Otto Dolph (-1908)

DOLPH

Posted By: Gail and Dennis Bell
Date: 5/29/2005 at 10:49:18

THE MAXWELL TRIBUNE, Maxwell, Iowa, Thursday, April 28, 1908, page 1. "ACCIDENT OR SUICIDE - Otto Dolph Meets a Horrible Death on a Farm Northeast of Town - The fact of death is a gruesome thought to all and when it comes unexpectedly or in some terrible manner it is doubly distressing. Such was the case when the body of Otto Dolph was discovered in an old unused shed Sunday evening on the Dunahoo farm six miles northeast of town, his head shattered from a charge of shot, presumably from a gun that lay at his side. As he was batching on the farm no one had seen him since Friday but nothing was thought of it until he failed to arrived at the home of Miss Hattie Cooper, of Collins, to accompany her to church as had been agreed. After vainly waiting for some time after the church hour, her fears became increased and she prevailed upon her father to go out to the farm and see what was the occasion of the young man failing to come to town. Mr. Cooper accompanied by Messrs. Granger and Ulum, arrived at the place and finding no one at the house made an investigation at the barn, only to find unmistakable evidence that there had been no one about the place for some little time. They made a thorough search of the premises and failed to find any clue to the missing man, until they entered an old unused shed, where they were startled with the horrifying and ghastly sight that met their eyes, under the flickering rays of a lantern. Lying cold in death, with a ghastly hole in his head, where a charge from a shot gun had plowed its way through, was the young man. By his side lay the gun that had apparently done the killing. The neighborhood was at once aroused and Coroner Hanson, of Cambridge, telephoned for. It was the prevailing opinion in the neighborhood before any careful examination had been made, that the death was the result of an accident. It was known that Mr. Dolph had been complaining of skunks or some other sort of pests that had been taking his chickens and it was at first supposed that he had been in the old shed, with the gun, probably Friday, in quest of these thieves and that in some manner the gun had been exploded, killing him instantly. The examination of Coroner Hanson disclosed the fact that the course of the shot ranged downward and from the position of the body he was leaning over on the muzzle of the gun when the shot was fired, but whether to commit suicide or to rest in unknown. His face is unmarred save immediately around the forehead where the charge entered, and the nostrils and mouth are burned from the inside, as well as the skull being split down the center from the concussion. He had hold of the barrel of the gun with his left hand and his feet and the stock of the gun were on a line, showing that he was standing when the shot was fired and fell to the left. Judging from the condition of the body when it was found, and from the stock about the place, it is supposed that the man had been dead since Friday as the fork with which he had been digging was sticking in the ground and his hands were unwashed, just as he had been driven to shelter by the rain that morning. One team was standing in the barn with the harness still on and in a weakened condition for the want of food. The other stock about the farm showed evidence of having gone for some time without food or water which confirms the suspicion that the man had been dead for some time before the discovery was made. The young man was about twenty-five years of age, and a son of Elmer Dolph, a farmer living about three miles north of Collins. He was a young man of excellent reputation, had many friends in the neighborhood who can conceive of no reason why he should commit suicide, and hence the general supposition is that the death was accidental. The funeral occurred form the home of his father, Elmer Dolph, three miles north of Collins, Wednesday morning, after which interment occurred at the Collins cemetery. LATER - The coroner's jury returned a verdict of death by accidental shooting."