Townsley - Kittie Hall - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

The entire community was shocked beyond expression last evening when it was learned that Mrs. Will Townsley had committed suicide at the home of her mother in Danville, Illinois.  The first information received here came in the form of a telegram to her husband and it merely announced the death.  He was greatly overcome and left at once for Danville without ascertaining the cause.  

The interment will occur here tomorrow morning at Oak Hill, a grave having been prepared at the side of Mr. Townsley's mother, whose funeral, Mrs. Townsley attended only a few days ago.

  The following account of the suicide is given by the Danville Press:

Mrs. Kittie Townsley, of Crawfordsville, Indiana, ended her existence yesterday afternoon at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Hall, 26 south Hazel street.  At shortly before 3:30 o'clock her mother discovered her in the parlor reclining on the bed and weltering in a flood of her own blood which was rushing from a deep gash in the left side of her throat.  Mrs. Hall supposing that her daughter had fainted hastily summoned Dr. White, who called in Dr. M.S. Jones, when he ascertained what the woman had done.  She was then past the aid of medical science.

  Mrs. Townsley it thought to have taken her life in a fit of insanity brought on by her continued sickness.  The deed was a determined one and was well planned and as near as possible was executed thus Mrs. Townsley went into the room upstairs occupied by Frank Dalton, city editor of the News, and her brother in law, and secured his razor, which Mr. Daulton says was locked in his drawer.  She then proceeded to the parlor and while alone and while standing in front of open grate, desperately slashed a gash into her neck to the bone.  Then placing the gory instrument of her destruction on the mantel, she wrapped her apron around her neck as if to conceal her deed and threw herself upon the bed.  When found her hair was matted and smeared with blood and her dress was saturated with her life's fluid.  The hearth was spattered with blood and a crimson finger print on a coser near by told that the woman had steadied herself there on after gashing her throat.

  Mrs. Hall, mother of the dead woman, was seen last night, by a reporter and she gave softening of the brain as the cause of her daughter's rash act.  She said she thought it was done on the spur of the moment.  Mrs. Townsley had been quite sick for the past three months.  At the times she suffered maddening pains and on the Tuesday night she was deathly low.  Her brain was burning up, so she said, and the morning was spent in bed.  She arose at dinner, and did not partake of the meal.  Her mother and sister, Mrs. F. Daulton, were going to pass the afternoon with her in the parlor.  Shortly before committing suicide, Mrs. Townsley had gone into the parlor with the expressed intention of combing her hair.  Nothing was said of her being tired of life.

  The body was prepared for burial last evening but the funeral arrangements will not be made until the husband arrives from Crawfordsville.

  Kattie Hall married Will Townsley in Covington, Indiana, eight years ago last November, and leaves a son, James, 7 years of age.  She was in her twenty-seventh year and was one of the most pious members of the Baptist church.  She had been residing with her parents since October 2 on account of her feeble health.  Numerous friends and acquaintances esteemed the dead woman highly for her sweet and amiable disposition and other endearing traits and they were deeply grieved at her rash taking off.

  At a late hour last night Coroner Taylor held an inquest over the death and the verdict rendered was that Kittie Townsley, came to death by her own hands.

The Danville News gives the following account:

  Mrs. Hall and her two daughters were in the kitchen talking, Mrs. Townsley left the room with the expressed intention of going to see Mrs. J.H. Miller, with whom she often read.  A few minutes later her mother went into the front room and found her lying on the bed, already dead.

  When she left her mother and sister there was no word at action to indicate that she intended  taking her life.  She was not well and had eaten but a bit of dinner, but was inclined to be cheerful.

  No note or sign was left to tell what prompted the deed, but those who know her best feel that she must have been momentarily insane.  There is certainly no other way of accounting for her action.  It is evident that she had not long contemplated the deed, for on Monday she bought a new silk dress, and yesterday morning read a letter just received from her husband to her mother and sister, in which Mr. Townsley said he would come and see her during the holidays.  She was to return to Crawfordsville next spring, when she and her husband intended to resume housekeeping.

Source: Crawfordsville Daily Journal Thursday, 7 December 1893

 

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