Obit: Reil, John (1901 - 1933)

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Surnames: REIL VOLKNER JUSTMAN HAHN GOSSE LEICHTNAM FINK HANSON BRAMER ARSCHAMBO

----Sources: COLBY PHONOGRAPH (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) 06/15/1933

Reil, John (30 Aug. 1901 - 11 June 1933)

John Reil, age thirty-two, committed suicide by hanging himself in the barn of his mother’s farm in the town of Colby, Wisconisn Sunday noon. John had mounted a milk pail, fastened one end of the rope to a beam and other about his neck and then kicked the pail away. His feet were but four inches from the floor of the barn when the body was found by his mother, Mrs. Joseph Reil, who went to the barn to call him for dinner. It seems as if John had made all the arrangements for hanging early in the morning for he had not been gone from the house much more than five minutes when his mother went to call him for dinner and it is thought that he could not have made all the arrangements for hanging in that time.

Despondency over the filing of divorce proceedings by his wife is attributed to the cause of his rash act. He was married at Colby eight years ago to Malinda Volkner and they had no children. The couple lived with the deceased’s mother. Besides the widow and mother, he is survived by a brother, George of Abbotsford, and a sister, Mrs. Phillip Justman of Milwaukee.

Funeral services were held at the Lulloff undertaking parlors Wednesday at 1:30, Rev. G. F. Hahn officiating, and internment was made in the Colby cemetery. The pall bearers were Clarence Gosse, Ed. Leichtnam, Christ Fink, Peter Hanson, Christ Bramer and Xavier Arschambo.

The deceased was born on the farm where he ended his life and reached the age of thirty-two years, two months and twenty days. He had been a diligent worker on the farm, and, although his affairs did not run as smoothly as he wished, his action came as a shock to his relatives.

*** Note: John’s date of birth is from the Colby Memorial Cemetery index on this site.