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September 28, 1908

DIED IN SUNDAY SCHOOL.

Mrs. Margaret James, About to Teach

Class, Suddenly Summoned.

Mrs. Margaret James, 34 years old, dropped dead in the Sunday school room of the Centropolis Baptist church yesterday morning at 10:30 o'clock. She started down the steps leading to the Sunday school room alone, to join her class of children whom she has been teaching for the past year. Her 11-year-old son, Marion, followed and noticed his mother sitting on one of the steps. He spoke to her. she did not respond. He told men who were standing near that his mother seemed to be ill. The descended and found her dead. Death was due to heart trouble.

Mrs. James was the wife of Guy James, and lived at 1835 Cambridge avenue. She was born near Lee's Summit and had always lived in Jackson county. She leaves five children, Marion, Jeannette, Jay, Elton and Robert. The funeral will be from the church where she died tomorrow at 2 o'clock. Burial in Elmwood cemetery.

Labels: Cambridge avenue, cemetery, Centropolis, children, churches, death, women

March 7, 1908

IS SHOT BY HIS

BUSINESS RIVAL.

HARD WORDS GIVE PLACE TO

BULLETS ON EAST FIFTEENTH.

FRANK W. LANDIS WOUNDED.

CHARLES SOVERN SAYS IT WAS

DONE IN SELF-DEFENSE.

Shops of the Men Are Adjoining, and

They Have Quarreled Frequently

-- Sovern Shoots Without

Warning.

Charles Sovern, a second-hand dealer at 4313-15 East Fifteenth street, shot Frank W. Landis, a neighboring second-hand, 4317 East Fifteenth street, shortly after 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon. Sovern was arrested by Patrolman H. L. Goode and locked up at No. 6 police station for investigation. Landis's wife refused to let him be taken away in a police ambulance, so he was left at his home over his store in care of Dr. W. L. Campbell, who dressed his wounds.

Landis was shot twice, both times in the back. One bullet entered the neck just at the base of the skull, and one penetrated the back below the left shoulder blade. Dr. Campbell said last night that his only danger was in blood poisoning.

F. W. Frick, an assistant prosecutor, went to No. 6 police station and took Sovern's statement. Sovern said that he and Landis, being neighbors and in the same business, had been spatting back and forth a long time. When he returned from town late yesterday afternoon Sovern said he saw Landis standing in his east door, 4315 East Fifteenth, talking to another man.

"I told him to get off my premises," said Sovern. "He made some reply and made a bluff for a gun. Then I heard a shot, but don't know where it went. I entered my store by the west door, 4313. My gun was on my desk on the west side of the room . I don't know how I got to it, but I shot him three times. I believed I was defending myself."

Patrolman H. L. Goode was standing only one block away when the shooting took place. He said that Landis was lying wounded in his own doorway, 4317, when he arrived in less than a half minute. He had been shot in the back and was bleeding freely, Goode said.

"Just as I came up," said the officer, "a man whom I took to be Sovern left the Landis store and entered Sovern's place. There he came out and went across the street, where he spoke to some one."

These men were witnesses to the shooting: G. W. Ellis of Centropolis; J. M. Parrish, 5705 East Twelfth street; E. L. Adams, 1235 Lawndale; and Fred Link, 4304 East Fifteenth street.

When seen at his home last night Landis made the following statement:

"There has never been any bad blood between Sovern and me, for I have left him more or less alone. True, there have been several altercations between us, but they were merely of a business nature. I have no idea why he tried to kill me, as we have never quarreled to such an extent as to bring about a fight. At most there has been only an exchange of uncomplimentary names between us. His attack upon me was entirely unexpected. I have never had any intimation that Sovern meant to fight with me."

Landis was in a cheery mood last night and did not seem to be in much pain. He talked and laughed over the shooting affair with visitors in his room.

Labels: Centropolis, doctors, guns, No 6 police station, retailers, Twelfth street, violence

February 7, 1908

HOTEL LOST THE PACKAGE.

Then DeLapp Sued the Centropolis

and Got a Verdict of $500.

Clyde DeLapp was awarded $500 damages against John H. Van Closter, proprietor of the Centropolis hotel, by a circuit court jury yesterday. De Lapp claimed he left a package, valued at $500, with B. Williams, clerk of the hotel, for safe keeping last June. When he called for the package it could not be found.

Labels: Centropolis, circuit court, hotels, Lawsuit

November 15, 1907

DEATH RATHER THAN BLINDNESS.

Probable Cause of the Suicide of

Leo Mainhardt.

"I believe I am going blind. I can't see to read the paper at night at all."

Before Leo Mainhardt, the cigar dealer, left his store at 601 Delaware street Tuesday night that was a remark he made to one of his clerks. It is the belief of his business associates that he may have wandered about the streets until 12:00 when he went to the Centropolis hotel, engaged a room, then committed suicide.

Mr. Mainhardt's eyesight was rapidly failing and he was constantly worrying about his inability to see.

Constant worry over his ailment," Mrs. Mainhardt said this morning, "is the only cause to which I can attribute his act. He has never said anything that would indicate that he intended to commit suicide, however."

The funeral will be held this afternoon at the house, 1322 Euclid avenue.

Labels: Centropolis, cigars, Delaware street, Euclid avenue, retailers, Suicide

October 12, 1907

CHILDERS IS STILL UNMATED.

Centropolis Station Agent Hasn't

Heard From Any Baltic Girls.

"One thousand of them! Just think, ten hundred beautiful young women to choose a wife from!"

W. R. Childers, station agent at Centropolis, who recently wrote to a friend in New York to have the best appearing and most amiable of the 1,000 marriageable young women who arrived from Ireland on the steamship Baltic picked out for him, made this exclamation yesterday. Childers says his friend, although a bachelor, is a connoisseur of feminine charms, and he has no fears of the result.

But in spite of his enthusiasm, Childers does not try to conceal that the fact he has not yet heard from his friend in regard to his bride-to-be looks a bit ominous. But surely, he says, there must have been at least one pretty, amiable, and also manageable, you Irish lassie among a cargo of 1,000.

Another cargo of Irish girls of about the same number is expected to land in New York within a day or so, and Childers believes that as soon as his friend has seen the young women from the "ould sod" in the coming ship, and has compared them with those who landed, he will be ready to communicate some interesting news. Choice of 2,004 Irish lassies would be even better, if possible, than choice of 1,002.

Every mail is carefully watched by Station Agent Childers for a letter from his New York friend John Alden, although he says that it really will not be time for a communication on the subject for a day or so at best. But in spite of this fact Childers carefully watches for every mail sack which is left at Centropolis, and obligingly helps the postmaster to sort out its contents. And every time he hears his call on the telegraph instrument in the station he jumps to answer even quicker than his duty demands, for it would be a relief to get a bit of news over the wire -- even if it were only the girl's name.

Labels: Centropolis, romance, telegraph

March 20, 1907

GAVE CHECKS TO A BOY.

Girl Travelers Have Found No Trace

of Their Baggage

Miss Maggie Mahan and a friend, who arrived in Kansas City Monday afternoon, went to police headquarters yesterday evening to lodge a complaint. When they arrived at 2 p. m. Monday, they gave checks for two trunks and one suit case to a boy, 19 years old, who was driving a roan horse. He was told to take the baggage to the Centropolis hotel, but up to last night had not found the right place.

Labels: accident, animals, Centropolis, crime, police, police headquarters

February 16, 1907

DEATH HIS REFUGE.

JOHN R. M'KIM KILLS HIMSELF

IN THE CENTROPOLIS.

LETTER TO WIFE TELLS STORY.

BLAMES ILL HEALTH AND DEBTS FOR SUICIDE.

Milling Venture in Pittsburg, Kas., Did Not Prove Profitable, It Is Said--

Lived in Kansas City at 304 Maple Avenue With Family

Late yesterday afternoon, when a chambermaid could not get into a room on the third floor of the Centropolis hotel, she called the night clerk and the proprietor. The key was in the door on the inside and the door locked. With instruments the house electrician succeeded in pushing the key out and the door was opened with a pass key.

On the bed, face downward, lay the body of a man. He was dead and the odor in the room indicated that carbolic acid had been used. The register showed that he had registered late Thursday afternoon as "John R. McKim, South Omaha, Neb." On a dresser among a lot of paper and envelopes of the Cudahy Packing Company of South Omaha was found the following note:

To the authorities: Notify at once my brother-in-law, William Arthur
Miller, with Karnes, New & Krauthoff, Water Works building. Telegraph
my brother, James McKim, at Deloit, Crawford county, Ia., who will come and take
care of me and my affairs. Do not send word to my wife, who resides in
this city, but let Mr. Miller see to that. --Jno. R. McKim.

The hotel people said that McKim came in and went straight to his room. Dr. George B. Thompson, the coroner, was notified and sent the body to Freeman & Marshall's morgue.

On the washstand in the room was a glass which showed that it had contained carbolic acid. The mans face and lips were also badly burned and corroded with the drug. A two-ounce bottle of the acid, bought from George Eyssell, Union depot drug store, was nearly gone.

Letters to His Wife.

McKim must have poured out most all of the drug into the glass, drank it and then started for his bed. It acted so quickly that he fell on the bed. He had been dead probably twenty-four hours when found, the inference being that he killed himself early Thursday evening.

Letters were found addressed to Mrs. J. R. McKim and also to James McKim, Deloit, Ia. They were placed in large envelopes on which was printed "Cudahy Packing Co., South Omaha, Neb.," but that had been erased with a pencil. On the one addressed to "Mrs. J. R. McKim," with no town or street address, was written "Do not notify or send word to my wife. Send word to Arthur Miller of Karnes, New &Krauthoff." The letter was not stamped. The contents show that McKim, besides being in ill health, was carrying a burden of debt, which seems to have been sufficient to cause him to take his own life. It also shows that he went about the preparations coolly and deliberately. The letter follows:

Cudahy Packing Company -- South Omaha, Neb.; To My Darling Wife:
Do not allow the shock of the shock of my death, revolting as it may seem, to overcome you. It is the only way to prevent the worst catastrophe that must befall you and the dear family if I attempt to continue this fight against increasing ill health and impossible tasks before me. I am trying to do
the courageous thing of sacrificing my life, dear as it is to me, to save you from the greater disgrace and privation that must ensue when I can no longer bear up under it.
I have striven with all my power to pull out of debt that has fastened itself upon us, but today the situation is such that I know that I cannot work with the pressure that I must endure.
I have policies in the
Fraternal Aid...$3,000;
New York Life....$2,000 -- in $800;
Mutual Life of New York....$2,000 -- in $600;
Indiana State Life..5,000 -- in $500.
These will pay out your debts and leave you enough, with your judicious management, to take care of the family. I want Jim to administer my estate and he will come down to see that everything is taken care of.
Oh, my dear, and you deserve a better fate than this! but I cannot feel that it is disgrace when the circumstances that compel me to do this are considered. Those dear, loving children -- how I hoped to enjoy my late life with them and you. God knows best and I submit to His decree. I am aware of what I am doing and the great shock to you all is my greatest regret. Those who have been responsible for my downfall will be dealt with on God's own plan. Let this be a lesson to my dear boys to keep out of debt and I do pray that they will live to redeem in the eyes of the world this seeming disgrace of their devoted father. I cannot write much as my heart is too full -- may God bless you all and keep you as His own. My sweet daughters -- they are a crown of honor and will always be your solace.
I have nerved myself for this trial, knowing it must come unless some providence would avert it.
My honor is my life
Both grown in one,
Take honor from me
And my life is done.
A PRAYER
O, merciful God, spare my dear wife and children. As much as may be the disgrace and penalty of this, my sacrifice, I pray you like a publican to be merciful to my soul in all that I have sinned and to keep them with Thy great kind heart from future disaster. Amen.
Dear wife, be comforted and take care of our flock -- it is past my physical and mental endurance to longer withstand the strain. Your most loving husband, JNO. R. McKim

In still another envelope, also addressed to his wife, with no street or city address, was this short note:

Cudahy's advance money and their mileage are in another envelope for them.
I have a $25 check which you can use. My debts abstract the larger
obligations and will not press you. Jim will take care of the matter when
he comes. J. R. McK.

A check for $25, made payable to John R. McKim or order, had been slipped under the edge of the tongue of the envelope of the first long letter to his wife, it probably being intended as a second thought for this one.

John R. McKim was 48 years of age and resided with his wife and four children at 304 Maple avenue. He was formerly a traveling man for the Cudahy Packing Company and later for the K. C. Baking Powder Company, of Chicago. He was well-to-do and owned his home, which is a pretentious brick and stone structure in the center of spacious grounds.

Some time ago he purchased a 200-barrel flour mill at Pittsburg, Kas., and it was stated last night by friends of the family that this venture had not been a success and that McKim had become almost a nervous wreck over the failure of the institution to pay.

Donald G. McKim, 19 years of age, a son of the dead man, is employed by Hucke & Sexton, in the contracting department, while another son, Bruce, aged 17, is conducting the mill at Pittsburg, Kas. He also leaves two daughters, Elizabeth, 15, and Genevieve, aged 8.

Labels: Centropolis, Coroner Thompson, hotels, Maple avenue, Omaha, Suicide, telegraph