This death record states the Mary died in Lincoln Township, Atchinson County, Iowa.
The Registration District was No. 22. The Primary Registration District No. 50 31.
The File No.is 31407, and the Registered No. is 13.
Under the Personal and Statistical Particulars is the following:
Her full name was Mary Walkinshaw Wilson. [Her middle name was Elizabeth but that was not written in.]
She was a white, married Female.
Her date of birth was Febuary 1st 1892.
Her age at the time of her death was 29 years, 10 mos, 25 da.
Mary's occupation was "housewife". Her employment classification is 184.
Mary's place of birth was near Blanchard, Iowa, Missouri
Her father's name was John Adam Walkinshaw who was born in Iowa.
Her mother's maiden name was Sarah Henning. The document name New York as her mother's place of birth.
All of the information listed above was given by Helen Walkinshaw whose address was Blanchard Iowa.
This certificate was filed on Dec 27, 1921 by Geo Latt (Registrar)
The right hand column is the Medical Certificate of Death.
Mary's Date of Death was December 26, 1921
#17 states: "I hereby certify, that I attended deceased from [check] 191 [empty] to [check] 191 [empty], that I last saw her alive on Dec. 26, 1921, and that death occurred, on the date stated above, at 7 pm."
The cause of death was as follows: "Accidental gun shot wound of head death was instantaneous.
Duration, yrs, mos, da are all checked.
Contributory is checked
Duration, yrs, mos, da are all checked.
(Signed) GA Reutter M.D.
Dec 27 1921. (Address)Blanchard, Ia.
183 is written over the area that states "State the Disease [?] Death, or in deaths from Violent Causes, state (1) Means of Injury; and (2) whether Accidental, Suicidal or Homicidal.
18 is not answered. The questions are Length of Residence (For Hospitals, Institutions, Transients, or Recent Residental.
At place of death - yrs - mos-da.
In the State - yrs - mos - da.
Where was disease contracted if not at place of death?
Former or usual residence.
19 Place of Burial or Removal Reserved [?].
20 Undertaker Scott [?] Address [?] Mo.
_____________________________________________________________________
These are some of my thoughts.
When I found this record, I already knew when and where she died. When I was looking for this record, I had never been on the Missouri website before. Helen (Mary's sister) had always said that Blanchard was divided from east to west by the Iowa Missouri border. So I decided to try and find Mary's death record in Missouri.
When I found this record, I was absolutely stunned. Helen had always told us that Mary had died in Chicago from a motor vehicle accident. I made a copy of this and walked into my mother's room and said "How did Mary die? What did Helen say?"
She repeated the automobile accident story. [Helen and her husband had become alcoholics after their son died. My parents cleaned out the modular home while Helen was hospitalized for her fractured wrist and found a large number of empty alcohol bottles as well as her handgun. When Helen came home from the hospital she never mentioned anything missing, but my Mom knew she was looking for the pistol.]
Anyway, I showed Mom the death record. She was as surprised as I was!
I think that Mary had this planned, or had thought about killing herself, for some time. I wonder if she might be pregnant again and couldn't tolerate the thought of having another child.
She was far from home in Blanchard. Maybe her husband's practice took him away for the entire day and couldn't help with the children as much as Mary might have wanted him to.
We will never know, but I would sure like her to come and tell me!
I am posting the article that was written in the local newspaper shortly.
This is the URL to the Missouri State Archive website: https://www.sos.mo.gov/images/archives/deathcerts/1921/1921_00033950.PDF or: 1921_00033950.PDF (mo.gov)
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