Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 19, Number 19, DeMotte, Jasper County, 8 April 1949 — PONVILLE FARMER COMMUTES SUICIDE [ARTICLE]

PONVILLE FARMER COMMUTES SUICIDE

Funeral services from Frank Gradisher, age 68, who was found dead in the home of a neighbor, Otto J. Norgard, at 6:45 Friday morning April Ist, were held Monday morning in the Todd Funeral home. Rev. Donald Hardeback, of the Sorrowful Mother Catholic church, Wheatfield, officiated. Burial was in DeMotte cemetery. According to official coroner’s verdict, he had committed suicide by hanging himself by his overall straps in the bath room. He had spent the night in the Norgard home. Domestic difficulties were believed to have prompted the suicide. Gradisher left a note, but officers were unafce to decipher it, other than a !few words which indicated the victim had brooded over having been made defendant in a peace bond action the week before, which resulted in his being jailed in Rensselaer for a short time. The action was not pushed and he was released. Mr. Gradisher was born in Austria September 14, 1880. He came ter Ponville from Chicago about three years ago and operated a ten acre poultry farm. His widow owned an adjoining ten acres on which the family residence is located. Surviving besides the widow are ten children by a former marriage and a brother, John all of Chicago.