Mary Ewalt Mishler 1883-1916

MISHLER, HAYES, EWALT, MILLER, BECKMAN, MOORE, ROBERTS

Posted By: C. Tucker (email)
Date: 11/19/2010 at 16:59:26

Evening Times Republican
Marshalltown, IA [Tuesday 2-15-1916] p. 10

YOUNG WIFE COMMITS SUICIDE BY HANGING

---MRS M. F. MISHLER, OF LISCOMB, PLANS SELF DESTRUCTION METHODICALLY---

---FORECASTS DEED TO HER HUSBAND IN THE MORNING---

Cries as She Kisses Him Goodbye, and Tells Him He Will Know When He Returns Home Why She Weeps

Writes Last Letter to Sister and Posts it Just Before She Dies

"What are you crying for?” asked M. F. Mishler, of Liscomb, when he kissed his wife goodbye upon leaving home for this city Monday morning. “You’ll know when you get home tonight,” was Mrs. Mishler’s reply. At the union station Monday evening at 5 o’clock Mishler received a telegram from C. B. Jentsch, of Liscomb, informing him that Mrs. Mishler was dead. The message gave no hint as to the cause. Mishler knew that his wife was well in the morning, and the prophetic words with that last kiss haunted him. He could not dismiss them from his mind. “You’ll know when you get home tonight.” Mishler reached Liscomb by automobile shortly after 7 o’clock. He found that his wife had ended her life by hanging. - - Goes About Death Methodically - - Mrs. Mishler went about her death methodically. Since she and her family had returned from Lime Springs last October, the family had been staying with Mrs. Polly Weatherly, aged 85, keeping her company and looking after the place. Mrs. Mishler kept very busy all day. After her death was discovered Mrs. Weatherly could see that the woman had appeared nervous in her anxiety to get many things out of the way. She mended her children’s garments; she gave her baby son Donald, aged 2, a bath and changed his clothing; although the clothes were clean, and the boy had been bathed Saturday night. A letter to her sister, Mrs. F. L. Hayes, at Des Moines, had been started Sunday night. Monday afternoon Mrs. Mishler finished the missive. At 3 o’clock Mrs. Mishler told Mrs. Weatherly that she was going to the barn to get some coal. She was gone fully half an hour, and it is now believed that while there she made the preparations for her swing into eternity. - - Mails Letter to Sister - - Upon her return from the barn Mrs. Mishler changed her clothes and went to the postoffice, where she mailed her letter. As she and her family were making preparations to move soon Mrs. Mishler told Mrs. Weatherly after returning from the postoffice that she was going to the barn again to look for some curtains, some of the family’s household effects being stored in the barn. Four o’clock came, and shortly after the Mishler children, Cieta, aged 12, and Glenn, 9 years old, came home from school. Mrs. Mishler had not returned from the barn, and Mrs. Weatherly, becoming somewhat uneasy, and fearing that possibly the woman had fallen and hurt herself, asked the children to go to the barn and look. The children did so, but found no signs of their mother. They reported to Mrs. Weatherly. She asked them to return and look in the hay loft. The children, frightened at the possibility of anything wrong with mamma, were afraid to climb the ladder. They called D. W. Reisinger, who lives across the street from the Weatherly home. He came over, mounted the ladder, and saw the woman’s dead body dangling from the end of a small rope. - - Neck Broken by Fall - - Mr. Reisinger hurried up the street and got the help of several men. The body was cut down. It was found to be warm but was pulseless. Mrs. Mishler had placed a box on the top of a chair, tied the rope around a rafter, adjusted the noose about her neck and jumped. The woman’s neck was broken by the fall. She was dressed just as she had appeared on the street to post her letter. - - Note Found in Clothing - - Altho saying nothing about why she committed the act, Mrs. Mishler left one note in addition to what may be contained in her letter to Mrs. Hays. In the note, which was found by Mrs. J. W. Pursel when she prepared the body for burial, directions were left as to what clothing should be placed on her body for burial, and where to find the different articles. “Be good to the children,” was the mother’s last injunction. The note was signed by the initial “M.” of her Christian name. - - No Cause For Act Known - - Coroner A. R. Lynn, who was called to investigate the case, could discover no cause for the woman’s act. All evidence of neighbors, and that of Mrs. Weatherly, indicated that the domestic life of the Mishlers was happy. Mrs. Hays is not expected to reach Liscomb until this evening, and until she arrives the family will be in darkness regarding the contents of the last letter Mrs. Mishler wrote. - - Was Native of County - - Mrs. Mishler was born Mary Ewalt, at Melbourne, Feb. 10, 1883, a daughter of David K. Ewalt, now of Bromley, and his second wife. She became the wife of Marion Francis Mishler in this city Nov. 24, 1901. In addition to her husband, three children, and her father, Mrs. Mishler is survived by four brothers and one sister, ten half brothers and sisters, and seven step-brothers and sisters. The own brothers and sisters are John Ewalt, of Keller, Minn.; Charles of Pilot Mound; Frank, of Ferguson; Myron, of Liscomb; and Mrs. F. L. Hayes, of Des Moines. The half brothers and sisters are Mrs. Carey Miller, William Ewalt, and Mrs. Elam Adams, of Liscomb; Burley Ewalt, of Harmony, Minn.; and Rebecca, Marion, Clarence, Randall, Roy, and Viola, who are at their father’s home in Bromley. The step-brothers and sisters are Mrs. George H. Beckman, of Waterloo; Mrs. Ira Moore and George Roberts, of Bromley; Mrs. Earl Galt, Miss Grace Roberts, and William and John Roberts, of Savanna, Ill. Funeral Thursday.