Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 270, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1913 — Grouns Tells Another Story About the Hallowe’en Trouble. [ARTICLE]

Grouns Tells Another Story About the Hallowe’en Trouble.

„ Mrs. Joseph' 'F. Grouns and daughter, of Milroy township, called at The Republican office Wednesday to request a correction of some inaccuracies in the report of the trouble had a week ago last Saturday with John Ward, the well drill er. .The Republican at that time printed the story as supplied by .an insurance agent and relatives of the Ward family and Mr. and Mrs. Grouns think they were not treated fairly %y the report although they say it is substantially correct. Mrs. Grouns says that her husband was not angry when .he called at the Ward home and that he left in a peaceable mood. When he went hack the second time he did so because John * Havens was calling for help. She says that Havens was giving Ward a hard heating when bis wife and two sons, Clay ton and Russell, came to his rescue and set upon Havens. She denies that Mr Grouns picked up a club and states that he returned as a peacemaker and did not take the side of Havens against Ward, hut that Mr. Ward pointed a revolver in his face and eursed him. She says that Mr. Grouns is a Christian man and does not swear and that the report had been circulated that he used oaths toward the Wards, which dhe denies. The burning of the Ward barn, according to Mrs. Grouns, could in no way he traced to the trouble had with Grouns and Havens, and Mrs. Grouns expresses the opinion that it was started from a cigarette which one of the Ward hoys had dropped. She states that the Ward girl and a young man were at the house when the barn burned. The Republican is published several miles from the seat 5 of war and does not pretend to know anything about the trouble. Both sides having been published we are now pleased to let the matter drop and thus gives the belligerants a chanee to form a peace pact. The buggies and harness which Grouns and Havens missed the moining following Hallowe’en were recovered t a little later, the harness being mixed and bung about the tops of trees hut not having been cut or damaged. It is acknowledged by the Grouns family that Clayton Ward had nothing to do with the disappearance of the buggies, although they think Russell Ward had a part in it.