KNOCK, Maggie 1881-1925

KNOCK

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 3/22/2015 at 07:29:19

Maggie Knock Takes Her Life By Hanging

Despondency Thought To Be The Cause Of Her Act On Sunday Afternoon

Found Hanging in Barn

Had Been a Resident of This City a Number of Years, Residing With Mother

This community was shocked Sunday afternoon when it became known that Miss Maggie Knock had taken her life that afternoon by hanging.

As has been the custom for years a number of the close relatives of Mrs. Lena Knock, mother of Maggie, gathered at the home of Mrs. Knock Sunday to spend the day, and about 2:30 o'clock Maggie had made some tea and the family sat down to drink it. About this time Maggie made her disappearance and after fifteen or twenty minutes members of the family started to look for her. They went into the back yard and garden, but saw nothing of her, and then her sister-in-law, Mrs. Ontje Knock, went to the D. S. Kirkpatrick barn on an adjoining lot and there she discovered Maggie hanging by a rope. Her brother, Ontje, who was also searching for her, took her down and carried her into the house and Dr. Carpenter was called. But she was beyond all medical help, life being extinct when she was found.

No cause can be assigned for her rash act beyond the fact that she had not been feeling well for some time and had every symptom of a nervous breakdown coupled with spells of despondency. To her brother, Ontje, only about an hour before she had complained that she felt very bad in her head, that her head felt queer and heavy on top and that she could not overcome the feeling; she also complained of being very nervous. A few months ago she had been examined by a physician and it was then discovered that she had very high blood pressure, and it is presumed beyond a doubt that all these things had much to do in unbalancing her mind and led her to take her life.

The Kirkpatrick family had gone to Eldora to spend a portion of the day and it is presumed that Maggie knew of their absence when she went to the Kirkpatrick barn to commit the act, the barn being open and easy of access.

She took a long rope she found in the barn and used to stake out stock to graze, and climbing upon a manger in the barn she tied the rope over a 2x6 above the manger and then made what is known as a slip-noose and placed it about her neck. In this manner she jumped or fell from the manger where she must have been standing to the barn floor, her feet touching the floor when the rope was tightly drawn.

Her neck was not broken and everything indicated that she had strangled to death.

L. D. Coffman, County Coroner, was called shortly after the body was discovered and after questioning a number of witnesses pronounced it a case of suicide.

Maggie Knock was born in Colfax township 44 years ago and has always lived in this county. Her father passed away several years ago, and about 9 years ago her mother moved to this city to reside and Maggie has always made her home with her mother.

There are two brothers, George, living northwest of Grundy Center a few miles, and Ontje, living in Colfax township. There are also two half-brothers, Nickolas, of Lennox, So. Dak., and Harm, living in Minnesota. There are also a large number of relatives living in this county.

Funeral services were held Wednesday at one o'clock from the Drake church in Colfax township, Rev. H. F. Sinning officiating assisted by Rev. J. E. Drake in the presence of a large concourse of relatives and sympathizing neighbors and friends.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 23 July 1925, pg 1

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Death of Maggie Knock

In the untimely death of Miss Maggie Knock on last Sunday afternoon much sympathy is felt in the community here and in Colfax, where the family lived for many years, for the aged mother, now nearly 80 years of age, and to whom Maggie has been a lifelong companion and helpmate. The brothers, too, keenly feel the loss of their only sister.

Maggie will also be missed in the German Presbyterian church of which she had been a member ever since moving to this city, and previous to that of the Drake church in Colfax township. She was an active church worker and an exceptionally good Sunday school teacher, and she has taught a class every Sunday until a short time ago when she gave it up at her own request.

In many of the homes in this vicinity her death has brought sorrow and the sympathy of all goes out to the bereaved and heartbroken mother and brothers.

"God hath not promised
Skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways
All our lives through.
God hath not promised
Sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow,
Peace without pain.
But God has promised
Strength for the day,
Rest for the labor,
Light for the way,
Grace for the trials,
Help from above,
Unfailing sympathy,
Undying love."

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 23 July 1925, pg 1