Notes for: Hiram Dubois Bodine
From Ronny Bodine:
On 6 May 1861 at Pendleton, Ohio, he enlisted in Company G, 2nd Kentucky Infantry Regiment (USA). On 17 July 1861 he was detailed as Commissary Sergeant. On 5 Dec 1863 he was discharged as a Sergeant to accept an appointment as 1st Liutenant in the same company and commanded that company from 5 Dec 1863 to 9 Feb 1864 and again from 14 March to 30 April 1864. He was mustered out on 19 June 1864 in Covington, Kentucky.
District of Columbia Marriage Records: Hiram D. Bodine, 40 of Cincinnati, Ohio to Clara E. Johnson, 28, of Washington, D.C. on 27 March 1883.
The Evening Critic (Washington, D.C.) of 18 Nov 1884.
A Pistol Ball Ends the Life of Captain Hiram D. Bodine
Hiram D. Bodine was a native of Cincinnati. He came here seven or eight years ago, and until about two years ago was a clerk in the Treasury Department. He was then appointed to a $1,600 position in the Pay Division of the Postoffice Department. He had charge of settling the accounts of mail contractors for Missouri, Kentucky, Nebraska and the Indian Territory.
He came to the office as usual this morning. His room was No. 17, on floor B, Eighth street said of the building. He chatted and talked with his roommates, who were Messrs. Burbridge, Edson and Brady.
At fifteen minutes past one he was seated at his desk. In a minute after he was leaning back in his chair a dead man. He died by his own hand. In his left breast was a large hole, caused by an immense ball thrown by a 44 calibre, single barreled derringer.
The vest was not injured except by the flow of blood. The pistol had been fired within that garment. Blood clotted inside his vest, and there was a pool of it on the floor.
The derringer had fallen from his hand. The report of the pistol was heard but a short distance from room 17, but the news soon spread and the corridors were soon crowded with curious clerks.
The body was removed from the room where death took place and Dr. Patterson, the Coroner, sent for. He was not long in coming. He summoned no jury, but after examining the body and hearing what those who knew most about the shooting had to say, decided not to hold an inquest.
Sergeant Johnson was on the scene shortly after the fatal shot. No motive is assisgned for the deed. Mr. Bodine was always a cheery and companionable man. He was about 45 years of age, of medium size. He wore a thick, black mustache, slightly tinged with gray. He was well liked by his fellow clerks.
He has been drinking heavily of late, but when he came to the office this morning showed no signs of it. He was as companionable as ever and spoke very lightly.
He was married a year ago to Miss Johnson, the sister in law of Mr. Talty, the plumber of this city. With her he resided att 11 Grant Place. He had no children. He was well-known outside of the Department, being extremely social. He was well known also in newspaper circles.
He went out to vote in Ohio at the October election, but did not vote in November. He is reported to have been somewhat despondent at times over the way that the recent elections went.
But that is not thought to have been the cause of the suicide this afternoon. Neither is the fact that he drank heavily.
It must be laid at the door of insanity. Insanity runs in the family. His father was insane. A demented brother of the deceased shot himself, and his mother is now in Cincinnati out of her mind and under the care of her two daughters.
The body, under the charge of Mr. Talty, was taken by an undertaker to No. 11 Grant Place. The autopsy developed the fact that the ball had entered near the left nipple, gone entirely through the body except the skin, penetrating an artery of the heart. The skin only had to be cut to take the ball out. The bleeding was very copious.
Mr. Bodine had been in the habit of going home to lunch. He did not go to-day, but took his lunch elsewhere. When Mr. Talty went to inform Mr. Bodine's wife of the tragedy she was waiting lunch for her husband. She was very much overcome by the news.
The statement that Mr. Bodine had been in the Post Office Department about two years is incorrect. He has been there about six years.
The chief of Mr. Bodine's division said that the deceased has been drinking very heavily indeed of late to be feared that he would soon lose his place on that account. He was a good clerk though, and he had not neglected his work much on account of drink.
Boyd's 1887 Directory of Washington, D.C. shows Clara E. Bodine, widow of Hiram, living at 11 Grant Place.
On 10 April 1888 in Washington, D.C. James Weir Graydon, 40, married Clara E. Bodine, 25. James Graydon was a US Navy Lieutenant and an inventor. The Washington, D.C. Evening Star of 26 July 1895 reported that Mrs. James W. Graydon of 12 Grant Place left today for New York and will sail tomorrow for Europe. Their son, James Weir Graydon, was born in London on 15 Jan 1896. The Inter Ocean (Chicago, Ill) of 20 Oct 1900 published an article that Lt. Graydon, the inventor of the Graydon dynamite gun, the Graydon gigantic wheels, the Graydon aerial torpedoes, and others had retired from the US Navy and took up residence in London, but now was "at the point of starvation and without shelter." The Indianapolis News of 25 Oct 1906 reported in a lengthy article about Lt. Graydon's life that his wife had died in London two years previously.