Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1880 — INDIANA NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA NEWS.

It cost about $703 to liquidate the expenses of the Indiana Electoral College. Homer Kelly, of Sullivan, was caught by a falling window and almost choked to death. The public schools of Crawfordsville were closed the other day on account of the prevalence of scarlet fever. The body of a dead man, found near a haystack two miles from Bruceville, Knox county, was partially eaten by hogs. Out of 1,272 school corporations in the State, Supt. Smart reports over 1,000 of them entirely without indebtedness. During the last six weeks fourteen deaths have occurred in Dublin, Wayne county, mostly from diphtheria and scarlet fever. Several saloon men at New Albany are to be prosecuted for selling liquor to persons to whom they had been forbidden to sell.

The new starcli-works at Franklin are almost ready for beginning operations. The works will furnish employment to about fifty hands. Gov. James D. Williams, it is said, leit an estate of 4,000 acres of land and $25,000 in money. There is a will but it has not been probated. It is estimated that the expenses of the funeral of the late Gov. Williams, which will be borne by the State, will total up something over SI,OOO. Grandmother Hannah Gwynn, relict of Charles Wwynn, a soldier of the War of 1812, aged 91 years, died near Cambridge City, the other night. She was sick but a short time. Gov. Gray issued his first pardon, the other day, to a young man named Clark, from the Governor’s own county, Randolph, sentenced to one year’s imprisonment for the theft of a $0 pistol. Francis G % Morgan, an old and highly-esteeme'd citizen of Randolph county, died at. his home in Spartansburg, of a cancerous affection, a short time ago. Mr. Morgan was formerly Commissioner of the county, and was 52 years old. The last Legislature of Indiana neglecting to vote an appropriation for the expense necessarily attending the meeting of the Legislature in January next, the Attorney General of the State has been asked for his opinion if there is any way out of the dilemma. Mu. Thomas Lyons, an old and prominent citizen, died last week, at his residence, near Covington. Mr. Lyons was Sheriff of Fountain county from 1858 to 1862. In 1866 he was Republican candidate for County Treasurer, and in 1876 lie ran on the same ticket for Recorder.

Gen. John Scott, a resident of Vigo county for the past fifty-five years, died recently. He was born in New York m 1793, and was pensioned for service rendered at the battle of Sackett’s Harbor in the War of 1812. Gen. Seott came to this State in 1826. He was 88 years old at the time of his death. Martha Lockhart, a young woman who worked in the family of John McNelly at Seymour, accidentally set fire to her clothing, and was so severely burned that she died. She lighted a fire and threw a burning paper on the floor, and while in the act of stamping out the flames set her clothing on fire. Prop. Lewis Prough, principal of Vincennes University, died last week, of erysipelas. Prof. Prough took charge of the university in December, 1872. He was born in Summerfield, Olio, March 5, 1840; graduated at. Antioch College in 1861, with high honors. As an educator he had few equals in the State.

Willie Edwards, aged I‘2 years, died a few days since of lockjaw, in the New Albany poor-house. Willie had no father or mother, and, like Topsy, he just grew up and happened in at the county poor-house, where he lias boarded for three years past. Not long since lie was sent out on a bleak day to husk corn, and was found nearly frozen to death. The citizens of Bluffton have been greatly excited by the decision of the Supreme Court, annulling and setting aside the amended charter of Bluffton passed by the Legislature some eight years ago, greatly extending and increasing their powers and jurisdiction. The decision is far-reaching, and will also affect many other towns and cities. The Supreme Court take the position that the Legislature has no power to grant special power and extend the jurisdiction of incorporated towns and cities by special enactment. The sum involved in this decision will amount to about $20,000 taxes to be returned to property-owners illegally collected since 1872. Hon. B. C. Hobbs, ex-President of Earlham College, has gone to Northern Georgia and Eastern Tennessee on a mission to the Cherokee Indians, In 1836 the Government granted the Western Cherokees reservations in the Indian Territory, and those east of the Allegheny mountains lauds in Georgia and Tennessee. The latter were granted an educational fund of $40,000, which has never been paid, and it is for the purpose of securing it and the accrued interest for the purpose of establishing schools among them that Mr. Hobbs has gone South. After a conference with the chiefs he will visit Washington and claim the appropriation in their name.

An Indiana newspaper correspondent has been shown a rare relic, in the shape of an Indian tomahawk and hatchet combined. It was near the shape of a plasterer’s lath-hatchet, with the bowl of the pipe in the “pole,” and the handle serving as the pipe-stem. The body of the instrument is brass, the sharp edge steel, the latter being brazed into the other metal in a very artistic style. The instrument was found recently by a little girl, named Faulkner, in Owen county, Ky. The little girl and some other children were digging in a small mound when they found the relic. They also found a human bone, which frightened them so that they quit digging. On one side of the tomahawk the figures “1673” are visible, they having been scratched in the brass by a sharppointed instrument. It is supposed to have been traded by the Spaniards to the Indians. The difference between dancing and card playing is just exactly the difference between the reel and the I-deal.