Norwich bulletin., 1915-11-10
WESTERLY WOMAN SUICIDES
Jennie Marshall Cook Drowns Herself Near First Hus
 s hands Graye-Leayes Note for Children Honofs for pr. Utter-- Watch Hill Road Inspected a

l . sS | g . E S = 2
 < After placing her hat and acoat on
 the grave of her first husband, James Stapleton, in River Bend cemetery
 Mrs. Frank B. Cook age 43, commit
 ted suicide by standing on the bank ol the river, about forty yards from the
 StapIeton burial plot, and then throw
 ing herself forward into the water eher feet remaining on the shore. Mrs Cook resided at :. A Spring street, in the lower tenement. the upper one be- ing occupied by Harry Coleman. Tues
 day noon, when MT Cook returned from his work, as stone cutter, he found a note, written by Mrs. Cook,
 which read:t
 this all my troubles will be over with EI will be at the bottom of the river
 near papa and grandma's graves,
 Make your home. with Aunt Kat@ and Uncle James. Live up to be agood man and woman.-Mether."
 started for River Bend cemetery. While on the way he halted Philip Stevens in an automobile and was taken to the cemetery in quick time. In the meantime Dr. M. H. Scanlon. medical. examiner, was notified, and he mobile, followed by Manager Martin H.. Spellr1an ofethe Westerly Light and Power company, with the lung motor owned by %the company. The hfe-sav- ing device was put into quick opera tion, but Mrs. Cook had been suffo- .cated sby<drowning too long to respond to the treatment.
 Mr Coleman, as soon as he learned of the last note of Mrs. Cook, tele- 2phoned the circumstances to Police man Frederick T. Mitchell, who was at his home in Beach street. not far from the cemetery. and he hurried to the river, arriving there soon after Dr. Scanlon. Mrs. Mitchell saw Mrs. Cook pass her house shortly after Il o'clock and she must have committed suicide soon after, It is probable that the body was submerged for about half an hour, as Dr. Scanlon received a call from Elihu Chesebro, superinten- dent of River Bend cemetery, at noon.
 The two children referred to in the note are Irene StapIeten aged 16. and James Stapleton, age II. Besides these children, Mrs. Cook, who was Miss Jennie Marshall. is survived by her father, James Marshall, and two broth CTS. Hugh and James H. Marshall. She has been the wife of Frank Cook two years. She was a sister of the late Mrs. Joseph Hartley, of Norwich.
 At the. annual meeting Of the Fed eraI Hill House association, of Provi .
 
 ter, formerly of Westerly, was elected a member of the board of directors. It was announced at the meeting that a friend had made a gift of $3,T25 to pay off the mortgage and now the as- sociation is free from debt. In addi- tion2anothel- friend gave, $1,O00 toward the building fund and an architect offered his services to furnish plans for the new building at cost.
 Dr. Utter, who has been in charge of the baby clinic at the Federal Hill house, told of the work done, during the year. and said that it was almost impossible to do justice to the require ments because of the crawded condi- tions, He said that this gwas so con- gesteds that the physicians did not even have aSp1ace to wash their hands. Out of 1449 cases handled since the clinic began over two years ago, 705 have been in the past wear.
 + Irving w. Patterson, engineer Of the Rhode Island State Board of Pub lie Roads, was the speaker at an open meeting. of the Westerly Board of Trade, Tuesday evening, serving. as 3, sort of tutor to the tax payers. pre- liminary to the town meeting to : be held November g; to consider making the highway between the villages of Westerly and Watch Hill. Mfr. Pat terson is an expert in the building and Maintenance of public highways and was invited to Westerly to give his opinion in matters pertaining to road building and to-. give the tax payers Information so that they could act more iIltelligently at the coming town in regard to putting the Watch Hill road in good condition and in the most economical way. This road was rebuilt for it's entire length about eigh. years ago at a cost of more than s20,- 900, and it has been a great expense to the. town ever since in an endeavor for its proper maintenance. But great in crease in automobile traffic is more than this highway could withstand and it has gradually deteriorated un- til it is now cIassed as one of the worst public highways in. the. state The condition is so wretched that some ot the regular summer. residents at Watch I1HI have declared that they will spend summers elsewhere unless this road is aterially improved
 The meeting was called to order al 8 o'clock in the town hall by James NJ. Pendletons president of the Vest er'1y Board of Trade. He introduced the speaker.
 Mr Patterson said that old Roman roads are still in existence and why not some of the modern roads of to- day. The Roman roads are some four feet deep. The first course was oi heavy stone, then a layer of small stone; then a. heavy coat of cement CT lime, then there were flag stones Those roads figuring on cost of labor today would cost several hundred thousands. of dollars a mile. But the Roman roads were built by prisoners of war. Those roads had no wearing service, that is there were no auto mobiles, and the Tagging crevices did not interfere witI: the traffic of the ole Roman days. He then told of the con struction- of. French roads, of ground stone. Then Macadam an Englisf road builder introduced the ~nacadan roads of today. The water bound macaddam has declined in efficiency with the coming of the automobile Now the use of bituminoustproducts if substituted and with good result. The water bound macadam have been GOV cred, with bituminous production. and were maintained at big expense, g second treatment makes a wavy road and must be removed. In selecting material for the surface treatment some states prefer flight oil. while others the heavy asphalt that must be put on while hot. This type. of work is not. very satisfactory, where there is considerable automobile traffic.
 Another type of naacadam is the