Charles M. Powell (1890)

POWELL

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler
Date: 12/13/2007 at 13:13:25

Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Friday, May 23, 1890
Page 4

ANOTHER SUICIDE -

The Body of Charles M. Powell Found in Jones Creek in South Township.

The MADISONIAN of the 9th inst., made mention of the somewhat mysterious disappearance of Mr. Chas. M. Powell, of Union township. The issue of the 16th contained a card from his wife seeking for information of his whereabouts. On Saturday, May 3, he was in Winterset attending to some business. He went to his home in the afternoon, and later in the evening started away on foot, and was seen going southeast, and it is also said that on Monday the 9th he was seen at St. Charles.

Diligent inquiry was made for him, but nothing was ascertained until Wednesday, the 21st last, when his body was found in Jones Creek, in South township. It is reasonably certain that he committed suicide by going into the water and drowning himself, for all the streams of the county have been so low on account of the protracted dry weather, that they could be easily crossed at almost any point of general travel. Coroner Hobson was notified, and he immediately went to the spot where the body was found and taken out of the water. A coroner’s jury consisting of Wm. Eldridge, J. W. Mann, and Ira Parker, with L. C. Houk as clerk, was empaneled and the following verdict rendered:

An inquest was held at Jones Creek, in South township, Madison county, Iowa, on the 21st day of May, A. D., 1890, before J. M. Hobson, coroner of the said county, upon the body of Charles Powell, that’s lying dead, by the jurors whose names are hereto subscribed. The said jurors upon their oathe do say that this was a suicide.

Mr. Powell was a quiet, inoffensive man, esteemed a good and upright citizen. He was about 46 years of age, had been a soldier, and member of the Grand Army of the Republic. No sufficient cause for his rash act seems to be known, if he was suffering from say mental derangement, as has been thought, it was certainly of a mild type, as to all appearances he was all right. It is evident that he did not contemplate immediate suicide, when he left home on Saturday evening, as he was seen in St. Charles on Monday, and in going to St. Charles he must have crossed the stream in which his dead body was afterwards found, and one or two larger streams. But on any theory of the cause, it is a sad end to life.

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