OBIT: John GOSS, 1875, Blair County, PA

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TYRONE LETTER.
Particulars of John Goss' Suicide

Special correspondence to the Tribune.
- TYRONE, February 19, 1875

This community was shocked yesterday (Thursday) evening by hearing of
the suicide of John Goss, the owner and tiller of a little farm about
three miles west of Tyrone - an honest, civil, upright, industrious
man, who deservedly stood high in the estimation of all who knew him.
He leaves a wife and five small children.  At times, during the last
month, he has begged his wife to kill him, declaring that if she did
not, he must kill himself.  The chief cause of his depression of mind
seems to have been a dread that he was hopelessly lost.  He had joined
a branch of the Methodist church and had backslidden.  He was not in
want, or in debt, he had just received some money, and he was engaged
to help a neighbor, Mr. Fagaley, to thresh on Saturday.

His wife heard him making a singular noise in the barn on Thursday
afternoon, but this was not an unusual occurrence, and so it did not
attract her attention much, or she might have saved him from the fate
that overtook him.  Some time afterwards, a little daughter found him,
stiff and cold.  He had strangled himself by hanging a loop of a
leather plow-line, which he had passed over the low front plate of the
little barn.  A barrel stood near in the corner.  His hands were free,
and his feet on the floor, spread apart from the bent knees; proving
an extraordinary resolution and determination to die.  He was not at
all discolored, even on the neck.  The handkerchief on his neck was
without the strap, and his hat remained on his head.  An inquest was
held, and the verdict corresponded to the facts above stated.

Altoona Tribune clipping dated February 25, 1875, page 3