Grayson County TXGenWeb

Dallas Morning News
October 6, 1897

BULLET THROUGH THE TEMPLE
CHARLEY BAUER OF DENISON, IN A FIT OF DESPONDENCY, KILLS HIMSELF.
STATEMENT MADE BY MRS. BAUER

Denison, Tex., Oct. 5. - Charley Bauer suicided at his home, 711 West Hull street, by shooting himself in the right temple with
a 32-caliber revolver, this morning at 11 o'clock. George Lake, blacksmith on Monterey street, three blocks away, was passing near Bauer's home when the fatal shot was fired and was the first to reach the dead man. His account of the finding of the suicide is as follows:

"I was passing near the place where Bauer lived, when one of his children screamed that he had shot himself. The child was running away from the direction of the house. I hastened down there, supposing that the man was still alive, and on my arrival at the house I found him bunched up in the doorway between the front room and the first room behind it. I saw the wound in his head and felt his hand, and saw he was dead, and hastened at once to the nearest grocery store, where I telephoned for the coroner. I did not move or disturb the body, but waited till Justice W. S. Pearson came to take charge of the remains."

Mrs. Bauer, wife of the dead man, made the following statement to Justice Pearson in regard to the suicide and its causes:

"Mr. Bauer had been out of work for some time, and I was taking in washing and sewing to make a living for the family. The owner of the house where we lived wanted us to move out of it, and I feared ejectment and rented a house on Barrett avenue from G. L. Giersa, and told my husband that we would move there. He demurred and wanted to move to a place on Barrett avenue, and if he did not want to move there he could stay where he was. Last night I went to the chicken roost at the stable to catch the chickens to get them ready to move this morning. My husband came out and asked me what I was doing. He said I should not move the chickens, as they were his, and seized me roughly by the hand and forced me back to the house, where he compelled me to enter. Myself and the children occupied the kitchen last night, sleeping on pallets, and barring the doors to prevent his getting at us, as I was afraid he would do myself or the children bodily harm.

"This morning when the man I had engaged to move us came for the household goods with his wagon, Mr. Bauer met him at the fence with a revolver and told him to move on, which he did. He came back to the house very angry, and I told him I would sell the furniture if I could not move it, and he said I should not do so, as it was partly his own, and not mine. I told him I would leave him on account of his rough treatment and he said I should not. I had gone out of the door and was standing on the porch when I heard the shot fired, and ran away, screaming. The children were also on the outside, and ran away when they heard the shot."

A little girl about 12 years old, the daughter of the dead man, was standing at the window and stated to the justice that she saw her father place the gun to his temple and she screamed and started to run, and heard the shot.

Justice Pearson, on his arrival at the Bauer home found the body lying as it had fallen, and the clothing on the right side saturated with blood from a big hole in the temple of the dead man. He fell on his right side, between the door facing and the dresser in the front room, and his revolver was still grasped in his right hand, with his finger on the trigger. After hearing the testimony of Mr. Lake and Mrs. Bauer, Justice Pearson returned a verdict that Bauer came to his death from a gunshot wound from his own hand. Undertaker Halton was sent for and the body turned over to him to be interred at the county's expense.

The bullet seemed to strike slightly obliquely on the temple, making a wound in the skull about an inch long. The muzzle of the pistol must have been very near the face, as the flesh was badly powder burned.

Charley Bauer lived in Denison a number of years and was by profession a bartender, having worked for a number of the saloons of the city in that capacity. He was for two years agent for the Anheuser-Bush Brewing company at this place. He was forty years of age and leaves four children.

The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, October 10, 1897

Thursday, October 7, '97
Cotton, cotton, nothing but cotton.......
The funeral of Charley Bauer, the suicide, took place yesterday from Halton's undertaking establishment. "There were none so poor as to do him reverence."...