Brown August01
Waupaca Record
SHOOTS HIS WIFE AND THEN
HANGS HIMSELF
August Brown Found Hung in
His Barn and His Wife Lay Shot Thru the Head
The double tragedy, a murder and a suicide, which left
twelve children orphans, occurred about two miles from
August Brown, a farmer, was found hanging from a rafter
in his barn at about
The story of the tragedy as near as can be learned is as
follows:
Mr. and Mrs. Brown were married about 28 years ago and
have eleven children ranging in age from twenty-seven to five years. For the past few years the domestic life of
the family has been full of turmoil and some claim that Mr. Brown for the past
year or more has shown signs of mental derangement. They had decided that a divorce was the best
way out of the difficulty and the case was to have been heard the following day
at Wautoma. The mother had started to
walk to Poy Sippi in the
early afternoon and sometime later the father was seen to return to the house
with a shot gun. Little was thot of this, as he was in the habit of hunting a great
deal and often carried a gun. He placed
the gun in its accustomed place and went to the barn and secured a rope by
which he hung himself from the rafters.
His son found him there when he went to the barn to do the cores. The general supposition, which seems to be
well founded, is that Brown killed his wife and then committed suicide.
Waupaca Post
MURDER AND SUICIDE AT
SAXVILLE
On Sunday afternoon August Braun of
the town of Saxeville waylaid his wife and shot her
as she was coming down the road about a half mile from their house and then
hung himself in the barn, to end his domestic troubles. Mrs. Braun was a second wife, being much
younger than her husband and they had been living unhappily together. Divorce proceedings were to have been held at
Wautoma Monday. Braun was about
sixty-five years of age. Mrs. Braun had
been away from home three or four days and knowing the time she would return,
Braun took a gun and lay waiting for her beside the road, shooting her at close range in the neck with the shot coming out of the
face. Braun’s son upon returning form Poy Sippi, found the body of his father hanging in the barn and when
he started for the neighbors house discovered his mother’s body beside the
road.
A coroner’s inquest was held by Justice August Hanneman on each body separately with the verdict as stated
above. The jurymen were: Jul Bunker, Chas. Morse, Chas. Nelson, r.
Wendt, C. Walter, C. Koop, H. Yohr, H. Timm, A. Robbert, H. Schoos, H. Brey, and G. Lehrke.
The funeral of Mr. and Mrs. Braun was held Tuesday, the former being buried at Saxeville, the latter at Brushville.