On Friday Morning, March 27, 1912 at an early hour, Frank D. Barnes was found in the yard at his farm five miles northwest of Burrton in ValleyTownship, dying from a gunshot wound. An account of the affair as told by an immediate member of the family is as follows: Mr. Barnes rose early that morning at 5:00 and after building a fire in the kitchen stove, returned to his bed. About half an hour he arose again and was heard in another room of the house In a short time the report of a gunshot was heard. A member of the family called to see what it meant, and the question was asked in a much louder voice. Mrs. Barnes then ran into the yard and found her husband lying on the ground with a gunshot wound lying on his side, one barrel of which was discharged, the other loaded with the trigger cocked. The weapon was a 12 gauge shot gun loaded with duck shot.
The load entered the center of the abdomen and was deflected in a little to the left, one shot passed entirely through the body. A neighbor, J. W. Miller was summoned and found the dying man still conscious and apparently rational. Answering the question as to how it happened, Mr. Barnes replied that he did it himself, but declined to answer further questions. Dr. Duval from Hutchinson was summoned but arrived too late.
Taken from Burton Graphic 4-2-1914 -
This community received a shock on last Friday morning from which it will not soon recover or forget when the sad news that Mr. Frank Barnes one of Burrton's oldest residents had become a victim to suicidal mania and had taken his own life was flashed over the telephone lines.
He arose about daylight as was his custom, started a fire in the heating stove returning to bed until the room became warm he again arose, dressed himself, put his arms around his wife's neck and kissed her as he had been in the habit of doing and then turned to go out. It is supposed that he picked up the box of shells from the foot of the bed where it lay although in the semi-darkness she did not notice him doing so, went out through the dinning room taking the gun from its resting place in the corner; he loaded both barrels, setting the box of shells on a barrel by the milk house, he proceeded out east of the granary where he committed the rash act.
Mrs. Barnes did not even hear the door close although she was awake but did not know anything was amiss, until she heard the report of the gun and then not knowing what it was she at once went to investigate, calling to her husband as she went and receiving no answer and becoming alarmed at his unusual absence and silence she kept going until she found him lying where he had fallen, she returned to the house and sent Walter to Mr. Millers for help. She then held his head in her arms until help arrived.
