William Henry White (1924)
BRUETT, HAYES, SCHAFFER, SPEER, WHITE
Posted By: Pat Hochstetler (email)
Date: 5/12/2007 at 07:51:59
Earlham Library Obituary Collection
Earlham, Iowa
March 1924OBITUARY
The funeral of William Henry White who died at the hospital in Perry was held at the Worthington Church Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. The service was conducted by the resident pastor Rev. C. L. Thomas and interment was made in the Worthington cemetery.
Mr. White was born in Madison County, Iowa July 17, 1875 and departed this life March 17, 1924 at the age of 48 years, 8 months.
He grew to manhood in this place and was united in marriage June 11, 1902 to Miss Blanche Speer. To this union were born five children, two dying in infancy.
Those remaining to mourn their loss are Gladys, Mae, Alfa, also his wife, three sisters and three brothers, Mrs. Nettie Hayes and Mrs. Emily Schaffer, of Montana, Frank and Jakek, of Oklahoma, Willis White and Mrs. Alta Bruett of this place and with these a host of other relatives and friends who will sadly miss him in the place made vacant by his tragic death.
________________________The Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Thursday, March 27, 1924
Page 7Earlham
The funeral of Mr. White, who attempted to commit suicide recently, was held at the Worthington church Wednesday afternoon. Mr. White died from self-inflicted wounds at the Perry hospital Monday evening, his body being brought to Earlham the same night, where his wife had moved since his accident.
________________________The Winterset News
Winterset, Iowa
Thursday, March 27, 1924
Page 1, Column 5HENRY WHITE DIED IN PERRY HOSPITAL
Lived Seventeen Days With Three Bullets in his Brain—Hold Inquest but Suicide is not Questioned—Born in Madison County, Son of Abe White
Henry White, who attempted suicide March 7th, died at 7:30 Monday evening at the hospital in Perry. It now appears that he never had a chance for recovery, but the nature of his wounds was such that their severity could not be ascertained at once. Dr. Stalford, first called in the case, immediately asserted that recovery was impossible. The shots fired at the top of the head had penetrated and brain tissue was oozing from the orifice. However the persistence of life in the patient was puzzling and led to predictions that time failed to fulfill. The x-ray showed the bullets lodged in the brain where they had followed the curve of the skull after entering at the forehead. The fact that the bullets penetrated exactly in the center of the forehead was a factor in explaining Mr. White’s remarkable vitality after the episode, permitting hi to walk to the house unaided and to live seventeen days with a foreign substance imbedded in the brain. Had the bullets struck a more vital portion of the brain, his death would have been instantaneous.
The coroner’s jury, before whom an inquest was held at Adel today, returned a verdict of death by suicide late this afternoon. Several local persons acquainted with the case, Dr. Stalford, S. C. Welch, L. L. Morse, and Alva Wright, neighbors, beside members of the family and physicians who later attended Mr. White, gave their testimony before the jury, which had previously viewed the body as it laid in the undertaking parlors at Earlham.
The presumption was, since an inquest was demanded by relatives of the deceased, that they believed there was some question about the manner of his death, but the inquest failed to reveal any circumstances beyond those generally known. Mr. White had admitted his intent to take his life to several witnesses, and no evidence was produced that would incriminate anyone of the act. The fact that White could repeatedly shoot himself, going through the motions of loading his gun between shots in spite of the shock which must have attended the penetration of his brain was peculiar but there was nothing physiologically -----. Earlham Echo.
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