Mrs. John Reese of Particular Sadness Died 1875

REESE

Posted By: cheryl Locher moonen (email)
Date: 9/21/2019 at 01:16:14

Dubuque Daily Times, Saturday, Apr 17, 1875, Dubuque, IA, Page: 2

A death occurred in Vinton, last Saturday, under circumstances of peculiar sadness. John Reese, with his wife and two children, had during the forepart of winter occupied an old shell of a house in town; but as the weather grew colder and their conditions worse, the mother was finally induced to go to the poorhouse, for a few weeks, to remain during an expected illness. About two weeks ago she gave birth to a babe. Last Friday night the whole family was brought from the poor house, about eight o’clock in the evening, and left on the sidewalk with an old dirty bed, a bedstead, a small cook stove, a few dishes, &c. On inquiry it was found that the family was to occupy some low, wretched rooms over Miller’s shoe shop; but the man seemed to dull to comprehend what was needed to be done, and the woman was unable to stand, or even to sit up. Some citizens helped and put up the stove and bedstead, and then carried up the bed and the woman, and in less than twenty-four hours the woman was dead. It looks as if there must have been somewhere culpable neglect and a rarity of Christian charity.