Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-07-16
A ROMANCE OF DEATH.
The Dreadful Secretion Bertha BONN.
"A Family of Suicides.
Baltimore Sun

Baltimore Sun.
Fourteen years ago, in SAKE
Weimar, Germany, the wife OF Claas
Bohm. well-to-do storekeeper, COM
mitted suicide by hanging. Her
father before her had blown his brains
out, and Frau Bohm had on one or
two occasions expressed the opinion
that she also would eventually die by
her own hand. The cause of the rash
act could not be ascertained, as she
was happy and the mother of thirteen
loving children. Her death seemed
to crush all desire for life from her
husband, and three weeks afterward
he drank Prussic acid and expired in
great agony. The thirteen children
thus left friendless and without pa
rents immigrated to America. In the
course of time they became scattered
in the States. but never forgot the
tragic end of their parents. About
ten years ago Mr.. Richmond Hadden,
an oyster packer on Eastern avenue
here, met a young girl in this city,
who was supporting herself as nur-
sery governess. He fell in love with
her, and she always accepted his at
tentions with evident satisfaction.
After more than
YEAR OF COURTSHIP
he proposed to her and was rejected,
although the young woman, whose
name was Bertha Bohm, admitted
that she was not Indifferent to him.
It did not take the lover long to I'M
derstand that there was some reason
for the girls strange conduct, and af-
ter some persistency she told him that
she loved him too well to blight his
life by marrying him. 1t seems that
within the short space of four years
which had elapsed since the tragedy
in Sake Weimar, twelve of the thir-
teen members of the Bohm family
who had immigrated to America had
committed suicide Two had blown
their brains out IN New York within
three months after their landing at
Castle Garden, another jumped into
North River, and others took their
lives IN Boston, Trenton, n. j.,
Spring feld, Ill, Grand Rapids,
Mich, and Bellaire, Ohio. AS tie
young girl concluded the narrative of
her famiIy's sad prediction, she
shudderingly added: "And now you
know, Mr.. MADDEN, why ] can not
marry you. | think that [ will surely
kill myself some day, and I don't
want to darken your life by becoming
your wife"
Hadden, after the first shock, did
not fail to eagerly combat her res0~
luton, and it was not long before he
had overcame her seruDles. They
were married and lived happily, hav-
ing two children, the eldest Of whom
is now s years old.
THE GREAT FAMILY TRAGEDY
had become almost like legend to
the husband and wife, who, by a
tacit understanding, never recalled it.
About a year ago Mrs. Hadden was
taken with typhoid fever, and al
though she recovered sufficiently to
leave her room she was manifestly q
changed woman, mentally and physi-
cally. She repeatedly sank into fits
of melancholy, during which she
would mournfully assure her husband
that she thought her time was at
hand. Mr.. Hadden, while affecting
to ridicule Der fears, saw that there
was ample cause for alarm. He
quietly Instituted a careful watch
over his wife, to whona he was de-
votedly attached, Tuesday morning
he left home about $50 o'clock to go
TO his place Of business. Mrs. Had
den was then in good health, but
about IL o'clock she was seized with
fit of naelancholia. The colored SER
want sent a street boy to notify Mr..
Hadden that his wife was ILL. The
gentleman was absent from his office
at the time, and as Mrs. Hadden short
ly ceased her hysterical weeping the
servant left her alone. She did not
meet Mr.. Hadden at the front door
upon his return home, as usual, and
he asked for her, when the servant
told him Of the note which had been
sent to- his Office and which he had
never received. He dashed up the
stairs to his wife's bed chamber. When
he entered his worst fears were realiz-
ed. Mrs. Hadden lay stretched on the
floor near the bedstead, and the rope
halyards of q Fourth Of July flag
were tied around her neck and to the
top of the bedpost. Her 2-year-old
baby was playing by the corpse.
Mr.. Hadden is in such a state Of
prostration that it is feared Ae will
take his own life and thus complete
the tragedy.