Elk County Forum

Printed in the Howard Courant, dated July 26, 1889

   

     Last Saturday night, Cora Brintzingerhoffer, aged fourteen, ran away from her home in Howard.  She was accompanied by Mary Polly, aged about eighteen.  They stayed in the woods near town all Saturday night and Sunday, so the Polly girl tells, and Monday morning boarded the passenger train, going north of Fiat.  They ony had money enough to pay their way to Climax.  John Marshall of this city, being on the train, telegraphed back to Chas. Brintzinghoffer, telling him of the girls.  Mrs. G.H. Haines was also on the train tried to persuade the girls to return home, offering to give them the money if they would agree to go back.  Cora refused to consider the proposition, declaring that she would never come back alive, that she and her father did not get along well together, and that she would never return.  At Climax the girls got off the train and started to walk toward Eureka along the railroad track.
     Mr. Brintzinghoffer, having received Mr. Marshall's dispatch, took the afternoon freight for the north, the train overtaking the girls about four miles south of Eureka.  The engineer had been instructed to stop when the girls were overtaken, and Mr. Brintzinghoffer stepped from the train and started toward them.  As soon as Cora saw her father, she took a revolver from her satchel, placed it to her forehead and fired, the ball entered her brain above the eye.  The unfortunate girl was taken to the Fourth Avenue Hotel, Eureka, and about eight o'clock in the evening breathed her last, never having recovered consciousness.
     The remains were brought back to Howard Tuesday  and interred in Grace Lawn cemetery, Rev. Martin conducting the burial service.
     This is the saddest tragedy out little city has ever known, the circumstances surrounding it all being of the most pitable.  Cora's mother died when she was a babe, and she has been reared without the sacred influence of a mother's love and teaching.  The unhappy father is almost prostrated over the terrible tragedy.

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From the Howard Courant on December 4. 1913



     It was no surprise to the Howard people to learn last Thursday that Chas. P. Brintzinghoffer had died at the St. Francis Hospital at Wichita, as his case was pronounced hopeless some days ago.  He went over there more than a month ago, was operated on for a bladder trouble by Dr. Basham, the well known surgeon, who at the conclusion of the operation said there was small hope of the recovery of the patient, as the operation disclosed a cancerous condition which subsequently developed rapidly.
     Mr. Brintzinghoffer has been a citizen of Howard for more than 37 years.  When he came here his wife was but recently dead and he had a little girl of two or three years.  She grew up and when sixteen or seventeen committed suicide because of the harsh treatment her father gave her.  Mr. Brintzinghoffer was eccentric and contentious and never got along pleasantly with anybody. He was a good mechanic and might have prospered had his disposition been different.  He leaves some real estate property but no heirs, we believe, but one brother in Ohio.
     The remains were brought from Wichita, arriving here Friday night under charge of M. W. Jones, and the burial took place Saturday, without religious services, which we understand, was the way he requested.  He was about 73 years of age.



     

     I am strongly thinking he must have abused his daughter, possibly sexually.  What thoughts do the rest of you have?

He may have sexually abused her.  There was certainly a problem between the two of them.  Wonder why she didn't just shoot him?

She may have thought no one would have believed her. She was only 14.

What a tragic story!  I do like it, though, that "back in those days," they didn't pull any punches when writing what a person was really like! 

Didn't have to be "politically correct" then.

Quote from: T. Sackett on February 05, 2008, 02:43:09 PM
     I am strongly thinking he must have abused his daughter, possibly sexually.  What thoughts do the rest of you have?

my thoughts exactly

  Yes, how hard her life must have been and how hopeless to do that.  The fact that she shot herself and not him is telling to me.  It probably never occurred to her that shooting him was an option.

     I am trying to put myself in those shoes for that time period, but with the attitudes that society had then, the subject of sex was pretty well forbidden, and with no mother for guidance, that poor girl probably didn't know what options were available (or if they even had any).  As Diane pointed out, no one would have believed her.  Do you suppose the daughter felt like it was all her fault, or ashamed, maybe disgraced, a social outcast, dirty, tainted or damaged goods,  and figured that if she shot her father, that would be life in prison?  Women didn't have the rights then, like we do now.  Maybe her father threatened her?  Do you suppose that she felt she had no other alternatives? 
     I would think it would be difficult to get a birds eye view, because the lifestyles and times are so much different today than what they were over 100 years ago.  This is only my theory, someone else may see things differently.

Only  30-40 years ago women getting abused were being told by the police and some pastors to be a better wife/daughter and that would make the abuse stop  and girls who had been raped were questioned about their character and how they "caused " the rape to happen So think how much harder it would have been at the turn of the century for a young girl to make any kind of abuse public as I would think the opinion at that time would have been that she had done something to cause it

A friend of mine who teaches psychology at some of the colleges here told me something that I had never heard before.  She said that when Freud was putting his theories together, that most of his patients were from the upper classes of the time, because they were the only ones who could afford his services.    She said that he discovered that sexual abuse and incest were so common that he began to talk about it.  However, given the social class he was dealing with he was basically told to drop the subject if he wished to continue having any support for his work.  She states that he modified his work in such a way as to leave that out.  Now, I haven't spent any time reading any Freud in many a year, but found that so interesting.

I am sure the people of the time would have considered it none of their business and looked the other way, as society still does a great deal of the time today.