Conner - Samuel - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Coroner Dennis was called to the southeast corner of the county last Friday to investigate the death of Samuel Conner, whose dead body was found that morning in Haw Creek. Mr. Conner was a young man about thirty five years of age who lived with his wife and three children on a farm several miles southeast of Ladoga. He was popular in the community and was a jolly, genial man. On Wednesday he left home in his buggy for the avowed purpose of renting a farm some little distance away. He did not return that night but no particular anxiety was felt, his wife supposing that he had been delayed by business. Thursday, however, his children, while enroute to school, found his horse and buggy in an unfrequented pasture on the Ford farm, which Mr. Conner rented. The horse had evidently been there a long time hitched for he had pawed a great hole in the ground and seemed almost famished. On the ground near by lay the hat and coat of Mr. Conner. The children, greatly alarmed, looked about over the pasture for their father and not finding any trace of him hastened home and gave the alarm. The neighbors turned out and made a close search of the neighborhood but without result. In the evening a pair of blood hounds was brought from North Salem but it was so very dry that they could not follow the scent.

On Friday, however, his neighbors discovered where Mr. Conner had climbed a fence between the pasture and a corn field and were able to trace him through the field to Haw Creek. There his body was found lying in two and a half feet of water. There were no marks of violence on the body yet his relatives seemed unwilling to accept the suicide theory.

Friday afternoon Coroner Dennis telephoned The Journal from Ladoga that Conner arrived there Wednesday morning and had left in the afternoon at half past three for Roachdale. There he purchased some groceries and carbolic acid. After leaving Roachdale, he was seen no more alive. Coroner Dennis stated that it looked very much like a case of suicide, although he had not then been to the scene of the tragedy and could not state whether Conner had swallowed the acid before jumping in the water.

Mr. Conner is a cousin of R. C. Walkup and W. B. Walkup of this city, and was highly esteemed in the community where he lived.

Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 4 October 1901

Coroner Dennis last Friday completed his investigation of the death of Samuel Conner, of Clark Township, whose dead body was found in Haw Creek Friday morning. The evidence all went to show that it was a case of suicide.

It seems that Conner had borrowed money in Crawfordsville and desired a renewal. He was required by the agent who had loaned him the money to get the endorsement of his mother in order to secure the renewal, and he went to see her for this purpose. Not finding her at home he signed her name himself and secured the favor. Before he had time to see her and straighten the matter out the agent here learned of the deception and wrote him a caustic letter setting forth the gravity of his offense. This letter he received at Roachdale and on the same mail a letter came from his mother. Completely unnerved the young man purchased carbolic acid with the intention evidently of taking it to end his troubles. On the way home, however, he must have changed his mind and going to the creek he lay down on his face in two feet of water and was drowned. He had taken none of the acid he had purchases. - thanks to S for these and so many others on our site