Iowa Old Press

LeMars Sentinel, Monday, July 1, 1895, Page 4, Column 4:

Death of Wm. Lancaster, Sr.

From Thursday's daily.

Wm. Lancaster, Sr., of Seney, died Tuesday night at ten o'clock of
paralysis following a stroke of apoplexy. He was 88 years of age nearly and
had been a resident of Plymouth county for many years. Several sons live
near Seney and are prominent citizens. The funeral was held at Seney this
afternoon at 2 o'clock.
(Transcriber Note: Wm's date of death was Tuesday, 25 Jun 1895; his burial
was Thursday, 27 Jun 1895.)

The LeMars Semi-Weekly Post
Tuesday, July 2, 1895

SUICIDE AT NEPTUNE.
Blood has again been spilled at Neptune. This time Markus Long, who lives
two miles south and a mile west of “Happy Corner,” decided that life was not
worth the living and took the pistol route.

Long laid most cool and deliberate plans for his self-murder and carried
them out in every detail. He came to LeMars early Saturday morning and,
after settling several business affairs went to Moore’s, formerly Pew Bros.
hardware store where he purchased a revolver of L. F. Button. Long said he
wanted a gun to kill dogs and was very particular to get a good one, sure to
kill. In a few hours Long returned and complained that the revolver would
not fire. He said he had gone two miles on the way home before he tried the
weapon and found it wouldn’t work. Upon examination it was found that the
clerk had given him rim fire cartridges for a center firing gun. The right
cartridges were secured but the old man would not be satisfied until the
clerk had tested the revolver by firing down an elevator shaft.

Hardly fifteen minutes after Long had arrived home he was sitting dead on
the edge of a bed in a dismal 8x10 bedroom. He had sent the children to the
barn with a team, locked himself in the room, took a good drink of whiskey,
placed the muzzle of the weapon back of his right ear and the dull report
which Mrs. Long heard as she came up from the field ended this life for
Markus Long.

Coroner Gray was called Saturday night but was unable to hold an inquest
until yesterday morning. After appointing M. J. Delahunt, Richard Burke and
M. Konkel as his jury, Mrs. Annie Long, L. F. Button, Joe Long and Fred
Blumer were examined and the above facts developed.

A verdict was returned that Long came to his death by a bullet wound in his
neck inflicted by a revolver in his own hands.

The inquisition failed to uncover any reason for Long’s action. He as about
63 years old and had served in the Civil War. A pension of six dollars was
granted to Long but he expected an increase to ten dollars. The last voucher
which he received Friday, called for only six dollars. This may have
troubled the old fellow and lead him to the deed.

Long came to Plymouth county in 1870 and settled on his 80 acres in Lincoln
township. He has not been a very successful farmer and the little place is
laden with a $500 mortgage. The home is one of the most barren places
imaginable, roughly plastered, broken here and there, destitute of furniture
save a few broken chairs and a rudely made table. Fifteen children have
known this place as home; two are dead and eight still remain with the
mother, the others having reached the age to battle for themselves.

The remains were buried in a neighboring cemetery immediately after the
inquest.

LeMars Sentinel
LeMars, Plymouth co. Iowa
July 4, 1895

PISTOL SUICIDE
Markus Long, an Old Veteran, Kills Himself.
WORRIED OVER HIS PENSION
Thought He Ought to Have a Bigger Allowance from the Government—He had a
Good Farm in Stanton Township

From Monday’s daily.
Last Saturday afternoon another suicide was added to the already long list
of tragedies in Stanton township, ten miles south of LeMars. The victim of
his own folly was Markus Long, a well known settler and prosperous farmer.
He leaves a wife and thirteen children, some of them small, to take care of
the farm and themselves. There are eight boys in the family and some of the
oldest live at home.

The reason of the suicide is not exactly known but all the inferences from
Long’s conduct lately point to but one probably cause—he has been
dissatisfied about his pension money and worried because it was not
increased. He was an old solider and his army record a most excellent one.
He belonged to Company A, 16th United States Regulars, infantry. He served
his country well and was wounded by a shell in the battle of Chattanooga.
His right hip was fractured and that caused the lameness which has been
noticeable since. Long was sixty-three years old and has been drawing a
pension of four dollars a month for several years. He generally came to
LeMars at the end of each quarter and had George C. Smith, the insurance
agent and pension solicitor, help him in making out the vouchers to be
returned to the department at Washington. About a year ago, he began to
complain to Smith that he was not getting pension enough. Smith undertook
getting him an increase and succeeded in raising it to six dollars a month.
This was seven months ago. The increase did not satisfy the old man, and he
thought that he ought to have twelve dollars a month.

Last Friday afternoon one of his sons went to the post office at Neptune and
brought his father a letter from the pension bureau at Washington. This
contained his quarterly allowance of eighteen dollars and a letter which he
told his wife he did not understand. He made a few complaints that he was
not getting enough pension money and told the family that he would have to
go to LeMars and see George Smith about getting an increase. He postponed
the trip to town until Saturday morning. Strange to say, after getting to
town, he did not go to Smith’s office after all. Mr. Smith told the SENTINEL
reporter that he happened to meet Long on the street Saturday and had a few
minutes’ talk with him. Long made no reference to pension matters and did
not produce the letter which he had come to have explained. His movements
about town are not known exactly, but he went over to the Plymouth Mills and
adjusted a storage account. He had wheat in store in the elevator and said
he wanted cash rather than the flour which he usually took. Will Boyd paid
him the money, about eight dollars, and noticed that the old man appeared
rather nervous.

Shortly before noon, L. F. Button, a clerk in Moore’s hardware store, was
looking at a revolver in the store when Long came in. He remarked, “Got a
revolver, have you? That is what I want to buy.” Button showed him several
revolvers. One was too small to kill anything, another was too cheap for him
to shoot, and various other reasons were given for not taking particular
guns. He finally decided on a Columbia Arms company revolver, a 32-caliber.
He seemed rather afraid of it and asked Button if he would shoot it off once
to see if it was any good. They stepped to the back of the store and the
clerk shot down the elevator shaft. The old man paid for the gun and started
up the street. In about half an hour he came back and said that he had tried
the gun after he left town and it wouldn’t shoot. “I want to shoot dogs with
it,” he said. Button went to another store and secured another style of
cartridge. These proved satisfactory.

Before finally starting for home Long bought a half pint flask of whisky.
Before he had more than started, the time had come for the noon shift at the
store, and Button remarked to R. H. Dawson, who relieved him, “that he had
just sold a gun to an old man and he thought that the old fellow intended to
shoot himself.” The presentiment proved only too true, for about three
o’clock Long reached home. He saw that his wife was in the garden. He did
not unhitch the team, but went into the bedroom and sent the small children
away who were in the house. Later Coroner Gray found about one-fifth of the
whisky gone when he arrived, so the old man could not have drank a great
deal of it. He braced his nerves, however, took off his coat and fired the
fatal shot just behind and above his right ear. One was enough, and when the
terrorized family reached the bedroom where he lay, the brain matter and
blood was oozing from the gaping wound.

The neighbors were notified, but Coroner Gray was not sent for until
evening. He did not get out to the farm until late and decided to postpone
the inquest until this morning.

The neighbors can account for the act by no other theory than that of the
pension failure. Long has had considerable trouble with a neighbor, Herman
Epling, who had his boys arrested a year ago for stealing parts of a harness
and a pitchfork. Justice Steiner discharged the boys for want of evidence
and the interest in that died out long ago. Long was considered rather
eccentric in character, but an honest, straightforward man who seemed
prosperous and contented. His farm is a good one and the crops are all well
cared for and looking fine.

THE CORONER’S INQUEST
Coroner Gray accompanied Ed. C. Clay and L. F. Button went to the scene of
the suicide this morning. A jury of three neighbors was sworn. Button and
members of the family testified and the jury brought in a verdict that Long
met his death by a pistol shot fired by his own hand.

Dr. C.J. HACKETT MARRIED: HE BRINGS HOMES A CHARMING BRIDE FROM KANSAS CITY. STYLISH WEDDING IN THAT MISSOURI METROPOLIS

Dr. C.J. Hackett and wife is the inscription on the register at the Windsor
which told the secret to the LeMars people who had not read the society news
pages of the Kansas City and St. Joe daily papers. As explained by the
papers and corroborated by the groom, the wedding of Dr. Hackett and Miss
May Martin took place in Kansas City on Wednesday evening, June 26, at the
residence of Dr. John Lewis, an uncle of the groom. The ceremony being
performed by Rev. C.M. Hawkins, pastor of Central Methodist church of Kansas
City. There were the usual accompaniments of a fashionable city wedding.

The groomsman was Mr. John Kelly and the bridesmaid Miss Marie Lewis,
Professor Perry played the wedding march. After the wedding, refreshments
were served and then the bride and groom went to St. Joe where they visited
friends for two or three days before coming to LeMars.

The relatives of the bride live ten or fifteen miles southeast of LeMars.
Miss Martin has been attending school at Western College at Oxford, Ohio,
until within the past few months during which time she has been studying
music in Kansas City. Dr. Hackett and wife will remain at the Windsor for a
time until they can make arrangements to begin housekeeping. Many friends
will wish the happy couple a long and prosperous life.

Funeral of D. M. *Ralyea.
From Monday's daily.

One of the old settlers of Plymouth county, D. M. *Ralyea, died last night
at his home in Akron. Mr. *Ralyea had many dear friends in LeMars as he
lived here ten or fifteen years ago and previous to that time he lived in
Lincoln township where he took up a homestead. He was a prominent member of
the Methodist church when in LeMars and Rev. Joel A. Smith of LeMars goes
over to Akron to conduct the funeral services which will be held at Akron
tomorrow at 1 o'clock. The corpse will be brought to LeMars for burial.
The interment will take place at 6 o'clock tomorrow evening and the bell of
the Methodist church will be tolled when the procession reaches LeMars.
There will be no services here except the short burial service at the grave.
The deceased was 81 years of age at the time of his death.

(*Note--this surname is correctly spelled "Relyea".)

LeMars Sentinel, LeMars, (Plymouth), Iowa, Monday, July 8, 1895,
Page 3, Column 3:

News From Wm. Dockey's Family.

Friends living near O'Leary have had correspondence with the wife of
William Dockey who was killed by Conrad Kohl this spring. It will be
remembered that none of Dockey's relatives could be located at once after
the shooting, but by continued correspondences his father was located in
Chickasaw county, this state, and his wife at Silver Leaf, S. D. Mrs.
Dockey writes that though she has a quarter section of land she is in poor
circumstances on account of its lying idle. She states that Dockey was a
hard working man, but considerable of a drinker and that it was on this
account that he went away from home. When he went, he took with him the
horse and cart that he had at O'Leary. Mrs. Dockey has two small children
and she says that her husband has a brother living about twenty miles from
where she does. The post office records at O'Leary show that Dockey sent
her money at different times during his residence in this county.

LeMars Semi-Weekly Sentinel
July 11, 1895

The family of Marcus Long, who committed suicide recently, is not left in
such good circumstances as at first thought. He left a farm of eighty acres
in Lincoln township, but there is a mortgage of $800 on it, besides other
debts in the neighborhood of $400.