Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1909 — FIRMER REMINGTON MAN [ARTICLE]

FIRMER REMINGTON MAN

Runs Amuck at El wood and the Police Are Now Looking for Him. A recent issue of the Elwood Daily Record contained the following mention of a former Remington resident whose deceased wife of whom mention is also made, was formerly Miss Bessie Foster of Rensselaer: “Complaint was made to the police department last night that Luke Ford, a tinplate worker, of Newport, Ky., who blew into town yesterday had went on a rampage on the south side, posing as a striker, and had terrorized, a number of persons, and they asked that he? be arrested. “Ford was in the limelight here a few years ago when his beautiful young wife was shot one evening after a family disturbance, and Luke riished out to the neighbors stating that Mrs. Ford had shot herself. The public has a very vivid recollection of that affair. “Luke bobbed up yesterday and shortly afterward was on the war path welldlng a knife, and going down to‘ the tin plate entrance on the west side, accosted a boy going out of the enclosure. He pulled a knife and chased the young fellow back into the plant, threatening to cut his head off. “Later Ford went to the home of Bernard Gootee and knocking at the door was met by the wife of Mr. Gootee, the latter being in bed. The drunken fellow brushed by MrsGootee, pushing her brutally aside, despite the fact she is in a delicate condition, and entering the house went to bed room of the husband and assaulted him. He was got out of the house and the door locked while the wife was attended to, who was almost in hysterics from fright. “The police are investivating today and if Ford is caught he will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Once since the bank failure the property was sold for delinquent taxes, and was bought by John Eger, who was a heavy depositor in the bank, but it was redeemed by Mrs. McCoy, who has since seen to it that the taxes were kept up. Tom’s fine barn, in which his blooded trotters were wont to be housed, was not injured by the dynamiting, and is in a very good state of preservation. There is about one acre of ground with the property, and of course the foundation of the house could be utilized in rebuilding, but while Mrs. McCoy now wants to sell the place, we understand, the price she is holding it at, $3,000, would make it quite an expensive property by the time a suitable house was erected. The story of the blowing up of the "Tom” McCoy residence while familiar to most of our readers. Is new to many newcomers since that time. This property was in Mrs. McCoy’s name and could not be touched by the bank creditors. It was probably worth SB,OOO before the dynamiting. Tom was at the time out on bond for wrecking the bank, and neither he or his wife had staid here after the failure, but had been stopping with Mrs. McCoy’s people, the Taylors, in Lafayette. For a week or more before the dynamiting Mrs. McCoy had been here and men at work packing up the expensive furniture, cutglass, china, bric-a-brac, etc., preparatory to shipping to Lafayette, where they were going to make their home. This work was practically completed on Saturday, and Monday morning the goods were to be hauled to the station and loaded in a car. Sunday night at/ about 9:30 or 9:45, a teriffic explosion startled the people of the west side and shook McCoy avenue almost like an earthquake. Ab soon as the residents thereabouts had collected tneir senses they rushed out of doors to learn what the trouble was. It was a beautifut moonlight night, and “Mrs

lost funds in the McCoy bank or had been affected by its failure—there were few if any expressions of regret, while many opposite expressions were heard on all sides. For weeks the dynamiting was a topic for general comment. A stagger was made to discover the perpetrators, and some blood-hounds were brought in after a or two and led about the place and surrounding fields, but no one was ever arrested or found to be connected with the affair in any way, and no real grounds for suspicion was directed against any one. The affair remains as much of a mystery today as it did five years ago to-mor-row morning, when the Beene was visited by every able-bodied citizen of Rensselaer and hundreds from the surrounding country. The ruins are an eye-sore to- adjacent property owners, and the should long ago have been declared a nuisance and ordered torn down by the city council. How much longer it will stand in its present condition remains to be seen, but it is to be hoped that some one will get hold of the property who will tear down the wrecked house at least.