MATHILDA KIEL----------WOMAN MISSING FOR (sic)
BODY FOUND IN CISTERN AT HOME
MRS. HENRY KIEL, NORTH NINTH STREET, HAD BEEN ILL FOR LONG TIME AND WAS
DESPONDENT OVER CONDITION
USE PULMOTOR IN EFFORT TO SAVE WOMAN, BUT TOO LATE
Despondent over ill health from which she had suffered for months, Mrs. Henry
Kiel, a resident of North Ninth street, is believed to have taken her own life
yesterday, Mrs. Kiel’s dead body having been found in a cistern in the basement
of the home late in the day. Efforts to resuscitate her proved unavailing, the
woman having been dead some time when found. She was 50 years of age.
Mrs. Kiel was last seen alive at 3 o’clock when Miss Rose Benvinver, of
Mischicott, who had been employed at the Kiel home, left the house for the
afternoon. Returning at 5 o’clock Miss Benvinver found Mrs. Kiel absent and
hearing that she might have been stricken by illness, made a search of the
house. Discovering the door leading to the cellar open, she hurriedly visited
the basement and discovered the body.
The cistern is brick walled and about five feet high and to reach the top Mrs.
Kiel had overturned a wash tub and placed a pail on top of it and then climbed
to the top by means of an iron rod which extends from the side. The woman’s
slippers and her sweater had been removed and were found by the Benvinver girl
on the floor near the tub and prompted the girl to look into the cistern to make
the ghastly discover.
Rushing from the cellar the girl summoned neighbors and Prof. C. J. Stangel, who
resides in the neighborhood, assisted by others, drew the body from the cistern.
There was about four feet of water in the cistern and the body was face downward,
indicating that the woman had plunged into the opening head first.
Physicians were summoned and every effort made to revive the woman but they were
futile, it being said she had been dead for some time. It is believed that Mrs.
Kiel, her mind temporarily unbalanced by brooding over her condition, had taken
her life soon after the departure of Miss Benvinver from the house at 2 o’clock.
Her little son was playing in the neighborhood and returned home just after the
body had been carried from the cellar to an upstairs room.
Mr. Kiel, who was absent during the afternoon at work south of the city, had no
intimation of the tragedy until he reached the house at 6 o’clock, an hour after
the body had been found. He had hesitated to leave home yesterday, owing to the
illness of Mrs. Kiel but at noon when he had suggested that he would not go to
work, his wife had urged him not to stay at home, declaring that she was feeling
well and she appeared to be in better spirits than usual when he left the house.
Mr. Kiel had a premonition that all was not well, however, and when he entered
the home and found neighbors gathered in the house, he thought that Mrs. Kiel had
suffered a collapse. When informed of her death and the tragic manner in which it
occurred, he was prostrated.
Mrs. Kiel was 50 years of age and had been previously married. She was the mother
of one child, a boy of six, who with the husband, survive. Mrs. Kiel has five
children by a former marriage, all surviving.
News of the tragic death of Mrs. Kiel was received with deep regret by many
friends who knew her.
Manitowoc Daily Herald, January 25, 1914 P. 1
********
[bur. 06-26-1914/cause: suicide by drowning/burial on Henry Kiel lot]