William G. Doller, the Macy Miller threw that community into a spasm of
excitement by shooting his whole family and then killing himself. The
awful deed was committed some time during Monday night. Mrs. Cloud, a
neighbor of the Dollars family made the discovery. She found the little
boy in the dooryard calling for his grandma. The lad was all bloody and
ran about as if blind.
THE DEAD
William G. Doller, 30, the murderer.
Mrs. Agnes Doller, 51, his mother.
Miss Agnes Doller, five, his daughter.
THE WOUNDED
George Doller, seven, his son.
Ida Doller, 17 months, his daughter
The two wounded were taken to Peru hospital where the babe
died Tuesday afternoon and the boy George is alive as we go to press at
the Peru hospital where the doctors attending think there is yet hopes
of his recovery although brain matter issued from the wound as told us
by two or three who saw the wounds.
The body of Mrs. George Doller, Doller’s mother, was found in
her bed while beside her lay the baby Ida, yet alive, with a bullet
hole just beside the ear. In a cradle bed, just beside that of the
grandmother, lay the body of Agnes, who had evidently died instantly.
She had been shot thru the top of the head. Each victim had been killed
with a 32 calibre bullet.
The father of the murderer had left home Monday morning on business. He
was finally located at Anderson and arrived home Wednesday morning. It
was a trying ordeal for him to find that his son had turned maniac, a
murderer. To find his own wife a corpse and his three grand-children
dead or dying, was a stuhning blow for him.
The two families, father and son came to Macy last November
from Jennings county, having traded a farm for the Macy mills. Their
acquaintance in Macy was therefore short, but their business relations
cordial and honorable.
Two months ago the young man’s wife died. Her death was
sudden and though her husband was a large man of 200 lbs or more and a
rough exterior, yet he had strong affections for his wife and family.
He mourned her departure and spent many hours on her grave at the
cemetery, day and night. His mother noticed that his reason would be
dethroned and so remarked, but she was powerless to turn his mind from
his sorrow. After killing his family he went to the cemetery stood with
his back to the grave of his wife and put a bullet through his body,
expecting to pierce his heart, but missed that organ, piercing his
lungs. He fell backward as he evidently planned, across the grave.
There was some evidences of struggle. The sexton found his body about
the same hour that Mrs. Ollie Cloud found the wounded bodies at the
home.
His father-in-law and some of the family’s old neighbors from Jennings
county five the murderer a clean, reputable character, saying he
neither used tobacco, nor drank and was not even profane, honest and
upright.
Last Sunday Mr. Doller took his children to Sunday school at
the Christian church and the same day united with the church. At the
time of Mrs. Doller’s death the family then living in another part of
Macy were planning to move into the house in which the shooting was
done.
LETTERS FOUNDTwo letters were found on Dollar’s body, one addressed to Rev E. H. Kennedy, the Methodist minister, as follows:
May 11, 1916.
To the Rev Kennedy.
Dear Brother;
I have done the act because I cannot bear life without the
one I loved better than my own life. I cannot go and have my mother and
children behind, so there is only one way and that is to take them with
me to the one we loved so well. I have prayed to God to forgive me and
I hope he will.
I wish to be laid beside my loved one, then our baby, then our
eldest girl next to the baby and the mother. I have asked Mr. Musselman
to see about the stone to mark our graves and you will tell them what
to put on it. Tell him not to pay much for them. On my wife and mine
put:
Wm. G. Doller, Oct. 15, 1885, died May 12, 1916, age 30 years, 6 months
and 28 days.
Elsie E., his wife, born May 7, 1889, died April 10, 1916, age 27
years, 11 months and 3 days. | |
On a stone for mother put Agnes Doller, born Dec. 7, 1865; died May 12th, 1916, age 51 years, 3 months and 5 days.
Do this for me dear brother and goodbye and God bless you
Yours in sorrow, Wm G. Doller.
P.S: I wish to be laid away just as I am dressed.
The second letter was addressed to Sam Musselman, Macy banker,
and dealt with business affairs, asking that he close out the entire
mill and stock owned by the Dollars and see that the bodies were
properly buried. “Don’t wait to find father,” the letter said.
May 11, 1915.
Mr. Musselman,
Dear Sir:
Will you please look after the settlement of the business of
the Macy Milling Co? I am leaving the accounts in McCaskey register,
also cash and checks in my overall pockets, with the keys to the office.
There are four cars of coal, two cars that shipment can be
stopped as they were not to be shipped till June 1, two cars hard coal,
one has been shipped, I think the other can be held up if cancellation
is made right away.
Will you please see that my wife’s funeral expenses are paid
$130.25 for stone vault, the lot is paid for, the receipt for this with
any money, also see that our funeral expences are paid and keep the
cost down and that the note owing to the bank is paid and if there is
money left put a tombstone at our resting place.
In fact I want you to go ahead with this just as I have
written it here. Don’t wait to find my father. Before you buy the
tombstones I would like for you to pay the paidup assessment fund of
$25 so that the lot I have out at the cemetery will be kept up and also
pay for the stone vault that I wrote of in the first part of the letter.
I will leave my cash that I have on hand in a tin box in the
bottom dresser drawer upstairs with the key in it and the key to the
office of the mill.
There is also a sheet barrel with some gasoline in it in the
shed on the south of the old barn. You will see by the Miller’s Mutual
Fire Insurance Co. policy that there is $101.25 coming to the Doller
& Son any time that you are to sell everything, horses, wagons,
harness, gas engine, feed grinders, hogs, hay, corn, wheat, oats, etc.
You will find the oats in one of the big bins over the scale,
the wheat in the hopper bins in cellar of mill and in bins in the mill.
If you can get Mr. Jordan he can show you. We do not owe any accounts
only to your bank and for the two cars of hard coal. I will try to give
you a list of the property, ton hominy meal, corn in mill and wagon and
crib, tankage, we get $2.50 for tankage, $1.50 for hominy, two ten for
chick feed, $1.40 for bran, $1.50 for shorts of which there is some up
in the bin on the second floor. My father has gone to Peru and may go
on to Anderson, try and locate him but do not turn any money to him
until you have done as I ask you.
I expect you will have to try and sell the mill. After you have carried
out my letter you will please turn over the balance to my father or if
anything should happen that he does not claim the balance you will give
one third to my father-in-law, H.C. Clay of Anderson,Ind the other two
thirds to my uncle S. Wilson of Terre Haute, Ind. You are to have
suitable pay for your work. I ask you to do this for me because I do
not know how else to get it done.
Yours, W.G. Doller
P.S.-Since writing the above I have made some changes I have made
cancellation on the two cars of soft coal. Mr. A. Jordan owes me $15
for a stove I will give Mr. L.J. Savage a check for $130.75 due him and
you will please cash it.
The above letter is of little consequence, as the elder Doller
will have charge of all business, as it was conducted under the firm
name of George P. Doller & Son, and the letter will have no legal
standing from the fact that there is a living partner.
The whole cause of this awful tragedy is attributed to the
sudden death of his young wife 27 years old that occurred recently. His
grief was intense and unbalanced his mind.
The funeral of the four was to be held Thursday afternoon at
the Macy Christian church conducted by Rev. Kennedy of the M.E. church
and a Christian minister of Peru. |