McSURELY, Cleola

MCSURELY, TREBIL

Posted By: Volunteer: Sherri
Date: 7/22/2015 at 22:22:12

CLEOLA McSURELY SUICIDES.
- - - - -
Shoots Herself With a 22 Caliber Rifle.

Friday morning, August 19, 1910, the people of Keosauqua and of this part of the county in particular, were shocked to hear that Cleola McSurely, only child of James McSurely, a farmer residing between Keosauqua and Mt. Zion, had taken her own life. She was just in young womanhood, her age being 18 years, 2 months and 10 days. She was a member of the senior class of Keosauqua high school and would have graduated in another year. There is no known cause for the act, though the idea with many is that it was a result of temporary mental derangement because of poor health. Herself and father resided alone at their home and it is stated that she was periodically afflicted with severe pain and sickness. The morning of her death, as out information is, her father arose about five o'clock and Cleola told him she was feeling badly and he gave her some medicine kept in the house for her use at such times. It failed to stay on her stomach and he gave her another powder, which seemed to make her easier, and he then went to the barn lot to milk, leaving her upstairs in bed. When he finished milking he returned to the house, and entering the sitting room down stairs he found her lying dead on the floor with a 22 caliber rifle at her side. She was in her night clothes and evidently had left her bed as soon as her father went out, came down stairs and procured the rifle and shot herself. The ball entered at the right temple and ranged upward but did not go through the head. A physician, who examined the wound, informed us that death must have been instantaneous.

As soon as possible neighbors were at hand to render every assistance. Just a short distance down the road, not a quarter of a mile away, her grandfather John Trebil, 86 years of age, lay at the point of death, his condition being so critical that Attorney F.M. Hunter and wife of Ottumwa, relatives, had been summoned to his bedside the evening before, but the grandfather was not, for a time, advised of the calamity that had come to his granddaughter.

The funeral was held from the house at 2:30 o'clock Sunday afternoon, Revs. Thorn and Perkins being in charge of the services. Besides a large concourse of people, her classmates were present in a body, the last named acting as pall bearers for their loved schoolmate. The interment was at the side of her mother in the Purdom cemetery. Cleola was of a quiet and retired nature, but kind and affectionate, and had the love and esteem of her associates and acquaintances. Her mother died about four years ago, which was a severe loss for the daughter, who mourned much for her, but they are now united in another world.

Following is the verdict of the coroner's jury rendered at the residence of the deceased the forenoon of her death:

CORONER'S INQUEST.

Before P.K. Ware, Coroner of Van Buren County, Iowa.
In the Mater of the -
Inquest of the Body - Verdict of Jurors.
of Cleola McSurely. -

Sate of Iowa, - ss.
Van Buren County, -

An inquisition holden at the Jas. H. Surely home in Van Buren township, Van Buren county, Iowa, on the road between Keosauqua and Mt. Zion, on the 19th day of August, A.D., 1910, before P.K. Ware, coroner of said county, upon the body of Cleola McSurely, there lying dead, by jurors whose names are hereto subscribed:

The said jurors upon their oaths do say that she came to her death by a gunshot wound self-afflicted while suffering a temporary mental aberration caused by sickness and severe pain.

In testimony whereof, the said jurors have hereunto set their hands the day of the year aforesaid.

E.D. BELL, -
GEO. V. BARKER, - Jurors
CLAYTON D. SHEROD, -

Attest:
P.K. WARE,
Coroner Van Buren Co.

**Handwritten: Also see Book G, page 212 G

Source: Van Buren Co. Genealogical Society Obituary Book E, Page 97, Keosauqua Public Library, Keosauqua, IA