Taken From the Henry Republican, Henry IL
March 18, 1915
[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

Loses Office: Becomes Insane

Edward Dunn, proprietor of a general store in Kinsman (Grundy county), 15 miles east of Streator, is the new postmaster of that village and took up his duties in the office March 1. This act, it is believed has caused John Dempsey to become irrational and has been taken to a sanitarium in Milwaukee for treatment.

For 30 years with the exception of a lapse of one, about 11 years ago, John Dempsey has been the postmaster at Kinsman. He has been assisted in the work all these years by his estimable wife. He was in the hardware business three years ago but of late the time had been devoted to the postoffice.

But times changes, so do offices and Edward Dunn, who has lived in the vicinity of Kinsman all his life and now runs a general store there, was made postmaster. His time to take over the office was on March 1 and as the date drew nearer the old postmaster began to show signs unusual with him. Sunday night Mr. Dunn asked that the affairs of the office be turned over to him so that he could be prepared to transact business Monday morning. Dr. Dempsey refused, saying that his time as postmaster did not expire until midnight.

Monday morning arrived and he gave up the position and the goods of the office. From that time he has grown melancholy and would break out in tirades against every one, particularly his wife. He grew worse in these outbursts until he could be controlled no longer and was taken to Milwaukee.

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