsively and without the slightest desire or volition on his part. They discussed learnedly "afferent" and "efferent" nerves, "reflex action," and so forth, but were unable to explain just what has taken place in the nervous system of Zurick. They are satisfied that Zurick's muscles are not under the control of his will. Even laymen are satisfied about that.Meanwhile, Zurick is simply tearing that section of land to pieces. His wife can induce him to take rest only by placing his chair "where his eyes can rest on work absolutely completed”. He brings in quantities of the herb each day and boils it so that he can have it fresh. His case is the talk and wonder of the entire county.

While no author was listed, it is Graham’s theory that this story was written by Wallace Chadman, who wintered in Punta Gorda and spent summers in Tionesta, PA between 1911 and 1926. Chadman was granted the designation AAA by his colleagues at the local beverage room – Attorney, Author and Angler.

There was in fact a back story to this tongue in cheek account of Mr. Zurick. A group of 15 Swiss immigrants did establish a colony near what is now the corner of Durden Road and Old Burnt Store Road in August 1913. Newspaper accounts in November 1913 state that the town site was to be called Klaricka, had a sawmill, and was in the vicinity of the old Burnt Store.