Why might the first owner of "The Monkey's Paw" have wished for death?

We can only speculate about the wishes made by the previous owners of the monkey's paw. Sergeant-Major Morris doesn't specify what his own wishes were; his three wishes were granted, he tells the Whites who, oddly, do not ask him what they were. Morris is still alive, so he does not ask for death as the owner before him had done. Morris does not appear to be a wealthy man, so his wishes may not have included great riches, as many people would request. The owner before Morris must have received terrible responses to his wishes, probably in an ironic manner in which he could never imagined--in much the same way as the Whites' wishes turned out.

Why did the first owner of "The Monkey's Paw" wish for death?

We never know for sure why the first owner of the paw eventually wishes for death. It can be assumed that his wishes were similar to those of the previous owners--possibly for wealth, prosperity and long life--and the results must have been equally terrifying and unexpected. We only know that Sergeant-Major Morris tells the Whites that

"... the third [wish] was for death. That's how I got the paw."

Morris's three wishes also came true, but he is mysteriously tight-lipped about their consequences, only warning the Whites to " 'wish for something sensible.' " The power of the paw relates to the main theme of the story, that of fate and how " 'fate ruled people's lives.' " The paw always provided their owners with their granted wishes, but the end results were never quite as the owners expected.