Friday, November 24, 1939
Funeral Rites are Held Today
Suicide Victim is Buried this Afternoon in Berne Cemetery
Funeral services for Adam Bieberstine of Hartford Township, who died Wednesday noon of self-inflicted bullet wounds, were held this afternoon.
A short service at the home preceded a service at the West Missionary Church, four miles west of Berne. Burial was made in the M.R.E. Cemetery.
Coroner J. Jerome Yager of Berne stated today that his verdict in the death would be suicide with a .32 caliber rifle as the death weapon.
He stated that the first bullet, probably fired as Biberstine was sitting up in bed, passed through his body and lodged in a window sill nearby. The second shot also passed through his body, burying itself in the mattress.
Neither shot entered his abdomen, as was first reported, Coroner Yager stated. The first bullet missed his left lung and the second pierced it, he stated.
The suicide was attributed to despondency over ill health.

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(Handwritten date: Wednesday, Nov. 22, 1939)

BULLET WOUNDS ARE FATAL TO FARMER TODAY
Adam Bieberstine Dies Today of Self-Inflicted Wounds

Two bullet wounds in the abdomen, said to have been self-inflicted, claimed the life of Adam Bieberstine, 65 year old Hartford township farmer, shortly before noon today.
Bieberstine, according to members of the family, pumped two shots from a rifle into his stomach late Tuesday afternoon. They stated that he had been in ill health and had been in an argument with a son, advancing these reasons as a motive for the suicide.
He refused to be hospitalized and spurned treatment by a physician, it was reported. The physician, summoned from Berne, attempted to save his life, however, aiding him against his objections, according to reports.
The physician summoned Sheriff Ed Miller, who opened his investigation last evening shortly after the shooting. Coroner J. Jerome Yager of Berne was also called in after his death this morning.
The shooting occurred at the home, three miles southwest of Berne. It was at first believed that he had fired the rifle only once. Examination, however, revealed that two bullets had entered his stomach at practically the same place.
His condition remained critical from the time of the shooting until his death, about 11:45 a.m. today.
Bieberstine was born in Indiana, May 13, 1874, the son of John and Mary Herschy-Bieberstine. He had lived in Hartford township for the past 40 years. He married Emma Augsburger November 25, 1902.
Surviving besides the widow are the following children: Mrs. Marie Alt of Decatur, Mrs. Nora Bollenbacher, Mrs. Wilma Sommers, Mrs. Evelyn Hoffman, Alton and Elmer Bieberstine, all of Berne; Lloyd, at home; Mrs. Verna Hendricks and Wilmer and Claude Bieberstine, all of Geneva; two brothers, Amos of Fon Du Lac, Wisc., and Lee of Oklahoma; three sisters, Mrs. Emma Cox of Hot Springs, Ark., Mrs. Eva King of Pontiac, Ill., and Mrs. Lavina Northrop of California; the step-mother, Mrs. Sarah Bieberstine of Linn Grove; one half-brother, Homer of Fort Wayne and one half-sister, Mrs. Guy Watts of Lima, O. One daughter is deceased. (Handwritten: Funeral on Friday P.M.)
Funeral arrangements were not completed at a late hour today. (Handwritten: at West Missionary Church and buried in M.R.E. Cemetery)