Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 177, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1915 — FORMER WHEATFIELD LITIZEN A SUICIDE [ARTICLE]

FORMER WHEATFIELD LITIZEN A SUICIDE

Louis Funk Used Shotgun in Taking His Life ip Starke County— Sickness the Cause. Louis Funk, a former resident of this county living near Wheatfieid, committed suicide Wednesday of last week at his home near Toto, Starke county. He left a wife and three children. He is reported to have been despondent because of poor health and it is said he had been advised that he could not recover. He left insurance in the sum of $2,500. Letters which he had written but had not mailed, were found on his person. Both were addressed to his wife, told her that he would be better off dead than alive owing to his poor health. Apparently he had intended to mail the letters so that his wife would get them after his death but he had not mailed them. He went to the orchard near his home and fastened a shotgun in a tree and then placed the muzzle against his left chest over his heart and with a small board pressed the trigger of the gun. His lifeless body was found soon afterward. He was a brother of Mrs. Harry Reanley, of Wheatfield, and was engaged at truck farming. He left Jasper county eight or ten years ago. He was an onion grower in this county and also raised them extensively in Starke county and it is understood that the wet weather had seriously damaged his crop and may have added to his discouragement.