Rev. Judson Washington LaGRONE

LAGRONE, MERCHANT, TOLER, JOHNSTON

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/10/2024 at 13:06:42

Rev. Judson Washington LaGrone
22 February 1875 --- 20 March 1935

Kills Himself with Shotgun
Rev. J.W. LaGrone Ends Life Here Tuesday Night
Former Hawarden Pastor Drove Here From Wahpeton, N.D. in Order to Commit Rash Act

Rev. J. W. LaGrone of Wahpeton, N.D., former pastor of the Methodist church in Hawarden, committed suicide in this city sometime Tuesday evening by shooting himself in the head with a double-barrelled shotgun. The tragic act was committed in his automobile, which he had parked on the south side of the Methodist church here and his lifeless body was discovered inside the car about 2:30 Wednesday morning.

The parked car was first noticed on the south side of the church about 7 o'clock Tuesday evening, shortly before dark, and numerous people saw it there through the evening but no one took sufficient heed to investigate it. Late that night, H. S. Campbell and Miss Caryl Beitz, teachers in the Hawarden schools, started for Sioux City in a car to meet Courtney Slife who was returning home from Ames for a brief vacation. They noticed the car as they started for Sioux City and remarked about it and when returning with Courtney Slife from Sioux City mentioned it again and they decided to investigate if the car should still be there on their return. When they found the car in the same spot, Courtney got out to investigate. When he noted the North Dakota number plates, he immediately recognized the car, an Essex sedan, as belonging to Rev. LaGrone and on looking inside was horrified to see the lifeless body of the minister. They immediately notified the night police officers who took charge. The body was removed from the car and taken to the Ross Funeral Home and the car was removed to the garage.

Apparently, the suicide had been carefully planned and timed. So far as The Independent has determined, no one talked with Rev. LaGrone in Hawarden Tuesday. Apparently, he had left his home in North Dakota that morning and reached Hawarden in the early evening and paid a visit to the cemetery as tracks of his car, identified by the tread mark of his tires, were found there Wednesday morning near the grave where his first wife is buried. While driving out towards the cemetery shortly before 7 o'clock Tuesday evening, Mr. and Mrs. Claus Lage met the car driven by Rev. LaGrone coming towards town but did not recognize him. It seems evident that he drove directly to the point where the car was found and shot himself about that time.

In a pocket of the car was found a letter, sealed, stamped and addressed to his daughter, Miss Julia LaGrone, at Oakland, Neb. Pinned to this letter was a note on a single small piece of paper written with lead pencil which read:

"When I am found, call C.A. Slife and immediately notify Rev. J.L. LaGrone, El Reno, Oklahoma; Miss Julia LaGrone, Oakland, Nebraska; Mr. Roy Merchant, Wahpeton, N.D.; Dr. Koch, 1400 Mulberry Street, Sioux City."

The spot where he was found was only a block from the C. A. Slife home. Coroner A.C. Jongewaard was here from Sioux Center Wednesday afternoon but after inquiring into the circumstances decided that an inquest was unnecessary.

Rev. LaGrone was 60 in February and had been in the ministry practically all of his adult life. He was reared in the south and it was while holding a pastorate in Crowley, La., that he met and was married to Miss Sallie Toler on Feb. 22, 1905. They later moved to Port Arthur, Texas, and in 1918 he joined the Northwest Iowa conference of the Methodist Episcopal church. His first pastorate in Iowa was at Kingsley, where he served for four years. He then spent two years in a pastorate at Clarion, four years at Estherville and two years at Sheldon. He came to Hawarden as pastor of the local Methodist church in October 1925 and remained here for three years. It was while living here that he suffered a great grief in the loss of his wife, who was so terribly burned in a gasoline explosion in the basement of her home that she died within a few hours. This occurred on July 20, 1926. It is thought that he brooded much over her tragic death and that when he determined upon suicide came to Hawarden to commit the act so that he might be buried beside her.

At the Methodist conference in the fall of 1928, Rev. LaGrone was transferred from Hawarden to the pastorate at Rockwell City, Iowa. Just before leaving for Rockwell City, on Oct. 4, 1928, he was united in marriage with Miss Hattie Johnston at Westfield, Iowa. After a year or more at Rockwell City, he exchanged pastorates with a Methodist minister at Valley City, N.D., where he continued to serve until last fall when he was transferred to Wahpeton.

He is survived by his wife and one son, John, aged 15, at Wahpeton, another son, Hiram LaGrone, who is married and now living in Port Arthur, Texas, and two daughters, Miss Julia LaGrone, a teacher at Oakland, Neb., and Miss Dellora LaGrone of Forman, N.D.

Rev. LaGrone was a man of boundless energy. During his Hawarden pastorate, he was especially active with men's groups and was the inspiration of a large men's class in his church. He took an active interest in questions of public concern and was fearless in his advocacy of those causes to which he was committed. He possessed a keen mind and a jovial disposition and made many friends, both inside and outside his church, who are shocked at the tragic manner of his death.

Mrs. LaGrone, accompanied by John and Miss Dellora LaGrone, arrived here from Wahpeton Wednesday afternoon, as did Miss Julia LaGrone from Oakland, Neb., and Rev. J. L. LaGrone, a brother, is expected to reach here from El Reno, Okla., sometime today.

Funeral services will be held at the Methodist church in this city at 2:30 Friday afternoon with Rev. Robert H. Forrester in charge, assisted by Dr. Robert E. O'Brian, president of Morningside College, and Rev. M. L. Metcalf, also of Sioux City. Interment will be made in Grace Hill cemetery.

Hawarden Independent -- Hawarden, Iowa
March 21, 1935

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[minister for two years in Clarion, Wright County, Iowa]