A teenager claimed her life because she felt she had accomplished nothing, according to a note she pinned on her body before she rigged a shotgun and shot herself.
Young Woman Takes Life
Sept. 3, 1914 – Miss Eula Smith, 16-year-old daughter of the late Robert Smith, a substantial farmer of Anderson County, committed suicide at her home, four miles west of the city late today.
She secured a shotgun and went into the woods some distance behind the house.
She tied a cord around the trigger and then passed it around the hammer of the gun. The load entered her left side above the heart.
Her body was discovered by an older sister, one hour after the fatal shot had been fired.
A note pinned to the body stated that the woman had tired of life, that she had accomplished nothing and that she had decided to end it all.
Friends state that Miss Smith grieved over the death of her father and that she protested against being sent off to college.
These are the reasons assigned for her act.
Source: Keowee courier. (Pickens Court House, S.C.), 09 Sept. 1914.
