No Exit (Commerce, 1909)

Sometime in 1909, Americus learned he was suffering from a disease. Family legend says it was pernicious anemia, a disease of the red blood cells caused by a lack of vitamin B12. Again according to family tales, even in 1909 there were cures known for this disease, but Americus appeared to have become depressed that, because of the disease, he would end up like his brothers, who had suffered for decades from injuries suffered in the Civil War.
Fortunatus, for instance, had filed a pension application in 1905 that ticked off a variety of problems. One affidavit declares: "This applicant is very much enfeebled from age, complaints of rheumatism, and hemorrhoids. Also complains from diabetes."
Rather than faced that future, the story goes, Walton killed himself. We don't know the method of suicide, but we do know he died July 29, 1909.
Martha Lucinda Webb thus was widowed. She stayed that way for the next 24 years, dying Feb. 27, 1933.
Americus, Martha, and infants Vella and Cymenthia are buried in Gary Hill Cemetery in Commerce. About 50 yards away lies the grave of Olive Ann Burns, author of Cold Sassy Tree. Her story of life in Harmony Grove between 1905 and 1910 includes a suicide. I've always wonder if that's more than just a coincidence.