Grayson County TXGenWeb

Dallas Morning News
April 23, 1889

HEAVY INVESTMENTS MADE
A Man Unsuccessful in Business Suicides by Hanging

Denison, Tex. April 22 - Yesterday afternoon in a wood south of Denison three miles, a man by the name of John Gilliland committed suicide by hanging himself to a tree. The particulars are, as near as could be learned, as follows:
Mr. Gilliland was for a number of years a prosperous grocery merchant at Abilene. During the long drought which affected that section of the state during 1886 and 1887 his business dwindled away and he became insolvent. Coming east he stopped at Denison, and for a year or more has been in this city running a popcorn and peanut stand on Main street, at the crossing of Burnett avenue. He appeared to be doing a thriving business, though only a very few people knew anything whatever of his former life. One day last week he closed his peanut stand and went to the country, three miles south of Denison on the road to Sherman, and engaged to work on a farm of a Mr. Davis. He began work Friday and worked two days. Sunday morning after breakfast he left the house and started toward the city. Immediately after noon two boys, the sons of Mr. Chambers, a neighbor, started out for a rabbit hunt. They had not proceeded far when they saw a man sitting upon a stooping tree with a rope in his hands. One end was tied about his neck, the other to a limb. He descended the tree until the rope was taut, then ascended to his former position, when, either by accident or on purpose, he lost his footing and fell to the end of the rope. He made desperate efforts to climb the rope, but each effort was a failure, until finally he remained quivering at its end about two feet from the ground. The boys ran home as quickly as possible and informed their father of what they had seen. Mr. Chambers hurried to the tree as rapidly as possible, but before the man could be cut down life was extinct. His body was brought to Denison, where an inquest was held and a verdict rendered in accordance with the above facts. Gilliland was originally from McMinnville, Tennessee.