Decatur Democrat, Volume 47, Number 35, Decatur, Adams County, 5 November 1903 — Page 1

ALL THE NEWS all the time.

VOLUME XLVII.

Mr Cochran leaves tonight for Maryland and for all other points east in the interest of the Window Screen factory. yi SS Bert Fullenkamp had as her e st"over Sunday Mr. Earle Jacobs of Kokomo. Mr. Jacobs is a hustlyoung newspaper man being circulation manager of the Kokomo Spaeth, one of the best dailies of central Indiana. While here he called at this office and we found him a very genial young fellow. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Christen entertained at three course dinner at their beautiful home on West Monroe street Sunday in honor of the birthday of Mrs. Christen’s father, Joseph Simth. The event was a real enjoyable one, as is . aSrm e(l by everyone who partook i of the bounteous hospitality. The ! guests included Mesrs and Mesdam- ' es Joseph Smith, Albright Christen, B J. Smith, Lawrence Smith, Fred Vaugh and their families. The dinner was delicious and the company a happy crowd. Charles Kitson Tuesday purchased a full and complete line of barber supplies and will open up a I shop here in about two weeks in j the room now occupied by Frisinger& Company on North Second street. Charles is an old time barher and knows the work from a to z I and after once open for the public’s I inspection, you will see one of the l finest shops that has ever been ; opened in our city. You need not be surprised if he solicits your patronage as he is a hustling young business man, Mr. Cassius E. Wright representing the United States census office, Washington, D. C., is in the city and will be busy for several days. His duties are to secure a complete abstract of the recent appraisment of land and property in Adams county, including the valuation of all lands, city and county, also of the improvements thereon. It is certainly quite a job and when we consider the fact that this must be done in every county in the United States we may begin to realize the enormity of the undertaking. However in due time it will all be done and congressmen will be sending copies on such a record complete to their constuents. Programs for the Adams County Farmers Annual Institute will be sent out in a few days and the A t". I be held at the court house December 2 and 3 will be the most inter- [ esting ever given here. The foreign lecturers will be E. H. Collins of Carmel, Ind., whose subjects are I "Profits in good live stock,’’“BuildI ing roads with gravel or crushed ! stone.” “Elements of success in | life,” “A talk on corn scoring,” i ‘ Business methods of the farm. I Mrs. V. C. Meridith of Cambridge I City, her subject being “Kinds of s toqk best suited to the locality.. i "Fences, fields and farmstead, ‘Special Education for the home keeper, “General purpose farming. Relation of the home to civic life.” Others who will take part in the two days session areC. S. Mumaia, J. F. Snow, E. S. Christen, Sylvester Pontius and Phililp Baker. Jess Rice, of Fort Wayne was visiting realtives here over Sunday a nd started for the G. R. &I- station about midnight to return to his home. He was in the north part of town and to save time, walked up the railway track to the depot. As he was passing the Van Camp foundry, man jumped out in front of him and without saying a word struck at him viciously. The blow Blissed, Jess side stepped and tried t° get away. The fellow made a grab for him and succeded in locating his watch chain and giving it a fierce yank. At the same time Jess pulled the other way 7 and managed to get away. A race followed for half a block but Jess maintained his head and came under the wire an easy winner, though pale and hadly frightened. His vest was badly torn and his clothing'showed unmistakable sign of a struggle. There is no doubt but the attempt at hold-, r P was for the purpose of robbery . a nd Jess was pretty lucky.

Dan Widler was quite badly burned at Fritzinger’s quarry Sunday. He opened the door of the furnace to see how the fire was! under the lime burner, when the : gas blew out burning his hands, hair eyebrows and his mustache. He says he will be more careful the next time. A supposed burglar made an unsccessful attempt to enter the home of Daniel Beery on Fifth street Monday evening between eight and nine o clock. Miss Marie Beery was at home and had as guests Misses Kittie Smith and Georgie Miller. They noticed the front door open slightly and all three rushed to close same but the harder they pushed te harder the fellow outside pushed. The man finally succeeded in getting the door about half open was preparing to enter when the girls with a loud scream gave up the battle and rushed out the rear door to the home of a neighbor, where they remained until the family arrived home. A search of the house failed to disclose the fact that anything was missing and leads to the beleif that it might have been a joke by some boys. It was pretty serious however and the girls don’t want it repeated. Henry 7 Berning, a well known farmer living north of town had a serious looking runaway Saturday evening. He was going home with a wagon load of shingles, lumber and lime and when near Monmouth a bunch of shingles on which he was sitting gave away and percipitated him to the ground. The team became frightened and ran away distributing the consents of the wagon along the road for several miles. The horses turned west, ran several miles, then turned south and kept up their mad pace until south of Peterson. They were not recovered until Sunday morning. The wagon and harness were unbroken, strange to say and the horses were not injured in the least. The runaway over so many miles with no damages seems miraculous and in the long dash they 7 certainly did not pass many 7 rigs. Mr. Berning was not hurt badly by his fall. A quiet but very pretty wedding occurred Saturday 7 evening at eight o’clock at the home of Mr. and Mrs. H. S. Porter, when Miss Harriet, their eldest daughter was united in the solemn bands of marriage to Mr. John W. Shanks of Minneapo*nsV*Mmnesijia.* Only iue lifimed-Stf relatives and Miss Edna Gilmore of Indianapolis and Miss Katie Henneford of this city witnessed the beautiful ceremony which was performed by Rev. J. C. M hite of the Methodist church, the ring service being used. An elaborate wedding dinner was served and the occasion was delightfully happy. The home I was tastily decorated with flowers 1 and autumn leaves. A number of valuable presents were received. Mr. and Mrs. Shank left Saturday evening for Chicago where they will enjoy their honeymoon, going from there to Minneapolis where they will reside. The bride is well known here and has hosts of friends who join in future good wishes.

The Ayers divorce case was settled in court Tnesday morning when Judge Erwin granted the plaintiff the decree asked for, gave her custody of the children and confirmed the agreement as to alimony, made between the parties yesterday. Judgment was rendered against the defendant for costs. The business transacted today was as follows: WisleyS. Iliff eta I vs Dennis Wallace et al filing of special findings of facts and conclusions of law, made part of record. Troy Huey ex parte, John T. Kelley appointed over seer in place of Peter Kinney who refused to serve Jane Acker vs Walter D. Ayers et al leave asked and granted plaintiff to amend complaint . In the case of William Mayer, A. S. Dutton, Andrew J. Judy and A. LaCraix ,C. S. Snftill, W. S. bmall and Otis Judy William Glendening et al, appears was entered by C. J. Lutz for the plaintiffs and by Dailey, Simmons, Dailey for defendants. These arc the damage suits field recently by Theodore Shockney of Union City.

DECATUR, INDIANA, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1903.

The marriage of Miss Mae Johnson to Mr. G. A. Hahnert occurred Sunday noon at the home of the brides parents westof Monroe, Rev. J. A. Sprague officiating. An elaborate dinner was served and the young couple received many valuable presents. About sixty five guests were present including Messrs and Mesdams, F. Hanert, J. S. Johnson and family, J. D. Andrews, S. Johnson, Burkhead, Watkins, J. Hanhnert, C. T. Lee, Jacob Urick and family, William Ball and family, Frank Urick and family, Levy Johnson, Miss Lavine of Bluffton, Mrs. Urick and family of Montpelier and Mr. and Mrs. Harry Barthold of Fort Wayne.

It may be well to call the attention of the general public to the fact that you who are now using gas are doing so at an advanced rate. No one who has not secured a meter can use this very 7 convenient fuel as the Logansport & Wabash Valley will no longer sell gas by flat rate. The one schedule increases the price from eighteen cents to twenty-five cents per thousand cubic feet and your gas bills will be a third larger than last year. The change went into effect Sunday and has been generally advertised a notice to this effect having been run in all papers of the county for two months past. While this is perhaps not a matter of news still it may save some of our readers money to call their attention to the fact. When you are not using your stoves, better shut off the gas for the advanced rate it may be rather expensive to attempt to heat the yard. The gas was shut off in over one hundred houses this morning where meters had not been put in. Mrs. Peter Gaffer who has been a patient at the St. Joseph hospital Fort Wanye for several weeks and has undergone five severe operations is past the danger point and will within a month come home it is now stated, in better health than she has been fcr years. There are few women who could stand one half the suffering through which Mrs. Gaffer has passed and live and her own fortitude and bravery are responsible for her recovery as much as anything. However too much praise cannot be given Dr. McOscar, who has attended her throughout the long seige and who remained and administered to her when the other physicians had abandoned all hope. Dr. McOscar in six weeks and has proven his skill by prolonging the life of the patient whose health is believed now will be perfect and whose days were numbered unless the successful operation had been performed. Mrs. Gaffer’s many Decatur friends are glad to hear of her having passed the danger point of her illness.

The commissioners decided to hold any findings they 7 mighs make on the Christian Zehr ditch petition open until Friday at which time it is expected that both those favoring and opposed to the proposed drain will decide upon some mutual understanding and agreement. It is likely that a new petition will be presented at that time and an effort be made to have the ditch constructed as designated by the petitioners in the first place. J. Fleming and David Mauller were substituted as reviewers on the E. B. Booth ditch petition. The viewers on a petition for a highway are Jacob \ ager, J. H. Halbrock and John Hessler. The board will spend some time this week inspecting macadam roads, Tuesday being in Root township, and Thursday they go to southern Adams and there will cover considerable territory looking after the welfare of the public highways. A sale of the W. H. Parr ditch has been aranged for Monday Nov. 16. This is the only drain petitioned for that was not tied up with reviewers or some other complication that will delay further action for a short time. Petitions for 'extensions to the East Washington and Decatur & Monroe macadam broad will be heard at the chambers of the board of commissioners On Monday, December 7. Thw will be in session for the most of the week.

The Schafer Hardware Company are holding open house this week introducing their famous Malleable Steele range and many people are each day taking advantage of the golden opportunity to sample biscuits “like your mother used to bake,” and a delicious cup of coffee. A representative of the factory is at the store and produces a pan of biscuits in three minutes with one half the fuel usually used. The range is a beauty and looks to be what is claimed for it the best on the market. The Schafer Company have already put out enough of these stoves to guarantee them just as represented and this week promises to be the banner one for the sale of Malleables. As an announcement of the big sale they have a beautiful display window representing a kitchen fitted out with a Malleable and other necessarys of that, the most important apartment in any house. The jury in the DeKalb circuit court which sat in the case of Henry Fry vs the Fort Wayne Gas company Monday returned a verdict for the plaintiff, awarding him 11,500 damages. The trial of the case was begun on October 1 7,nearly four weeks ago, and occupied the court continuously ever since. The arguments were concluded Saturday morning at 11 o’clock and the case then went to the jury. It is one of the most notable suits ever tried in northern Indiana, and the ablest counsel was engaged on both sides. The case was instituted in the Allen circuit court and sent to Auburn on change of venue. Tire suit was regarded as in the nature of a test case, as the widows of the five men who were killed and the men who were injured in the explosion at the Eckert packing house on January 29 last will have it as a base for their claims for damages, three other suits having already been filed and others being in prospect. The case was "tried by a struck jury before Judge J. E. Rose. Mr. Fry was represented by the Leonard brothers, Judge W. G. Colerick, Attorney Henry Colerick and Judge J.H.Rose, of Auburn, father of the presiding judge and the gas company by Judge Allen Zo’ars, Attorney J. M. Barrett and Attorney John Baxter of Auburn.

The famous breach of promise and seduction suit entitled Samantha Cassel vs Joseph D. Beery, in which the sum of $5,000 is demandday before Judge Branyan of Huntington. The suit was filed about six months ago and is of unusual interest on account of the fact that both parties are well known over the county, the defendant now in business here having formerly owned a large farm in Kirkland township. The entire morning was occupied in selecting a jury, twenty one men being examined re suiting in the selection of the following who were sworn to try the case. David Hirschy, Fred Scherer, Peter Huffman, Abraham Hahn, Conrad Stopenhagen, John A. Barkley, John Cline, Charles Fuhrman, Wm Bangleman, Frank O. Davis, Paul Stautenberry and August Busick. Os this number only 7 the six first mentioned are of the regular panifel. Among the special jurymen called was Howard Shackley who when asked if he had ever talked about the case answered no that he had not as he had rememherd. Some excitement was caused by attorneys for the plaintiff producing an affidavit signed by Jacob Johnson which said Shackley had talked about the case to him and Crist Beery and said that he would shoot a woman who would bring such a charge against him. Mr. Shackley said he did not remember such a conversaton but the chai-' lenge was sustained and juror excus-. ed. After swearing the jury, court I adjourned until this afternoon' when the trial began in earnest. ; About fifty witnesses are in attendance and the case will continue sevdays. Some sensational testimony is looked for. The plaintiff J is represented W>y attorneys A.P. j ’Beatty anil D. E. Smith and rite de- | fendant by D. D. Heller and C. J.: Lutz.

Just an hour the jury in the case of Samantha Cassel vs Joseph D. Beery deliberated and then returned a verdict as follows: “We, the jury in the above named case find for the defendant.’ Peter Huffman, foreman.” The case occupied three days beginning Thursday morning and going to the jury at 3:30 Saturday afternoon. At 4:30 the bell rang calling attorneys and others interested together to hear the result. It was a hard fought legal battle and the quick return of the jury was rather a surprise to everyone. The first ballot resulted ten for the defendant and two for plaintiff; the next ballot one vote changed and the third all were in favor of the defendant. The suit was one wherein the sum of $5,000 was demanded for breach of promise and seduction and owing to the popularity of both plaintiff and defendant quite an interest was taken in the out come. Colonel L. F. Copeland, one of the world’s greatest lecturers opened the Christian Endeavor course here Monday evening at the opera house and pleased a large and certainly appreciative audience. His subject was “Seeing the Elephant” and the audience lauhged or looked solemn at the will of the man on the stage. He is a great man who can interest his audience and while he makes them laugh, tell them truths that, will be remembered a life time. He opened by telling the old story of the six blind men who went to see the elephant. Each man was allowed to grope about until his hands touched some part of the big animal and each went away with a different idea as to what the beast looked like. The man who grasped the elephant’s tail thought the animal resembled a rope,the one who caught hold of the ear thought it very much like a fan, etc, each judging only from the part they touched; so Col. Copeland explained we go through life seeing our neighbors from our own ideal, in a narrow minded way and as the blind man saw the elephant. He told many humorous stories and kept the audience anxiously awaiting the next sentence. He crowded many truths into bis two hours talk and proved himself the great intertainer he was announced to be. The next number of the lecture course will be Dr. A. A. Willitts, subject “The Model Wife,” November 25.

Fifty years ago Tnesday Henry C. ing bride who for half a century has been his faithful helpmate and loving companion. This is their golden wedding day and the event was appropriately celebrated at the old homestead north of the city, where they have lived so many years. The guests included the brothers and sisters of Mr. and Mrs. Fuhrman, the ten children and twenty grand children. It was a joyous gathering of a happy family. The day has been a perfect one, the bright sunshine making nature look bright and happy, just such an ideal day as is needed to illustrate a long life of contented wedded bliss. A big wedding dinner was served, the table for the old folks being arranged in the big dinning room while the children formed a merry groupe in the big yard. The dinner included everything that goes with a wedding feast and the Fuhrman family enjoyed every morsel of it. Mr. and Mrs. Fuhrman were each presented with a valuable pair of gold rimmed spec taeles and the bride and groom appeared as happy as when they began life’s journey together sc. long ago. A feature of the event occurred in the afternoon when photographer Moser appeared on the scene and pictured the party. Mr. and Mrs. Fuhrman are among the best known pioneer citizens of this part of Adams county and have friends almost without number who though not present at todays wedding are happy with them and join us in our very best selection of congratulations with hopes that their life joys are but beginning and that their diamond wedding twenty five years from now will be as good an occasion and participated in by all who were gathered around the family table today.

CIRCULATION 2800 WEEKLY

NUMBER 35

“Poodle” Meibers is the proud possessor of one of the finest bird dogs that ever was brought to this county by any one. It is a white and black spotted animal and was bred by the finest bird dogs that ever tred on soil in the United States. His father is owned by a banker at Muncie and cost him the neat sum of $3,500 when he was only one year old and is considered by all dog fanciers as the best bird dog in America. The name of the dog is “Lady Count Gladstone.” Poodle certainly prizes this dog highly as he has set a valuation on him of SSOO and says no one can have him at any less, so we see again that Adams county is to the front with another world beater. Seventy five witnesses were in court Monday being summoned to appear in the case of Sarah Ayers vs Alfred A. Ayers, a sensational divorce suit in which alimony to the sum of $5,000 is demanded. The entire morning was devoted to an attempt at a settlement of the alimony and custody of the four minor children and which resulted in an argeement that Mrs. Ayers should have the old Louden farm where the family has been living, eighty acres; also some live stock, machinery and grain, the total settlement amounting to about the amount demanded , $5,000. Mrs. Ayers title to the farm ho wever is to be only a life estate and is to go to the four minor children at her death. She is also to have the custody of the children. The title to the land seems to have been rather complicated and the settlement outside of court saved a long and tedious trial to determine.the same. The trial of the case proper to determine whether or not Mrs. Ayers should be given a divorce began at two o’clock that afternoon. A number ofjhe witnesses subpoened will not be used as they were to testify as to the land question. Mrs. Ayers was the first witness to testify and told the story of twelve years of marriage, where in, bliss seems to have been an un-knonwn quantity. Mr. Ayers is a justice of the peace of Blue Creek township, is quite wealthy and well known. The paintiff is represented by A. J. Teeple and D. D. Heller & Son Jand the defense by Erwin & Erwin, J. C, Moran and C. J. Lutz.

Jack Schenneman is here on a visit after several months in California. He says that all his life he has heard of the beautiful Golden * uk’iwvK .'L_t * far western state, but Indiana and Michigan never looked so good to him as at this time; that the only reason why he can imagine that people should rave over California is because to get there one must travel over 1500 miles of destitute, God-forsaken territory where nothing can possibly grow and when I one reaches a state where crops ■ actually grow, even by irrigation, it looks good to him. Jack says I the only thing he knows of where in California excells our Hoosier land is in real estate liars, which abound there in numbers and are beyond doubt the best. One of these grafters approached Jack and asked his business, receiving the answer “speculation.” It was the right cue and the fellow told in glowing terms of a small tract of land he had for sale, on which eleven crops of Alfalfa hay could be raised each year. He quoted the price of the commodity and proved j how a man could make several I times the price of the land the first. year. It was a “cinch” and well worded to catch the easy mark. J Jack swallowed a life sized desire to smile out aloud and calmly said “I’ll take it.” The agent produced his deed but Jack shook his head and said, “I care nothing about the deed, I want a contract that the land is what you say.” The fel low hesitoteu and began to realize he was up against a man who knew his A B C’s himself in a business deal. “Why,” says Jack,” “wasn’t you in- earnest a 1 out that great strip of land or were you simply lying for exercise, and the land salesman faued away xn the gather ing twilight, while Jack and his friend took a long Hoosier laugh.