Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 299, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1910 — SALOONKEEPER AT KOUTS MURDERS HOME WRECKER. [ARTICLE]

SALOONKEEPER AT KOUTS MURDERS HOME WRECKER.

Little Town in Porter Connty Scene of Murder Friday Morning—Victim , Named Johnson. Jacob Walters, a saloon keeper at Koqt*, murdered a man named Albert Johnson at about 5 o’clock Friday morning. The circumstances seem to be as follows:'' Johnson was an engineer and formerly boarded at the Walters home. He bec&me infatuated -with Mrs. Walters and her husband became jealous and Johnson was ordered away from the house. Friday morning when Walters was opening up the saloon he heard a noise in the back part of the house and going out there saw Johnson about to crawl out of a window which led from the house. Walters went into the saloon and came out with a double-barreled shot gun and just as Johnson was in plain sight he pulled the trigger and both barrels were emptied into him and the man fell to the ground, about 25 feet beldw and was dead when the saloon keeper reached his side. Walters then called up the Kouts constable and told him what he had done, saying that he was ready to be locked up. He was taken to Valparaiso and placed in jail. Walters was regarded as a good man, and until Johnson invaded his home, it is said, there was never a suspicion about him. He is about 35 years of age and the dead man is about the same age. Walters has employed Attorney D. E. Kelly to defend him and an effort will be made to secure bail. Acting on the advice of his lawyer, Walters has refused to talk about the killing. The Valparaiso Vidette says that sympathy at Kouts is with the murderer.

William Cheadle was in Fowler Wednesday. He has just returned from a trip to Valparaiso, where he placed his son Hercy in the school from which Mr. Cheadle was a graduate a quarter of a century ago. His son Morris, of the Mound farm, was in Fowler the same day. One of his horses, the best one, walked over the edge of the gravel pit and fell twenty feet below. It lived about twenty minutes. No bones were broken.— Fowler Review.

Ben Smith is out enjoying some fresh air today. It is the second time he has been out of the house for several weeks. Ben has been having a bad time with a borie disease of his right arm, very similar to that which attacked one of his legs several years ago. A specialist was called in consultation with the locall physician and he is now improving and hopes to be able to avoid an operation. The sickness has changed Ben’s plan for building a fine new house this fall and he will not start it now before spring. He expects to build just north of the J. L. Brady elevator, where he has constructed a very artistic yard front of cement.

John Hurley had a close call from a bad accident at the Brady elevator crossing today. He. was crossing just as the 10:05 passenger train came along and did not see it. The train was moving swiftly and when the engineer saw the danger he set on the emergency brakes and the train slowed down to some extent, but the engine struck the rear end of the wagon and shoved it around and the horses started to run. They were soon under control and no injury resulted, but had the engineer not slowed down as he did, Mr. Hurley and his team would doubtless have been killed.

Orlan Grant has decided to give up his place in charge of Rowles & Parker’s clothing department and has accepted a position as a traveling salesman for the Independent Rubber Co., of Fort Whyne. He will leave here next week and after spending a short time studying his sample lines will start out on the road. He will continue to make Rensselaer his home and will be able to come here frequently. A successor for him at Rowles & Parker’s has not been selected. Rensselaer is now supplying a number of traveling salesmen, others being Ivan Carson and Theodore George.

John Bruner and Mrs. J. M. Troxell returned last evening from their visit with the family of E. G. Warren, at Lawton, Okla., where they spent about a month. They had a fine visit and liked many things in Oklahoma, but also told of some things they did not like. There has been a droath in that state for the past year and there is no drinking water except what is bought, a 5-gallon bottle costing 26 cents. There were no crops about Lawton except cotton, which was very good. Mr. IJguner does not think Oklahoma is enjoying very much prosperity except in the cities, where the building boom continues. Ed Warren is getting along fine. He has a splendid job and is taking care of it. The two Warren girls, Grace and Gladys, have been married since going to Lawton. Their husbands are brothers by the name of Wolverton, both self-made and successful young men. Tom Burns, the brick mason, is in Lawton. He has plenty of work and likes Oklahoma. He makes his home with the Warren family. .*