November 25, 1909
OLD RIVER MAN IS DEAD.
Isaac Smith, Also Civil War Veteran,
Dies Alone.
Sitting in a chair, wrapped in a bed quilt, his head hanging over on his chest as if he had but fallen asleep, Isaac Smith, an old soldier and Missouri river navigator 76 years of age, was found dead in a room at 1820 Union avenue about 8 o'clock last night. The old man had been placed in the room about 10 a. m. by his son, William Smith, an employe of the Bemis Bag Company. the coroner said life appeared to have been extinct five or six hours . The body was sent to the Carroll-Davidson undertaking rooms, where an autopsy will be held later.
The son was taken in charge by an officer and taken to No. 2 police station where he made a statement. He said that his father's condition was such about 10 a. m. that he should not be on the street. In taking him to the room, which the old man previously occupied, he fell on the stairway, making a slight abrasion on the nose and causing the nose to bleed freely for a time.
Washing off the blood, the son said, he placed his father in the chair, covered him securely with the bed quilt and left. When he returned at 8 p. m. the old man was in the same position in which he had been left, but life had flown. The dead man had been an inmate of the National Soldiers' Home at Leavenworth, Kas. The coroner does not think an inquest will be necessary.
Labels: death, Leavenworth, Missouri river, No 2 police station, Union avenue, veterans
