Elijah
Parker, 55, Commits Suicide
New
Lisbon Farmer, Who Accidentally Shot Wife,
Ends
Life With Shotgun
Melancholy since he accidentally shot and fatally
wounded his wife two weeks ago, Elijah Parker, 55, committed suicide
in the barn on his farm at New Lisbon yesterday morning at 7 o'clock.
Mr. Parker shot himself with a double-barrelled
shotgun. He evidently placed the gun near the right side of his head
and pulled the trigger with his foot. The charge blew off the right
side of his head.
Dr. B. F. Bishop of Garrattsville, coroner of Otsego
county, investigated. Dr. Bishop said it was a case of suicide. No
notes were left by the victim.
Mr. Parker had been depressed since he accidentally
shot his wife Sunday, November 8. She was struck in the abdomen by a
bullet from a .22 calibre rifle, which her husband was about to use
to fell a hen for Sunday dinner. The bullet pierced the intestines
and she died the following day in the Bassett hospital at
Cooperstown.
Mr. Parker's housekeeper, Mrs. Crandall, discovered
the body when he did not return to breakfast. He arose as usual and
went to the barn to do the morning chores, but when she received no
answer to several calls, Mrs. Crandall investigated and found his
body, slumped down in the hay in front of the cows.
The body was removed to the Houk funeral home at
Edmeston, where funeral services will be held Wednesday afternoon at
2 o'clock. Rev. R. E. Snethens, pastor of the Edmeston Baptist
church, will officiate, and interment will be in the family plot of
Union cemetery at Edmeston.
Mr. Parker was born August 28, 1881, on the Parker
homestead, near Garrattsville, the youngest son of Elisha and Marion
(Grouse) Parker. He married Irene D. Pudney of Pittsfield August 25,
1907. Most of their married life had been spent in the vicinity of
New Lisbon. He was a man widely known and highly esteemed.
Surviving are three brothers, Elisha Parker of
Hartwick, Fred Parker of Wingdale and David Parker of New Lisbon;
two sisters, Mrs. William Clark of Milford and Mrs. Bert Bailey of
Binghamton; and several nieces and nephews.
