Shortly after breakfast this morning Mrs. Quivey heard her son in the storeroom, and called to him, asking if he was looking for matches. He replied that he was, but from the tone of his voice she became suspicious, entered the room and saw James with a Winchester rifle in his hands. The mother pleaded with him to put down the gun, but he refused, and then she struggled with him for possession of the weapon. He wrenched it from her, the force of the movement throwing her to the floor.

James then ran out into the yard quite a distance from the house, and dropping on one knee placed the muzzle of the gun to his head and endeavored to pull the trigger, but could not reach it. A workman on the ranch came up, saw what James was doing and raised the alarm. The young man hurriedly changed his position, dropping to the other knee, and placed the gun to the other side of his head, when his father rushed out of the house, followed by his mother, and called to him to desist. James arose to his feet and shook his finger at his father, as though informing him that it was useless to try to prevent the act.

The frantic father redoubled his speed in the direction of his son and the mother followed, almost crazed by the awful sight of her handsome boy about to end his own life. When the father was but a few feet away James placed the muzzle of the gun to his throat and succeeded in pulling the trigger. Death was instantaneous.

An inquest was held on the body this evening in this city. The verdict of the jury was that the deceased came to his death by his own hand while under temporary aberration of the mind.

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (San Francisco, California), Wednesday 16 Dec 1891, p.3