General Notes

REFN: 24005
[lillief.ged]
Notes for JOHN KEAHEY: from Larry D. Keahey
The writings of Rev. Wm. Angus McLeod contain the following: " John Ke
ah ey committed suicide when his daughter, Margaret, was about eight yea
rs ol d. I have heard her tell a few things about that tragic event, b
ut it w as not one she often discussed. On a few occasions I went with h
er to t he old Patterson graveyard, a lonely spot between Buffalo Creek a
nd its tr ibutary, Gin Branch, just across the latter stream from our hom
e. Margar et spoke of her father, John Keahey, as a man of good repute, fr
om a fami ly of prominent people. No one ever knew why he killed himsel
f. One tradit ion is that in his youth he and a friend were " bl
ed " by an old doct or as the fashion was in those days, and the blo
od of the two was caug ht in the same basin, thus becoming mixed. A prevai
ling superstition was t hat in cases like that, where bloods mixed, whatev
er caused the death of o ne would cause the death of the other. John's fri
end committed suicide, a nd when John heard of it, the superstition beg
an to prey on his mi nd in a terrible fashion until he, too, took his o
wn life. All this, of co urse, is only tradition.
John Keahey was something of a mechanic, and had a workshop where he d
id h is work. One morning, shortly before his death, his son, William, th
en thi rteen years old, was sent to the shop to call his father to breakfa
st. T he lad was horror-stricken to find his father lying on the groun
d, ov er a little trench he had dug in the floor, with a huge knife in h
is ha nd ready to cut his throat. The arrival of his son seemed to break t
he spe ll. Startled and embarrassed, he jumped to his feet, put away the k
nife a nd charged his son never to mention to anyone what he had just se
en " a nd let this be the last thing YOU will ever think of doing! ". T
he son w as too horrified to think of telling what he had seen, until aft
er his fat her's death. Mrs. Daniel Patterson was there taking care of Eli
zabeth w ho was near death from tuberculosis, and keeping house for the fa
mily. So on after this, John Keahey rushed into the house and grabbed h
is gun fr om the rack, as he often did when a hawk was threatening the chi
ckens. A f ew minutes later he laid dead behind the smokehouse. Elizabe
th died not lo ng after.