Henry H. Gray Obituary, Waverly, Bremer County, Iowa

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Transcribed by Barbara Braun, February 9, 2000.  
If any questions arise, please Email me at: seawave8@hotmail.com
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Henry H. Gray dies by His Own Hand
_____________

Dated 1885

Tuesday night about 10 o’clock Mrs. H. H. Gray was startled by the report of a pistol from
her husband’s room.  Upon entering the same she found her husband had shot himself.  The
neighbors were at once alarmed and Drs. Boys andClark sent for, but the unfortunate man 
died about an hour later.  The ball entered his head just back of and near the top of the
right ear, penetrating the back of the head and coming out a little lower, toward the base
of the brain. 

A coroner’s inquest was held on Wednesday.  Below we give the verdict. 

STATE OF IOWA,}  SS
Bremer County, }      

An inquisition holden at Waverly, in Bremer Co. on the 30th day of Sept. 1885, before 
A. J. Tanner, Justice of the Peace and acting coroner of the said county, upon the 
body of J. H. Gray, there lying dead, by the jurors whose names here unto subscribed.  
The said jurors upon their oaths do say that the said H. H. Gray came to his death by 
a pistol shot in the head administered by his own hand on the night of the 29th day 
of September, 1885, at his own home in the city of Waverly, Bremer county, Iowa. 

In testimony whereof the said jurors have hereunto set their hands the day and year aforsesaid. 
								W. H. Temple,
Sewell, 
H. Barker, 

Letters were found upon Mr. Gray’s clothes address to his wife, W. H. Mathews, C. H. 
Cooper, and also the following:
Waverly, Iowa, Sept. 10, 1885.

To the gentleman who may compose a Coroner’s jury in my case. 
  GENTLEMEN:  I killed myself: I was perfectly sane- and had no family troubles.  
My reason I have committed to the care of my wife and with instructions that she 
shall not disclose the same until absolutely compelled to do so: - I write this 
to make your work as easy as possible: - Please suppress public curiosity as best 
you can and oblige a departed fellow-citizen who has perhaps held you each in high 
esteem, and who having acted in your present capacity knows something about such cases. 
				Very Respectfully,
					H. H. Gray. 

The funeral will the place from the residence to-morrow at 2 o’clock, p.m., under 
the auspices of Robbins Post 207, G. A. R. of which deceased was a member. 

Henry H. Gray was a leading lawyer and citizen of this place, and leaves a wife 
and two children and hosts of friends to cherish his memory and regret his rash act. 

At the beginning of the war he enlisted in Co. K, 9th Iowa Inft. And served in 
that regiment for nearly four years.  During the last year of his service he was 
quarter-master of the regiment with the rank of first lieutenant.  His comrades 
in arms speak in highest terms of his military record.  

The citizens of this town have known him as a man of fine intellect, a keen lawyer, 
and a genial whole-souled associate.  From his bearing and manner during the last 
days of his life, none would imagine that he had deliberately planned to take his 
own life, yet the date of the letter to the coroner’s jury proves that for days he 
had gone about with that matter fully determined upon.  The cause or causes that 
led to his determination are no concern of ours.  He has gone, and we should draw 
the veil of charity over his failings and strive to remember only his many noble 
traits of mind and heart. 
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Transcribed by Barbara Braun, February 9, 2000.  
If any questions arise, please Email me at: seawave8@hotmail.com