St. Clair County
Remnants Of The Past

Appleton City Journal
29 September 1898

Killed Himself
Milton Heath, a Well Known Citizen of Taberville, Takes his Own Life.
(From our Special Correspondent.)
The citizens of our quite little village were somewhat startled last Wednesday afternoon when the report was circulated that Milton Heath had committed suicide by shooting himself. This sad affair took place in his bedroom, at the home of his brother Halbert Heath, with whom he had lived for several years. Mr. Heath had been acting strangely at intervals for some time past indicating that his mind was somewhat unbalanced, and his general health for some time had not been good; he had met with several slight losses recently in various ways, and the arrangement of some of his property transactions were a cause of regret to him, all of which preyed upon his mind until that faculty became somewhat impaired. Wednesday forenoon he was seen about town as usual, he called at the barber shop and had Mr. Fisk shave him, telling him to do a good job as that might be the last shave he would ever give him. He went home at noon and ate a hearty dinner and seemed to be in a natural frame of mind after dinner he called on Henry Hartman and requested the loan of his target gun saying that he wanted it to kill rats with. Mr. Hartman, not suspecting anything wrong, loaned him the gun, and after securing cartridges at the drug store he started for home and entered his room unnoticed. Mr. Hal Heath was not at home when the tragedy was enacted, while Mrs. Heath was in the back yard when she heard the dim report of a gun and as it seemed to be some distance from the house she paid no attention to it; but soon after she went into the front room of the house and thought she smelt powder smoke, and to investigate the matter she opened Mr. Heath’s bedroom door and was horrified at finding his lifeless body lying on the floor. She immediately notified the neighbors and sent for her husband who was at the school house. It was not long until a large crowd of people had assembled and on examination they found him lying on the floor, face downward with blood oozing out of a small hole about the center of the forehead, and that his last breath had left him. Squire Hill was sent for and held and inquest over the body; the verdict of the jury, after investigation, was that he committed suicide by shooting himself. He left no writing behind assigning any reason for this rash act. He had arranged all his business matters lately in contemplation that something serious might happen him. Mr. Heath was born in Illinois, November 11, 1847, and came to Missouri with his parents in 1868, and has been a resident of Taberville nearly 30 years; he was the owner of the Taberville Ferry for a number of years and was successful in most of his business enterprises and has accumulated considerable property; of late years he has dealt extensively in stock. He leaves three brothers and one sister to mourn his loss. The funeral which took place Thursday afternoon was well attended.