Franklin Recorder - 12/1/1886

Eli Sparling, a single man somewhere near thirty years of age, and a son of Elizabeth (Mrs. Amos) Sheppard of Reeve Township by a former marriage, committed suicide by taking an overdose of laudanum at Mr. Sheppard's residence last Thursday.  He lived several hours after the discovery was made that he had taken the dose and Dr. Tidd was called but the poison had taken effect and nothing could be done for his relief. The young man was raised in Reeve Township but has been out west most of the time for several years and lately has been acting so strangely that suspicions have been excited as to his sanity.  He was buried in the Maysville Cemetery.

(Death certificate said he was 33 years old.)