The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1907-11-21
ENDS LIFE WITH POISON
Mrs. Willis C. Woodard Drinks Car
bOliC Acid and Threw nerseltiin
Icy Waters of Grand River.

bOliC Acid and lhreW Herself in
Icy Waters of Grand River.
Mrs. Irene Woodard, wife of Willis
G. Woodard, who lives nine miles north
west of Leon, half mile west of the
Springer bridge over Grand River, COM
mitted suicide early Sunday morning by
drinking carbolic acid, and chloroform
and then wading into the icy waters of
Grand River just underneath the
Springer bridge.
1t was one of the saddest cases we have
ever been called upon to record. Mr..
and Mrs. Woodland had been married
but little over a year, the ceremony
taking place at Decatur City on Oct. II,
1905. And to add to the sad feature of
the deplorable affair was the fact that
Mrs. Woodland expected to become
mother in about a month. There we're
number of rumors in circulation, but
Immediately upon receiving news over
the phone of the tragedy The Reporter
man went to the scene and made a full
Investigation of the circumstances and
they prove beyond question that the
unfortunate woman had committed sui
eide, being probably driven to the rash
step by worry over her condition until
her mind had become unbalanced.
Immediately upon receiving word of
the suicide Coroner f. A. Bowman went
to the scene and made full investiga-
tion. Drs. H. r. Layton and B. L. Eiker
were also called and held postmortem
examination of the body. A coroner's
inquest was held, the jury being COM
posed of O. f. Walker, f. w. Riddle and
S. w. Robbins, and after hearing the
evidence of the witnesses they re-
turned verdict that the deceased
came to her death as the result of
drinking carbolic acid with suicidal in
tent.
From talking with interested parties
we CLEANED the facts as follows:
On the previous day Mrs. Woodland
received word of the suicide of j. B.
at Albany, Mo-, and the news of his
girl testified that Mrs. Woodard cried
nearly all afternoon and kept talking
to her about the death of Mr.. Thomas,
saying he had been more than father
to her. When Mrs. Woodland was only
six years of age she was taken to the
home of Mr.. Thomas after the death of
her mother and was raised as one of
his family until she was grown. With
her brother she had an estate in Mis-
souri, amounting to several thousand
dollars, and she was for several years
the administrator, but when she came
to Iowa to teach school it became nec-
essary to have another administrator
appointed and she selected Mr.. Thomas.
The final report and distribution of the
property am )ng the heirs was soon to
be made and on Saturday she received
letter from an attorney at Albany say
ing things were mixed up and the report
was not made. She however did not
say much to her husband about the
matter. Sunday morning before day
light, between four and five O'clock
Mrs. Woodard arose and dressed her
self, and her husband was awakene d by
her standing at the foot of the stairs
and calling to the boys up stairs that it
was time to get up. He told her this
was Sunday morning and there was no
need of the boys getting up SO early
and to let them sleep awhile, so she
apologized to the boys for calling them.
Mr.. Woodland then turned over and
went to sleep again. She had also
awakened Miss Dulcie Shambo who was
employed at the house as hired girl
and slept in an adjoining room, but
told her she need not get up, but if any
thing should happen she would find her
gowns in certain dresser drawer in
the room. She then left the house and
as she went out Miss Shambo heard her
click two bottles together, as she
placed them in one hand to open the
door. Soon after this Miss Shambo
arose and commenced to get breakfast,
and the boys up stairs, MIR. Woodard's
brother Albert, his nephew Warren
Woodland and VS.. Clymer who had
been working at the farm for three
weeks, went out to the barn to do
the feeding and chores. When they re-
turned to the house for breakfast
Miss Shambo told them Mrs. Woodland
was gone, so one of them called Mr..
Woodland and told him his wife was
gone. He arose and directed search
to be made around the house and in the
cave but she could not be found. Then
one of them walked out toward the
road on the south side of the house and
her tracks could be plainly seen in the
dusty road which was cover with frost
that morning. Mr.. Woodard saw she
had gone down the road toward the
home of Walter Mclaughlin who lives
short distance east of the Woodland
house and he directed Warren Woodard
to get on his pony and follow the tracks
and see where she had gone. The
others went back to the house and were
eating breakfast when Warren returned
with the startling information that she
was lying in the river dead.