The Rest of the Story

 

I have written several times about the folks who built our stone house, and the type of people they were.  Starting a farm from nothing, true pioneers!  The husband a Civil War veteran, the wife a faithful church member.  Their daughter, Alice, was known in the community as a quiet, kind and faithful wife, ever ready to do her part.  Her husband, Clarence, on the other hand, unfortunately does not have a similar reputation.  Here is the story of the end of his life, pieced together from newspaper articles and neighbors.

Clarence and Alice had been married for 30 years when Alice finally died after a long two year illness.  They were both 56 years old.  Clarence then moved to Peabody where he began working at the Beer Parlor, which was located in the hotel.  Over the next year or two he was able to secure the farm in his name, since it had still been deeded to Alice.  He did not return to the farm, however. 

Apparently he had a weakness for gambling, and lost the farm in a card game one night.  After that devastating loss, he went to pay for his dollar's worth of beer with a check.  The waitress realized that the check would be no good, since he had just lost everything by gambling, so she went and told the hotel proprietor about it.  He refused to take the check, and told Clarence he must pay cash.  Clarence was apparently so upset that he pulled a revolver on the proprietor.  In the scuffle which followed, the hotel proprietor was shot, but was able to wrestle the gun away from Clarence and carry it in to the restaurant.  In the mean time, Clarence left through the lobby. 

An ambulance was called, and the hotel proprietor rushed to the hospital.  Meanwhile, Clarence walked down the street to the drug store, where he bought some rat poison, broke open the package, and swallowed some of the contents.  He then walked across the street to his car.  After the ambulance returned from taking the hotel proprietor to the hospital, they took Clarence in.  The hotel proprietor died from his wounds the next day.  Clarence was placed under arrest in the hospital, but died from the rat poison three days later.

So now you know, the rest of the story.