Union Cemetery

Otterson, Sheppard


BORN IN: Illinois
DIED: 7/1/1905
AGED: 56
CAUSE OF DEATH: accidental gunshot - self inflicted
DEATH LOCATION: Alpine near La Honda


PLOT INFO: OBITUARYS:
FAMILY INFO:

BURIED IN UNION CEMETERY WITH THE SAME LAST NAME:

CLOSE RELATIONS BURIED IN UNION CEMETERY:

BURIED NEARBY IN PLOT PG:
CURRENT EVENTS:
  • 1849 California Gold Rush
  • 1850 California became the 31st State
  • 1860 The Pony Express
  • 1861 Abraham Lincoln elected President
  • 1861 American Civil War
  • 1865 Abraham Lincoln assassinated
  • 1866 Ku Klux Klan
  • 1869 National Woman Suffrage Assoc.
  • 1871 The Great Chicago Fire
  • 1876 Telephones (Alexander Graham Bell)
  • 1876 Baseball's National League
  • 1877 Phonograph (Thomas Edison)
  • 1879 Light Bulb (Thomas Edison)
  • 1901 Teddy Roosevelt elected President
  • 1903 First powered flight (Wright Brothers)
OBITUARY ---------------

SHEPPARD OTTERSON

Redwood City Democrat

July 8, 1905

Sheppard Otterson, one of the well known old residents of this section of the county, met a tragic death last Saturday. The deceased had for several months past resided with Chris Iverson on the Alpine. Saturday morning Mr. Ivcrson drove to La Honda and returned late in the afternoon, He was a little surprised to note that Otterson was not out to meet him and when he entered the house he found the unfortunate man lying dead in his room. An examination disclosed a bullet wound in Otterson’s breast. It looked like a case of suicide, but the cheerful demeanor of the deceased when last seen alive by lverson contradicted this theory and an investigation subsequently made, convinced the Coroner that the death was accidental.

The rifle with which the wound was inflicted was found in the yard leaning against the fence. It is thought Otterson placed the weapon there and in some way accidentally discharged it. The ball entered his right breast and passing through his lungs lodged in the left shoulder. His clothes were ignited and his body was badly burned, There is evidence of his efforts to reach a nearby water-trough, where he quenched his burning garments, and from this point the blood marks indicate his painflul progress into the house where he died before reaching his bed.

Word was phoned to Mr. Crowe and on Sunday the body was brought to the morgue. A jury has been impaneled to make an official inquiry into the death.

The deceased was buried in Union Cemetery yesterday forenoon at the county’s expense.

Sheppard Otterson was a native of Illinois, aged 52 years. his father James Otterson who died in 1886, was one of the old residents of Mayfield and before the railroad was built kept a hotel at that town. He was prosperous in those days but died poor.

Paupers Grave.

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