Daily Democrat, Volume 1, Number 195, Decatur, Adams County, 26 August 1903 — Page 1

VOLUME 1

A NARROW ESCAPE, Accident at the Vail Factory This Morning.

NO ONE WAS HURT, Main Driving Pulley Cuts a Figure Eight. Narrow Escape for Homer Ehrhart, Adam Wise and Will Bushnell. When in full motion a big pulley broke at the Jefferson street factory ; of the Decatur Egg Case Company [ at nine o’clock this morning and ■ several employees had a narrow i I escape from serious, if not fatal in-' jury. The wheel that broke was j the main driving pulley which is I connected with the fly wheel of the I engine and it makes about 125 revolutions per minute. It is very heavily built, measures three and I one half feet in diameter and has a fourteen inch face. The accident | came without warning as nothing was apparently wrong with the NEW TERRITORY. A Well to be Drilled on Land of J. K. Martz. — Five Hundred Acres of Leases There Owned bv the Cadillac Oil Co. James K. Martz was in town and I told the Democrat that rig builders I would complete a derrick on his | farm and by some time next week B. the drilling of a test oil well, in | wild oat territory will begin. The . wcllj i>J being drill'll by the Cadil-

f lac Oil Company of Detroit, Michi-i | gan, who own 500 acres in leases ' surrounding the well to be drilled on the farm of Mr. Martz. It is K . located just one mile south of Monroe and it is a mile and a half from any producer. The drilling will be done with a bran new set of tools and it is hoped that the result will . be a gusher of a pronounced type, in which the crude will flow in a I stream large enough to choke a ' cow. In speaking of crude the oil men are soon anticipating a raise | or several of them, in the price of I the raw article. They advance ' the theory that notwithstanding ' the large and increasing production. I the supply falls woefully short | of meeting the demand. The inI crease in production in this county I is very satisfactory, and shows an J increase over former operations. . In the lust several years this county | has produced many thousands of I barrels of crude, and present indiI cations point to a continuance of ■ this production.

The daily Democrat.

j machinery and were it not for the fact that the men were luckily standing where they were, they would have been hit by the flying pieces which went with enough force to tear a hole through an inch [ board partition. The ragged holes in the partition of the engine room will bear witness to this fact. The j pulley which gave away hangs over - . head in almost in the center of the factory. Around this in various parts of the building about twenty men were at work and they all consider themselves to have been very fortunate in escaping injury. jAt the time of the accident the i pieces onlj- flew toward the engine room as but a section of the wheel gave way and to this condition they attribute their escape. The pieces flew back toward the engine and for that reason the men at the planer and matching board had I the most narrow escape. Homer Ehrhart.Adam Wise and Will Bush- ' nell were in the most dangerous position as the flying pieces, which 1 , weighed several pounds apiece, only missed them a few feet. The i quick action of Henry Ehrhart, the j engineer, possibly saved a greater smash up. As soon as he saw by the shaking belt that something was wrong he rushed in and stopped the engine. Operations at the factory will lie suspended for several days as it will be necessary to send to some supply house for a new pulley. A REUNION. — Coverdale Family Will Hold First Reunion Tomorrow. The Coverdale family will hold a I reunion tomorrow at the Jacob; Rawly farm south of this city. This is the old Coverdale home, and preparations are going on to make it i the scene of a memorable assembly. ’ ■ The guest of honor tomorrow will ibe Jonas E. Schaver, of Muskegon county, (). Dinner will be served 1 at the farm residence. Yesterday a family reunion was I held at the home of George Gay, | four and one-half miles east of this I city. Those present were John [ Green and family, Edward Green | and family, P. J. Hily and family, I J. L. Gay and family, George Gay I , and family, Peter Showalter and : . daughter and M. L. Holmes It was one of those genial, jovial, pleasant ■ events where one present enters in- I i to the spirit of merriment, and has a glorious good time.

PRESCOTT SINKING. Injured Brakeman Is Slowly From Accident. Mrs. Rosa Shores of Frankfort was here yesterday the guest of A. P. Beatty. She ie the sister of A. B. Prescott, the Clover Leaf brakeman injured neur here some time ago, and has been at his bedside ever since the accident. Mrs. Shores says Prescott is growing worse, and his death may occur within a few days. Prescott received a terrible jolt, it will be remembered by being thrown against a mail crane. He is injured internally and kidney trouble is now bothering him in addition to the complications. The injured is hourly given alcohol baths, and his physicians have no ho]M<s of his recovery. Mr. Prescott is a cousin of A. P. Beatty of this city.

DECATUR, INDIANA, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 26, 1903.

A DEATH. I Isaac Roe Died at Three O’clock p. m. He Had Been a Resident of Adams County Nearly Sixty Years. Isaac Roe after a long and lingering illness died at three o’clock this afternoon. He has long been a suf- ; serer from cancer of the stomach, which proved fatal. Had he lived until next month he would have I been sixty years of age, and during ’ all those years has been a resident of this Washington township living , four miles south of this city. Hel is the father of eight children. His ] wife and companion died some sis-1 teen years ago. At this time no [ arrangements have been made for the funeral. HORRIBLE DEATH Charles Brown of Geneva, Was Killed. He Was Stealing a Ride on Freight Train and Fell Under the Car Wheels. — The body of Charles Brown was I taken through from Lima. Ohio, to I j Geneva, Tuesday morning for interment. Brown was killed by falling I under the trucks of a freight train • lon the Lake Erie & Western rail- ! [ road at Lima Ohio, Monday. He j was a brother of Robert and Joseph Brown, the well known oil [ well contractors of Geneva and a I son of Joseph Brown Sr., who died | at Geneva less than two weeks ago The Lima Ohio News gives the foil owing account of the finding of the man’s body: It was a greusome find the night switch crew of the Lake Erie and Western made this I morning at about half past three o’clock on their tracks at a point 1 about midway between the Main and Third street crossings. It was , the body of Charlie Brown, hack driver known to a great many peoj pie here simply as "Brownie.” He i had driven hacks for different livery--1 men here for the last eight or ten I years, in fact has been up in front ever since he was a small boy in : knee punts. For a long time his people lived in this city, but some time since they moved k to Geneva, Ind., where Brownie secured work in the oil field, and about ten days ago his father was buried there.

OFF TO SCHOOL Dan Vail to Enter the Phillips Academy. Dan R. Vail who graduated from the Decatur High School with the Class of 1903, will leave for Andover, Massachusetts ahnit the seventh of September where he will enter Phillips’ Exeter Academy for boys. The Phillips school is one of the oldest and most reliable preparatory schools in the United States. It is closely affiliated with Yale and for that reason Dun will take his preparatory work at An- > dover. After two years work in that institution he will enter the i Scientific department of Yule for a four year course.

I MRS. MOON DEAD. I Died at Lagrange After a Year’s Illness. The news of the death of Mrs. Ora Moon will indeed be sad, though perhaps not surprising news < to many Decatur people. Mrs. I Moon has been suffering over a year with consumption, and for several weeks it was known, that her recovery would be miraculous. Las'; evening, heart trouble, with which she had been suffering a short time carried her away. She died [ about eight o'clock at Lagrange and , her relatives here were at oncenoti- ! ified. Mrs. Moon was formerly Etta | Anderson, the daughter of Mr. and [ Mrs. Joseph Anderson, who now[ | live at Rivarre. She was born and I raised near this city and in 18801 | was married to Ora Moon, a former j j well known contractor here. About j I three years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Moon removed to LaGrange where Mr. j Moon has since been engaged in the I hardware business. The time and I place of the funeral have not been j [decided upon. Mrs. Bryson leaves on this evening’s train for Lagrange and will ! return tomorrow at 1:19 with the I funeral party. On their arrival [ here tomorrow the remains will be I ta ken to the Bryson home, and the funeral held from there. As yet I the time of the funeral has not i been arranged. BIG FOUR WRECK Occurred Early This Morning. Happened Hear Wabash and Fortunately No One Was Injured. L. G. Williams, a traveling salesman from Indianapolis who reached here at noon over the Clover Leaf reports a wreck on the Big 4 at about 7:30 this morning. He was ' a passenger on the train and was following a freight, and when I about a mile out of Wabash, the [ freight cut off their caboose and ' i one box car to do some switching, ' leaving a flagman to notify the ■ passenger engineer of their pres- ■ ence. The two cars were near a ‘ curve in the road bed, and of j course could not be seen by the trainmen on the passenger. They were traveling at about a thirtyfive mile an hour clip and took a header in the freight caboose, inak-' ing kindling wood of bo<h freight I cars standing on the track. No. one was hurt, but a complete shaking up resulted, and several of the ! passengers were scared until their ‘ liver turned blue. The engine was ' somewhat the worse for wear, but [ after some repair stood the trip in- 1 t<> Wabash where it was exchanged. 1 1 Williams is the owner of some Adams county realty and was here looking after the same.

EJECTMENT SLIT. Ben Middleton the Defendant in 'Squire Smith's Court. Mrs. Harry Knoff brought suit this morning to eject Ben Middleton from her property, which he has been renting. Mr. Middleton filed an affidavit for continuance on the ground that his wife was sick and unable to move. 'Squire Smith after duo consideration refused to grant a continuance under the circumstance. Ben said he would take a change of venue out of the township. But atfer some parley the parties in the case compromised and Ben was given thirty days to find a new lodging.

ADAMS CIRCUIT COURT September Term Begins Monday, September 7th.

DOCKET IS LIGHT But Thirty Cases Filed During Vacation. The Present Outlook Does Not Indicate p Prolific Court Term. On Monday, September 7, one; week from next Monday, begins, . the September term of the Adams | ' circuit court. At present the outlook is not overly bright for a very large docket, but of course there yet [ remains time to increase the num-1 her of eases and to give the court, ! the clerk and all the lawyers in ( town a round of action that will cause them to perspire freely before frost catches them. One reason for the seemingly dull season at opening of the new term, is caused i by the clearing up shower given j the old docket during the summer [vacation began. Cases that had long adorned the court record, and which had become familiar to every court official for the last sev-

BUSY INDEXING. Deputy Clerk Haefling Hard at Work. I Many of the Old Time Records Make Interesting Reading Now. Deputy Clerk Haefling is still in dust and old records in his work of ! indexing the records at the county clerk’s office. The job he undertook iis somewhat more portentious than iit would seem by casual observation. The work dates back to 1836, the beginning of Adams county in governmental form which is sixtyseven years ago. To go over the records for this length of time and index properly every piece of ]>u])er filed there in that length of time and you have the task under way by the deputy clerk of Adams counI ty. It is enough to cause brave men to fall by the wayside, but Mr. Hae I fling is wading through and some of these sweet scented days will i have finished. When that time i comes the records of the clerk of the Adams circuit court will be a i credit to the county, as well a credit i to him who performed the labor of i making it so. Some of the early records are interesting. We saw i one yesterday in the way of u bond for the magnificent sum of |SO, , given by one Phillip Everman as guardian of Ez>a Lister, then ten years old. It was dated November 11, 1839, and acknowledged by Sam ! luelL. Rugg clerk. Mr. Lister is'

NUMBER 195

eral years, was either tried, settled or compromised. But few remain. They were a good thing to fill up with and make a. bluff of lots of business but otherwise they became a sort of a hydrophobia every time | some disposition was necessary. [ This makes a nice clean docket and I what there is, is the genuine article, not the least enfeebled with old age or chronic disability. However, the summer-vacation failed to blossom like the rose and hatch out a very healthy assortment of circuit court disagreements. This state of affairs either signifies a state of peace, sobriety and happiness, or a dullness of appreciation of proper respect for those who sit in judgment and weigh out justice in apothecary doses. It is a fact that during the many vacation weeks | but thirty eases have been filed. Os the thirty mentioned twelve are divorce cases and eight are appeals [ from justice of the peace courts. This leaves but ten cases that can jbe credited to partition and quiet title suits, and similar cases that : tickle the vanity and purses of the lawyer. The probate business, , however, wil lx> up to the standard and the usual number of estates will be given the finishing touches by the court. To this may be adI ded the guardianships which will be reported and acted upon. So j when we sum the whole thing up and make due allowance for the usual rush that follows the opening days, we may find the September term busy up to their eyes, and dispensing justice with hot hands.

known by all the present generation he having just died some three years ago. Many others are of like interest to those who live at this time. PICNIC SEASON. Churches and Lodges Take Advantage of the Glorious Weather. The Presbyterain picnic at Steele’s park yesterday was a success as any picnic could be. The little tots began to gather early at the church and filled the first hack which left about eight o'clock. Conveyacnes left the church and business jxirtion all during the day, and by noon an immense crowd had gathered. Family dinners were spread and speeches followed. Various games were provided for the afternoon. The annual Methodist picnic at Gilpen’s grove yesterday attracted one of the largest crowds that has ever attended. The picknicers gathered at the M. E. church and headed by the Tocsin band paraded down Second street. About ten hacks and as many private rigs fol lowed the procession, and filled conveyances left at different intervals during the day. The usual good time is reported. The reformed churches of Berne, Magley, Vera Cruz, Bluffton and Decatur are holding a monster union picnic today at Arnold’s grove three miles north of Honduras. A large number from here are in attendance. The Ben Hur picnic tomorrow promises to lie a record breaker. It 'is under the auspices of the hx-ul lodge and a fine program has been arranged. Conveyances will leave from the Court House for Helm's I Grove.