Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1889 — INDIANA HAPPENINGS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA HAPPENINGS.

EVENTS AND INCIDENTS THAT HAVE LATELY OCCURRED*. An Interesting Summary of the More Important Doings of Onr Neighbors—Weddings and Deaths—Crime, Casualties and General New* Notafc Terrific Fight with an Indian. Stowe’s Indian show and circus arrived at Vincennes, stopping at the Grand Hotel. The Indians and cowboys proceeded to get drunk at the bar. Soon they became boisterous, and created such a din around that corner that Mayor Murphy, who was on the third floor, was awakened by the noise. Mayor Murphy went below, thinking there was a row. On inquiring what it meant, policeman Gus Robertson, who was already upon the scene, replied that the Indians would not be quiet. Murphy ordered Bobertson to arrest them. He proceeded to do so when a young Comanche Indian, named “Split Bark,” resisted. The Comanche is a powerful man, tall and muscular, as lithe as a panther, and as Savage as a grizzly bear. “When “Split Bark” resisted, Bobertson struck at him with his mace. The Indian suddenly squatted down, and the terrific blow of the officer's mace swung harmlessly above his head. Quick as a flash the Indian seized officer Bobertson around the knees and then straightening to his feet with him, threw him into the air as if handling a child. As the officer descended Split Bark grabbed his mace, tore off his star, and pouncing upon the prostrate form of the officer, began to batter him in a most savage manner,with his own mace. The Mayor seized a heavy chair, dashed into the affray, and after battering the Comanche over the head several times with the chair, finally knocked him off of Bobertson. Another Indian, a cousin of “Split Bark,” rushed to the rescue of his companion, but was seized and held by a bystander. “Split Bark” started to run out. As soon as Bobertson regained his footing, he rushed out after the Indian, and began firing at him, bringing him down with a bullet in his back, fatally injured. The fight was a hard one. The officer is badly used up and but for the Mayor would have been killed.

Minor Slate Items. —Anderson has as small typhoid fever epidemic. ■ —An unusually large peach crop is predicted for Southern Indiana this year. —The Diamond Plate-glass Company, of Kokomo, has struck another big gas well. —Clark County paid out, during the past year, on account of sheep, killed by worthless dogs, $1,422.50. —The annual- reunion of the Sixtythird Indiana Regiment will be held at Waynetown on September 25 and 26. —Newton Weston, of Lafayette, was shot from ambush, while passing a cornfield, and received a painful wound in the leg. —The labor organizations and citizens of New Albany have appointed committees to solicit syd for the Clay County strikers. —The Diamond Plate-glass Company, of Kokomo, has opened a monster gas well near that city. Experts say the well is the largest in the State. --Hog cholera has broken out in Jackson County and Fred White, one of the best farmers in that section, has lost over fifty head recently. —Mrs. John Shelton, a young wife of Seymour, has given birth to an unusually large and hearty boy with six wellformed fingers on each hand. —Southern Indiana has produced this season one of the largest peach crops ever known in that section. Brown County seems to be “humping” herself especially. Charles B. Dougherty, of Bluffton, becomes heir to SIO,OOO by the will of his aunt, Mrs. B. G. Stults, whose death at the sanitarium, Battle Creek, Mich., occurred recently. —James Spencer, living six miles north of Brazil, died from blood poisoning. It was caused by a wound on his face coming in contact with a horse having the distemper. —The other night a meteor crashed through the roof of John Faschnicht’s house, near Lafayette, and was embedded in the floor near the bed where Mr. and Mrs. Faschnicht were sleeping, —An attempt to wreck a south-bound O. & M. train was made by piling rocks on the track, at the Silver Creek bridge, near Jeffersonville. The engine was thrown from the track, but nobody was hurt. - John Unison was in the act of getting on the east-bound Vandalia accommodation, at Greencastle, when ne slipped and fell, crushing his left foot beneath the rail. His injury is severe, though amputation may be avoided. ■—James Ferrell, foreman on the Evansville Suburban and Newburg Railroad, was fatally injured at Newburg, while working under an embankment. A huge pile of earth caved in, burying him beneath it and breaking his back. —During the past few years a number of valuable pearls have been found attached to shells in White Rivers near Rockford. One resident of the village has realized over S3OO from that source, and a large specimen recently picked »p by him sold readily for S3B.

—At Spencer, S. H. H. Mathis and daughter were thrown from a buggy by a runaway horse and seriously hurt. —While S. H. H. Mathes, formerly editor of the Journal at Spencer, was out riding with his daughter the horse became frightened and ran away, throwing both violently to the ground and seriously injuring the daughter. The father sustained only slight bruises. —While driving near Falmouth, Bev. Taylor, of Milroy, was seriously, though not fatally, injured. The axle broke, causing the horse to run away, throwing Mr. Taylor out, and breaking his collarbone and forcing it down upon the lungs. His head was also badly bruised. —Chris Ziedler, a butcher at South Bend, met with a terribly painful accident. He was climbing into his slaugh-ter-house through a window, when he lost his footing and fell. He was caught by a meat-hook which pierced his leg and held him suspended, head downward, until help arrived. —Berry Thompson, aged 25 years, while fishing in White Biver, just above Martinsville, with James Walker, and Al Beed, attempted to wade across the stream and was drowned. The current was quite swift and he was steadily borne down stream into deep water. His body has not yet been recovered. —lt is stated that the Mayor of South Bend has received a letter from Benedict, Field & Co., of Chicago, boot and shoe manufacturers, asking what that place will do for them if they locate their factory there. They propose to build a factory with a capacity of 500 pairs of shoes a day, and they will employ 300 hands. —Six townships in Hancock County voted on the gravel-road question, and the majority of the votes were for free roads. This will practically make every road in the county free. The three precincts in Greenfield gave a majority of 241 in favor of free roads. There is great rejoicing at Greenfield, as every road now leading into that city will be free.

—James Morgan, the eccentric old citizen of Morgan County who recently advertised that he would give $5,000 for a wife, who must be “young and pretty,” has not yet made any selection from among the hundreds of applications he has received. He is having a great deal of amusement in readingthe affectionate epistles, some of which are oddly worded and from all classes of girls. —The large fly-wheel of the power engine of J. T. Barnes & Co.’s furniture factory at Kingstown, weighing several tons, burst from its bearing, tearing the roof from the engine room and otherwise damaging the building. Parts of the wheel were found several hundred feet away. Omar White, the engineer, and a brakeman on a passing freight train narrowly escaped being hit by flying fragments. —A 2-year-old son of Robert and Mrs. Etherington, residing near Kokomo, was burned to death. The mother, after lighting a fire in the kitchen stave, went out in the garden, and during her absence the little one went to the stove, when its clothing ignited. After suffering great agony for ten hours, death came to its relief. It was their only child, a great pet in the neighborhood, and the idol of its parents. —These patents to Indiana inventors have issued Charles A. Bertsch, Cambridge City, bending roll; George W. Crozier, Muncie, gas pressure regulator; Abram DeWitt, Bluffton, measuring vessel; Theodore Doup, Jr., Columbus, road gate; Wesley T. Finney, Bentonville, suspender buckle; Leander W. Freeman, Liberty, hay rake; Hiram H. Gibbs, Indianapolis, road cart; Wickliff B. Mitchell, Owensburg, match-safe; Simon Shoup, Fish Lake, saw set. —The thresher engine of Georg Heath exploded with terrific force at the home of Jerome Galliher, near the city limits of Muncie. When ninety pounds of the required 120 had been raised in the old engine preparatory to starting in to thresh a field of wheat, suddenly the old rusty bolts in the head of the engine gave way, and the explosion that followed could be heard miles. It lifted the engine from the ground and carried it forty feet away, where it fell in a heap. Lon Furr, an employee, was badly burned and severely hurt otherwise by a large piece of flying iron hitting him in the breast. Two boys were blown off a fence near by, while the machine, which had not yet been started, was stripped of its belts and every loose article. A board fence, 150 feet away, at the other end of the engine, was blown down. —A stranger came to this city a few days ago, says a Columbus special, and hiring a conveyance, was driven through the hilly region of Brown County, remaining some time in that section and carefully examining the neighborhood where gold has been found. It developes that the man was a gold expert, who went there for the purpose of investigating the extent and wealth of the alleged gold fields. On his return to this city he reported himself as well pleased w'ith his prospecting tour. He found a large amount of rich gold-bear-ing sand along Bean Blossom Creek, and took back with him to Cincinnati a number of fine specimens of the precious metal in its original state. He announced before his departure that he would return immediately with a number of other experts, and that a thorough examination of the gold field will be made by them.