Suicide of Joseph Budd Cranmer

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New Jersey Mirror 22 Sep 1909

Because his cousin, Miss Eva Oliphant, refused to marry him, Joseph Budd Cranmer, a member of one of the leading families of the shore, is supposed to have committed suicide on Sunday night, September 12, 1909. Cranmer, who was about 35 years of age, lived alone in the Cranmer homestead. He had for some years been attentive to a cousin, Miss Eva Oliphant, daughter of William Oliphant, and the young woman was probably the last person who saw him alive. Sunday, September 12, he spent the evening with her, again urging her to marry him, and she again refused. Since that time he disappeared from all his accustomed haunts.-- On Saturday night, neighbors burst open the door and found his dead body on the garret floor. A broken rope swung from the rafters, and another bit of rope was around his throat.

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