Lacona Methodists drive their preacher to suicide

Find a Grave photo by Sandy Krell-Andre

Rambunctious congregations have a long history of driving preachers and priests to near distraction, but rarely to the extent that the Rev. Samuel Krell carried it on Sunday, April 13, 1902, in Lacona. Retiring to his bedroom after services that morning at the Lacona Methodist Church, he finished a suicide note and then shot himself to death with a pistol borrowed from a local hardware store.

We know today that suicide is a complicated matter, but the Rev. Mr. Krell left little doubt that he blamed his congregation. Others pointed out, however, that he had demonstrated signs of instability since returning from service during the Spanish-American War.

The suicide was reported upon at length in all three of Chariton's newspapers --- The Patriot, Herald and Democrat --- during the week following, but the most detailed report is found in Samuel Greene's Herald of April 17. Greene's principal source probably was the Rev. William B. Thompson, a friend and fellow Methodist, who was serving during 1902 as presiding elder of the Chariton District of the Iowa Methodist Episcopal Conference. Here is Editor Greene's report:

SAD SUICIDE AT LACONA

Methodist Minister Thinks His Work a Failure and Shoots Himself

Rev. Samuel Krell, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church at Lacona, a few miles north of here, shot himself in the head with a 32-calibre revolver last Sunday afternoon about half past one o'clock, and died after lingering in a comatose condition until four o'clock without regaining consciousness. The circumstances surrounding the tragedy are intensely said and painful.

Rev. Krell has for years been a faithful minister of the gospel in the Methodist church of the Des Moines conference. He has been stationed at Lacona for a year and a half, and within the two weeks preceding his death was conducting a revival meeting in his church, assisted by Rev. W.W. Danner. The members of his congregation and the people of the town did not seem to be bettered by his efforts and he became very much discouraged. He had worked hard to reach the men of the town and get them to accept Christianity, but was not successful. Even the young people of his church disregarded his admonitions and attended dances, upbraiding him for criticizing them for so doing.

On last Sunday morning, Rev. Krell preached no sermon to his congregation, but instead made a short talk in which he said he would ask them no more to be faithful; that he had urged them for the last time to be true Christians, and that he would never again personally ask them to forsake sin and seek salvation, nor ask his church members to attend prayer meeting and fulfill their duties. No one had the slightest suspicion then of how deeply the man's discouragements had worked on his mind, and the minister returned to his home with his family, remarking to his wife that he was thoroughly discouraged and was going to resign from the pastorate of the church that night because his work had been a failure.

Shortly afterward he retired to his bedroom to write a letter, as he said, and soon his family heard the sharp report of a pistol. Rushing into his room they found him lying in a pool of blood with a bullet hole through his head. The summoned help immediately, and Dr. E.G. Hatfield, the only physician that could be found, reached his side in half an hour. He found the wounded man unconscious, and dressed his wounds and injected stimulants, but all to no avail. He died at 4:08 o'clock without recovering consciousness.

He left two letters, one addressed to Presiding Elder Thompson, of this city, and the other to a friend in Winterset. He also left an open letter, which he had evidently started on the day before and finished just before his fatal deed. It read as follows:

"My efforts here in Lacona have been a failure --- almost a total failure. That which would have been prized above all else, the joy of my soul, and for which every effort has been made, has not been realized. My labors have not only been in vain, they are not appreciated, and goodbye. S. Krell.

"Sunday --- Mamma and boys (all four), Goodbye. I hope you will meet me in glory. I pass away in the faith of Jesus, as I have preached and told you many times. Goodbye till we meet. Papa."

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Funeral services were held in the church Tuesday afternoon at two o'clock, and on Wednesday morning the dead pastor's stricken family bore his remains to his boyhood home in Madison county, where they were interred in Pleasant View cemetery (near Macksburg).

Coroner Dale, of Warren county, being absent from the state, Justice E.C. Jones summoned a coroner's jury, which met about five o'clock on Sunday afternoon. The evidence disclosed the fact that the preacher had borrowed a revolver from Chas. E. Shupe, of the hardware firm of J.W. Shupe & Sons, on Saturday, and had it loaded in the store. Mr. Shupe supposed that he wanted to kill a dog or something else, and testified that the minister's manner did not betray in the least any suicidal intent. That it was a deliberate and meditated suicide seems to be established beyond doubt, and the deceased man's mind had certainly been affected by what he considered was the fruitlessness of his work. the bullet entered near his left ear, and passed clear through his brain, coming out at his right temple. The jury's verdict was as follows:

"State of Iowa, Warren county, S.S.

"An inquest holden in Lacona, in Warren county, on the thirteenth day of April, 1902, before E.C. Jones, justice of the peace of the said county, upon the body of S. Krell, there lying dead, by the jurors whose names area hereto subscribed.

"The said jurors upon their oaths do say that said S. Krell came to his death on the 13th day of April, 1902, by the means of a gun shot wound in the head, from a 32 calibre revolver, by his own hand. (Signed) J.G. Gray, W.J. Shupe, Al. M. Jones"

Rev. Krell was aged nearly 46 years, he having been born in Madison county, Iowa, on October 5, 1856. He lived in Ohio during ten years of his boyhood, and was married on March 6, 1879. He leaves besides his wife, four sons as follows --- Arthur, aged 21, who has been attending Simpson College at Indianola this year; Moody, age 19, who was absent near Vineland, Colorado; Wilbur, aged 16, and Alfred, 14, who were at home. Arthur was summoned from Indianola as soon as the tragedy occurred, and arrived just five minutes after his father died. Rev. Krell's mother and a brother are also living in Omaha, and came from there on Monday.

It was in 1881 that Rev. Krell first began preaching, then in the Evangelical church. His health weakened, and he quit preaching for a time, but eleven years ago he joined the Des Moines Conference of the M.E. church, and has been a member of it ever since. He was a very conscientious and faithful christian man, and held the respect and admiration of all who knew him.

During the Spanish war Rev. Krell joined Company K, of the 51st Iowa, and served in the Philippines, coming out as a corporal. He felt that it was his duty to go to the war and exert his influence with the boys against the sins that were so prevalent.

He suffered from a sun-stroke in the Philippines, and it was undoubtedly that that caused the unbalancing of his mind, as he has had slight lapses of reason since the war. During his military service his family lived at Indianola and they expect to move there now to make their home.

Rev. Krell had $1,000 insurance in the Modern Woodmen, and some insurance in a preachers' association, which he will get. He allowed $3,000 in a home company to lapse only a few days before his death.

The whole community of Lacona, and indeed eerybody who knew Rev. Krell and his untiring and faithful christian work, extend their sincerest sympathy to the bereaved family in their terrible loss.