Laura Baum, Obituary/Death NoticePorter County obituaries and death notices . . . .

Laura Baum

LIFE HELD NO HOPE.
Continued Ill Health Leads to Despondency and to Death --- Sad Suicide of Mrs. Laura Alssfasser Thursday Evening.

With the bright pictures of life shaded by continued and hopeless sickness even in its early morning, the self-appointed end of the young wife and mother is a particularly sad one in all its details. Despondent unto the verge of desperation at the unchecked progress of the dread disease -- consumption -- all hope of recovery fading, in a moment of fatal rashness Mrs. Laura Alssfasser, the daughter of Miller Baum, drew aside the somber curtain of futurity and lay down the golden gift of life, which had turned to ashes in her grasp.

Missed by the watchful eye of her mother, the brief search results in the finding of her body hanging in her bedroom with the awful pallor and chill of death upon her.

Laura Alssfasser was about 23 years old, the daughter of Miller Baum, a well known farmer of Jackson township. A few years ago she was married to J. J. Alsfasser. Her sister had been Alsfasser's first wife and had died leaving one child. After her early death the husband lived for some time with the family of his father in-law. The intimacy between him and the younger daughter soon ripened into a warmer feeling which finally culminated in their union.

While living in Englewood the ravages of consumption began to make themselves apparent in the slender form of the young wife and she came home to her father's house to receive that medical treatment which was but to again prove the hopelessness of warefare against the plunderer of health and life.

The gloomy prospects before her were too dark for the sensitive nature of the young woman to bear up under, and there was awakened and fanned into a burning flame, the fatal spark of despondency which has cost the world and the human heart so much. Hopeless, she often expressed her longing for the rest and peaceful calm which waits upon the ending of life's fitful fever, and had on one occasion announced to her husband her intention of ending it all by her own act. Her young child also she would have taken with her into the heart of the eternal mysteries of the great beyond.

On the advice of the attendant physician, who watched the growth of the suicidal tendency, a close watch had of late been kept upon her and she was seldom out of sight of some member of the family.

At some time Thursday, however, Laura obtained a piece of cord from a hammock on the premises, which she secreted into a convenient hiding place. About 5 o'clock Thursday evening she went out of the house, and, returning, she passed directly upstairs, unnoticed at the moment. Fastening one end of the cord around her neck several times she made the other end secure to the transome of the door, and stepped off the chair upon which she had climbed.

Her few moments absence had alarmed her mother by this time and a search for her began. The domestic servant was sent upstairs and there the horrifying discovery was made. The body was yet warm but the heart had ceased to beat and the life spark was extinct.

Coroner Coates held an inquest Friday morning and returned a verdict based upon the above facts. The husband of the unfortunate woman was sent for to Chicago where he is employed and he came at once, much cast down over the sorrowful event. The mother is also nearly prostrated by the blow. The funeral services were held Sunday morning at ten o'clock.

What the Coroner Says.
Coroner Coates Friday held an inquest upon the body of Laura Alsfasser the woman who committed suicide at the house of her father, Miller Baum. The postmortem showed that, while she had been docotoring for consumption for some time, there was no trace of that disease. Instead, she had been afflicted with pericardial dropsy of the heart. The autopsy was perfectly satisfactory in every respect.

Dr. Coates' verdict was suicide, due to despondency induced by heart and other troubles.

Mrs. Alsfasser was 33 years old, and leaves a child of 18 months.

Newspaper: The Tribune
Date of Publication: August 25, 1893
Volume Number: 10
Issue Number: 20
Page: 1
Column(s): 5


Key to Newspaper Publication Locations:
    Newspapers Published in Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana
                Chesterton Tribune
                The Tribune
                Westchester Tribune

    Newspapers Published in Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana
                Porter County Vidette
                Practical Observer
                Valparaiso Practical Observer
                Vidette and Republic
                Western Ranger

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Obituary/death notice transcribed by Steven R. Shook

 

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