Callie Lily Skyles (1894-1909)

SKYLES

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 12/10/2016 at 00:38:49

From Nevada Representative November 30, 1909 (front page)

GIRL SUICIDES

Callie Skyles of Grant Township Hans Herself

A suicide which appears to have no understandable cause excepting the excessive reading of cheap literature was that of Callie Skyles, sixteen-year-old daughter and only child of Fred W. Skyles of Grant township, Saturday afternoon. The story of the matter is that Mr. and Mrs. Skyles went to Ames Saturday afternoon for their usual marketing, that the daughter did not care to accompany them, that upon their return after dusk the house was dark and the daughter not to be seen, that search for her was instituted, resulting after awhile in finding her body hanging in the stable. Manifestly it was a case of suicide, and Coroner Bailey, who went down Sunday morning to look over the situation, found that no inquest was necessary. A search for any message that might have been left was fruitless and investigation did not disclose any motive, adequate or otherwise, for the girl's act but a quantity of mail-order literature which such titles as "An Abandoned Wife," and "A Maiden Forlorn" served as a plausible explanation as to what was really the matter with the girl. As indicated, the girl was an only child, and her act a great shock to her parents. Mr. Skyles is a farmer on a farm of his own on the west side of Grant township near to Skunk river.