Keller - Nettie McMullen
Source: Crawfordsville Review Thursday, May 11, 1916
Mrs. Nettie KELLER committed suicide by hanging herself at the home about 7 miles SW of the city yesterday morning. Mrs. Keller was about 70 and had been in poor health for many years. It is believed that despondency over her condition was the cause of her taking her life. About two years ago Mrs. Keller made an attempt against her life by cutting her throat, but physicians were called and her life was saved. The body was found by Ben Keller, a son who lived at home. It was suspended to a rung of a ladder in an outhouse and it is probable that it had been there for about an hour. As soon as the deed was discovered Dr. Williams the coroner was called and he arrived about 8 o'clock. After an inquest, he pronounced the death a suicide. At the hearing of the coroner Mr. Keller stated that he had heard his mother moving around before daylight yesterday morning and that he had called to her what she wanted. He declared that she then went back to bed. The mother had evidently watched her chance and when she found that he was asleep slipped out again. She had taken a towel and gone to an outhouse. There she climbed up on a box and fastened the towel to one of the upper rungs of a ladder. With the aid of a safety pin she looped the other end around her neck and then kicked the box out from under her. Keller testified that he arose shortly after daylight and started his work around the place. In going into the outhouse he found his mother suspended from the ladder, dead. He called the coroner and after the inquest a verdict of suicide was rendered. While Mrs. Keller had been in poor health for years suffering from paralysis of the right side her son declared that she had been in as good spirits as usual and that he could give no reason for her action except worry about her health. Mrs. Keller was the widow of Dan Keller who has been dead about 7 years. She was Nettie McMullen before her marriage and has always lived in the county. She has always borne a reputation as a good Christian woman. The funeral will be from the home Friday morning at 10 o'clock and the services will be in charge of Rev. Thompson of the United Brethren Church. Mrs. Keller is survived by 10 children: Ben and William both of the SW part of Crawfordsville; George, Walter, Elmer, Mrs. Marrit McCloud all of Crawfordsville Mrs. Dave Keller of Hillsboro; Mrs. Henry Miller and Mrs. Thomas Myers of New Ross. One brother Joe McMullen also survives. - typed by kbz