Introduction

I will be researching the common and unusual deaths in the Eau Claire area in the early 1900’s by looking at records and stories trying to look at how different Eau Claire was by their way of passing.

I became interested in this by accident actually. I am not the type of person who is obsessed with death but some the aspects of it interest me. Originally I wanted to know more about the rivers in Eau Claire and something that was seen a lot in history was drowning in the rivers. This got my interested in deaths in the past.  It’s the weird and unusual stories of deaths that interest me. There is a story behind each death and it’s like a mystery to figure out what it was like then. Was it a homicide, suicide, or accident?

At first I wasn’t really sure why this would be interesting for people to read about or want to know about it. As I read more stories I saw many differences between how people die now compared to back then. I started to think that not only will I think this is interesting but others would too! It might be a dark topic but it’s not something you usually would read about. One thing I won’t talk about is the current types of death because I want others to just use their experiences of what they have heard of and compare.

There is so many stories that people haven’t heard or cared to learn about. It’s the past and most don’t care to learn. You also don’t hear about a person who wasn’t famous and how or why they died. I never seemed to care about how people died. I wouldn’t have thought so many people would die from heart attacks or drowning. It’s because it never seemed important to me. Not saying that this topic is important for everyone to know about but it’s something that we can enjoy to learn about.

6 thoughts on “Introduction

  1. This is a fascinating topic, especially as we consider the book Wisconsin Death Trip and all the weird and strange deaths in that book. I’m curious why you chose early 1900s. What caught your curiosity about this time period? The drownings I particularly find interesting, given the rumors about serial killers in the Eau Claire area (which may or may not be founded, I don’t know). I’m really looking forward to reading about your research and what you find.

  2. This is interesting. Maybe if some of the deaths are homicides you could see if their killer was a serial killer and link some of the deaths that happened in the early 1900’s. It would be interesting to find out if there was a serial killer that no one knew about until now.

  3. I am also pretty interested in your topic. I would like to learn from your research later too! Since you are focusing on 1900s, how about read some other stories from different periods and compare each others to see if you can find any special events or natural disasters in 1900s which lead people to dead?

  4. I am also pretty interested in your topic. I would like to learn from your research later too! Since you are focusing on 1900s, how about read some other stories from different periods and compare each others to see if you can find any special events or natural disasters in 1900s which lead people to dead?

  5. I like your topic in the fact its unique. I myself am not usually overly interested in death either, but I think the topic of death always a little “mysterious” like you said ” Was it a homicide, suicide, or accident?” I hope you can provide a story of one unusual death that may have occurred, and how it happened.

  6. You’ve chosen a fascinating topic that should provide a wealth of sources, including newspapers, historical accounts, and, if you can access them, records of death certificates. On a cautionary note, you say you are interested in “common and unusual deaths,” but that may be a bit too broad. I’d suggest focusing on the weird ones. You might, for example, look for cases in which the individual circumstances are out of the ordinary (maybe some type of accidental shooting) or because a cause of death struck an unusually large number of people (a disease or natural disaster).

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