Elijah Tompkins (died 1875)

TOMPKINS

Posted By: Anne Hermann (email)
Date: 2/22/2009 at 09:26:43

Jackson Sentinel, January 28, 1875.

The Clinton Herald of last Saturday furnishes us the particulars of the suicide of a former resident of this county, by the name of Elijah Tompkins, who resided in Monmouth township. It says:
About 7 o’clock this morning, the family of Elijah Tompkins, a farmer living on the Camanche road, four miles below this city, near the school house, were startled by the discovery that Mr. Tompkins had cut his throat, almost from ear to ear, with a razor, and was then in an insensible and dying condition. As soon as the household recovered from the first startling effects of the discovery, the neighbors were summoned and a messenger dispatched for medical aid, but to no avail, for the old man rapidly sank under the effects of the fatal wound, and died a short time after he was found, without vouchsafing any explanation of his willful act.

Mr. Tompkins was 78 years old. He formerly lived at Fremont, Jackson County, Iowa, and subsequently in Savanna, Illinois, whence he removed to Clinton about the year 1868, being engaged here as a teamster and residing most of the time on Second Avenue, west of Fourth Street. In the fall of 1871, after the great fire, he moved to Chicago, where he essayed to get a living by teaming. Not succeeding, he returned to this county last spring, and rented the place near the school house on the Camanche Road, where he has lived since. His second wife and two of her children survive him here, none of his own children living in this vicinity.

The deceased became quite well known in this city while here, and a large number of people will remember the old man who was always striving to earn an honest living, but whom adversity ever seemed to follow like a shadow. He had been out of health sometime previous to his death, and the tragic termination of his existence may be traced to a worn out body and temporary aberration of mind.