Z. S. Stout

BRYANT, STOUT

Posted By: Cindy (email)
Date: 11/26/2016 at 22:02:00

Z. S. Stout Suicide

More Self Destruction

On Wednesday morning, February (4?)th, the good citizens of Independence upon returning from their homes to enter the various business duties of the day, were started and shocked by the report of another fearful tragedy which had been enacted in our midst but a few short hours before involving the death of a well-known and estimable citizen. Mr. Z. S. Stout had been found hanging by the neck in his own barn, adjoining his residence in the north-western part of the city, with life fire extinct.

The harrowing details of the sad affair, as near as we could gather them, were as follows: Mr. Stout had been feeling quite depressed over some pecuniary embarrassments, for some time, and we are informed had occasionally expressed a desire that death would relieve his troubles. His family had treated the matter lightly and endeavored to banish his melancholy. He wrote a letter to Mr. James Stout, living in Wright county, only the day before his death, which was found in his writing case. In this letter the morbid tendency of his mind is revealed. He stated that he was troubled with the “blues†(blues), and begged his son to sell a parcel of land belonging to him, and forward the money at once, as he was greatly embarrassed. He gives no intimation throughout the letter of his purpose to take his own life, and thus we may presume the deed was not premeditated.

On the morning the rash act was committed, Mr. Stout arose at the usual hour, built the fires and called the family; after which he said he would go out to the barn to do his chores. Failing to respond to the call to breakfast, he was sent for, and found in the condition described. He had taken a large handkerchief, and tying one end to a round of an inclined ladder, leading to the mow and the other to his neck, had leaped into eternity. The knot in the handkerchief was pressing tightly against the throat and respiration must have been stopped instantly. His feet were barely touching the floor.

Mr. Stout was born on the farm now occupied by Mr. Benj. S. Mill, near Van Liew's Corner in East Amwell Township, Hunterdon County, N. J., where all his early life was spent with his parents, Simpson and Abby Bryant Stout,leaving three sisters in New Jersey.

He came to Iowa and this city with his family in 1866, and has resided here ever since. He was a man of whom it is a positive pleasure to us to speak in terms of the highest respect. Though unassuming and occupying but a humble piece in the community has yet possessed qualities which rendered him in a great degree, fitted for the highest duties of citizenship. He was a true friend, a sacrificing neighbor, a conscientious man in all his dealings, and it is to be regretted that the burden of his daily life proved so heavy that he was compelled so summarily to shake it off. Though he leave not a legacy of worldly treasure to his stricken family, yet better still, he leaves the heritage of an unblemished reputation and the record of an honored name among his fellows, which is infinitely better. The deceased leaves a wife and six children: three sons and three daughters - all grown, we believe. - Buchanan County Ia., Bulletin.

The Hopewell Herald (Hopewell, New Jersey), published March 2, 1881