Fink - John - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

John Fink, a former employee in the meat shop of Philip Fink, here, committed suicide in Lafayette last Friday. The Lafayette Courier says:

“About 6 o’clock this morning John Fink, the well known Oakland Hill butcher, went to his shop in good spirits. After giving some directions to a helper, he returned to his home on Sixteenth Street, saying that he would curry his horse and go down town. First he ate his breakfast and then went to the barn, his wife following a few minutes later. They conversed for some minutes and she returned to the house. Knowing that he intended to go down town, she was surprised to find that he remained in the barn for a long time. Shortly after 9 o’clock she went out and called to him. Receiving no answer, she visited the barn and was shocked to find her husband hanging from a rafter in the wagon shed, a rope about his neck. Her screams attracted the attention of young Michael Thoennes, who was doing some carpenter work on a house a block away. He hastened to Fink’s home and found the body swinging in the air. It was the work of but a moment to cut the thick rope and allow the dead man to fall to the ground. He had been hanging at least forty five minutes. Fink had fastened the halter about the rafter, placed the noose about his neck, laid his pipe on the seat of his delivery wagon and calmly stepped from the seat into space. It was all done very deliberately. Officer Corbett was on the scene a few moments after the man had been cut down. He notified headquarters and then called Coroner Wright. Fink was taken into his house, where the grief of relatives was intense. A wife and a little daughter survive.  John Fink was about 40 years old and the son of a well to do farmer. His suicide was the result of business troubles, his indebtness creating despondency. He was highly respected, was trusted and had no creditors who were pushing him, it is said. His suicide causes general sorrow and surprise on the hill.