Butler County KS Archives Obituaries.....Turka, Martin March 1903
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Peggy Luce pegsue59@cox.net January 3, 2007, 6:22 pm

Walnut Valley Times, March 27, 1903, Volume XXXIV, Number 10
The Suicide at Gordon 

The coroner’s jury impaneled yesterday by Dr. Hunt found that Martin Truka came 
to his death by his own hand, by shooting himself in the head with a 22 rifle. 
The jury was composed of W. H. Curry, W. J. Jordan, W. R. Taylor, T. N. 
Purcell, Jr., Chas. D. Hoover and John O. Thompson.

Martin Truka was a foreigner. He came to Butler county from Nebraska about 
seven years ago and purchased 130 acres a quarter north and two miles west of 
Gordon. He lived all by himself in a little one-room shack. He was an 
unsociable fellow and had nothing to do with his neighbors whatever. He was 
about forty-five or fifty years of age.

It is thought he committed suicide Sunday evening. Wednesday evening some of 
his neighbors went to his house to see if he was sick, Truka having not been 
seen about the premises for several days. They hesitated about calling upon him 
as on a prior occasion when he was sick and they came to help him he abused 
them. Upon investigation they found him in bed, dead, and holding a rifle in 
his right hand. He was dressed only in his underclothing. He had placed the 
muzzle of the gun at the base of his skull, just behind the right ear, and 
pulled the trigger with his thumb, the position in which he was lying making it 
impossible to pull it with his finger. Death was instantaneous. The covers of 
the bed were disturbed and the gun was still clasped firmly in his hand.

The room was desolate and bare of comforts. It is off the road and in a rather 
isolated place. At one side was an old stove and a roughly-made cupboard. On 
the opposite side of the house was the low, old-fashioned bed on which he laid 
to take his own life. A bunch of grass and corn stalks littered the floor. In a 
trunk was found the deed to his land, several redeemed mortgages and a new suit 
of clothes which had never been worn. His overalls hung on the bed post and in 
a pair of trousers that hung behind the door was found $48, a $20 bill, two $10 
bills and $8 in silver.

A circular letter received by Truka in 1901 was the only writing found about 
the house. It was from a Chicago firm and written in some foreign language.

Truka was buried at Douglas.


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