Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-01-22
AD0UBLE TRAGEDY.

A 0zz1 K1Eb Hsr FakAer, and Then Herself.
(, ROcE1srln,gN. T., Jan. 3.-There
was one of tie saddest and most terrible
double tragedies ever known to this sec
ton at Lyons, Wayne County, this after
noon. and the melancholy romance
clustering around the deadly deeds Is
strikinglv peculiar. Between 1 and 2
O'Clock Miss M. Frances Hovey, daugh-
ter of Hiram Hovey, one Of the most
promising merchants of Lyons, shot her
father dead and then committed the deed
which will termdpafey her own yoyng
life. She had been to the Post-ofiice and
posted two letters--one addressed 10 the
wife of the Rev. William Manning, OF
Rochester, the other to the Rev. j. L.
Brownell, her pastor at Lyons. From
the Office she went directly to her ia
theirs hat store on Canal Street, found
the clerks and several persons in the
store, and her father occupying chair
in the rear part. She walked up TO him
and caressed him fondly, as usual, plac-
ing her hands on, his head as IL to stroke
tenderly away all traces of care. She
eonversed with her, father, asking him
gayly, "Do you want to 60 on long
jourhey?" and joyously heard an affirm
alive reply. She waited till the men and
boys had left the store and gone home
to dinner aud elsewhere, and then, while
still fondly caressing her loving and be-
loved parent, she took pistol from her
pocket behind his back, placed the muz-
zle opposite his right temple, and fired,
lodging the bullet in his brain before
her father even suspected any thing else
than idolizing fondness from her. ), He
fell, and must have died within three
seconds. reiloa ia.i.t. .fritu Dr., -I.
Shortly afterward one of Frankie's
brothers came into the store with other
persons, and found the corpse of the fa-
Their. The brother noticed Frankie's
muff in chair near the remains and
knew she must have been there. He
went with others upstairs to apartments
over the store to find her. She lay in
pool of her own blood upon the floor.
In her left hand she held o little toilet
mirror, and in her right the fatal weapon
she had used with such disastrous effects.
She had reloaded the single-barreled pis-
tol with which she shot her father, and had
taken the mirror to be sure she might
shoot herself in the same mortal spot.
This she did. There was a small bullet
hole in her right temple, and it was
easily ascertained that the little bullet
had entered her brain. She can not
i've till morning, and has been wholly
from the first. She was q
bright, lovely girl, % years old, and
most highly esteemed for womanly vir-
,ues and gentleness of nature. Her
ather was 81 years old, and was one of
he oldest residents and merchants of
lyons. Besides widowed mother, one
laughter and three sons survive. The
kfos~ Al.
sequel, has cast a gloom over this sec
vas betrothed to Eugene Rains, brother
If the State Senator from this district.
Her father had opposed the match until !,
ne saw his daughters permanent happi-
hess concerned, then consented, and the
Wedding day was set, They yGeraf
,een married to-day, and tins Bact proba-
by fixed the date Of the terrible deeds she
committed. In October Eugene Rains
committed suicide in q remote. part Of
louisiana, and ever since she. learned of
his death frankie has secmedto regard
Ter fathers former opposition to the
marriage Us the cause of Eugene's sui
,ide. This hallucination made her q
monomaniac, though her
were not regarded as more
erious than those Of deeply disappoint-
ID love. She said, only few days ago,
he never wished to outliye her father,
md never would. In the letter she
wrote to her pastor before. the tragedy
o-day she conveyed the impression that
/ must appear to others that she was
he cause of Eugene death in some way
,he wrote that her father had been al
Ways more than, kind to her, and said
he was his Christmas present, as she
'ecame his infant daughter Christmas
I've. Father" she said, ais not to
lame for my trouble" and added to
er pastor: Can you wonder, though
hat I feel as if it were not myself who
ommitted the terrible sin!' These
ignificant words may have bearing
pom the suicidal insanity of both her
elf and her affianced husband.