Jimmie Roark (1886)

ROARK

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler (email)
Date: 10/20/2007 at 10:47:38

Winterset Madisonian - April 29, 1886
Winterset, Iowa
page 4

Our Chip Basket

We learned this (Wednesday) morning of the suicide of a twelve year old son of Mr. Roake, of Lee township. We were unable to get any particulars up to the time of going to press.

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Winterset Madisonian - May 6, 1886
Winterset, Iowa
page 4

We learn that Mr. Roark's little boy, reported last week to have committed suicide, hung himself accidently. He and his little brother were playing in the barn and he in sport, put his head through the crupper of a pair of harness. He was standing on a bucket which fell from under him and left him suspended. His little brother ran off to the house and thought nothing of the matter until his father, going into the barn, found him strangled. This is a most distressing affair and Mr. Rorick is almost heart broken.

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Winterset Madisonian - May 6, 1886
Winterset, Iowa
page 4

From a correspondence to the REGISTER we learn the following particulars of the accidental death of Jimmie Roark, (we had the name Roake last week) which was at first reported to us by telephone from Patterson as a suicide. We regret that we had the incorrect information that we did, as the stroke to the grief stricken parents was extremely severe in any event, and a report that it was a suicide would of course only intensify their sorrow. The REGISTER says:

The family of Mr. James Roark, living on a farm seven miles south of this place, in Madison county, has been stricken a terrible blow. Last Tuesday night Mr. Roark's oldest son, James, went to the barn on an errand and took with him a younger brother. In a few minutes the younger lad ran to the house and said to his mother: "Jimmie is in the harness spitting at me." His father went at once to the barn, only to discover that his poor boy had fallen in the harness and strangled to death. The parents were shocked and nearly crazed by the sad accident. Friends in Des Moines were notified, and attempted to attend the funeral, which occurred on Thursday, but were unable to get further than this place on account of the roads. Mr. Roark moved from South Des Moines to his farm four years ago, and will undoubtedly have the sympathies of friends there. The unfortunate lad was thirteen years old, the oldest of the family, and a great help to his parents.