Sad Shooting Affair.
Farmer Scheck Accidently
Kills His Wife While She Sits
At The Table Chatting
With Her Sister.
Taken from Akron Beacon Newspaper
10 October 1887
It was about 2 o'clock yesterday
when funeral director Geo. Billow kidly informed the BEACON reporter of
a sad case of shooting whick resulted in the closing of the young
lifeof a faithfu wife and mother. Mr Christian Scheck with his wife Louisa
and their four children live upon a will appointed farm about three miles
north of this city on Northhampton Road. The reporter accompanied Mr. Billow
to the scene of sadness and upon arriving the following particulars of
the shocking affair were learned from Mrs. Herman Fisher, a sister of the
deceased and who seemed to be the only one who could tell the story. She
said,"My husband and I returned a week ago yesterday from a four month
trip to Germany, and my sister, Mrs. Scheck wanted us to come up and spend
the night and day in visiting them and tell them of our trip abroad. It
was just 12:30 o'clock when we sat down to dinner. After eating Mr Scheck
went into the kitchen for something and my husband went to the front door
and out into the yard, while my sister and I sat at the table and talked.
Pretty soon my husband called out ,"Chris, here's a bluejay, come and shoot
it." I don't think Mr. Scheck heard it , and my sister called to her husband
saying there was a bluejay out in front and to go and get his gun and shoot
it. He came in from the kitchen and apssed through the room where we were
sitting at and went into the front room to get his gun. My sister
sat with her back to the front room door and I at the side of the table
and the children were running about the room. Chris came out with his gun,
and just as he entered the dining room where we were , the gun discharged.
At first nobody seemed to be hurt and I thought the shot went into the
floor when my sister, who had her 3mo oldin her lap, cried out, "Why Chris,
you have shot me!" when she fell to the floor with her baby the blood pouring
out a stream. We picked her up to lay her on the bed, but she kept shaking
her head as if she did not want to go there and we laid her on the floor.
She did not speak to say anything after the one time only to call "Chris"
two or three more times and she was dead in about three minutes.
The house is located in a rather secluded spot, which is reached by a private road turning off to the left, in front of the Fowler farmand residence on the road leading to Northampton, and is in Portage township.Everything about the house was in the best of order, neat and clear, indicating the industry always becoming the German people. The husband was distracted and could give no information as to how the shooting occured, and for which there can be but one theory, that the hammer of the gun struck the door casing when Mr. Scheck was coming was coming out of the room and in this way was discharged, the contents of the gun going into the body of Mrs. Scheck, who could have not been more than two feet away from the muzzle of the weapon when it was fired.The shot entered just below the left shoulder blade, tearing a hole 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Coroner A.H. Sargentwas notified, but upon reviewing the remains and learning the particulars decided that there was no necessity for holding a inquest.
Mrs. Louisa E. Scheck was born March 18, 1859, at Newark NJ and is the daughter of J.G. Eberhard, manufacturer of harness trimmings and who resides at 407 East Exchange St, this city. Mrs. Scheck was married September 25, 1879, and is the mother of 5 children, four of whom are living, aged respectively six years, four years, two years, and a baby boy of 13 weeks. The latter as it lay on it's mothers bed, smiling and cooing to those who spoke to it, little knew that it had lost it's best friend on earth, and a mother's love, such as but few else, if any, can give. The three older childrenwandered about the house, aimlessly looking into the faces of all in the house with the look inquiry as to the cause of all the weeping and lamenting by the relatives and their father who would break down at every appearance of one of his children.
The sympathy of the entire community in which he lives is with Mr. Scheck. The funeral services will be held at the house tomorrow afternoon at 1 O'clock and from the German Reformed Church, corner State street and Broadway at 2:30.