Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Estep, William H. 1899
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Marilyn Ransom mlnransom@chartermi.net April 10, 2011, 6:10 pm

The Portland Observer, Wednesday, August 30, 1899

The Observer had its last weeks edition about half printed last Tuesday when 
word was received at the office that William Estep of Danby township had 
committed suicide by taking poison and cutting his throat, but no particulars 
were at hand at that time.

For some time Estep and his wife (which was his third) had been living apart.  
Three weeks ago he returned from the West, where he had gone with the 
intention of locating .  His actions were so queer there, however, that at one 
place he was locked up and his people notified and he was sent home.

On Monday he was at Grand Ledge, where he bought a two-ounce vial of aconite.  
He came to Mulliken on the noon train and got a rig at Fisher’s livery and 
drove to the farm of Amos Wooden, where his wife was stopping.  None of the 
men folks were at home when he arrived there, but he saw his wife and asked 
her to go to Petoskey with him the next day.  She refused to go and also 
refused to go riding and also to shake hands with him.  It is supposed this 
was his excuse for getting her where he could kill her.

He then went into the yard, drank the aconite and lay down on the grass.  His 
wife had locked the door but saw his actions through the window.  He had taken 
too much of the poison and it made him sick, and his wife seeing his condition 
went for help.  In the meantime he had taken a large pocket knife and cut his 
throat on each side, making four gashes on one side and five on the other, and 
in this condition, with blood running from his whiskers, he crawled about the 
yard, and those who sew him, Mrs. Estep having summoned help, say it was a 
frightful scene.

Dr. Peabody of Mulliken was sent for and arrived before he died and he did all 
he could to relieve him; but he was beyond human help, the poison having gone 
through his whole system.  It was the poison and not the knife cuts that 
killed him.

Among those who arrived before his death was George Doolittle, to whom he gave 
his pocketbook containing  a check for $275 and one dollar in money and whom 
he requested to pay his funeral expenses and keep the balance of his money.  
Estep had previously bought a new suit of clothes which he had told some of 
the neighbors he wished to be laid out in when he died, which he thought would 
be soon.  He leaves a wife and two children.

Estep had, according to report, always had more or less trouble in his 
domestic relations and about property, and there seems to be no doubt that he 
was a little unbalanced mentally.  From all indications the act was 
premeditated.  He was about fifty years of age and was a pioneer of Danby.

Funeral services were conducted from Compton church on Wednesday last and 
burial made in Danby cemetery.  

Deceased was a brother of John Estep, the stock buyer, and of Lee Estep, and 
at one time resided in Portland.



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