Hoffman, “Rube” – Died 1899

HOFFMAN

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 9/14/2020 at 11:02:10

Source: Decorah Republican Mar. 2, 1899 P 5 C 2

Love caused his Suicide.
Nashua Reporter: — Sunday noon “Rube” Hoffman deliberately placed his shotgun against the wall, with the muzzle over his heart, then leaning his weight upon the gun, pulled the trigger, sending his soul to eternity in the twinkling of an eye.
The facts as near as the writer is able to gather them is as follows: Shortly before 12 “Rube” went up stairs to a kind of store room, took some carpet rags and gunny sacks and placed them so his body would fall upon them. His album lay beside him, and the last object his eyes gazed upon in this life was the photographed face of the girl whom he loved better than life, as his subsequent act proved. Beside the album was the following note:—
“Friends: As I live I die. I a man that loved them that loved me. My aim in life was to do good and not evil. Good-bye.”
The family did not remember the report of the gun, but now remember of hearing a muffled thud, probably the body as it fell. Shortly after his brother Charlie went up to this room to get a file and found his brother’s body weltering in his own blood, but life was extinct, Unrequited love was the immediate cause for his rash act.