Samuel Abbot Flanders
Born: May 23rd, 1832
Died: June 28th, 1887
Obituary
This morning early Samuel A. Flanders, who lives in Union township between the Agency and Mt. Pleasant roads, went out to the tool house on his farm and a short time afterward his daughter found him there dead, having shot himself through the heart with a rifle. against which he had leaned, the impression of the octagonal barrel being plainly visible on his body when discovered. Mr. Flanders has been in ill health for some time, and was very moody and despondent, caused by failure of crops and bad luck in his farming operations, and these things led him to the fatal step. When examined by the coroner, Unterkircher, who was summoned, the flattened ball was found in his clothing, having passed entirely through his body. Samuel A. Flanders was born in Concord, New Hampshire, May 23rd, 1832, and came to Iowa in the spring of 1854 and engaged in teaching school, October 24th, 1854, he married Martha A. Hilleary, daughter of Alexander Hilleary, who, with seven children, survive him. He enlisted in the war of the rebellion and in 1866 was elected to the Legislature, serving with J. Wilson Williams and C. Ben Darwin in the lower branch. His many friends throughout the county will be shocked to hear of this termination of his life. The time of the funeral has not yet been decided upon.