Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1895-01-05
COMMITTED SUICIDE.
county Treasurer HuntOOn Sends q
Bullet Through His Heart ON New
Years Eve "A shortage or Nearly
$4,000 Found in His Accounts.

Years Eve "A shortage OF Nearly
$4,000 Found in His Accounts.
7 Last Monday evening, about 8
o'clock, this community was thrown
into 3 state of wild excitement by
the report that County Treasurer,
]. A. Huntoon, had committed sui
eide in his Office in the Court House
Everybody rushed to the Court
House as soon as the report spread,
DR.. Hazlett was Immediately sum-
moned, and it was found that there
had been no false alarm, for on the
floor of his Office lay the Treasurer
with bullet hole in his left side
and his life-blood ebbing away. He
breathed his last at 500
A Coroner's jury, which met at
o'clock Tuesday, brought forth the
following facts:
The old Board of CONS. had met
Monday to wind up the affairs of the
county for the old year, and had
finished all business except counting
the money. The Auditor and Treas.
urer not being quite ready with the
reports, the Board adjourned until
o'clock in the afternoon. This time
having arrived the Board met again
but the Treasurer tailed to put in an
appearance, and the Board took a
recess until o'clock that evening.
At this hour the Board found no
light in the Treasurer's office, where
the meetings are held, the door was
locked and the Treasurer had not
been seen since shortly before 3
o'clock that afternoon, when he was
seen to walk through the lower part
Of the Court House and out the back
door. Search was made but Mr.
Huntoon could not be found. Becom-
ing suspicious of something being
wrong Commissioner Holland, Dep
uty Sheriff Dreyfuss, Attorney Lo-
throp, and Treasurcr-elect Lotus,
went to the door of the office and
found it locked. AS they were going
up stairs dim light which was no
t1ced to be burning in the office went
out. A pass key which attorney
Lothrop had to the door failed to
open it, and Dreyfuss climed through
the transom and opened the door
from the inside. AS the other per-
sons entered the room, and as attor-
ney Lothrop stepped around the end
of the long desk in TIE office, there
was deafening report, the sound of
body falling a short distance, and
then all was quiet except a gasping
noise made by the dying man. A
light revealed Huntoon lying partly
on his side in about the center of the
room on the floor. He was sitting
on the floor when he shot himself,
and by his side, on the floor, sat
lamp, the chimney on which was
still warm. A letter addressed to
John Lothrop and one to the Com
missioners were also found in the
safe. 1t was found that the bullet
had entered his left side Just below
the nipple, passed between the fourth
and fifth ribs, through the apex of
the heart, severing the abdominal
aorta, ranged inward and downward
and made its exit between the pro-
cesses of the spinal column of the
fifth and sixth ribs. The wound
produced internal hemorrhage in the
cavity of the chest and abdomen
and paralyzed the entire system.
Shortly after death the body was
removed to the lower hall in the Odd
Fellows building. The pistol used
was SO caliber Smith 4 Wesson re-
volver of the hammerless pattern,
and the bullet, after passing through
the body, imbedded itself in the side
of the wood-box in the Treasurer's
office. The weapon belonged to Z.
Pierini, and was taken from behind
his bar by Huntoon sometime Mon
day morning. The letter kft by
Huntoon to the Commissioners said
he had been robbed since the sd day
of December last, but he knew peo-
pie would not believe this and he
had made up his mind to die instead
of stand trial for defalcation. The
letter to Mr.. Lothrop was asking him
to look after the affairs of his office
as Grand Recorder of the A. Q. U. w.
and suggested that Grand Master
Taylor go as a representative to the
Supreme Lodge, in Chicago, trip
Mr.. Huntoon was to have started on
on the sd of this month. He left an
other letter, to his wife, in a sack of
coin, amounting to S4,33o, which he
took home to her Monday morning,
and explained that it was Lodge
money, and that she was to pay it
out when demanded, except $500
which was to go to his sister, and
the balance she was instructed to
keep herself.
]. A. Hauntoon was native of
Vermont, aged AZ years. He came to
this State IN the svcntics, and for a
time resided in Silver City. He has
been Treasurer of this county for
the past ten years, and Clerk for the
past two years. He was defeated
last November for another term as
Clerk and Treasurer by A. ]. LOT