Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 October 1888 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

A CHRONICLE OF HAPPENINGS IN UOOSIKRDOM. Shocking Deaths, Terrible Accidents, Horrible Crimes, Proceedings of Courts, Secret Societies, and, in fact, Everything of Interest to the Hoosiers. AtKnightstown, one morning recently, the frame dwelling belonging to N. B. Wade and occupied by Mrs. Sarah Hoggins, his mother and Mrs. Martha Cates, situated south of the railroad, was discovered on lire. After breaking open the door, Mr. Wade was found unconscious at his mother’s bed. He was taken out but died in a few minutes. His mother was dead before being taken out. Mrs. Cates was not found nntil her limbs and arms were burned off, and she died in a short time. A knife covered with blood and a bottle of paris green were taken from Wade's pockets, and the indications are that he murdered the two women and then committed suicide, the testimony before the coroner tendrag to substantiate this theory. Mrs. Cates was the widow of a soldier, and resided with Mrs. Hoggins, who had reared her from a child. In 1876 Mrs. Cates was granted $1,400 arrearage of pension and a regular pension of $lO a month. Wade illegally assumed her guardianship and appropriated the money to his own credit. Recently she complained to the G. A. R. post of her treatment by Wade. A legal guardian was appointed and it was found that Wade had appropriated $2,800 of her money. The next day after the tragedy Wade would have been compelled to account for the money and it is presumed he bad been brooding over the matter so much that he became partly insane, went lo his mother’s house and, after murdering Mrs. Case, set fire to the house. He is supposed to have taken a large dose of paris green and thrown himself into the flames. «

An Unconditional Pardon. Thomas R. Raney, who was sentenced to the State Prison South, March 3, 1882, for twenty-one years, for killing Thomas Wright at Loogootee, Jan. 27, 1881, has been granted an unconditional pardon by Gov. Gray. Raney was first sentenced by the court of Martin County, wherein the crime was committed. A change of venue on a new trial was then taken to Knox County, where he was tried before Judge Malott. A petition for his pardon signed by over 140 of the leading citizens of Loogootee, together with personal letters to the same effect from Judge Malott, Congressman O’Neal and others influenced the Governor to issue a pardon. The petition avers that Raney acted in self-defence; that Wright came at him with a knife, and that the former shot him to save his own life. A letter was also received by the Governor from Warden Patten, who stated that Raney had been an excellent prisoner and recommended his release. A Bold Robbery. The boldest and most daring robbery that was ever perpetrated in Delaware County was committed at the little town of Selma, six miles east of Muncio. A race-horse owner, name unknown, ivas traveling with his animal in a car attached to the local freight on the Columßns, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway. The train stopped a short time at Selma, and the horse owner left the car to procure a lunch. In his absence two men entered the car and ransacked his trunk. They secured a gold watch, a check for SSOO, a suit of clothes and an overcoat, and escaped before the eyes of the bystanders. They are still -at large.

A Cannon Explodes. At Andersonville, on the eastern border of Rush County, while the delegations were on their way to Rushville, to listen to Judge Jere M. Wilson, a salute was being fired, and at the third discharge of the cannon it burst, flying into six pieces. One of the pieces struck Martin Lewis, breaking his left arm, mangling his right arm, and crushing in his left breast. It also opened anew a knife wound he had received some time since in the abdomen, from which wound his bowels protruded. Notwithstanding the dreadful character of his injuries, Lewis walked to hie home. The cannon was a small cast-iron affair. Child Terribly Burned. The infant child of Mr. and Mrs. Ed. Wright came near meeting a horrible death at Tipton. A number of small children were playing around a smokehouse, and one of the number placed the little fellow in a box filled with papers. From some unknown cause the papers caught fire, and before assistance arrived the child was nearly dead. Its clothes were burned from its body, and its face, hands, and neck were frightfully burned. That Salvation Army Verdict. A case was reported in the Circuit Court of Bloomington, wherein Mrs. Washburn, a Salvation Army woman, recovered a judgment against Mr. Mason and two policemen for SSOO for arresting her while she was beating a drum in the streets. The appealed case, consequent upon her arrest, was tried in the Circuit Court to-day, and another jury found her guilty and imposed a small fine. Bfinor State Nows. —A Big Four freight train was derailed at a switch two miles east of Lebanon, tearing up the track.

—Philip Bipns. proprietor of the liv-ery-stable at Montezuma, was kicked in the bowels by a Texas pony and dangerously hurt. —At the Horse Detective Association, held at Lebanon, there were one hundred delegates in attendance. The association is in good working condition. —Mrs. J. S. Pruitt, who was shot and dangerously wounded recently, at Kokomo, by her hnsband, has improved sufficiently to be removed to the home of relatives at Young America. She will probably recover, though the bullets remain in both wounds. —At Crawfordsville the police captured a burglar who had brokeu into the house of Michael J. Carroll by knocking in a panel of the door with an ax. On his person were two silver watches, a revolver, and sl6 in money. He gave the name of William H. Powell. —Ferdinand Reiuking, an old citizen of Adams County, while transacting business at the Decatur Court-house, received a sudden stroke of paralysis in the right side, resulting in almost total blindness. —At Seymour, Harry, the 9-year-old sou of Mr. Fred Holleuback, who had beeu indisposed for a day or two, choked' to death on phlegm. —At Lafayette, Isaac L. Beach, for years a city councilman and leading hardware merchant, died suddenly of heart troubles, aged 57. —Samuel Allen, n pioneer settler of Tippecanoe County, was found dead at his own gate at Romney. He attended a political meeting und returned alone. Not appearing at the usual hour the family began a search, finding him at the gale. Rheumatism of the heart. —At a point two miles east of Washington a freight train on the Ohio and Mississippi Railway struck a cow, ditching the engine and causing a bad wreck. The engineer was killed. —At Brazil, while an older sister was igniting a fire in tho cook-stove by the use of coal-oil, Maybell, 4 years old, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Boysane, colored, was bo horribly burned by an explosion of oil ns to cause almost insfant death. —The eleventh annual reunion of the Seventh Regiment Association will be held in Greensburg on Thursday, Oct. 11.

—The 13-months-old child of Oliver Davis, a farmer living in Brown County, while playing in the yard at home a few days since, fell into a deep well and was instantly killed. •—Mrs. LeppCr, of Crawfordsville, while vomiting, caused her false teeth to drop down in her mouth and lodged in her throat.. Her son put his hand in her mouth and pulled the plate out, but broke the teeth off in doing it. The lady then swallowed the teeth, which as yet do not seem to cause any fear of serious trouble. Several boys went walnuting near Madison, and one, named Johnson, threw a stone into a tree which, in descending, fractured the skull of Henry l’fister, 13 years old, who was gathering walnuts from the ground. He is partially unconscious, and the physician thinks his hurt is fatal. —The Clark County Commissioners recently elected Joe Carr Superintendent of the Poor Asylum. The paupers objected, and wrote a petition to the Board and a communication to the papers, threatening to leave if the old Superintendent, Mr. Muiner, was not retained. Carr took charge, however, and of the fifty paupers only nineteen remained, the others having struck and left.

—A peculiar disease is prevalent among horses near La Porte, horses being seized with trembling fits before death. The cause for the disease is unknown. —A couple of gamblers, while trying to escape from an enraged crowd at the Loogootee fair grounds, drove their wagon over the infant child of a Mrs. Goodey, inflicting injuries from which it died. —Word has been received that L. W. Millikan, a former resident of New Castle, had died at Truxillo, Honduras. Mr. Millikan had large mining interests in Spanish Honduras, and in company with his wife and Mr. Hunkins left for that country in July. On arriving at Trusillo they were all attacked with a contagious fever prevalent there, of which Mr. Millikan and Mr. Hunkins have both died. —At Wabash, James Slater, a boy of 14 attempted to couple two cars together while they were being moved by hands. He was caught between the bumpers and crushed so badly that he died. —A tramp gained entrance to the Eighth Lutheran Church, near Fort Wayne, and set fire to the altar, which was burned, and the church was saved only by the timely discovery of the flames. The tramp escaped. —The 11-year-old son of William Schmitz, while playing in the street opposite his father’s residence, at Indianapolis, was run over by street-car No. 145, sustaining injuries which will result in his death. The wheels passed directly across the hips, almost cuttingthe body in two. The boy, when the accident occurred, was running across the street while playing with other boys. The driver says the little fellow was so near the horse when he first saw the lad that he did net have time to stop the car. —Three men were victimized by forged checks at Richmond.