Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 133, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 June 1911 — JASPER COUNTY POOLE FARM IS UNDER SUSPICION. [ARTICLE]

JASPER COUNTY POOLE FARM IS UNDER SUSPICION.

Some Digging Done to Try to Clear Up Mystery of Clyde Widiatn’s Disappearance.

Where is Clyde Witham and are there any bodies buried on John Poole’s Union township farm? These questions have been agitating some of the people of the neighborhood of the Poole farm ten miles north of Rensselaer. The agitation has reached the point where W. L. Wood, of Parr, the assistant prosecuting attorney of the Newton-Jasper circuit court, has spent part of one day digging on the farm and *he plans to carry the investigation farther. A young man named Clyde Witham worked for Poole. He was well known in Union township and especially at Parr. He had no relatives in this county and when he disappeared no one thought strange of it. He has been away now for about a year and a half and after Poole’B arrest for the murder of Joe Kemper, a farm hand on his Benton county farm, people began to wonder what had become of Clyde Witham. __ Those who had known him quite well feel sure that he would not have gone away without letting them know he was going, but ho one has been found who knew just when Witham left or where he went if he ever left the farm.

Ed Ritter lives next the Poole farm. After the arrest of Poole he recalled a peculiar incident that occurred a little over a year ago. He got up early one morning and as he went pasi Poole’s farm he saw some one digging. A very foul stench came from the ground and when Ritter asked Poole what he was doing Poole said that a steer had been buried there and that he was digging it up to skin it and sell the hide. Ritter told him he could not sell It in that condition, but Poole said he would sell it all right. The odor was so disagreeable that Ritter left. He gave no further thought to, the matter until after Poole’s arrest and when the disappearance of Witham was being- discussed he related the story' to others. It was -in this location that the'digging was done. Logan Wood had Eld Gilmore and John Price spend several hours digging at the spot where Mr. Ritter saw Poole at work more than a year ago. They found a lot of charred wood and apparently something had been destroyed by fire there, but. there was nothing to indicate that it was a human body. One small bone was found, but it was probably from the body of a pig. The men were told where three steers had been buried and digging there failed to lodate any evidence of steers at all, although some charcoal was found buried in the ground as though a fire had been burned there.

Mr. Wood has not given up the digging. He expects to make further investigation and will probably resume the search within a few days. He has consulted Prosecuting Attorney Longwell, who is anxious that the investigation be thorough. Mr. Wood has been informed that a former tenant of the Poole farm has said' that be was told not to plow where' a straw stack had formerly stood and that he plowed around it and later. Poole plowed the stack base himself. It is also claimed that Poole brought Kemper’s clothes over from Swanlngton and hid them on the ‘Jasper county farm, and Joe Frogs is said to have told some one that he knew the clothes were hid there. Fross lived on the farm last year. Poole is said to have come to the farm once with two good pair of shoes, one of which was too large and the other too small for him.

They had evidently belonged to soma other persons and Poole brought then from Benton county. Simeon McCloud is now looking niter Poole's cattle on the farm; Hit home Is in Illinois, near Saunemih, and he owns 'd farm of 160 acres, adjoining- Poole’s land. He came over to look after his own land th<« spring and Poole told him that he did not have any one to look after bis cattle and he urged Mr. McCloud to come to his housa and *ake possession mid look after 'the cattle. He has since resided there, but Mrs. McCloud hgv returned to Illinois. Poole has & head of cattle over here. Thirty head are kept on his farm and 18 head on the Bundy farm. Mr. McCloud has continued to look after them and has had some instruction from Mrs. Poole and Miss Grace Poole. None of them has been over to see him nor to look after the cattle nor the farm. Mr. McCloud spends much of his own time grubbing on his farm. He expects to go over to Fowler before long to see Poole, if he can. He has no positive agreement with him about taking mure of the cattle and would sooner have an understanding. Mr. Wood, of Parr, would like to have all the information he can get frbm those who may know anything of Poole’s movements on the farm and he is prepared to continue hia investigation as soon as he can get some tangible basis to work upon.