HARRIS, J. W. (Rev) - Putnam

Last evening’s Journal contained a full account of the suicide of Rev. J. W. Harris, formerly of this city, at New Orleans Thursday evening. His death is a shock to the whole state where he is so well known as a minister, the superintendent of the Knightstown Home, a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Loyal Legion and a Knight Templar. Mr. Harris was 46 years of age and in the prime of life but for the last few months had been suffering from epilepsy and was growing worse.

There can be no doubt that Mr. Harris was insane at the time he committed the rash deed. For many years he was subject to fits of melancholy as many of his parishioners in this city will remember. His father died in the asylum and one of his sisters also died while deranged. His father, before his death, attempted to commit suicide in the same manner in which Rev. J. W. Harris succeeded. Mr. Harris’ trouble dates back to the death of his first wife whom he passionately loved. They had been married less than two years when one day as Mrs. Harris and her infant child were returning home in a buggy the horse ran off and they were thrown out. Mrs. Harris was hurled head first against a rock and instantly killed. The child was uninjured but it lived only a few days. Mr. Harris was completely prostrated by the affair and for days walked the floor wringing his hands but uttering never a sound. He melancholy periods then began and he would spend sometimes several days at a time in the field with the cattle, never visiting the house. He finally began to get better, however, and decided to enter the ministry. To prepare himself for this he entered DePauw University where he graduated with honor. After leaving college he was pastor at Covington, Crawfordsville, Thorntown, Michigan City, and other points. It was during his pastorate here that he married Miss Madge Donahue, of Greencastle. Mr. Harris was in Crawfordsville two years and will be remembered by all our citizens as a pleasant, polished gentleman, kindly and unassuming and withal a splendid minister. Only last year he was appointed to the superintendency of the Knightstown home and was great pleased with his position which was an enviable one, the salary being large and the work agreeable. He attended conference here last fall and all his friends remarked at the time that he appeared exceedingly well and happy, as indeed he was. About the holidays, however, his health began to fail and he left for the south only a few days ago to recruit. He was on the Board of visitors appointed by the Conference to DePauw University this commencement and was only absent with regret. His death will be a great shock to his alma mater where he was highly respected.

Mr. Harris had a most thrilling war record. He was first lieutenant in the second Indiana Cavalry and fought in some of the most exciting and momentous battles of the war. He was captured in the Battle of Varnell’s Station by the rebels and cast into a Confederate prison, where he lay for several months. Finally he was loaded on a freight train with many other for transportation and from the train he escaped with a companion, and after numerous escapes and adventures, finally affected a junction with Sherman’s army where they served until the end of the struggle.

The Indianapolis Journal of this morning contains the following additional particulars which go to prove conclusively that he had lost his mind: “Some weeks ago Mr. Harris came to Indianapolis to see Col. I. N. Walker, department commander of the G. A. R. in reference to taking the youthful band of musicians at the home to Detroit for the national G. A. R. encampment in August. The Colonel says he acted strangely and betrayed undoubted symptoms of mental derangement. After a short talk on the matter which brought him there, he asked for writing material and proceeded to write several letters, tearing up each as soon as apparently completed. He spent three hours at this occupation, stopping occasionally to gaze in a fixed way out of the window. When he left he had accomplished nothing, having destroyed everything he had written. Shortly afterward Col. Walker learned of his affliction and ascribed his peculiar actions to ill health.

A strange feature of the suicide is the fact that on Feb. 14, 1877, Dr. M. M. Wishard, then superintendent of the Knightstown Home, killed himself in the same manner at the St. James Hotel, New Orleans. The act was caused by opium eating, and after making a deep incision in his neck with a penknife, Dr. Wishard tried to sever the jugular vein with a pair of surgeon’s scissors. He was unconscious when discovered and died half an hour afterward. It is quite possible that the suicide of Dr. Wishard, the details of which were well known to Mr. Harris, impelled him, in the disordered state of his mind, to go to New Orleans and take his own life in the same manner. A special to the Journal from Knightstown last night says: “On Wednesday Professor Harris wrote to his wife from Natchez, Miss., that he was much better; that the trip was doing him a world of good, and that he would be in New Orleans Thursday. The next news she heard was of his suicide. His body has been taken in charge by the Knights Templar, and an escort from that organization will accompany it to Greencastle, where it will be interred.” Mrs. Harris, as soon as she learned of the horrible news, went to her home in Greencastle. She there told her friends that when they were at Michigan City he often told that he was afraid he would take his own life and begged her never to leave him. Accordingly she was with him wherever he went and often followed him to the docks as he had a special fear of jumping off into Lake Michigan.  The funeral will be held tomorrow afternoon at College Avenue Church. Dr. S. B. Town and Dr. H. A. Gobin will conduct the services.