AHRENDT, Nels 1882-1936

AHRENDT

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 10/31/2019 at 18:32:02

Nels Ahrendt, Former Dike Marshal, Suicide

Nels Ahrendt, who served as marshal and street commissioner at Dike for several years, committed suicide Wednesday morning by shooting himself. His wife found him dead in the cob bin in the barn adjoining their house in Dike about 9:30 in the forenoon.

When he left the house about an hour before, his wife said that he told her he was going out to split some wood. His wife saw a light out in the barn. She thought her husband forgot to turn the barn light off when he left and she went to the barn to put it out. She called her husband, but getting no answer went into the barn and found him lying dead in the cob house.

Ahrendt had used a double-barrel 12-gauge shotgun. He held the muzzle of the gun over his heart and used a piece of wood with a nail in it to pull the trigger. A large size hole was torn in his breast. Death was instantaneous.

County Coroner L. D. Coffman was called to attend the case. He questioned the wife, who had no explanation as to why her husband took his life. She said their home relations had been happy and that he had never given any intimation to her of his intentions. The coroner regarded the holding of an inquest unnecessary as the evidence pointed clearly to suicide.

Ahrendt was 55 years old. He had served as marshal and street commissioner up to about two months ago. Since that time he was out of employment. He and his wife were in Chicago two weeks before to visit their son.

Surviving are the widow, one son who lives in Chicago, and a daughter who is at home.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 15 October 1936, pg 1