Seeing Nahant, Massachusetts

A cold January day in Nahant, Massachusetts.
Boston is in the distance.

Nahant, Essex Co., Massachusetts

Nahant Library (above)

The Historical Society shares office space with several other businesses, in this old school building.

Boston (above)

Nahant is outlined in pink.

A Suicide or a Murder? What Do You Think?

The death certificate of my great grandfather YATES A. ADAMS shows the kind of information I wish I didn't have to read or believe. The fact that I have read the word "suicide" many times over the past 11 years doesn't help ease the pain and wonder. He has been a mystery to me because I have no family records, photos, or stories about him. I have always liked his name, Yates, I think it is unique (imagine if it was John Adams). My soon-to-be grandfather, Clarence F. Poole, was the informant and that is why there was so little personal information (he was dating my grandmother, and they married a year later).

At the time of his death, Yates was living and working in St. Louis, Missouri. His wife and daughter were living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The death certificate stated he was "out of employment."

His only child, Marjorie Anderson Adams was about 26. Yates had two sisters for whom I have little information, and a brother, John Anderson Adams, for whom I have a wealth of information and a good story for the future. Yates was born in August 1860 possibly at Batavia, Genesee Co., New York. A little more on Yates, he married Sarah Belle Farmer on October 20, 1887, in Battle Creek, Michigan at the home of her father. Per the 1910 census, Yates, his wife, and his daughter were living in Detroit, Michigan.

The newspaper article, written a few days after the death certificate preparation, had differing bits of information.

1. Instead of suicide, the paper states, "His Death Remains a Deep Mystery" (not just a plain mystery, but a deep one).

2. Yates "was found in the basement of the L. M. Rumsey Manufacturing company, by whom he was employed." The death certificate stated he was unemployed. Late at night, at his company of employment, he was writing letters, "in a happy frame of mine" and was planning on meeting somebody in New York City. Yates apparently was asked to resign, but he was still at the company.  If he was writing personal letters and was happy, why would he shoot himself?

According to the newspaper writer, "the supposition is" Yates was shot by a thief. That is what I want to believe. Also research further to see if there is a conclusion. Was the thief ever caught?

From: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mar. 7, 1917.

"MAN FOUND DEAD

FROM SHOT WHERE

HE LOST POSITION

Revolver Near Body of Y. A. Adams, Manager,

at Rumsey Olive Street Store.

Yates A. Adams, 56 years old, who was notified the first of the month that his services would no longer be required as manager of the display room of the L. M. Rumsey Manufacturing Co., 3554 Olive Street, was found dead in the basement under the office at 12:15 o'clock this morning. There was a bullet wound in his right temple and nearby lay a revolver.

A few minutes earlier a private watchman had seen him sitting at a desk in the office writing letters. In the typewriter was an unfinished letter to friends in San Antonio, in which Adams complained that he had laid plans to make a great showing for himself, but lost his position before he had an opportunity to display his ability. He had held the job for seven months. Four pennies was the only money found in his possession.

Before leaving the desk, Adams had removed his spectacles and laid them beside the typewriter. His coat and hat still hung on a hook, and the lights in the office remained burning. The police were convinced that he was not attacked, because the outer doors of the basement were fastened, the gate of the yard in the rear was locked, and there were no footprints in the soft earth.

The watchman, making his rounds at midnight, asked Adams how much longer he would be there and was answered that he had only one more letter to finish. Finding on his return that Adams had disappeared, the watchman called policemen, who discovered the body.

At Adams' rooming house, 4345 Westminster Place, it was learned that he had a daughter, Miss Marjorie A. Adams, a student at Ann Arbor, Mich."

* "CAUSE OF DEATH STILL UNKNOWN. (handwritten "Mar. 10-1917"). Funeral services for late Yates Adams will be held at 2:30 Saturday. Just how the former Battle Creek man came to his death remains a deep mystery.

Funeral services for the late Yates Adams, whose death occurred in St. Louis Wednesday, will be held at Hebble's chapel Saturday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock. Rev. Thornton Anthony Mills of the First Congregational church will be in charge and committal will be made in Oak Hill cemetery. The body was brought to this city today, arriving at noon on the Michigan Central railway. Mrs. Adams and her daughter Miss Marjorie arrived this morning from Ann Arbor.

Much mystery seems to surround the death of Mr. Adams, whose lifeless body was found in the basement of the L. M. Rumsey Manufacturing Company, by whom he was employed, by the night watchman, Patrick Harnett. Harnett told the police he had seen Adams in the lighted display rooms about 10:30 and in reply to a query Adams explained he had some letters to write.

When the watchman came back there at a little after midnight the rooms were dark but the door to the basement was open, and going down the stairs, he found the body of Adams with a bullet hole through the right temple. A revolver lay several feet away containing two empty and two loaded cartridges. The door leading to the alley, which had been locked during the day to keep out thieves who had been stealing brass was ajar about six inches. The supposition is that Adams, upon hearing sounds in the basement, had switched off the lights in the showroom and crept down thinking to apprehend the thieves.

Powder marks were plainly visible about the temple through which the bullet had passed. An unfinished letter in his typewriter evidenced the fact that Mr. Adams had been in a particularly happy frame of mind with his writing. The letter was addressed to Truman S. Foote, Hotel Elton Waterbury, Conn., and stated that Adams would meet him at the Manhattan New York City when he would have a deal to tell him. Reference was made, to a little party which he had been asked in September. Then the letter ended abruptly.

The secretary of the company made the statement that Adams had been asked to resign on March 1 when the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing company was to take over the concern. Only one cent was found in the dead man's pocket along with an identification card from the Commercial Travelers' Life Insurance company and a bill from Dr. C. B. Renoe for $10. The Insurance policy paid on February 28 was due April 1.

Mr. Adams left Battle Creek (can't read) years ago. Prior to his going he was in the plumbing business on South Jefferson Avenue, first in company with the late A. F. Bock and alone. He was a member of the Athelstan club and had many friends throughout the city."

From the Willard Library, Battle Creek, Michigan, Coller Collection 1.261. From: The Battle Creek Moon Journal 9 March 1917 page 12 columns 3 and 4. Thanks to Brenda Leyndyke.

The photo of wife, Sarah Belle Farmer Adams, wife of Yates, is the second from the left. On the back of this picture is written "my dear mother, Sarah Belle Adams, with the girls who lived with her (she had a rooming house) in Ann Arbor, Michigan--1918" --Marjorie Poole (the year Marjorie married my grandfather).