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Old and infirm and tired of life, Mrs. Hiram Moffit, residing about a mile north of Shiloh, committed suicide some time during the night by hanging.  This morning when her aged husband arose, he was startled not to find his wife in her bed in the adjoining room which she usually occupied.  He left the house and thought perhaps Mrs. Moffit had gone to the barn.  Thither he started to look for her.  He did not have to go far.  In close proximity to the house, stands and apple tree and swinging from a limb, to which it was attached by a rope, was the body of Mrs. Moffit cold and rigid in death.  

Almost overcome by the harrowing sight he, however, hastened to notify his nearest neighbors.  Help was soon at hand and the body was taken down.

Mr. Moffit said that he and his wife both retired last night at their usual hour.  He saw nothing strange about her actions at that time and there was absolutely nothing to arouse suspicion of anything wrong.  He heard no unusual movement or noise in her room before going to sleep.

When he went to her room this morning he was surprised but not greatly alarmed to find that she was not in.  He did some chores about the inside of the house and then started out to find Mrs. Moffit with the result related above.

The facts show that Mrs. Moffit had planned her own destruction with considerable care.  She secured a clothes line and by means of a ladder she climbed up to the limb which she had singled out as a scaffold.  After attaching the rope securely to the branch, and tying the other end about her neck, she jumped from the ladder.  The drop was one of about five feet and was probably enough to break her neck, although that has not yet been decided as no port mortem has been held.

The deceased was aged about 65 years.  For some time prior to her rash act, she acted queerly, but not so strangely as to arouse any alarm.  She and her husband were both very eccentric and Mrs.. Moffit's act of self destruction was undoubtedly due to mental aberration.

The aged couple have two sons who are supposed to be some place in the far west.  Mr. and Mrs. Moffit have lived alone for a number of years only receiving a call once in awhile from some of the neighbors.  They were inoffensive and regarded with curiosity on account of their many, yet harmless, peculiarities.

The deceased left no written word assigning a cause for her act.

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