Minnie Merriam 1869 – 1896

MERRIAM

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 2/11/2021 at 14:04:38

Source: Decorah Republican July 2, 1896 P 3 C 2

Suicide at Hopkington.
Mary, wife of Lewis P. Merriam, who lives on a farm near Hopkinton, drowned herself and two month old baby, last Sunday morning June 21st, says the Manchester Press, during a fit of temporary insanity. Mrs. Merriam had, since the birth of the baby, shown evidence of mental weakness, but it was not displayed in any such manner as would make corrective measures necessary. She had conceived the idea, in some way, that the baby could not live, and the contestant brooding and worrying over what seemed to her and actual condition, added to great bodily weakness and suffering, proved too great a load to be thrown off, even when aided by the assurances to the contrary by physician and husband. Leaving a note for her husband, announcing her intention, she arose, it is thought early Sunday morning, and going down to the Maquoketa river, which flows about a mile from the Merriam place, threw the baby in first, as it afterward appeared, and followed it herself.

Transcriber’s Note: Find a Grave shows this was Minnie and that she was born in 1869 and is buried in the Hopkinton Cemetery. It shows her husband was L. D. Merriam. The infant is also buried with her.