The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-05
a ON THE BRIDGE
MRS. PHILIP CARVER BELIEVED TO
HAVE DROWNED HERSELF.
Hundreds of People Watch Searchers
Drag the River-Her Mother COM
mitted Suicide Years Ago.

Mrs. Philip Carver, of No. 152 Michigan
street, Haughville, disappeared from home
yesterday morning, about 4 o'clock, and her
family believes she committed suicide by
jumping into White river from the Michf-
gan-street bridge. The bridge and the banks
of the river for several blocks below the
bridge were crowded during the afternoon
with hundreds of curious spectators, who
came to watch the searching parties that
were at work dragging the river.
Carver recently purchased the saloon. at
the northeast corner of Michigan street
and King avenue, and he and his family
took up their residence at this location
about ten days ago. Mrs. Carver was very
i'll all day Saturday and Saturday night,
and owing to vomiting spells was obliged
to cave her bed several times during the
night, and consequently the other members
of the family were able to get but very lit
tie sleep. About 4 o'clock she arose and
told her husband she was obliged to go out
side of the house and asked him if he would
go with her. Almost Immediately after
telling her that he would do so he again
went to sleep. The little twe~lve-year-old
daughter says her mother put on an old
wrapper thai she usually wore around the
house, and, putting a shawl around her,
left the house alone. This is the last the
amily saw of her, but a citizen of the sub
urb, who passed the place about ) O'Clock,
says he saw Mrs. Carver walking on King
avenue at that hour, and he is the last
person known to have seen the woman.
About 6 o'clock yesterday morning a
young man, who was crossing the Michf-
gan-street bridge on his way to work, found
a shawl hanging outside the railing of the
bridge near the west middle pier. He took
the shawl back TO L. w. Gilberson's gro
Gerry store, just west of the bridge, and,
telling Mrs. Giberson where he had found
1t, said that if no one called for it during
the day he would stop when he returned
from work and take it with him. AS soon
as the Carver family discovered that Mrs.
Carver was missing they began a search
Cor her, and shortly before noon they iden-
tilted the shawl that had been found on
the bridge as the one worn by her when she
left home, and. being unable to find any
trace of her, began working on the theory
that she had drowned herself. The avail
able boats on the river were called into
service and two boats were also brought
over in a wagon from the canal, and all
yesterday afternoon searching parties
rowed up and down the river with drags,
trying to locate and secure the body, which
they believe lies somewhere beneath the
waters. The searching parties were perSiS-
tent and labored steadily all the afternoon,
and did not give over their task until dark
ness made further work dangerous to the
workers. They failed to find any signs of
the body, but the work will be resumed
again this morning.
As the Garvers are newcomers i'll the sun
urb and very little is known about them,
some of the people advanced the theory
that there had probably been a family
quarrel Saturday night and as a result the
woman had taken her life. The twelve
We ar-old aughter says that there had been
no quarrel of any kind, and that her mother
was sick on that night, as stated before.
A relative says he thinks the woman's mind
was temporarily unbalanced and caused her
to take her life, if she really has committed
suicide. He also stated to the Journal thar
Mrs. Carver has for several years past been
troubled with severe headaches, which
greatly distressed her when they occurred.
and that probably q repetition of these
Ee headaches was the cause of Saturdays i'll
ress and for the time unbalanced her mind.
About thirteen years ago her mother, Mrs.
Field. then the proprietress of the Ger
mania House, committed suicide during a
spell of sickness by cutting several arteries,
bleeding to death before a physician arrived
to save her.