BELL, John S.: Died 1933

BELL, MCCRARY

Posted By: Volunteer: Sherri (email)
Date: 8/30/2013 at 10:08:17

April 3, 1933

John S. Bell, 59-year-old Valley Junction justice of the peace who killed his two youngest sons Monday morning and committed suicide, was a former resident of Eldon and was born near Mt. Zion in Van Buren county, friends at Eldon said today. He was well known among railroad men at Ottumwa.

He married Miss Leona McCrary of Keosauqua, whose sister still resides in Eldon. He lived on his wife's father's farm until 1899, when he was connected with the Rock Island railway on the K.D. line.

In 1903 he was transferred to Eldon and was fireman on the Ottumwa switch engine until in 1906, when he was promoted to engineer. He was then transferred back to Valley Junction.

He was a member of the Masonic lodge and Consistory and Shrine lodge of Des Moines. Bell shot and killed his sons, 20 and 22 years old, before killing himself Monday morning, according to an Associated Press dispatch from Valley Junction. A Valley Junction minister said he had described himself as "almost crazy from worrying about those two boys, both of whom had been unemployed for some time."

Source: Van Buren Co. Genealogical Society Obituary Book C, Page 205, Keosauqua Public Library, Keosauqua, IA