Crowell Samuel01

Waupaca Republican

September 4, 1884

Suicide

Samuel Crowell, a farmer living about three miles east of this city, committed suicide last Sunday. The facts in the case are as follows: About ten o’clock in the forenoon Mr. Crowell spoke of being tired and said he would go out to the barn and lie down, as he was in the habit of doing. Nothing more was thought of it by his folks until three or four o’clock, w hen they began to think it strange that he was away so long, and his brother-in-law, Arthur Axtell, went to the barn to see what he was about, but did not find him there. Knowing that in his leisure moments he was in the habit of strolling to a cornfield near by, Mr. Axtell went out to this field and found him lying on the ground lifeless about twenty-five or thirty rods from the house.

It seems that he first took off his coat and vest, then dug a small hole in the ground to receive the blood which was to flow from the wound, and then with an ordinary pocket knife severed the left jugular vein. To all appearances he must have stood over the hole, made in the ground, until unconsciousness set in and then fallen over backwards. No reason can be given for this sudden self destruction except insanity. His neighbors and friends have noticed for some time that he acted strange by spells and have thought that all was not right with him. Mr. Crowell lived for many years with his folks on a farm near Ogdensburg, Wis. Several years ago he went to California where he spent ten or twelve years, returning again to Waupaca Co. a few years ago, where he shortly settled on a farm in this town.

About a year ago he was married to May Axtell, whom he now leaves with a child but five or six days old. He has a mother living at Oshkosh and a brother at Eureka. The community sympathizes deeply with the family in their terrible affliction.