All For Love
April 6, 1877
Clinton Public
Clinton, Illinois
SUCIDE OF A YOUNG FARMER IN CREEK TOWNSHIP.
Life at best is short enough without a fellow trying to rush out of it. Some men commit suicide because their girls will not listen to them; while others leap into eternity to escape matrimonial torments. To the first class belonged William BONE, a young farmer of Creek township. Bone was a poor, struggling young fellow, who managed a rented farm for his widowed mother and his brothers and sisters. He loved the daughter of a man who was rich in broad acres and cattle. The girl, it is said, reciprocated Bone's affection, but was forbidden by her parents to become his wife. There was no fault in the young man save his poverty. He was sober and industrious, and is said to have been an intelligent-looking young man. Bone had been courting this rich farmer's daughter for two years, but could not get her to the point where she would speak the word that would make him happy. About a year ago he became very much depressed because she would not promise to marry him, and at that time talked of committing suicide. He also made a proposition to a young friend of his that they would leave this country together and go to some place where they could rise to fortune.
Last Saturday there was a closing exhibition at the Shiloh school-house, at which all the young people in that neighborhood had gathered. Bone and his lady-love were there. At the close of the exhibition in the afternoon Bone rode rapidly homeward, feeling blue because of some fancied slight he had received from the young lady at the school-house. Her way home was past his house, and as she and a young lady friend were riding by, Bone invited them to go into his mother's house. Once inside the house, Bone invited his lady-love into another room from where the family was sitting, and there he again proposed marriage to her. The young lady plead the opposition of her parents to the match, and finally told him that she could never be more than a friend to him. With despair pictured on his countenance, he implored the young lady to reconsider her words. Without her, life had no charms for him, and if she persisted in her refusal to become his wife, she would never see him in life again. The young lade reiterated what she had already said and left him.
She had not been gone from the house but a short time when Bone got on his horse and told his mother he was going over to a neighbor's to borrow a gun for the purpose of going a hunting. On his way, he met Mr. John HENDRIX, who had a double-barreled shot-gun. Bone borrowed this gun and told Mr. Hendrix he would shoot him some game for the use of it. Mr. Hendrix had got about two hundred yards from where he left Bone when he heard the report of a gun. Thinking of course that the young man had shot a bird, Mr. Hendrix kept on his homeward route. By the time he got to Mr. ALLSBURY's farm, Bone's horse came galloping up without its rider and this led to surmising as to the probabilities of Bone having met with an accident. Hen. Allsbury got on Bone's horse and rode back to where the young man was, when he turned around and beckoned Mr. Hendrix to come back. They found Bone sitting with his back against the fence and quite dead. Bone had gone deliberately to work to secure instant death. He took off one boot and sock, cocked both barrels of the gun, and then placed the muzzle to the center of his forehead. With his toes, he discharged one barrel of the gun, the entire load entering the forehead and tearing the top off his head.
On Sunday, Coroner HALL was notified of the tragedy and he went out and held an inquest. In the examination, the facts given above were substantially brought out. The jury found a verdict accordingly.
[See Obituary]
Submitted by Judy Simpson
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September 28, 1883
Clinton
Public
Clinton, Illinois
WANTED TO DIE.
A Clinton Girl Takes Ten Grains of Strychnine
and Yet Lives.
Nancy ARMSTRONG is the oldest unmarried daughter of Mr. Ira ARMSTRONG and is about twenty-two years of age. For more than a year past she has been living in the family of D. L. MOODY at DeLand, where she fell in love with a young man named AUSTIN, who boarded in the house. Austin is a farm laborer and during the threshing season was employed with a gang of threshing machine hands. Nancy was engaged to be married to Austin and she expected that before long the words that were to unite her to him for life would be spoken by a minister of the gospel or a justice of the peace. Austin it seems must have changed his mind about getting married, for suddenly he left DeLand and went to the far, far west. The girl still lived in hopes that he would fulfill his vows of love and make her his wife, and was anxiously expecting a letter from him. A couple of weeks ago she came to her father's house on a visit and told her friends of her intended marriage. Every day she anxiously inquired at the post-office for a letter, but none came. Before returning to DeLand she left word that if a letter came for her it should be immediately forwarded to that place.
Wednesday morning she came back to Clinton on the Wabash train, and a little after ten o'clock she called at the post-office, but no letter was there to relieve the suspense of her anxious heart. Probably she came to the conclusion that Austin had deserted her, and in a fit of desperation she determined to seek rest in the grave where faithless lovers would never more bring sadness to her heart, for she went direct from the post-office to a drug store and bought a small bottle of strychnine, containing about twenty grains. With the death potion in her pocket she went home and coolly proceeded to empty about half the contents of the bottle into a piece of paper. This she wrapped up and swallowed, afterward taking a drink of water to wash down the poisonous drug. Then she went to her stepmother and told her what she had done, and showed her the bottle as proof of the quantity she had taken. The Armstrong family live in the old Smith house, opposite Dr. WRIGHT's residence. Mrs. Armstrong took the bottle from the girl's hand and went over to Dr. Wright's and told him what the girl had done. When the Doctor saw how much of the strychnine had been taken from the bottle he thought of course that the girl was surely booked for a coroner's inquest. He hastened over to the house and there found the girl in the first symptoms of spasms. He applied immediate antidotes, but before he could get the stomach pump ready for use the spasms had become so violent that he could not use it. Nothing could be got down her throat, not even a fluid. The Doctor could see no hope for her recovery, so he put her under the influence of chloral in order to make her unconscious to pain. The slightest pressure on one of her muscles or even an attempt to feel her pulse would bring on the spasms, which would last from ten to fifteen minutes at a time. To the surprise of the Doctor the girl still lived, and later in the day he began to hope that as soon as he could get medicine into her stomach it might act as an antidote and save her.
To sum it all up, the girl still lives, and this morning she told her father the whole circumstances of her attempt upon her life. With this the world has nothing to do, therefore THE PUBLIC made no attempt to peer into the mystery. This is the second time that Nancy has hovered on the brink of the grave, she having taken a dose of laudanum once before. She is now satisfied with her efforts at leaving this world, and in the future will leave strychnine and laudanum severely alone.
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October 12, 1883
Clinton Public
Clinton, Illinois
TOO LATE!
The Letter That Might Have Saved Nancy Armstrong's
Life.
The day that Nancy ARMSTRONG committed suicide she was anxiously expecting a letter from her betrothed lover, Bissell AUSTIN. she had been acquainted with him for more than a year, having lived in DeLand in the same house in which he boarded. Austin left DeLand and went to Missouri, promising Nancy before he left that he would write to her as soon as he got to his journey's end. After waiting a reasonable length of time she became impatient to hear from her lover. Days probably appeared as months to her, but no letter came. While she was on a visit to Clinton from her temporary home in DeLand she visited the post-office two or three times a day and anxiously inquired for the expected letter. But none came. When she was to return to DeLand she left orders to have her mail forwarded as soon as it arrived. She went to DeLand but could not remain there. The town appeared desolate to her, for he upon whom her affections were centered was gone. She could not stand the suspense, and after a couple of weeks back she came to Clinton. The morning of her arrival here she called at the post-office again, but the long-expected letter had not arrived.
Where was Austin all this time? It seems from later developments that he went to Missouri in search of work, and was lucky in finding a job on a new railroad that was being built. Nancy did not know his whereabouts, therefore she could not write to him. Probably he was waiting for some favorable turn in his fortunes before writing to her.
Hope deferred maketh the heart sick. On the morning that Nancy Armstrong called at the Clinton post-office and received no tidings from her lover she must have then determined upon the fatal course she took within an hour afterward, for she deliberately went from the office to a drug store and bought a small phial of strychnine. Returning to her father's house with the death potion in her pocket, she emptied half the contents of the phial into a paper, rolled it up and then swallowed the fatal dose. Then calmly going to her stepmother she told her what she had done. Medical aid was called and everything was done that science could suggest to save the unfortunate girl's life. She lived a week and then died.
While in her lucid moments her heart went out to the absent lover, and her only desire was that she might hear from him once more and then she would be resigned to the fate that was then inevitable. The heart-broken girl now sleeps quietly beside her mother in the church yard at Waynesville.
Bissell Austin it seems had not forgotten the girl whose affections he had won. On last Monday a letter came from him addressed to Nancy Armstrong, which was opened by her father. In it Austin gave an account of his varying fortunes since he left Clinton. He was then at work on the railroad, but expected to leave there and go to Kansas as soon as his month was up and he could draw his pay. He renewed his vows of love and promised as soon as he could find a place in which to locate he would send money to pay her passage to him or he would come in person. This is in substance the contents of the letter. Poor Nancy! Had she received this letter two weeks before she might have been spared the sad ending of a suicide. Probably by this time Austin will have received the news that the girl who loved him took her own life rather than live in uncertainty of his whereabouts.
(See obituary)
Submitted by Judy Simpson
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January 9, 1885
Clinton
Public
Clinton, Illinois
DISAPPOINTED IN LOVE
Amos Ferris Takes His Own Life.
His Skeleton Was Found in Weaver’s Pasture Nearly Four Months Afterward.
Clinton in the past few years has gained a most unenviable reputation for its number of suicides. And the other towns in DeWitt county have helped to swell the list. Not less than five citizens of Clinton took their own lives during the year 1884, and if we were to figure up the number of suicides in this city and county in the past ten years the number would be alarming. The last suicide to be added to the list is Amos FERRIS, a youth who had but recently come into the full estate of manhood. Amos was born in this county. His father is a locomotive engineer on the Illinois Central road, and his mother, who is dead, was the daughter of Dr. LIVELY, who formerly lived west of town. Amos had for a year or more been clerking in Cawrey’s restaurant, and was very attentive to business and had the confidence of his employer and the good will of the customers.
On the 17th of last September, while Mr. CAWREY was away for the dinner hour, Amos suddenly locked up the restaurant and went away. No one could account for this freak, as before that time he never left the restaurant for an instant during the absence of his employer. He had been talking for some time of going to California and tried to get a young friend of his to go with him, but it was not thought that he had gone for good. After he had been gone about twenty-four hours his friends came to the conclusion that he had taken a sudden notion to leave and that in time they would hear from him. The mysterious disappearance of Amos Ferris was a nine day’s wonder and then he dropped out of mind except in the case of a few intimate friends.
Last Sunday, John MAYALL and Heber MORSE were in WEAVER’s pasture hunting, when a rabbit ran into a brush heap. The hunters followed after, and in tearing up the leaves and brush they found the skeleton of a human being. At once Mayall and Morse came back to town and reported what they had found and the Coroner and a number of citizens went to the pasture. There they found a skeleton with the head separated from it. Of course the body was beyond recognition, and the only way to connect the skeleton with Amos Ferris was by a memorandum book which was found in one of the pockets of his clothes. There was also a note which he had probably written before he left the store, which was as follows:
Mr. CAWREY—I am going away, and you will never see me again alive. I have taken out of the cash drawer $3.50, and this makes us square. Amos Ferris.
In the memorandum book, on one of the pages was written:
SMITH and LUTZ—Good-bye forever.
There were also farewell greetings to the girl he loved and to his father, but these were so blurred by the damp and time that they could not be read. In the pockets were found a gold watch, $12.10 in cash, a gold ring with an amethyst setting, some trinkets, and a small pocket-knife, with the blade open and rusted, on the ground beside the body. He had also the key of Cawrey’s restaurant in his pocket. Beside him was a six-shooter with one of the chambers discharged. Amos must have deliberately planned his death, for he crawled under the brush, took off his coat and folded it up for a pillow for his head, unbuttoned his vest, and then fired the pistol ball into his right temple. Every particle of flesh had been torn from his face by birds of prey or other animals. For nearly four months his sudden disappearance was a mystery, but by a lucky accident it was unraveled last Sunday.
And now for the supposed cause of his death. Amos was in love with a girl of sixteen years, and he proposed marriage to her. The girl declined on the plea that she was too young to take on such important responsibilities, and also on the score that Amos was not earning enough to keep them. Amos had made several efforts to get a situation where his wages would be larger, but without success. Discouraged with his prospects in life he probably concluded that death would be preferable.
On Sunday evening the coroner held an inquest, and as the case was plainly one of suicide, the jury returned a verdict in accordance with the facts before them. His father, who is stationed at LaSalle, was telegraphed for, and he arrived here on Monday morning. The body was then taken to the Old Union Cemetery, near Hallsville, and buried beside his mother.
From the Illinois Marriage Index:
FARRIS, JOHN M. LIVELY,
LAURA L. 03/12/1863 DE WITT (Amos’s parents)
(See obituary)
Submitted by Judy Simpson
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