Miami Union

June 29, 1911  

LEVERING, WILLIAM - William Levering, a farmer aged forty years, residing back of the Versailles pike, four miles from Piqua, committed suicide Wednesday evening of last week by blowing his brains out with a shot gun.  The man resided with his brother, Henry, and sister Bessie.  It was his habit to get up first in the morning and build the fire.  When his brother and sister came down stairs Thursday morning, they discovered that he had not done this usual chore.  Thinking that he was working somewhere on the farm, they went on getting breakfast.  They finally went to his room to call him but discovered the bed undisturbed.  A search was made and the body was soon discovered in a tool house, four or five hundred feet from the house.  The man had loaded a double barreled shot gun, and putting the muzzle against the right temple, pulled on trigger, and the charge tore off the top of his head and scattered the brains and skull on the opposite wall.  The man lay down before shooting, and the recoil of the gun sent it into a harrow eight feet away.  Dr. Baker of Piqua and Squire Fox acting coroner of West Milton were called to the house, and is the physician's opinion that the man had been dead since 9:30 o'clock Wednesday night.  Levering was still clad in his working clothes.  There was no apparent cause for Levering to take his life.  He was a nervous man, however, and worried a great deal, and his mind might have become unbalanced.  Some eight years ago he lost an eye in a hunting accident.  The funeral was held on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock at the home.  The services were conducted by the Rev. Dr. John Montgomery.  The interment was in Forest Hill cemetery.

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