Farmer’s wife is killed

This story was published by The Ypsilanti Daily Press on Thursday, January 25, 1910.

Mrs. Ethel Depue, aged 41 years, wife of Henry Depue a prominent and wealthy Pittsfield farmer, died almost instantly at one o’clock this afternoon when she received the full contents of a loaded shot gun in her right side.

According to her husband, the shotgun had been oiled, cleaned and loaded, as he was preparing to go hunting. Mr. Depue was rummaging in a closet in the kitchen looking for shells and as he straightened up, his shoulder jolted the table and gun and his wife who was standing but a foot away from the muzzle of the weapon, received the contents in her side. She crumpled up on the floor, unconscious, with a great, gaping hole in her side.

The shot carried the woman’s clothing into the wound and when Doctor Clark of Ann Arbor arrived the woman was dead, having succumbed within a few moments.

Dr. Clark notified Willis Johnson of Ann Arbor who with Deputy Sheriff Freme Star hastened to the scene of the shooting.

The Depues although having lived in Pittsfield only a short time, have become very prominent and are well liked by their neighbors. They have been married only a short time.

Mrs. Depue was the daughter of prominent Toronto people, her maiden name being Watson.

The husband is prostrated over the accident and is under medical attendance.

The farm is located about three miles out of Ann Arbor on the Ann Arbor-Saline road.

It is likely that a coroner’s inquest will be held Wednesday morning.