Mrs. Fred Kick

KICK, LANG, MORSE, THATCHER, KRAMER, SEIDEL

Posted By: Volunteer: Roxanne Riggan
Date: 4/27/2012 at 18:16:03

Mrs.Fred Kick

Sudden Death of Mrs. Kick
Many Friends and Relatives Mourn the Loss of a True Friend

A Hustling Enterprising Business Woman

Sorrowing Husband Has Sympathy of Entire Communtiy

Mrs. Fred Kick is dead. That is being repeated in low accents by the people of Farmington. It is being whispered by hundreds who cannot realize what it means.
Everyone seems to be trying to get a firmer grasp of what has come to pass. But the shock is too great and they only know that a sad catastrophe has occurred.
The common place things of life and even those topics of the Nation, State and City which usually absorb the attention of the people are cast aside, and Farmington weeps. Weeps from a vague knowledge, the knowledge which as yet is out seen through a vale of darkness. It weeps because it is ----- today by far than it was not ------ days ago. ------------------------------.
The heart stopped beating, the sparkle of a bright and ----- eye the heavens on high and of a high and noble mind. Beams no more. Farmington is inconsolable and her grief is great and hard to bear.

So that any misapprehension might be cleared away and that the true story of the last hours of the late lamented Mrs. Kick could be given to the public, the writer sought, and was graciously accorded an interview with Mr. Kick, husband of the deceased.
Mr. Kick can no more realize that his beloved wife has been taken from him, than the people can estimate their loss through her death. His sorrow is great but to him it is something of a dream.
Mr. Kick related all the circumstances leading up to his wife’s death and showed that there was nothing in his wife’s health which could prepare them of the sad event.
About 4 a.m. on the morning of October 2, which was Monday of last week. Mrs. Kick had a severe attack of headache and vomiting and took some headache tablets which relieved the pain. At 6 a.m. that morning she felt well enough to go to her parents’ home for breakfast. Mrs. Kick has been of the habit of assisting her husband in his Drug Store, but owing to this attack of illness she acted on her husband’s advice and remained at home that day, until the evening when she was present at the meeting of the P.E.O.’s at the time and she had not felt better for a long time, and she went to business as usual.
At one o’clock on Tuesday on Mr. Kick returning to the store after dinner his wife told him she was going home to take her nap of about ten minutes which she did everyday and this was the last time he heard his wife speak. Mrs. Kick did not return t the store but thinking that she had become busy about the house or had gone to her parents home Mr. Kick did not -------- until his wife‘s sister Cathy called the store and inquired why she had not come to -----.
Mr. Kick said that perhaps she had gone for a drive and had been delayed, but he did not look satisfied and therefore hastened home. On attempting an entrance by the front door fund it hooked, on the inside, and the same was the case at the back door.
The circumstances of his wife’s sickness on Monday now caused him some apprehension as to her safety, and he jerked the door so that the hook came loose and allowed him to enter. Thinking that Mrs. Kick had fainted he made a search --------- and on searching the hall his attention was ------- by the sound of heavy and unnatural breathing coming from the upper story. He hurried to his wife’s bedroom, lighted a lamp, and -- discovered her lying on the bed with her hat and shoes off; just as if she had laid down to take the nap she spoke about. To all appearance she was enjoying a peaceful slumber, and heavy breathing was all that betrayed the presence of an illness what was soon to terminate so fatally.
He called her by name and finding it impossible to arouse her he communicated with Drs. Neff and Kirkpatrick over the telephone told them what had happened and requested their immediate presence. Dr. Neff and daughter Minnie hurried to the bedside of the sick woman, and was followed shortly by Dr. Kirkpatrick.
The Doctors at once detected presence of a drug and to rest her to consciousness they resorted to artificial respiration, working heroically thus for three long hours without success. When the almost hopelessness of the case was realized strong stimulants were hypodermica given from time to time which prolonged life until Thursday morning about 10 a.m.
The Doctors remained by the bedside from about 6:15 Tuesday evening until Thursday morning doing all that skill and patience could do.

Mr. Kick states that the medicine given by the Doctors detected the presence of Antikamnia Codine but that none of these could be found by the bed nor any of the stands in the room. He however mentioned that in the back of a medicine cupboard the room where his wife was sleeping he found a bottle containing tablets of the variety which the Doctors says she had taken.
Mr. Kick is of the opinion that his wife had been afraid of another attack of headache, an had taken some tablets to ward it off so that she might feel well enough to attend the party given at the Neff’s that evening and to which she had been invited. And that it was these tablet in addition to those taken on Monday that proved too much for her constitution. I was supposed Mrs. Kick had been unconscious five hours before she was found by her husband. Of that ---------- again of this world.
Unreadable paragraph
Some time a Mrs. Kick was sorely troubled with headache but by sleeping in a tent at night she was afford much relief and had been so free from pain that she did not find it necessary to take any tablets until Monday morning.
The danger of taking medication--- ----- so warned anyone who bought them I her husbands store. It is therefore thought that a recurrence of Mondays sickness threatened her on Tuesday and know of the good derived from these tablets she took some with the hope that she would be fit to enjoy the party to be given at Dr. Neff’s.
That is the sad story of the sad and tragic ending to a useful life, a life short but crowded with noble deeds. The hand so wonderfully skilled in the art of orderliness and so deft in the beautiful now lies cold and clasped in death. The eyes that kindled hope anew, and inspired with confidence many a despairing soul are closed forever. There is a vacant chair. There are faithful friends that mourn her absence, and as relentless time in the strength of his unceasing tread brings us nearer to the great crossing we shall look back with wistful eye to that place on Elm street where lived and labored one of Farmington’s’ beloved women. In her brief life she accomplished much, in her mind was the power for greater things in her daily walk of life was in her every movement, and "She makes the world look brighter.”

The services at the were conducted by Rev. J. H. Taylor. The funeral was strictly private and only relatives immediate friends and members of the Eastern Star of which she was a prominent member were present.
The burial services at the grave were conducted by the order of the Eastern Star. The many floral offerings from loving relatives and friends were most beautiful and elaborate.
Those from abroad were as follows, Mrs. S.R. Reid of Kansas City, Mrs. Peterson of Centerville, sisters of the deceased and their husbands Mrs. Lang, Martinsburg, West Va. Mr. Fred Morse, brother, Hannibal, Mo., Mrs. L.B. Thatcher, Washington, D.C. , Mrs. Seidel and Mrs. Kramer cousins of Mr. Kick form Rock Island, Illinois.

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Source: Van Buren Co. Genealogical Society Scrapbook A, page 349 and 350, Keosauqua Public Library; Keosauqua, IA