Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1902 — A Dreadful Accident [ARTICLE]

A Dreadful Accident

A Young Girl Shoots Herself In The Presence of Her Lover. The Terrible Accident Took Place Sunday, In Milroy Township.

One of the saddest accidents ocouring in Jasper county for many a day took place Sunday, April 20. about 11 o’clock a. m. in Milroy township. The victim was Lydia Wood, the 18 year <_ld daughter of George Wood, and it took place at The unfortunate girl had been for quite a long time, keeping company with Elmer Johnson a young man of the neighborhood, and with her parents consent, and was engaged to him. Sunday morning he came, as usual to spend the day, and as had been his custom for some time, took with him a 22 caliber Quackenbush target rifle, to shoot sparrows with; to protect some martins at Wood’s place from their annoyance. At 11 o’clock a sparrow was noticed in a tree and Johnson said he would shoot at it, and Lydia asked to be allowed to load the rifle. He handed it and the cartridges to her, and she put a cartridge in the gun, and theta turned on her chair and was in the act of handing Johnson the gun. when it exploded. The bullet struck her in the right side of the breast, near the top, passing through and lodging under the skin on her back. She gave a sudden exclamation, "My God Ma,” and fell back in her chair not speaking again, but breathing slightly for about 8 minutes. Coroner Wright, accompanied by Dr. Arthur Kresler and Stenographer Walker went out late Sunday evening and held the inquest. There was no postmortem thought necessary, as the course of the bullet could be sufficiently determined without one, and as the evidence plainly proved the shooting was an accident, and for which no blame could attach to any one. ~ Th& touthst passed near the heart and evidently cut the arch of the aorta, the largest artery in the body, thus causing immediate and inevitable death. The victim of this sad fatality was a bright handsome girl, beloved of her parents and of affianced husband. Her age was 18 years last February, Her parents have three other children left, but they lost a son about 20 years old, last fall, by typhoid fever. Elmer Johnson her lover, is a young man, of good repute in his neighborhood, about 20 years old. They were to have been married next February, when she would have been IV. The coroner has not yet reported his verdict, but it will be accidental death, in accordance with the facts as above stated. The funeral will be held Tuesday, at 11 a. m., at Milroy Baptist church, and interment will be in Benson cemetery.