Rev. J. G. Beckley (-1879)

BECKLEY, ROSS

Posted By: Mark Christian
Date: 3/11/2010 at 07:51:02

The Nevada Representative, Nevada, Story County, Iowa, Wednesday, April 30, 1879.

Suicide of Rev. J. G. Beckley

On Wednesday afternoon of last week, a dispatch was received by Mr. T. J. Ross, that the Rev. J. G. Beckley, of near Beloit, Wisconsin, was dead and desired Mr. Ross to get word to Mr. L. H. Beckley, of Union township a brother of the deceased, for him to meet the remains at Chicago, and accompany them to Mt. Vernon, Ohio, the home of his friends for interment. That was all the news received regarding the matter till Saturday last when the Inter Ocean of Friday came to hand, containing a dispatch from Beloit, dated the 24th, given the following additional particulars:

"The body of Mr. J. G. Beckley, a farmer five miles west of this city, in the town of Beloit, was yesterday found hanging in his barn by a rope fastened to one of the rafters, and carefully adjusted to do its work thoroughly. Mr. Beckley came to Beloit last month from Nevada, Iowa, and was a respected and highly esteemed neighbor. It was evidently a case of suicide, though no excuse for his taking his own life can be conjectured. The body was taken to Mt. Vernon, Ohio, today."

Up to the writing the above dispatch is all the particulars that have been received concerning this sad tragedy.

Rev. J. G. Beckley was well known to the people of this county and town having been a resident of the place since 1861, up to about two months ago. Since residing here he has been engaged in farming, some of the time in preaching, as he was a regular Presbyterian minister, and we belive has filled the office of Superintendent of Schools. Last Fall he traded off his house and two or three acres in town with Mr. W. G. Allen for a small place of 18 acres about five miles from Beloit, Wisconsin, and moved there but a short time before the news reached his friends in this county that he was greatly depressed in mind, and wanted to return to his old home. The next thing came the news of his death and suicide.

Rev. Beckley was a native of Ohio about 47 years of age at the time of his death. For the past few years his health had not been good. He spent a few months in the fain effort to regain his usual strength and vigor, at the Danville, N. Y., water cure establishment. Once before he was attacted with a depression of spirits, but it was never supposed that it would result so seriously. He was a man of gentle and aimable disposition, highly respected by all who knew him, and death a very sad one to think of by his friends in this vicinity. He leaves a wife, a sister of Mrs. T. J. Ross, to mourn his loss.