Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 88, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 July 1899 — Death of James Ragon. [ARTICLE]

Death of James Ragon.

“Old Jimmy Ragon,” an elderly and very eccentric bachelor who for many years has lived alone in a little cabin, about 2£ miles west of town, on the Bunkum road, died Sunday afternoon, of remittent fever. His death occurred at the home of Joseph Ellis, a neighbor, who found him sick at his house on Tuesday, the 4th, and took him to his own house on the 6th. The old man owned and cultivated a 40 acre tract and has lived there alone about 30 years. His only companions were a cat and a dog, and one horse. The dog has charge of the vacant house, and will scarcely permit anyone to enter it He was a member of a Minnesota regiment, in the civil war, and his discharge papers show him to be about 59 years old. His only known relatives are a sister, a Mrs. Comisky and her husband, who formerly lived on an adjoining 40 acres, but some 18 or 20 years ago moved to some point in Michigan. The burial services were held between 4 and 5 oclock Monday, afternoon, at Weston cemetery, attended by near neighbors and some old soldiers from town.