Cockafair - Charles
Source: Crawfordsville Daily Journal Monday, 20 April 1891
Charles Cockafair killed himself Saturday evening about 6 o’clock.
He, together with some companions, had been painting Crawfordsville all day. At 5 o’clock, accompanied by Sam Hipes, he boarded the train for his home at Mace. On the walk over from Lynnsburg to Mace, he hung back and several times suggested that his friend go ahead and leave him to sleep awhile in the woods. Hipes, however, suspected the purpose of these ruses was suicide, so he urged Cockafair on and saw him safely to his yard. Here Mrs. Cockafair met them and Hipes went on. Cockafair was still under the influence of liquor somewhat, but he was sober enough to be perfectly disgusted with himself, and said to his wife, “I wish I was dead. I’m a trouble to you, of no account to myself or anybody else, and besides I have run through with all your property.”
“Well, if I ain’t mourning over it, you oughtn’t,” said the wife anxious to console her discouraged husband.
He passed into the house and a moment later a pistol shot was heard. Mrs. Cockafair suspecting the worst, rushed in and found her husband lying on the bed apparently in no pain. He evidently thought he had not struck a vital part for he interrupted the moanings of his wife with the remark that he would give $500 if he was dead. But his aim had been too true and in ten minutes he was a corpse. The ball entered one inch above the left nipple and passed entirely through the body just above the heart. The weapon was a Smith & Wesson revolver, number 38, which he always carried with him. He was head sawyer at the Mace saw mill but was in the habit of drinking and gambling. His wife is the daughter of the late Thomas Mason and when he married her, she had sixty acres of land and some money. He was thirty six years old and besides his wife, leaves a boy seven years old. The funeral occurred at 10 o’clock this morning and will be conducted by Rev. Mr. Bowman. Interment was at the Odd Fellows Cemetery, Crawfordsville.