Moll, Milton F. – 1851-1888

MOLL

Posted By: Diana Wagner
Date: 6/2/2023 at 13:37:27

Suicide – Last Monday morning, about 7:45 o’clock, George Plummer was driving Jessie McDermott to her school in Poweshiek township. They were going west from the house of Mr. Goodman, and had reached a point on the hillside about half a mile northeast of the Jasper County Coal & Railway Company’s shaft, when Mr. Plummer noticed the form of a man dressed in dark blue lying prone upon the ground. To satisfy his curiosity and that of his companion, George dismounted and climbing upon a pile of intervening logs was greeted by a sight full of horror.
There upon his right side, lay the dead body of Milton Moll; in his left hand he grasped the muzzle of a single-barrel shot-gun, the butt of which rested upon the log and was held in position by the end of a smaller lo against a projecting knot; in his right hand was the wooden ramrod of the gun; the man’s legs were drawn up and the head forward, resting upon the ground.
Above the left temple was a ghastly, ragged hole about an inch in diameter, and from the hole down to and below the left eye the flesh was black and blood-shot, while the right side of the head was weltering in the blood which extended in a broad pool about it. Sickened by the sight he hurried away and gave the alarm at a house nearby, returning later to Goodman’s where the suicide’s wife and daughter were and giving them the sad news. Then Coroner Robbins was notified and at 2 p.m. arrived with a jury compose of Jesse Slaven, S. S. Wilson and H. W. Robinson.
After viewing the remains, taking the testimony of George Plummer, and deceased’s physician, Dr. L. C. S. turner, a letter addressed to his wife was found under the suicide’s hat, which read as follows:
There is nobody but the Snow boys, George Snow and Bill Snow to be blamed for this by me taking my own life for if I was to go back to Colfax again and they wood comense on me again I would shoot them both and I don’t want to stane my hands with their blood for everybody knows what they are now. Manda and Rena don’t weep for me, I feel sorry for you both more than you think for Manda don’t take Rena to my folks nor to Emm, I know that you are better off without me the way thinks are and they would be no better. I am afraid Goodmans are good to us and bless them. My childhood home was nothing but to me love was not taught to us but hard work and a scolding home. I am sorry for this not that I don’t love you for Manda I do and God bless you and Rena, a kiss for the two of you. You was good to me and loved me I know it to be a fact. My hands has never been staned with all that I was acused of and if I am lade beneath the sod they will have rest. Farewell from you husband. Milton Moll.
You Manda and Rena I know that you loved me and you don your part you are not to be blamed.
The coroner and jury then returned to Colfax, and after taking the testimony of T. G. Young and William Snow – all of which went to show that deceased was of unsound mind – the jury returned a verdict of suicide.
The remains were taken in charge by the family, and were interred on Tuesday, the funeral services being conducted by Wm. Goodman.
Milton Moll was about 25 years of age and had a wife and a little daughter – the one mentioned as Rena in his letter – about 13 years old. He was well known in Colfax where he had worked each year at his trade, house painting. He had long been suffering from a loathsome malady whose encroachments upon his system had undermined his brain. He had for a long time been haunted with the belief that the Snow boys were after him, but that was only one of his vagaries. Last Saturday he borrowed from a neighbor of his father’s the weapon with which he did the deed, cleaned it very carefully, loaded it with No. 2 shot and went away. Thus far we have been unable to find anyone who saw him on Sunday, although it is quite evident that he did not kill himself until late Sunday afternoon.
His arrangements were made with such care and precision that the fatal charge went clean through his head, coming out about two inches back of and above the right ear and speeding on with force sufficient to mark the hazel brush and burr oaks behind him. Universal sympathy is felt for his family and his parents.
This is the second death from suicide in the family – a sister, Mrs. Sager, having drowned herself in Skunk river near the Black Heath mines some four or five years ago.
Source: The Weekly Clipper (Colfax, IA); Saturday, May 5, 1888, page 4