Cherokee County GaArchives Obituaries.....Smith, John December 19, 1885
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Meredith Clapper http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00012.html#0002801 May 31, 2019, 4:31 pm

The Cherokee Advance  25 Dec 1885  p 3
Hung Himself
John Smith, a Merchant at Salacoa, is Deranged and commits Suicide.

The sad intelligence reached town on Monday last that John Smith, a merchant 
at Salacoa, had committed suicided (sic) by hanging.
We at once began to inquire after the particulars and learned that Mr. Smith 
had been selling goods at or near Esquire Jeffersons' or Capt. Fergusons 
tobacco factory for some time; that his stock was not very large but with 
the profits arising from the sales and what door work he done on the farm 
and at the tobacco factory succeeded in making a very comfortable living for 
himself and family, consisting of a wife and four children.  He had bought 
some goods on time and sold as many or more on time and failing to collect 
promptly he became vexed in spirit and fearful that his obligations would 
not be met.  As time rolled on he become more troubled and apprehensive 
until his mind became diseased and deranged.  It was this financial 
embarrassment, it is said, that caused him to take into his own hands a life 
which God had given him.
On Friday night, we are told, he said to his wife he "would not live to see 
another Sunday," and to make his words sure he went early Saturday morning 
to the store, got a good strong rope, thence to near the grave yard just 
beyond Col. Thos. Hutcherson's, and there fastened the end of the rope to a 
limb of a sapling about 8 feet from the ground and the other 
Around His Neck
with a slip nooze, then deliberately dropped his length, and there, 
suspended in mid air, unattended save by the moaning winds, the rustlings of 
the leaves beneath his foot, and the mounds and boards marking the last 
resting place of the departed, a life which had served his country so 
bravely and nobly in war, fought many battles of life for his dear wife and 
lovely children, and a soul that had been given that others might be blest 
passed from time to eternity. 
How dreadful must be a death under these circumstances!
He was found about an hour afterwards dead with his foot (he only had one) 
resting on the ground.  Evidently he must have raised his foot up and 
deliberately strangled himself to death, making his final exit the more 
painful and horrible. 
Mr. Smith was a medium sized man about 42 years old, and had a wife and four 
children dependent upon him for support.  His wife is a daughter of a Mr. 
Crowder who lives near Salacoa.  He was respected in the neighborhood as a 
good, honest, straight-forward law-abiding citizen of Cherokee county.
He was a member of the 23rd Ga. Regiment and served throughout most the war 
in Company E., under command of Col. Thos. Hutcherson part of the while.  At 
one of the notable battles of the late war in Virginia in which his company 
engaged he lost his right foot and ankle, and since then has shown to all 
that he was a brave and fearless man and faced the enemy on the tented 
battle fields. 
He was not a member of any church.
His remains were interred on Sunday morning last. 
His death indeed was a sad one and deeply deplored by all.

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