Sympathy Saturday: In the Apple Orchard

My 3rd-great-grandfather's brother Montgomery Binkley died in October 1891.  His body was found in his apple orchard in Pleasant View, Cheatham County, Tennessee by Will Cobbs, a schoolteacher who boarded with the Binkley family. Montgomery had taken a razor with him to the orchard and had committed suicide by cutting his throat.

No one knew why he had chosen to take his own life. He was apparently happily married, had a family, and was a successful farmer.  On the day of his death, he had said that he was sick and lay in bed for most of the day. It sounds like he was suffering from depression.

Daily Tobacco-Leaf Chronicle (Clarksville, Tennessee), 20 October 1891, page 4

Daily American (Nashville, Tennessee), 20 October 1891, page 5