Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-06-02

SUICIDE AT WALLINGFoRD.--On Sun
day afternoon about five o'clock our quiet
village was startled by most agonizing
noise, proceeding from the direction of
the Otter creek. The citizens that first
reached the spot found that Mrs. Jerome
B. Hilliard had drowned herself and that
her husband had found her body in the
water and was vainly trying to get it
out; but he being man of very feeble
strength, and his wife having been very
heavy woman, that was impossible. 1t
appears that Mrs Hilliard did not attend
church, and when the family came home
at the intermission, she prepared the
lunch for them and was in her usual
spirits. The entire family attended the
Baptist church and upon returning were
surprised to find the house deserted. In
quiry was made at several of the neigh
boring houses, but no one had seen Mrs.
Hilliard. Upon returning to the house,
MIR. Hilliard found upon stand note in
Mrs. billiards handwriting, which read
as follows:
Children: leave you, for feel as il
life was a weary burden. Be kind to your
father, for he has aI"~ys boom kind to
me-"
Mr.. billiard then suspecting the awful
fate, yet dreading to say anything about
it, started alone for the Otter creek, being
led that way by some one who said he
thought he saw Mrs. Hilliard walking in
that direction two or three hours before.
He found her shawl and shoes upon the
bank of the creek, and a few rods below
he discovered her body, floating face
downward, in about four feet of water.
Being unable to get her body out, he made
the outory that alarmed our village; and
the sound of agony that that husband and
father gave forth will long be remembered
! by those who heard it.
Mrs. Hilliard was a woman fifty-seven
years of age and the mother of six chill
dren, all of whom are adults. She was a
member of the Episcopal church, and her
kindly sympathies and goodly deeds will
long be remembered by our people. She
had for some years been addicted to the
use of opium, and undoubtedly it was the
enervating effects of that drug that led
her to commit the rash act. She left on q
stone near the bank of the river a NOR
phine bottle pounded to atoms, with its
contents; whether to hide it or to signify
her contempt for it, we know not.
This blow falls with crushing weight
upon her family, who left her in life so
soon to return and find her gone, and
then, after a few hours of anxious sus-
pense, to see her body slowly borne
through the green meadows by kindly
friends, and to know that one kind mes
sage of love and the earthly clay was all
that was left to them of their mother and
companion.
This message must be of untold value
to them. This little scrap of paper on
which had been tremblingly penoilled the
last message of their kind mother, would
of itself be of inestimable value but its
wording is what gives it its greatest
worth. 1t shows that in that awful hour
when that terrible darkness rolled over
that soul, making it seem that life was
burden" and causing her to wish for
its termination, in that hour, love
andyaffection were still firmly enthroned
in her heart; and although reason had
left her, yet in that hour of cropping dark
ness, she wished to bear testimony to the
uniform kindness of her husband and
leave this legacy of love and motherly
counsel to her dear children. 9" Be kind
to your father, for he has always been
kind to me-" will be sorrowful memen-
to that will ever be ringing in the ears
and calling up sad thoughts in the minds
of those children till they also shall reach
/ the &c othar ahoreo