Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1899 — Death of Miss Libbie Walton. [ARTICLE]

Death of Miss Libbie Walton.

An essentially sudden and to the general public wholly unlooked for death occurred in town, this, Tuesday morning, Dec.wb2th. It was that of Miss Elizabeth Walton, youngest daughter of Ellis Walton. On Sunday, Dec. 3rd, Miss Walton began to feel considerable pain on a small spot near the end of the index finger of the left hand. She had no distinct recollection of having injured it in any way, but thought she must have pricked it with the point of a safety pin while filling a recent engagement as a lady’s nurse, a vocation which she often followed. The finger grew worse very fast and by night of the first day, the pain was so bad she could not sleep. The next morning, Monday, a physician was called, and found a very high and rapidly increasing fever, and later in the day the finger was opened and scraped, and after that she seemed to get considerably better, and continued to apparently improve slowly and to the physician she seemed on the reasonably sure road to recovery. She was constantly confined to her bed, however, and she herself insisted that she would not get well, and in pursuance of that belief she made all* arrangements for her funeral.

On Monday of this week a council of physicians was held and the amputation of the finger, was decided on, and this was done in the evening. When this was done, it was found that the infection had spread further than the physicians suspected, a large pus cavity being found in the palm of the band. After the amputation she rested much easier, and (passed a very peaceful night. At six o’clock Tuesday, morning, she remarked to the nurses that she was very weary and asked to be turned over. This had just been done, when she suddenly breathed her last, without further words or movements of any kind. The cause of her - death was septicemia, or blood-poisoning, though the immediate cause was probably heart failure. The funeral held - at the residence, on Cullen street, Thursday at 10 a. m., by Rev. C. D