| Notes |
- Josiah Bartlett, suddenly insane, shoots wife and Albert Crouch, Young neighbors then turns gun upon himself, body found in woods:
Josiah Bartlett, 65 years old, shot and killed his wife, about 56, and Albert Crouch, a young soldier of the world war, and then, in the woods about a mile from his home, sat down upon a pile of leaves and turned his gun upon himself. The full charge of a 12 gauge shotgun entered his left side, causing instant death.
There were no witnesses to the killing, which occurred at the Bartlett home about a mile from Forest Mill.
It is supposed that the woman was the first to be killed, and Bartlett, thought to be insane, shot Crouch as he stood at this front door. His wife was found in her room upstairs, with a ragged hole in her side, and the fleshy part of her left arm shot away.
Bartlett, after killing the others, went to the house of Rev. J. C. Chavers, a short distance away, and left an iron box containing some papers. He then went to the home of Bascom Duncan, and told him that he had just shot Mrs. Bartlett and Crouch.
I want you to see that my son gets my papers; left at the preacher's house, and you come and take care of my body, for I will kill myself, he told Duncan. Mr. Duncan remonstrated with him tried to dissuade him from his course. "I have killed two already," Bartlett replied, "and I am going to finish the job." He went into the woods, and a short time later Duncan heard the firing of his gun.
The body of Bartlett was found lying on a bed of leaves, with the gun near his hand. He had placed the muzzle against his side, and pushed the trigger with a barrel stave.
Alarmed, the neighbors went to the Bartlett home and found the body of Crouch, lying just outside the front porch. His horse was tied to a tree in the yard and in his hand he still clutched a paper, which held a petition to the road commissioners to have the location of a public road changed. The name of Bartlett, was the last one on the list. The wound indicated that the shot was fired at very close range.
Upstairs, lying in a pool of blood was the body of Mrs. Bartlett. Near her was a broom, with which she may have been defending herself from her insane husband. Just beneath the shot would in her side was a gash, about one inch long, which appeared to have been made by a knife. The bed in the room in which the woman was found, was partly made up, and it is presumed that the woman was shot very early in the morning.
On Bartlett's desk was found a letter, evidently written on the night before or the morning of the murder addressed to his son: In this letter he had told his son that he was glad that he had been able to buy a farm – "I am glad that you have reached the rainbow's end." He wrote that he wanted a new revolver, not a hammerless affair, as he did not understand them and not a second hand one, as he wanted one on which he could depend.
The Bartletts have lived in this county for about 20 years, the family coming here originally from Buffalo Valley. Monroe Bartlett, a nephew of the dead man, lives near Hillsboro.
According to the neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett lived together in peace except when her children were visiting them. On these occasions, Bartlett lived alone in a shack built from paper roofing some distance from the farmhouse.
Mrs. Bartlett and her children occupied the main house on these occasions. At the time of the tragedy her children were all away from home, the youngest son having left a few days ago for Cookeville. Two daughters, Mrs. A. G. Clouse and Miss Joyce Jared live in Covington, KY. There was
another son, Homer Jared.
Although there was no doubt as to the causes of the three deaths, those who found the bodies refused to move the remains of either Bartlett or his wife until officers came and a coroner's jury was impaneled. They had then been dead for hours.
The body of Crouch was removed to the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Elzie Crouch, about a mile from the scene of the tragedy, and will be buried Sunday. He was a member of the American army during the World War, and had the respect of a large circle of friends in the county. He was an industrious young farmer, ambitious and public spirited, a splendid citizen of the community. He is survived by his parents, one brother, Woodville and a sister, Miss Elise, all of whom were at home at the time of the tragedy.
The body of Mr. Bartlett will be shipped to his home in Buffalo Valley for interment. Funeral arrangements for Mrs. Bartlett had not been completed this morning, pending the arrival of her children.
Surviving Mr. Bartlett are two sons, Norman, a traveling salesman, Horace, a farmer of Bedford county, and two daughters, Mrs. Fred Alcorn and Mrs. Emerson Ballard.
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1855 - 1922 (67 years)
