Towanda Masonic Butler County Kansas

Butler County, Kansas

JOHN TURNER ~ A SUICIDE

FORMER EL DORADO MAN TAKES CARBOLIC ACID AND DIES IN WICHITA

John Turner, a teamster, who moved to Wichita from El Dorado two years ago, committed suicide at his home, 731 Roberts avenue, West Side, yesterday morning at 8:30 by drinking an ounce of carbolic acid. Despondency over financial troubles caused him to take his own life. He had been out of work for over two weeks and had been compelled to sell his team to pay debts.

He went to town about 8:00 o’clock in the morning, returned immediately and saying that he did not feel well retired into a bedroom, telling his wife he was going to bed. His wife entered the room a few minutes afterwards and found he had taken the poison. A doctor was summoned immediately but as he was not informed of the nature of the case did not take a stomach pump with him and when one was procured it was too late.

Turner left notes to his wife and children, the latter one reading:

“Dear children: I must bid you goodbye. I have made some bad mistakes in my life but at last I have made one that I cannot repair. Always remember that I love you. Not only love you but worship you. Be good children and think of me sometimes.

Father”

About a year ago Turner’s first wife secured a divorce and a few months later he married Mrs. Myrtle Halsey, a widow with three children. By his first wife there were five children and all of them live inWichita, with the exception of Mrs. Tom Marcum who resides at Yelton, Oklahoma.

(Walnut Valley Times ~ El Dorado, Kansas ~ 8 Jan 1904 ~ Transcribed by Lori DeWinkler)