OBIT: Agnes LEADER, 1886, Blair County, PA

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Died Under Mysterious Circumstances.

Our Tyrone correspondent sends us the following:  Agnes Leader, a
rather pretty young girl of 19 years, who was for a number of years a
domestic in the family of A. B. Hoover, died at her uncle's (Thomas
Williams), four miles north of town, on Monday night, at 10 o'clock,
under distressing and very mysterious circumstances.  The girl was
within two weeks of becoming a mother.  Her betrayer, according to her
own story and circumstances which corroborate it, is a young man named
Edward Herldt, a son of Adolph Herldt, contractor.  It seems that he
had recently shown a willingness to marry her but, as both of them
were under age, the consent of the parents was found to be necessary.
This, it seems, they could not secure, and ten days ago young Herldt
suddenly disappeared.

The girl then went to her uncle's.  About 10 o'clock Monday morning
she was taken with violent pains in the stomach and shortly after
began vomiting.  This continued until a short time after noon.  She
was then thrown into convulsions in which she worked continually until
she died.  During the afternoon a doctor was called but he could give
her no relief whatever.  Every symptom of her condition seemed to
indicate that she had taken poison.  The frenzy into which she had
been thrown by the betrayal and subsequent desertion having driven her
to the mad act.

Altoona Tribune, Altoona, Pa., Thursday, August 26, 1886, page 3