. Mary (Roche) Shaffer Berlincourt

Starved or frozen?

All three questions and many more were asked on last Thursday when the news reached town that Mary Berlincourt, an old French lady, living on Otter Creek, in Pleasant township, had that morning been found dead in her chair. The circumstances briefly are that Mrs. Berlincourt had lived on the farm now owned and occupied by her for several years past, that she has always had the reputation of being both poor and unable physically to earn a living, that she has lived very much alone and lived in the most grinding poverty, that she was well as usual on the afternoon and evening of December 24 and was found on Christmas morning dead in her chair. She was as nearly as can be learned, about 65 years of age, was probably of French birth, and has been married twice, as she has a son in Illinois by another name. When found, the inventory of every article in her house, including household goods, kitchen furniture, dishes, bed clothes, wearing apparel and everything else did not reach the sum of twenty five dollars value. But there was soon found about her person, $867.40 in cash. Six hundred and twenty in greenbacks, thirty seven in gold, four dollars and forty cents in silver and certificates of deposit in the Burlington National Bank, of two hundred dollars. There were also found warranty deeds for two other farms, one in Minnesota and one in Champaign County, Illinois, the best farming county in that state. She seems to have paid her taxes regularly as her receipts from those places and the books of our own county treasurer show. She has however, always conveyed the impression that she was very poor, and so the little that she has had of this lifes necessaries has cost her less than it would most people. She has stinted her very existence of the barest necessaries of life, and has not had a warm fire or comfortable meal at her own expense for years. The case is a peculiarly curious one, and so far but little has been found out beyond what we here publish. Last summer Mrs. Berlincourt boarded for six weeks with a neighbor lady, during a bit of bad health. She was unable to pay for her board but continually assured her hostess that she would be "Rewarded some time." It is not a little singular that a person who had plenty of money to satisfy the reasonable wants of any one, would allow starvation and cold to put so painful and ignominious an end to existence. Printed in December, 1879, Coffey County, Kansas. Submitted by: John and Shirley Shaffer