People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1893 — The Rerelalion of a Swamp. [ARTICLE]

The Rerelalion of a Swamp.

I Fowler Leader. But few know of a wonderful l piece of detective work in this * county. Wonderful in its result. Reaching out. as it were, in midnight darkness and grasping the murderer by the throat. But in the method as simple as the putting together of type. Twenty-live years ago a lot of human bones were found in a swamp in the northeast corner of the county. It was a sort of lake where countless herds of cattle had drank and stamped in the water. The bones, an ax and some other articles were taken to Oxford and dumped into the back room of a young doctor’s office. Then came the solution of the problem, for

whom did the bones .serve and in what manner did he meet his I death. - The man was murdered. His skull was cut open with an ax. The blow was struck from behind. The ax found fitted the crevasse in the skull. The ax had a nick in one edge and this left its mark in the skull. But by whom, that was the greater task. Patiently the bones were put together in their proper place. Each one carefully compared and studied. This unknown person was over six feet tall. He chewed tobacco and probably smoked. Although the lower part of one leg could not be found he was lame in that foot. He had broken a rib six or eight weeks before the accident. He was left handed and was a mechanic. So full and so accurate were the deductions from the study of the bones which had remained in the swamp for years that it was clearly recognized as a man named Morgan, who. after cros sing the Iroquois river at Bunkum. suddenly dissappeared. Mr. Morgan, a blacksmith and wagon maker, was returning from Wisconsin, in a covered wagon, driving a team of horses, and had strapped about him SBOO in gold. Jas. McCullough, whose home was near Newcastle, was returning with him'. McCulioug, driving alone, stopped at Oxford to get the horses shod He bought town lots at his home with the gold and sold the i horses. How did McCullough get possession of the property? He said he won.it of Morgon playing cards. All these facts were found out while the bones of Morgan were bleaching in a swamp in York township. The court was held in the old town hail at Oxford. Simon P. i’liompson was prosecuting attorney. Strange, according to the story books, this great detective belongs to church and teaches a class in the Sunday school. It is no less personage than Dr. J. Kolb, who was county coroner at the 1 ime.