TIMMER, Fred 1878-1933

TIMMER, TOBEN

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 9/11/2015 at 09:06:36

Fred Timmer Of Beaver Twp. Hangs Himself

Puts Noose About His Neck and Strangles Himself; Was Father of 16 Children.

Fred Timmer, a farmer from Beaver township, committed suicide last Thursday afternoon by strangling himself to death in the haymow of his barn at his place four miles northwest of Dike. Timmer after fastening the end of a rope to a rafter and placing the noose about his neck threw himself forward and deliberately strangled himself to death. He was leaning against bales of straw with his feet on the floor. "It was one of the most unusual and most deliberate cases of suicide that I have ever seen in my many years' experience as a coroner," said L. D. Coffman, county coroner, who was notified as soon as the body was discovered.

Timmer had been worrying a good deal about financial conditions, though he had never made any suicide threats, members of his family say.

Fred Timmer, the oldest son, saw his father go into the barn, as he left for New Hartford at 12:30 to get a load of coal. The son returned about 4 o'clock and when he was told that his father was missing he went to the haymow and discovered the body. It is believed that Timmer had been dead for three hours or more when his body was discovered, and the supposition is that the deed was committed shortly after the son left for town.

The case was clearly one of suicide and the coroner did not regard the holding of an inquest necessary.

Mr. Timmer was the father of 16 children. Ten of the children are living. All but two are at home. He was 54 years old. He was born in the Netherlands Nov. 14th, 1878, and was married to Miss Toben in the old country in 1900. In 1917 he and his family came to this country and located on a farm near Aplington. Seven years ago they moved to the Bergstrom 280-acre farm in Beaver township, where they have since resided.

Funeral services were held at the Reformed church at Stout Monday with the local pastor, Rev. Heyenga, officiating. Burial was in the cemetery at Stout.

The surviving relatives are the wife and the following children: Mrs. Ernest Aswegan, Mrs. Mitchell, who resides in Canada, Fannie, Trena, Henrietta, Minnie, Fred, John, Paul, Harry, Ralph and Lucile. There are three grandchildren. Other relatives are a stepmother and three step-sisters, who are living in the Netherlands.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 30 March 1933, pg 1