Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 178, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1915 — ALONZO WALLACE OF LAURA A SUICIDE [ARTICLE]

ALONZO WALLACE OF LAURA A SUICIDE

Section Foreman and Storekeeper Killed Himself With Shotgun Wednesday Afternoon. Alonzo Wallace, 62 years of age, storekeeper at Laura and foreman of the section gang at that place, committed suicide Wednesday afternoon at about 5 o’clock by shooting himself in the neck with a shotgun. Apparently death was instantaneous but no one heard the discharge of the gun as an engine was running near the store. Mrs. Wallace and Margaret, the only child at home, were spending the day with Oney Wallace near Kouts. A half hour before the act was committed Orie Cunningham, who lives near the store, was engaged in conversation with Mr. Wallace. Later when Mr. Cunningham went into the store and did not find Wallace he began a search of the premises and found the body in a pool of blood in a bedroom in the living apartments over the store. A hole two inches in diameter had been tom through the neck, the charge entering from the front. The shotgun lay on the floor beside the dead body. Dr. C. E. Johnson, county coroner, was called and Lloyd Parks accompanied him to Laura. It was clear from appearances that Wallace had suicided and a coroner’s jury was not necessary. It is understood that Wallace had been drinking excessively of late and that he had threatened on several occasions when drinking to take his life. He leaves a wife and four children, all grown but the daughter Margaret. The older children are Mrs. M. 0. Callahan, of Wheaton, Ill.; Oney Walace, of near Koute, and Misses Lottie and Josie, one of whom is a nurse in a hospital at Gary.