Sedgwick County Genealogy' Trails Kansas Lizzie Thomas

WOULD RATHER DIE

LIZZIE THOMAS JUMPS FROM THE LEWIS STREET BRIDGE

She is Drowned in the River---Pathetic Story of a Girl Who Could Not Get Work---She Wrote Dr. McClees a Pitiful Letter---Reminds Her Nephew of the Time when She was Grandma's Little Girl---Mrs. Love has a Presentation and Tries to Save Poor Lizzie---Would Rather Die than Do Wrong.

Miss Lizzie Thomas jumped from the Lewis street bridge into the mad rushing waters of the Arkansas river about 10 o'clock a.m. yesterday and a half hour later her lifeless body was taken from the water at the railroad bridge, two blocks below.

Frank Chaney was on the Lewis street bridge at 10 o'clock yesterday morning and saw a young woman, apparently 23 or 24 years of age, come onto the bridge from the east side.

Mr. Chaney says he did not know the woman but she looked at him and smiled. She walked along to near the center of the bridge and looked over the banister into the boiling, muddy stream beneath.

In a few minutes Mr. Chaney says the woman sat her parasol against the railing and deliberately plunged into the river.

He ran to the place and saw the woman floating on the swift stream. She raised her hands above her head palms together then threw her head back into the water and threw her hands out from her body and the water closed over her.

Young Chaney is not an expert swimmer and he was afraid to plunge into the treacherous stream to rescue the drowning woman.

He rushed to the police headquarters and informed the officers that a woman had jumped into the river and was probably drowned.

Judge Hatton, Chief Massey and Officers Remspear and draper called for the ambulance and in a few minutes were flying toward the Wichita and Western railroad bridge to rescue the body if possible.

When they arrived at the bridge some of the men ran down the river and others went out on the bridge to look for the body.

The men on the bridge soon discovered the body lodged on one of the braces of the piling under the bridge. Life was apparently extinct. One of the officers climbed down on the brace under the bridge and tied a rope to the lifeless body of the unfortunate woman and the strong arms of the officers raised it tenderly to the bridge.

The body was placed in the ambulance and driven speedily to the undertaking establishment of H. C. Dunbar and Dr. W. A. Minick, S. A. Bass and W. W. Minick were summoned and an effort was made to resuscitate the body.

All efforts to bring back life failed and as a last resort the physicians obtained a powerful galvanic battery. One pole of the battery was laid on the dead woman's breast and the other touched to one of her cheeks. The cheek drew up and there was a frown as if the body felt pain.

This was taken by some of the persons present to indicate that the woman was not dead but the doctors said that it was merely muscular contraction.

Then one pole of the battery was put to the right ankle and the other to the right arm. The fingers worked convulsively back and forth as did the toes of the right foot.

The electric current was applied to either cheek and they drew up like one suffering with the toothache but the physicians declared that life was extinct and the experiments were discontinued.

J. D. Caldwell recognized the body as that of Miss Lizzie Thomas and when word got out onto the street that Miss Lizzie Thomas was drowned there were soon plenty of people at the undertaker's who could tell something of the dead woman.

The report was started that the dead woman's parents lived in Oklahoma and just as the efforts to revive the lady were given up a weeping girl came to the undertaker's from the West Side who said her sister's name was Lizzie Thomas and their parents lived in Oklahoma.

A reporter from the Eagle told the distressed girl that he would take her to the dead body. He rapped on the closed door of the room in which the dead body lay and Mr. Dunbar opened the door and peeped out.

The reporter told him that a sister of the dead woman was there and wanted to be admitted. Mr. Dunbar said: "In a minute," and closed and locked the door. The young woman wept bitterly the few minutes she was compelled to wait and when the door was reopened she rushed to the side of the dead body.

She looked through her tears down into the face of the dead and presently said: "This is not Lizzie. Oh, what a pity, but that is not my sister. I was so afraid that my sister was dead."

When the people who knew Lizzie Thomas began to come in and tell what they knew of her and the fragments of information were put together a very pathetic story was soon unfolded.

It seems that Miss Lizzie Thomas came to Wichita from Ohio. It was during the boom days and she came alone to make her own fortune.

The story says that she was a good, honest girl who had started out in the world to earn her own bread by honest toil.

She worked in private families. She was, however, unfortunate in two respects. She was partially deaf and there was a slight stoppage in her speech. These defects made it harder for her to get employment and hold it after she obtained it.

Miss Lizzie Thomas was possessed of a good deal of self-respect and she would resent an insinuation against her integrity or virtue at any and all times.

There were times when she found it hard to obtain employment and brooded over it until her mind became affected.

There seemed to be times when only two roads lay before Lizzie Thomas. One led to extreme poverty and the other to a life of shame.

"The road that leads to shame," she declared that she would never travel and "when that is the only road open to me I will die."

The church people to her seemed to be a lot of hypocrites, destitute of sympathy for the poor and unfortunate and she had no confidence in them.

The critical time which the poor girl dreaded, her diseased mind persuaded her had arrived when she must take her choice between death and a life of shame.

She made her choice and the waters of the Great Arkansas river smothered out her life and went on their pitiless way whirling, surging to the sea.

J. D. Caldwell said: "I hired Lizzie Thomas to help my mother with her house keeping early last spring, and she seemed to be a good, honest girl. Mother said she was the best girl she ever had about the house."

Dr. Minick said he had known of her in families where he practiced, and had heard her spoken of as a good girl.

Mr. Lane, 152 North Market street, said to a reporter for the Eagle yesterday: "Lizzie Thomas stopped with her for a time, but she has not been here to stop for about six weeks.

"She was just a good, honest girl, so far as I know, and she told me that she came here from Ohio several years ago.

"I sometimes thought her mind was a little unbalanced. She would talk against the churches and said the people at the Carey tried to poison her because she had found a piece of glass in her cup.

"She told a lady here at my house one day that she had always been honest, and the she would die rather than live any other way. She also said that at one time she had a mind to throw herself into the river.

"I seemed to have a presentation after that that something was going to happen to Lizzie, and I wanted to go out and hunt her up."

"My own family occupied my time and I did not know where to find Lizzie, but one day I rode over on Lawrence avenue and I saw Lizzie passing along the street.

"I called to her from the carriage, but she did not seem to hear me. I got out and ran after her and put my hand on her shoulder.

"She turned around and I said: 'Lizzie, I want you to keep up your courage; you will get work and people will like you and respect you.'

"When I said that she turned back her head in disdain, and said: 'Oh, the church people do not care for me, and with that she left me."

Then the tears sparkled in the good woman's eyes, and she said she wished she had made another effort to save poor Lizzie Thomas.

Mrs. M. A. Haydon lives at 619 North Main street and Miss Lizzie used to come there and the family at times thought she was slightly deranged.

Last evening Coroner McCollister learned that the young lady had a room in the Stem building. He went there and got a trunk that belonged to the dead woman.

The coroner said she had plenty of good clothes in the trunk and lying on a book in the room he found a letter, which read as follows and written with a lead pencil:

"Dear Cyrus----Remember the happy times we spent together when I was grandma's little girl, and used to take you driving. Good by all my dear ones. I will never meet you more. I can endure this life no longer. I have done nothing wrong. You need not be ashamed of me; I would sooner die."

On the reverse side of the sheet of paper on which the above was written, was the following:

"Will some kind person please send this back to my nephew---Cyrus M. Hale--Celina, Ohio, Mercer county."

When Dr. W. D. McClees received his mail at noon yesterday he opened one letter and it was from Lizzie Thomas, who at that moment lay dead at Undertaker Dunbar's.

The envelope was stamped 10:30 a.m., and it was supposed that Miss Thomas dropped it in the office just before she went to the river.

Miss Thomas had come to Dr. McClees one day when she worked at the Carey, and asked him to prescribe for a head-ache or neuralgia. Dr. McClees had prescribed for the young woman before and never made any charged because she was poor.

On this occasion he said: "Lizzie, I will just write down what you want, and you call for the drug and it will not cost you as much as if I fill out a prescription;" and he wrote down "anti-kamnia pellets."

She had a stoppage in her speech and Dr. McClees told her how to pronounce the words. The letter to Dr. McClees was written on the same sheet of paper on which he had written the name of the medicine, and commenced directly under the word and read as follows:

"Do you remember when you learned me to read that word? I will never meet you more; you good, noble heart.

"You were always kind and tried to help me. I can endure this life no longer. When you hear your name again I will be dead. Good bye, Dr. McCless.

"I tried very hard to get work but failed. I have no more money, and would rather die than do wrong."

These were doubtless the last words ever written by poor Lizzie Thomas, and these letters and one or two witnesses was all that a jury, summoned by Coroner McCollister, wanted, and they returned the following verdict:

An inquisition holden at Wichita, Kan., on the 13th day of July, 1895, before, M. M. McCollister, coroner of Sedgwick county, on the dead body of Lizzie Thomas, there lying dead, by jurors whose names are hereunto subscribed. The said jurors, upon their oaths, do say that from the testimony given, the deceased came to her death from drowning, with the intent of suicide.

W. A. FRANCIS,
JOSEPH BAILEY,
JACOB McAFEE,
S. G. CORWIN,
J. R. DUNSON,
I. V. JONES.

Jury

In testimony whereof, The said jurors here hereunto set their hands the day and year above written.

Attest: M. M. McCollister, Coroner
(The Wichita Daily Eagle ~ Sunday ~ July 14, 1895 ~ Submitted by Lori DeWinkler)

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GAVE HER CHRISTIAN BURIAL

Lizzie Thomas was Buried from Dunbar's Undertaking Establishment

All that is mortal of Lizzie Thomas was laid to rest yesterday.

Some of the good people in this city who read the story of the drowning of Lizzie Thomas were touched by her pathetic history and they determined to give her a christian burial.

A nice ash casket was secured, Mr. Dunbar furnishing it at less than cost. When the casket was set out in the parlor of the Dunbar establishment yesterday some of the women who attended the funeral brought flowers and laid them on the casket.

There were fifty or sixty women in the parlor, and on the sidewalk outside was a large number of men when the time for the funeral arrived.

The funeral sermon was preached by Rev. Watson of the Emporia Avenue church. He said that when a woman called on him yesterday morning to get him to preach the funeral that he would not have agreed to do so if the deceased had been one died among her friends.

The minister said that he had other work to do and this was outside his territory, but that he was touched by the story which he had read in the papers, and he determined to come.

Rev. Watson preached a very effective sermon and told his hearers to remember the poor and friendless.

"Humanity," he said, "is weak. We speak of strong men but the strongest may break down and become despondent. People can do very little good in what is termed society, but when we comfort the depressed or aid the poor we are doing the work of the Master.

"From what I have learned of this case I believe if some kind friend had met Lizzie Thomas on the bridge that morning, and had taken her by the hand and said: 'Lizzie, I want you to come to my home today; I want to see you," she would have been alive today.

"We do not, sometimes, know these things until it is too late. I am glad to see so many people here, but we must remember the living who are homeless and friendless.

"I shall never forget when a young man came to me in Cincinnati. He had come there to attend school, and he said to me; 'Oh, I am so lonesome and despondent. I would give all I possess to meet somebody whom I know and have them speak to me.'

"This young man said he would go out on the street and see the throng of people, but none of them spoke to him, and they only made him feel more lonesome.

"There is no doubt that Lizzie Thomas broded over her lonely condition until her mind became affected and she took her own life.

"She had no kinsfolks near her. Her father and mother were dead, and she had a half sister and one brother and nephew living in Ohio, but she thought no one here cared for her."

After the funeral service the minister asked some one to sing a verse. Good, old Mother Plummer said we will sing the song that Lizzie used to sing, and she sang, "Cast Thy Bread Upon The Waters."

Then the hearse with the black horses and black plumes drove up, the casket was put into it, and a number of good people followed it to the cemetery, where the remains of poor Lizzie Thomas were consigned to their last resting place.
(Wichita Daily Eagle ~ Tuesday ~ July 16, 1895 ~ Submitted by Lori DeWinkler)