Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1889 — INDIANA HAPPENINGS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA HAPPENINGS.

EVENTS AND INCIDENTS THAT HAVE LATELY OCCURRED. An Intonating Summary of the Mon Important Doings of Our Neighbors—Weddings and Deaths—Crime. Casualties and General News Nates Colored Millionaires Discovered. The descendants of Benjamin Talbott, colored, lay claim to about six hundred and forty acres, covering the central portion of Logansport. Talbott, while a slave, settled at Logansport fifty-three years ago, with Mr. McBane and family, from Yellow Springs, Ivy. He bought from the Government 640 acres of land and lived on it until the passage of the fugitive slave law, when he abandoned his property and fied to Canada. He never returned to claim it, but often spoke of it to his children. Not long ago, one of them put the matter into the hands of attorneys, who, upon examination, found Talbott’s title indisputable. It is said the Wabash and Eel River railroads, with valuable buildings on the Talbott grounds, have already compromised. The entire property is estimated to be worth several millions. There are four -sons and two daughters who are the heirs. One of the sons, Henry Talbott, has not been heard of for several years. He was last heard from at Danville, Ky. Attacked by a Gorilla. Billy Stewart, of Fort Wayne, proprietor of the Dime Museum, is the owner of a gorilla 7 years old and about half grown. The animal is kept in an iron cage in Stewart’s barn when the show is not on the road. The other day a farmer, Isaiah Slade, of Akron, Ohio, intent upon a free look at the curiosity, entered the barn and poked up the gorilla with a stick. A loose bar in the front of the cage had been raised to admit of a panful of victuals, and the enraged animal sprang at the opening with such force that he squeezed his way through. The astonished farmer was ferociously attacked and knocked down. Half of his bushy beard was torn out, his face lacerated, and the beast had begun to crunch his arm when his outcries attracted Showman Stewart, who beat the gorilla with a billet of wood until he consented to re-enter his cage. Dr. A. C. Boswell, who dressed Slade’s wounds, pronounced them very serious.

Patents Issued to Indiana Inventors. Patents have been granted Hoosier nventors as follows: John S. Adams, assignor to Jenney Electric Company, Indianapolis, structure for supporting lamps above streets; Thomas M. Bates, Dublin, fanning-mill; Larkin V. Elliott, Mooresville, acoustic telephone; •James P. Ferrenburg, Stege, churn; Fremont J. Fry, Indianapolis, backing compound for stereotype matrices; William M. Gray and W. M. White, Crawfordsville, register for slat-fence looms; ChailesD. Jenney, Indianapolis, assignor to the Thompson-Houston Electric Company, of Connecticut, brush-holder for dynamo electric; machine; Rudolph McMakin, assignor to himself and E. T. Ogle, New Albany, baby carriage; Jerome A. Shock, •Goshen, hand garden cultivator. Saved by a Dog. James Tilson, a young man living east of Franklin, has a dog that no money could buy, for had it not been for the dog he would now have been in his grave. The other day, while young Tilson was plowing on his father’s farm, a large black snake, six feet long, jumped oh him from the tall grass lining the field, and wound itself around his neck. A terrible battle ensued between Tilson and the snake, and the outcome would probably have been death to the young man had not his large shepherd dog, which had been following him, come to his assistance, • and between them the snake was killed. It was an experience that will long be remembered by the young man, and the dog will ever have a kindly feeling from his master.

Minor Slate Items. —Gen. B. F. Butler has presented a new flag to the Soldier’s Home at Marion.l —A United Brethren church is to be •established in New Albany, the outcome of their last General Conference. —A. T. Swift recovered $275 from the town of Angola as damages for injuries received from a defective sidewalk. —Otto Ogden, of Jeffersonville,claims the smallest baby in the world. The little girl weighs but eighteen ounces. —Charles Brease, aged 23, was sentenced to the penitentiary for ten years, at Richmond, for attempting to assault a child of 10 years. —The people of Wayne County will •soon be asked to vote on the purchase of the toll-roads, and an affirmative decision is confidently expected. —Sweeney Bros., of Jefferponville, ’have just finished a steel survey boat for the United States Government, which 'will be stationed at Keokuk, lowa. —Thomas McGraw was run over and dnstantly killed by the Wabash limited express train at Fort Wayne. He was nearly eighty years old, and a laborer by occupation. —rln a playful tussel over a shotgun between Morris Cottingham and a boy, near Spencer, the gun was discharged into Cottingham’s abdomen. He lived but a Jew hours.

—A switch engine on the Louis villst New Albany and Chicago Railway raa over James Cunningham, of Ashgrov*. and killed him, catting his body in twc. —Mrs. Jennie Hillen dropped dead at New Albany while attending to her domestic dutieß at her home in the East End, her death being the result of a sudden heart seizure. —John Wolf, a farmer living near Colburn, was fatally injured by being speared with the tine of a pitchfork, which slipped from a load of hay near which he was standing. —James Elliott, of Goshen, known as the deaf poet, while walking along th railroad track was struck by an engine and thrown about twenty feet, receiving severe internal injuries. —James K. Philips, of Hunt City, IIL, is very desirous of learning the address of James Dean, of the Second Indiana Battery. Any one knowing it will confer a favor by addressing him. —The 2-year-old child of Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Stearns, of Fishersburg, Madison County, fell off the bed where its mother had laid it to sleep, and dislocated its neck. It died instantly. —Hiram Mertin died near Unionville from injuries received in an accident a few days previous. In loading a sawlog the boom-pole flew back, breaking both his legs and injuring his spine. —Howard Park, who resides - near Scottsbnrg, is claimed not to have spoken to any one in the last two years. All efforts to make him answer questions have been futile, afid he refuse sto answer any questions. —Alexander Coquillard, a well-known manufacturer of South Bend, has donated to that city seventy acres of ground for a public park, and the citizens have already raised $2,500 with which to improve the gift. —Mrs. J. C. Whittridge, of Richmond, has made the statement that young Platt Robinson, recently drowned on Lake Pepin, Minn., made a call upon her the night before he left for Minnesota. He told her he was loath to go, because he had three times dreamed of falling out of a boat and being drowned. —Louis Superior, a Russian tailor of Terre Haute, who had frequently extorted money from his wife by pretending to commit suicide, did take his life the other day. His wife refused to give him 10 cents, when he stepped into another room and hanged himself from the top of the door, not five feet from his wife.

—Twenty-five letters lie in the postoffice at Martinsville uncalled for by James Morgan, the man who is reported to have advertised for a wife, saying he would pay $5,000 for a bride. The man’s correct name, however, is Morgan Johnson, and he lives at Lake Valley, Morgan County, Indiana. He is 80 years old and very wealthy. —Mrs. J. M. Foreman, residing near Grantsburg, is the latest victim of the mania for shooting people under the mistaken ; impression Ithat they are squirrels or other game. Her body w r as filled with a load of shot from the gun of John Johnson, who simply “heard something rustling” through a cornfield, and fired in the direction of the noise. —At a meeting of a committee of the Seventh Indiana Cavalry boys, at Winchester, Saturday, Gen. Brown said the boys of the regiment attending the reunion, to be held there on the 2d of October, should be entertained free of charge, if he had to take care of fifty of them. The regiment having been enlisted from the State at large, the number attending a reunion cannot be very large.

—About a year ago Freddie, the 14-year-old son of Samuel Hodapp, disappeared from his home in Seymour, and all efforts to find a trace of him since then has been unavailing. The other day a letter was received from the boy, dated at Louisville, in which he said that he had been at that place all the time, but gave no reason for his strange conduct. His parents had given him up for dead. —Henry Weinderlich, a lad of 8-years, died at South Bend, under peculiar circumstances. He had been a sufferer from that rare disease commonly called thinness of the blood-vessels. The slightest blow upon the boy’s nose would cause the blood to flow, which with great difficulty could be stopped. If the blood was stopped at one place it would flow from the ears, mouth and other parts of the body. He slightly cut his cheek with the .tip of an umbrella the other day. The flow of blood from the wound was continuous, baffling the attempts of the doctors to stop it, and resulting in his bleeding to death. —Chesley Chambers is now a free man. The prosecuting attorney at Bloomington on his own motion, dismissed the cases of assault and robbery that have been hanging for two years. So ends a remarkable case. Four years ago last April an express train on' the Monon road was robbed at midnight, the messenger almost killed and the baggage master wounded. Webber identified Chambers as the man who entered the car alone and shot him. A long trial followed, in which the jury hung. Another trial was had, and Chambers was sentenced to prison for two years. He served his term out and was returned from the penitentiary to the jail, and has since been under a bond in the sum of $5,000 for assaulting Davis,