Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1881 — INDIANA NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA NEWS.

Theodore Shockley, of Moore’s Hill, had twenty-three sheep killed and ten wounded by dogs the other night. A Terre Haute florist has a cactus which was brought from Mexico, and which is supposed to be 1,000 years old. It is valued at SSOO. A New Albany family came near being poisoned to death by eating corn cakes made of dough that had stood over night in a glazed crockery dish. Mrs. Peter Raney, of Cass county, who had been married only three weeks when her husband died, attempted to follow him a few days ago by taking strychnine. William Peconga, a Miami Indian, was called on a jury in the Grant county Circuit Court, the first instance, perhaps, of an Indian ac ting as a juror in Indiana. Hon. Robert L. Polk died at his home in New Castle, after an illness of several months’ duration, aged 40 years. He was elected Circuit Judge in 1876, and the term expires in 1882. Articles of incorporation of the Willard Library have been filed at Evansville. It is the intention to establish a free public library, gallery of art, public reading-rooms and a public park.

There is much excitement in Perry county on account of the many murders and daring robberies that have occurred in the past two years. Three murders have take place in the past four months, and other crimes of a notorious character have been committed. Gov. Porter has appointed as Chief of the State Bureau of Statistics John B. Conner, editor of the Indiana Farmer, who was the author of the act by which the bureau was created in 1879, and has ever since taken great interest in the working of the department. The Howards are now employing 300 men in their shipyard at Jeffersonville. They will launch three boats next week, and will then put up the frame-work of two immense steamers for the Anchor line of St. Louis. These boats will have a capacity of 2,500 tons. , Dr. Joseph Gardner has just returned to Bedford from Dubois county, where he went at the request of Prof. Collett to examine some mineral lands in search of silica and fine whetstone grits. The doctor reports his researches as being very satisfactory. There was a meeting of the Methodist pastors and laymen of New Albany at the Centenary Church to take steps looking to the holding of a semi-centen-nial of Indiana Methodism in that city in 1882. The first Methodist conference held in Indiana convened in a church owned by the Wesley Chapel Society.

The large carriage manufacturing establishment of Paul Hirschauer, at Rising Sun, together with four dwellinghouses, was entirely consumed by fire. Hirschauer's loss is about $2,500, with SSOO insurance. The dwellings were not insured. Several persons were injured by falling timbers. It is supposed to have been set on fire. Gov. Porter recently appointed Mark E. Forkner Judge of the Henry Circuit Court, vice Judge Polk, deceased. The new Judge was born in Henry county, and read law with and afterward became a partner of Judge Willett, of Newcastle. He was a candidate for the Judgeship when it was thought the constitutional amendments were in force last summer. Mr. Forkner was a prominent member of the Legislature of 1878. A young couple of South Bend, who got married recently against their parent’s wishes and partly against their own, also, called to pay iheir respects to the bridegroom’s mother, the other evening, and were met with a kottlcof hot water. The boy now threatens to have the old lady arrested for an assault, and there is likely to be some lively sport come out of the matter yet. Six years ago Aaron Swarthout brought suit at North Vernon against the Ohio and Mississippi railroad for carrying him by a station at which the train on which he was riding never stopped. A change of venue was taken to Ripley county, and the plaintiff recovered a small judgment. Not satisfied with this he appealed to the Supreme Court, and the case was remanded back to the Ripley Circuit Court for a new trial, which has resulted in a verdict for the defendant. Mbs. Henson, an old lady of Jackson township, Harrison county, met with a very serious accident. While climbing over a fence one end of a crochet needle which she was carrying in her dresspocket struck against a rail with such force as to drive the other end into the left side of her abdomen, and, as the lady straightened herself up, the needle was drawn inward. A surgeon probed the w< und and found that the needle hail penetrated entirely into the cavity, and was unable to find or remove it.