WARNING: this one is a little strange and macabre. It deals with strange claims and possible suicide. I don’t recommend reading if any of these things bother you.
Over 131 years ago, Mary A Davidson died in Florence, Colorado. Her tombstone is an obelisk inscribed with her name, date of death and age. Her online profile is where things go a little sideways. Records inquiry of her death mention suicide by rats in her 30s. My brain of course automatically went to a story I read once about Rough on Rats, a rat poison used to end many lives at the end of the 1800s, and to Penny Dreadful.
Rough on Rats was an arsenic based poison to get rid of rats. There are articles about how it was used to poison many, many people in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Nearly every newspaper through that time had an advertisement regarding this poison.
But this death record states “Suicide brought on by rats”. I admit, I am not sure what they mean by that… Not sure I want to know…
After searching for answers, I know more about rat poison than I should and still not sure what happened. There must have been a reason that they believed that she ended things on her terms, I can only hope it wasn’t painful.
I did find articles that the noises and movement brought on by rat infestations are too much for most to deal with and can cause severe depression. The often deplorable conditions that some had to live in and endure at the turn of that century are things of nightmares. Places of sickness and death would have been covered by rats, leading to the Victorian belief that creatures of the night would take over the world and bring pestilence into the air. The Modern adaption of Penny Dreadful largely to blame for this in my mind, I was reeling on what this death note for Mary meant.
Not sure if she poisoned herself, or just couldn’t take the rats anymore. I found both to be plausible answers.
Mary A Davidson
Died January 29th, 1894
Rest easy Mary, I am glad I stopped to visit you and hope that you are at peace.
Not Forgotten Colorado 
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