John Emory Benedict 1851-1885

BENEDICT, WYKERT

Posted By: deb (email)
Date: 1/11/2019 at 21:15:30

SUICIDE OF JOHN E. BENEDICT

Burlington,Nov. 24 - Sunday night, about eight miles north of the city, on the Tama Town Road, at the farm of his brother-in-law, Henry S. Wagner, John Emory Benedict, aged 34, son of Dorrance Benedict, deliberately shot himself through the head. He went up to his room during the absence of his brother-in-law, and, seating himself, leaned the muzzle of a shortened musket against his heart and discharged it, the large ball passing through his body and embedding itself in a board on the opposite side of the room. His mother, and sister, who were in the house, did not hear the report, and the suicide was not known until the return of Mr. Wagner, who found Benedict dead. Benedict was one of the persons charged with stabbing and killing a young man named Reed at a spelling school in that neighborhood about ten years ago, but the charge could not be sustained. About three years ago Benedict's mind became affected, and he was sent to the hospital at Mt. Pleasant, where he remained six months until his escape, when he went to Missouri, and while there secured his proper discharge from the hospital. He soon afterwards returned to his home in the county. At times he was very moody, and numerous threats to take his own life have been made. Lately he has been in very poor health, and this perhaps led him to end his sufferings in the manner described. He was buried to-day.

Abstracted from THE IOWA STATE REGISTER, MORNING EDITION, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1885