Suicide of William Bowers – Last Friday afternoon, William BOWERS, who lived near Holly Grove Academy in this county, put an end to his life with a piece of rope. From the circumstances as reported, it is not clear that he intended to commit suicide. His son and son-in-law had been away from home all day; and when he heard them returning; he made some remark about hearing them coming, and went to the blacksmith shop on the premises, where he was found dead a few minutes later. It appears that he stood on a grind stone frame, and after adjusting the rope, swung himself off. It is reported that on two previous occasions he strung himself up in a similar manner, but took the precaution to arrange to be discovered in time to save his life. Some weeks ago, he went out of the house, saying that he was going to hang himself; and going to the buggy shed, stood on a tar bucket while he fixed the rope. He then literally “kicked the bucket” from under himself, and when some members of the family went out to see what he was doing, he was scraping the ground with his toes, trying to obtain a foothold. The deceased was over sixty years old, and was very dissipated.
Source: Davidson Times-Dispatch, 15 January 1890. Paper available at Google News Archive.