Clarence James TRADER

Clarence James Trader, owner and operator of Stockton Power and Light Company, died of a gunshot wound at the home of his estranged wife on 14 Jan 1937 at Stockton, MD. His wife was charged with his murder, but she died before the case could come to trial. He was survived by his widow, Jeanette B. Trader, three sons, Estel C. (22), Richard (18) and Reginald (13) Trader, and his step-mother, Mrs. Emma C. Trader with whom he was making his home. Clarence was the son of Raymond James Trader and Mary Thornton.

Clarence J. Trader Found Slain In Home
Snow Hill, Md., Jan. 15\emdash (AP)\emdash Worcester county authorities searched today for clues in the slaying of Clarence J. Trader, wealthy owner of the Stockton, Md., Light and Power Company whose body, a bullet wound in the chest, was found in a bedroom at his home.

Trader's wife found the body late last night, officers said. A .22 caliber pistol lay nearby, they said.

Magistrate Fred Hartmann of Snow Hill ordered an inquest and a corner's jury returned a verdict that Trader died from a pistol wound inflicted by an unknown person.

The Daily Times, Salisbury, Maryland, Friday, January 15, p. 1

Pastor Sounds Sin Warning To Trader Widow
Voices Cryptic Remarks At Funeral Of Slain Utility Head
Wife Had Gun, Claim

Snow Hill, Md., Jan. 18.\emdash The rain poured drearily upon the flower-decked grave of Clarence J. Trader in a Stockton country churchyard this afternoon after a funeral service as full of emotion and exhortation against sin as an old-fashioned revival meeting. In place of the customary eulogy of the dead, the officiating minister bewailed the curse of liquor upon the utility chief who was found fatally shot in a bedroom of his Stockton home Thursday night. Then, the pastor, with the fire of the evangelist in his eye and a catch in his voice, turned toward the calm, intense widow in a pew below him and besought her to "take warning" before further tragedy befalls her house.

Mrs. Jeanette Trader, clad all in black with a veil over her strained face, did not weep during the services, or when she went up to view the body for the last time of her 43-year-old husband, or when the gray metal casket was consigned to the grave in the cold, damp ground. But the man's step-mother, Mrs. Emma C. Trader, suffered a heart attack just before the funeral and could not attend. [ ... ]

Trader was found dying with a .22-caliber bullet in his breast in the bedroom of his wife's home Thursday night.

Clarence married Jeanette (Nettie) BALL, daughter of Richard Franklin BALL and Martha Jane CHESSER. (Jeanette (Nettie) BALL was born in 1900 in Accomack Co., VA and died on 03 Mar 1937 in Wicomico Co., MD.)