Death of Daniel R. Conery, 1804-1874

CONERY, GERMOND, HEUSTIS, WHITE, KENNEDY

Posted By: LuAnn (Wentworth) Goeke (email)
Date: 9/5/2010 at 20:40:20

Weary of Life
Suicide of D.R. Conery.
Suicides in this county are becoming alarmingly frequent. Last week we announced the death of a young lady at Lamotte by her own hand. This week it is the other extreme, an old man, on whose hoary head the frosts of seventy winters had left their impress.
Friday afternoon last, D.R. Conery, an old and well-known citizen of this place, who resides just south of the academy grounds, committed suicide by hanging himself in his own barn. The first person to discover him was a son of the deceased named Warren Conery, who cut him down and started for help. When assistance came, in a few minutes thereafter, the body was cold in death, and it was quite evident that he had been dead an hour or more.
Mr. Conery had manifested signs of mental aberration for some days, and on the fatal Friday morning, he had expressed a determination to his wife to put an end to his troubles by death. About noon she noticed him going in the direction of the barn, and that was the last ever seen of him alive.
The beam to which the rope was attached, which did its work so effectually, was not more than eight feet from the floor, upon which was a layer of hay. When discovered the feet and knees of the dead man were resting on this hay, and as no evidences of death by strangulation were visible, except the mark of the cord, it is not improbable that he had attached the noose to his neck while sitting upon this beam, and then threw himself off, causing dislocation and instant death.
In the evening a coroner's jury was impaneled by S.S. Germond, J.P., who examined several witnesses, their testimony being given below. In the pocket of the deceased was found a note, the contents of which not only settle the question of his insanity at the time of the commission of the act, but also that it was premeditated. The following is a copy of this note:
Maquoketa, July 3, ' 74.
The means of my death are my two girls - Nancy and Suke. They are lying about me and mother, doing all they can to hurt us every way. They have stolen everything they can get hold of. I want the world to know when I die for. I want this put into the paper for people to read. Nance has been more trouble to us than all the rest, put them all together. She was always a devil. - D.R. Conery.

The testimony of Mrs. Conery, wife of the deceased, and also his son Reuben, has given before the coroner's jury, is as follows:
R. Conery sworn - I've noticed a difference in the deceased lately: at spells he has not been right. I can't say how long he had been hanging before I saw him. I think there was something on his mind that troubled him. One thing that was on his mind that troubled him was the trade that he made between this place and the farm he had out west. I brought a letter up from the postoffice night before last from my sister Harriet, and read it to the deceased. I never heard the deceased say lately that he did not want to live longer. I was about the first that came to the scene. Father was on his knees when I first came.
Mrs. Conery, wife of the deceased, sworn - I was in David Anderson's store when I first knew he was dead. My son Warren told me as he passed, "Mother, he is dead!" He told me before today that he would make way with himself. He did not appear different this morning than usually. He got up this morning and built a fire, and said, “Come, old lady, the breakfast will soon be ready." We sat down at the table together. I saw nothing singular. He had killed a chicken and dressed it, for I’m feeble. He took out of a drawer a sheet of paper and cut it into two, and sat beside the table and began to write. I spoke to him and said: "Pa, who are you writing to?" He said: "To myself or the devil;" and he did not say another word, but laid down on the lounge. I went downtown.
He said that Warren is bound not to do anything. He asked if I had a key that would unlock Warren’s trunk. I said that I had not. He got a screwdriver and went upstairs, and said that he would take his pistols. He said: "They told all they will about us, mother; you and I are about done with it."
I do not know what he did with the piece of paper he wrote on. We had a letter from our daughter night before last. The subject of the letter was such as to aggravate his mind. After he read the letter, he said: "There, I feel better now," and rolling over said he could sleep. The letter was what troubled him, ever since we made the foolish trade last March, and what we heard. He said yesterday before he would have an execution come out against him, he would make way with himself. There have been a number of weeks he would sit still and study.
The jury, after a few moments’ deliberation, returned the following verdict:
The STATE of IOWA, Jackson County}
An inquisition holden at Maquoketa in Jackson County, and State of Iowa on the 3d day of July, 1874, before S.S. Germond, J.P., acting as coroner upon the body of D.R. Conery, then lying dead, by the jurors whose names are hereto subscribed. The jurors upon their oath do say that the said D.R. Conery came to his death by his own hands, by hanging himself by the neck with a rope, on the 3d day of July, 1874.
In testimony whereof the said Jurors have hereunto set their hands, this 4th day of July, 1874.
G.B. Heustis
N.C. White
John Kennedy
Attest: S.S. Germond, J.P.

– 9 July 1874, Jackson Sentinel, pg. 3