WRAGE, Harry G. 1913-1944

WRAGE, DAVIS

Posted By: Kermit Kittleson (email)
Date: 5/17/2010 at 14:32:36

WRAGE, Harry G. 1913-1944

#1 of 2 items:

Eagle Center
Farmer Found
Dead in Barn

Crawling from his house despite the casts on both legs, Harry Wrage, 31, entered a barn on his farm, three miles west and one mile south of Eagle Center, Iowa, Saturday afternoon and committed suicide by shooting off the top of his head with a single-barreled shotgun, Dr. C. D. Winder, deputy Black Hawk county coroner, said last night.

Wrago had been suffering mental trouble, the coroner said. He had been sent to Rochester, Minnesota, early in the spring, complaining of pains in his head.

Six weeks ago, Wrage broke both ankles and both wrists when he either jumped or fell from a haymow on his farm. Wrage had recently returned from Allen Memorial Hospital, where he had been, treated for his injuries.

According to Deputy Sheriff H. M. Mitchell, who also investigated the case, Wrage's wife and children were shopping at Reinbeck Saturday and discovered him gone when they returned.

His brother John, living a mile and a half away, had been working Harry's farm since the latter's illness. He arrived at the farm shortly after Harry's wife and children came home. She asked him to search for her husband and he found the body in the barn about 5 p. m. Saturday.

The body was taken to the Robinson funeral home, Reinbeck.

[Waterloo Daily Courier, Sunday, July 23, 1944]

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#2:

REINBECK, IOWA — Funeral services for Harry G. Wrage, 31, who committed suicide Saturday on his Eagle Center farm near here with a blast from his single-barreled shotgun, will be 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Congregational Church here, Reverend Alvin Boettcher in charge. A prayer service at the Robinson Funeral Home at 2 p.m. will precede the church services.

Burial will be in the Reinbeck Cemetery.

His wife, two daughters, father, four brothers and three sisters survive.

[Waterloo Sunday Courier, Sunday, July 24, 1944]

NOTE: His wife was Martha E. (nee) Davis Wrage McKenna 1-30-1916 -- 10-19-2009. (Died in Black Hawk County, Iowa.) Her obit says Harry died Feb. 3, 1944; the news articles say he died in July 1944.

NOTE: www.Findagrave.com says Harry was born in 1913. (Credit: Kent Schneider)