Benjamin Franklin Pasley (1845-1896)

PASLEY

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 8/19/2014 at 18:22:17

From Nevada Representative September 2, 1896

Suicide of B. F. Pasley.

Mr. B. F. Pasley, a former resident of Nevada, suicided about August 21st, at his home in Emmet county. Of this event the Estherville Republican gives the following report:

Mr. Pasley lived alone in a small one story house, a mile or more from an neighbor. Sometime perhaps Friday the 21, he had prepared for death. Removing all his outer clothing he lay down on the bed, placed a stick of dynamite under his pillow, and attached it to an electric battery which ended his life. The windows of the house were all broken, a hole torn in the roof and the room spattered with clotted blood, brains and feathers. The man's head was blown to fragments. The deceased came to this county from Story county in 1891 and contracted for 450 acres of land which he occupied up to the time of his death. He was a widower and leaves a family of four grown sons, three of whom reside in this county, the other in Nevada, Iowa. Mr. Pasley was of a moross, melancholy disposition and had met with many disappointments the past few years. For a month or more it had been noticed he was fast losing his mind and his tragic death was, therefore, not unexpected.