Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2023 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Republican Banner Saturday, 15 Sept 1866 Finding of IDA NIEMAN'S Body The History of a Lost Woman The body of MISSOURI A. SELLERS, alias IDA NIEMAN, the courtesan who committed suicide on Thursday at 5 P.M. by jumping into the Cumberland from the rail- road bridge, was picked up at 10 A.M. yesterday, and a coroner's inquest was held upon her body on the river bank. The verdict was rendered in accordance with the well known facts, and the body was taken to the house of NAN. EAST, on Crawford street, where she had been living. IDA NIEMAN, as she was called here, formerly lived in Vicksburg, where her father and mother are buried. When very young she was married to a man named JOSHUA THOMPSON, a shoemaker in the employ of her father. This was before her fall; but it seems she married THOMPSON from a mere whim, as she declared she never loved him. After living together very unhappily for some time, they separated, and IDA took the downward road. Her parents were respectable, well-to-do people, and never treated her with any coldness in consequence of the course she chose to pursue. While Vicksburg was blockaded she left there with a Jew named P. M. COLLINSKY, a Confederate spy, running the blockade, and went to Richmond, where she remained about two months. Upon her return she found her mother dead and buried. She afterwards accompanied COLLINSKY to Mobile, thence to New Orleans, thence to St. Louis, and thence to Cincinnati, remaining for a time in each place. At Cincinnati COLLINSKY deserted her, and she then took up with a bar-keeper named BILLY NIEMAN, whose name she adopted, and by which she has since been known. She left Cincinnati some time after and went to Louisville, where she remained several months. BILLY NIEMAN came to Nashville, and sent for her to come here, where she has been since last Christ- mas. IDA being in the habit of getting drunk, NIEMAN often threatened to desert her, which he finally did, and went back to Cincinnati. This, together with the fact that she had been bound over to appear at the Criminal Court to answer for assaulting JULIA DEAN with an ax, and feared she would be sent to the Penitentiary for the offense, is supposed to have been the cause of her desire for death, though she had often previously avowed her intention to destroy her- self. From Monday up to the time of her death she had been on a drunken debauch with NAN. EAST, and wound it up by throwing herself into the river. She seems to have had a strong attachment for BILLY NIEMAN, and she had often requested that if she should die her body might be sent to him at Cincinnati. At the time of her death she was 20 years of age, though her dissipated habits gave her a much older appearance. She was well read and well educated, and would have been an admirable woman with proper principles and training. Her sister, CARRIE JOHNSON, is residing in New Orleans. In falling into the river, her face struck the bottom, badly disfiguring it. The body was much decomposed. She will be buried this morning at 10 o'clock. ===============================================================================