Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 December 1888 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

-* CHRONICLE OF HAPPENINGS IN HOOSIKRDOM. Shocking Deaths, Terrible Accidents, Horrible Crimes, Proceedings of Courts, Secret Societies, and, in faet. Everything of Interest to the Hoosiers. Near New Albany recently. Jacob Mottweilor was found murdered a quarter of a mile from his farm-house and his wife lying unconscious iu the stable-yard. Mottweiler had been shot through the head, while his wife had been stunned by a blow with an ax. Mrs. Mottweiler is still alive, but as yet no statement has been obtained from Irer. With the Mottweilers lived William Benson, a laborer on the farm, and Sallie Snyder, a servant girl. The girl first reported the murder to Jacob Schaeffer, a neighbor. Schaeffer at once gathered the other neighbors and took the bodies to the house, where a coroner’s inquest was held, the verdict of which has not yet been rendered. Benson and Miss Snyder were at once put under arrest. By separating them and telling Benson the girl had confessed that Benson and she had killed the Mottweilers, Benson was induced to confess. He said he was engaged to marry Miss Snyder. She was found to be in a delicate condition and this gave rise to a quarrel between himself and the Mpttweilers several days ago, over which bitter feeling continued. As he returned from hunting he met Mottweiler and shot him. Coming near the house he found Mrs. Mottweiler milking and hit her a blow over the head with an ax. He then went to the house and told the girl what he had done. Indiana Patents. Patents have been granted to Indiana inventors as follows: Jeremiah A. Barber, Newville, fence; Frances M. Beck, Wabash, shaft-bearer; Charles A. Copeland, Rocklane, steering apparatus for traction engine; Louis G. Gustabel, Monticello, hame tug; Franklin F. Harman, Honey Creek, corn-planter; Thomas B. Harrison, assignor to Harrison Typewriter Company, Anderson, type-writing machine; Robert C. and G. E. Hawley, South Bend, apparatus for beating grain: Samuel Hobson, Rockport, portable fence; Clement Hoover, Winchester, head-rest; Albert P. Sibley and G. O. Ware, South Bend, bushing for split pulleys.

An Observatory for Mt. Arie. An observatory is to be built on what is known as Mt. Arie, one mile northwest of West Baden Springs. Orange County. The building will be 35x35 at the base, 16x16 at the top, and 80 feet high, with seven landings. This point is 500 feet above the Ohio River, where the Wabash empties' into it, and it is the third highest point in Indiana. A shaft is now being sunk into the hill to be 1,000 feet deep. At the distance of eighty feet an excellent quality of fire clay was found, seventy feet thick. This clay has been tested at the New Albany glass-works, and proves to beunsurpassed. The land is owned by Durke & Son, of Boston, Mass. Drank Washing Fluid Instead ot Cider. Mr. John J. Arnold, a prominent farmer, living half a mile south of Wabash, met with a terrible accident which may cause his death. Mr. Arnold desired to take a big drink of cider, but by a mistake picked up a jug containing washing fluid composed of ammonia, sal-soda, and caustic potash, and drank a quantity of the fluid before he saw the mistake. His throat and stomach passage were horribly burned, and his sufferings are terrible. The patient will starve to death unless food can be introduced to the stomach by tracheotomy. Mr. Arnold’s condition is critical. Circus Man Contracts a Disease from a Horse. Charles Bartine, proprietor of Bartine’s Circus, which is in winter quarters at Montpelier, stands a chance of losing his right arm from a disease that is evidently blood-poisoning, but of a strange type. One of his horses had a small sore on his jaw, and Bartine washed it out. Some of the virus is supposed to have got into the blood through an abrasion of the skin on the hand, and the arm is in an alarming condition of disease.

Minor State Items. —Mamie Ward, of Valparaiso, was re•cently Scalded by upsetting a can of hot water on herself. Her right arm and side were seriously injured. —Non-partisan temperance work has received an impetus in Decatur County, through the influence of Hon. Ansley Gray, the eloquent orator of Oberlin, Ohic. An I. 0. G. T. lodge has been organized at Adams. —The Board of Directors of the Indiana State prison, in session at the institution re-elected Capt. James B. Patten, warden; Maj. Richard Conner, clerk; H. L. "Wolf, physician, and W. B. Barnhill, chaplain. The board prepared its annual report, which includes the annual reports of the chaplain and physician, and will forward the same to the Governor immediately. —While painting a barn at Lafayette Blucher Miller fell from a scaffold a distance of twenty-seven feet, and died from the effects of the fall. He was 27 years old and unmarried. —John Walda fell from a scaffold at Fort Wayne and was fatally injured. —The hotel of J. A. Carroll, near Goshen, was burglarized [of S3OO in money -and some silverware.

—Mrs. ’ Ellen Motweiler, one of the victims of the recent Floyd County tragedy, is still living, but is suffering intensely. She cannot recover, as the brain continues to ooze out of the wound in her head. Benson, the murderer,will be confined in the Jeffersonville prison until his trial, owing to threats of ing—Adam L. Kramer, an old soldier, employed as an engineer at the Kenower furniture factory, in Huntington, while engaged in oiling the journals of the machinery, fell into the pit in which the ponderous fly-wheel revolves, and was so horribly crushed that he died in two hours. He leaves a family. —Cartalists at Kokomo have just organized a new bank, to be known as the First National Bank of Kokomo. The capital stock is SIOO,OOO. George E. Bruner, Assistant Cashier of the First National Bank at Anthony, Kan., wilr be the Cashier, and Richard Ruddell, President. The institution will open its doors about April 1. —The following figures gathered by the State Statistican show the extent and character of the fencing, as to rods, used in this State: Rail, 87,656,768; board, 8,051,947; wire, 4,070,215. Total number of rods, 99,781,930. —Prof. Case Palmer, of Boston, has been elected Professor of Chemistry in Wabash College, at Crawfordsville. —The dead body of David Curry, an old farmer living in the northern part of Shelby County, was found in a fence corner near his home, and a partly-filled whisky bottle near him. It is supposed he perished from exposure. —While a number of were serenading Mr. and Mrs. Will Brown, a newly-married couple living near Waynestown, Montgomery County, George Hendricks had his left hand blown into fragments by the bursting of a gun while he was firing to help increase the noise. —The Christian Church at Charlestown bought a large bell at Louisville and sent a team to Jeffersonville to get it. While the driver was absent a man drove up, loaded the bell on his wagon and disappeared with the outfit. When the Charlestown teamster returned home he was met by the entire population, whose rejoicing turned to the deepest disgust when they [found they were robbed of their bell. Nothing has been heard of it. Hacker, the Socialist, who made a murderous assault on James Bruce, an Indianapolis baker, was arrested at Waldron.

—James Shaw, of Shelbyville, was struck in the abdomen by a wagon tongue, and probably fatally injured. —Oliver M. Chipmau, of Shelbyville, has brought a $5,000 damage suit against ex-Sheriff Meer, alleging that he was falsely arrested on election day and imprisoned until the polls were closed. —John Rob.inson, a pioneer resident of a settlement seventeen miles north of Wabash, was found lying dead in the doorway of his house, by his daughter on her return home from a brief visit. The body was about to be eaten by a drove of hogs when discovered. He was 70 years of age, and it is thought that heart disease caused his death. —The directors of the Montgomery County Agricultural Association have elected the following officers: President, Jasper N. Davidson; First Vice President, John L. Davis; Second Vice President, M. B. Waugh; Secretary, F. L. Snyder; Treasurer, G. W. Hadley; General Superintendent, James A. Mount; Chief Marshal, R. B. Suyder; Fair Ground Committee, J. S. Brown, Jacob Hutton, aud J. J. Insley. —The free delivery system goes into effect at Muncie, Jan. 1. The postmaster has appointed Daniel Kelley, Mark Bratton, Lafayette McCormick, and Edward Carvel as letter-carriers. - Robert L. Jones, Sheriff of Grant County, was shot and mortally wounded while trying to capture an escaped convict. —August Schultz, of La Porte, 14 years of age, was run over and killed by a Lake Shore train, which he was trying to board. —Another cave-in in the mines of the American Cannel Coal Company, at Cannelton, resulted in the death of John Gannon, and the probable fatal injury of a man named Read. It is the same mine in which four men were killed only four weeks ago.

—William Eckelhoff. of Greensburg, draws a pension of sl6 per month, and every time he receives it he goes on a protracted spree, leaving his family penniless. A suit was instituted to declare him a confirmed inebriate, and after a day’s trial the charge was sustained. A guardian will be appointed for him. —A singular burglary occurred at Kyana, Dubois County, recently. On the return home of Casper L. Blume and family, after being absent a few hours, they found a note on the table, with a twenty-dollar-bill attached to it, with the explanation that the money was left for a treat. Examination showed that Mr. Blume's pocketbook containing $750 had been taken from a bureau drawer. The next morning, when MrBlume stepped out of the house, he saw the missing pocketbook lying on a stump, with a note saying that the thief had become conscience-stricken, and took this method of returning the money, but that he was so poor he had kept out S4O, which he would repay with interest just as soon as he was able.