Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Leece, Lewis J. 1925
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Sandy Heintzelman sheintz@iserv.net September 1, 2014, 1:24 pm

Belding Banner-News, 27 May 1925

Keene Farmer Uses Shotgun To End Life

Wife Discovers Body In Pool Of Blood On The Barn Floor Monday Noon

Lewis J. Leece, aged 52 years, a Keene township farmer, committed suicide about
10:45 Monday morning when he took a single barreled shot gun to an old barn a
half mile west of his home, tied a piece of binder twine to the trigger and the
other end to a plow in the barn, sat down upon the floor and discharged the
firearm.  The charge of number four shot entered the left side of his neck
against which he placed the muzzle of the gun, severed the jugular vein, and
many of the shots buried themselves in the barn door behind him.

The body was found by Mrs. Leece when she drove their car from the house to the
barn to find out about what time the men would be ready for dinner.  The hired
man, Winford Johnson, was cultivating the field about the barn and was just
across the field when he was asked by Mrs. Leece, whether her husband had been
there.  He told her that Mr. Leece had been there just a short time before and
told her that he intended to finish the field before dinner.  Mrs. Leece then
went around the barn and looked in the front door.  Directly in front of her and
but a few feet away lay her husband in a pool of blood, one hand clutching the
barrel of the gun.

According to Johnson, Mr. Leece had come to the field a short time previously
and had talked with him but a short distance back of the barn asking Johnson to
smoke with him.  Leece complained of not feeling well Johnson said and Johnson
had advised him not to sit on the ground in that case.  Leece after a brief talk
had asked what time it was and Johnson told him it was a quarter to 11.  Then
Leece went around the barn.  Johnson heard a shot a few minutes later but paid
no attention to it he declared, thinking that Leece was probably shooting at a
rat about the barn.

No motive for the suicide could be given by members of the family.  It was
stated that Leece had not been in the best of health but that so far as known he
had no reason for his act.  He leaves a widow who was formally Mrs. Frank Carr,
of Keene, and is a sister of D.W. Lind, of Ionia, and also a sister of Mrs. W.L.
Covert, of Pasadena, California, formerly of this city.

Leece’s first wife died some years ago and he lost two children by death one of
them a small boy getting caught in a wire fence and choking to death.  He is
highly spoken of by those who knew him and his home, a mile north of the Keene
church, was a neat attractive bungalow built in recent years.

A coroner’s jury which sat in the case at the scene of the fatality, on Monday
afternoon, rendered a verdict of suicide, stating that Leece had died by his own
hand.  The body was then taken to a Lowell undertaking establishment where it
was prepared for burial.

Funeral services are being held at the home north of the Keene church this
afternoon with a minister from Sparta officiating and the body is being taken to
Clarksville for burial, Leece having formerly been a resident of Clarksville.


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