Jones, Louis c1878 – 1901

JONES

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 5/19/2024 at 21:00:44

Source: Decorah Republican June 13, 1901 P 4 C 1

TIRED OF LIFE
Louis Jones, a Glenwood township Laborer, Blows His Brains out with a Rifle.
Louis Jones, a young man twenty-three years of age, who has been working for Erick Ness, of Glenwood township, since early spring, committed suicide last Friday morning by blowing his brains out with a rifle. Last Thurs¬day morning Mr. Ness sent Jones to Decorah with two sacks of grain to be left at the mill to be ground. Late in in the evening when he did not return, Mr. Ness became anxious as to his whereabouts and telephoned to all his neighbors. He was unable to secure any information and at 11 o’clock drove to Decorah but could learn nothing more. He returned home and at midnight Jones had not put in an appearance; but the next morning when Mr. Ness went out to do his chores he found the wagon in the yard, the grain still in it, the horses in the barn and showing signs of hard driving. Jones was asleep on the hay in the mow. Mr. Ness then went on with his chores and at 6 o’clock, when he returned to the barn, Jones had disappeared. Later Mr. Ness learned that Jones had gone over to the Randall Williams farm to get a rifle which he had loaned to a laborer there.
For two years past Jones had at times talked of suicide in a laughing way, saying that there was no use living, it was nothing but hard work all the time and a man didn’t get anything out of it. Suspecting that he had committed suicide, Mr. Ness and some of the family began search for the missing man. They finally found him in the basement under the barn. He had crawled in there, rested his head against the stone wall, put the muzzle of the rifle to his forehead and pulled the trigger. The bullet passed through his head but did not kill him instantly. He breathed once or twice after he was found. Coroner Jewell was absent from town at the time he was sent for, and R. F. Gibson, acting coroner, accompanied by C. N. Houck as clerk, held the inquest. C. J. Pagin, Andrew Anderson and C. Pederson were impanelled as jurymen. The witnesses were E. Ness, W. W. Hubbell, Ole Hattleberg, Louis Arness and E. P Williams. From them it was learned that Jones was addicted to the use of liquors and also that he had had some trouble with a young lady. A memorandum in his pocket showed that he had purchased a keg of beer and a gallon of alcohol the day he was in Decorah and the jug with about half the alcohol was found in the wagon. After hearing the testimony the jury returned a verdict of death by