Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....VanGeisen, Ferry 1931
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Sandy Heintzelman sheintz@iserv.net June 4, 2011, 12:10 pm

Ionia County News, 19 Feb 1931

Funeral services were held Sunday afternoon for Ferry Van Geisen, 54, Orleans 
township farmer who took his life with a shotgun late Friday afternoon after 
locking himself into the granary of a neighbor, Harry Whipple on a farm 
adjoining his property on M-44 about five miles north of the city.  The Whipple 
farm was formerly the Van Geisen homestead.

Mr. Van Geisen had been in poor health for the past several years and 
despondency over this and financial conditions was assigned as the cause for 
the act.  Investigation was made by Chief Deputy William R. McKendry and 
Coroner Benjamin J. Boynton who decided no inquest was necessary.

The body was found about 6 p.m. by John Van Geisen, a brother, who lives across 
the road, and Rufus Rassmussen, who began a search when Mrs. Van Geisen became 
uneasy about the absence of her husband upon her return home in the late 
afternoon from a trip to the Grove school where her daughter, Marion is a 
pupil.  Rasmussen had last seen him about 3 o‘clock in the afternoon moving 
about the farm in the vicinity of the house.  It is estimated he had been dead 
two hours when found.  

The two searchers had to pry open the door of the granary which had been barred 
by an iron rod, before they could reach the body.  They found a 16 gauge 
shotgun in the victim’s hands.  No one had heard the discharge.  Mr. Van Geisen 
had suffered a series of misfortunes.  One was an accident two years ago when 
he was seriously burned by an explosion of gasoline fumes.

Among the survivors in addition to the widow and the step-daughter are three 
children by the former marriage.  They are lieutenant William Van Geisen who is 
on duty in Nicaragua with a government surveying party; Mrs. Agnes Campbell, 
and Miss Mary Julia Van Geisen, both of Kalamazoo.

The services Sunday were from the home and were conducted by Dr. Paul Stewart 
of the Church of Christ.  Burial was in the Orleans cemetery.


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