Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1911 — Lewins Settle Trouble With Mrs. Haskins While Jury Ponders. [ARTICLE]

Lewins Settle Trouble With Mrs. Haskins While Jury Ponders.

While the jury -at Valparaiso was pondering over the case brought by Mrs. Ella Haskins against Charles and John Lewin last week, Mrs. Haskins got John Lewin and effected a compromise. The fact that they had settled the case did not become known until after the jury had been out for ten hours and had failed to reach an agreement. The Lewins are the men whose horses and wagons were attached in Rensselaer on January 4th by Sheriff Hoover on complaint made by Mrs. Haskinß, wlio claimed that they were seeking to get out of the state to avoid the payment of notes given tor rent. The Lewins were represented by Dunlap & Parkinson, and the plaintiff by George A. Williams, of Rensselaer, and Attorney Bruce, of Valpo. »Since the action was brought, the thirteen head of horses have been kept at the Norgor hitch barn, where they were first attached. The trial brought out some of the facts in the case not heretofore mpptioned in the papers. The defense of the Lewins showed that Mrs. Haskins had paid two agents SSOO for getting the Lewins into a contract and tiie attorneys dwelled at some length upon this fact as conclusive that they were deceived as to the quality of the land.The defense also tried to show that the Lewins were not going to leave the state, but were going to a farm in Benton county, only a short distance from Kentland. They showed that the Haskins farm, near Hurlbert, was only 22 miles from the Illinois state line and that the Lewins could have reached Illinois in 4 hours if they had set out to get away. The Haskins also furnished testimony to show that the farm was not renting for too much, and it was easy to show that the Lewins had followed a very bad plan of trying to get out, whether they were going to Illinois or not. Greatly to the surprise of all, including the attorneys, while the jury was deliberating, Mrs. Haskins got John Lewin and made a compromise settlement by which it was agreed that the stock was to be brought back to the Porter county farm and sold at public auction. Lewin was to gef S2OO that remained in Chicago from the sale of the corn and come here and pay off the claims against the stock, preparatory to its return. It was also a part of toe compromise that John Lewin was to return to the Haskins farm and tenant it the ensuing year. Mrs. Haskins said that he was a hard working man and a good farmer and that she would back him. She blamed the trouble on his brother Charles. The case proved profitable for the lawyers and the hitch barn owner, and none others.