Isabelle " Belle" CRAWFORD, 1872-1890

CRAWFORD, ALPAUGH, SLADE

Posted By: Marsha B. Crawford (email)
Date: 5/30/2003 at 02:55:23

Our community was startled on Monday morning by the announcement that Belle Crawford was found dead in her bed. It cannot be was the exclamation from many lips. Only the day previous she was in Miles, attended M. E. church and after dining with her sister, Mrs. Slade, started for her home a short distance in the country, apparently in her usual mood. The remainder of the day was spent with her parents in the home. Early in the evening she went to her room and nothing more was known of her until the next morning. As was the custom, her little brothers called her name as they passed her door. No answer came. The mother repeated the call, and still no response. The parents became alarmed and forcing in the locked door, beheld their loved daughter in the cold embrace of death. A bottle of strychnine and a cup in which the poison had been mixed and a note pinned on the window curtain presented the sad evidence of how she had passed away; but the cause of this strange unnatural act will perhaps forever remain a mystery. The following note, written in a plain neat manner, is all that she left to explain her cruel act:

LOVED ONES ALL.

Forgive and forget. Life is a weary burden, hence death is sweet. You have all blamed me unjustly but I freely forgive. Knowing that I have much to be forgiven.

A dark secret burdens my life which only death can drown. Again I ask to Forgive & Forget. Good bye and God bless you.

Belle.

At the inquest held by Coroner Miller, on Monday, Josiah Davis, John Heberling and J. W. Miles were the jurors and the verdict was in substance that deceased had “died on or about the 12th day of May, 1890, from strychnine administered by her own hands, with suicidal intent.”

Miss Belle Crawford was the third daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Crawford. She was born at the home where she committed the terrible deed, June 4, 1872. She was a young lady of fair ability, prepossessing in appearance, of modest manner. She was esteemed by all who knew her. She has lived in this community all her life and was considered a girl of promise. One whose conduct was above reproach. She was a member of the M. E. church, having united under Rev. Spry’s preaching some three years since. Why life should be a burden to one surrounded with her opportun(it)ies and prospects is strange indeed and why she should brood over a secret, if she had one, until it led her to plunge her parents and others into the keenest grief, is unaccountable.

The remains of the fair young girl were brought to the M. E. church on Wednesday morning where funeral services were held. Rev. Waite, her pastor, preached a most excellent and appropriate sermon from the double text, “Ye are not your own,” 1 Cor. 5-19, and “God will bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil”—Ecles 12-14. Every word and every thought of this powerful discourse was fitly chosen and presented with wonderful effect. Rev. Waite was followed by Rev. N. A. Kimball whose remarks were in harmony with the sermon. The church was crowded. Their friends from every direction came to pay a tribute of respect and offer sympathy to this afflicted family. The flowers prepared by her girl companions were beautiful tokens of their love for the companion with whom they had mingled in school and society. The remains were borne to the grave by her young companions, Misses Maggie Wilson, Saide Smith, Hanna Kellogg and Anna Kruse, assisted by Julius Ericksen and Oscar VonOven and laid away to rest in the quiet spot marked with flowers and evergreens. All that friends could do to soothe the almost broken hearts of the parents, was done, but there are moments when the spirit sinks too faint for human sympathy and happy are they who can borrow comfort from a higher source.
“And from some diviner sorrow
Call a calmness to their strife.”

Published in a Jackson Co., Iowa, newspaper.