Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1902 — INDIANA STATE NEWS [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS

The Indiana Racing association meets at Kokomo this week. All the cities in the circuit last year will be represented. They are: Marion, Logansport, Frankfort, Kokomo, Elwood. Anderson, Muncie, and Indianapolis. This year Peru and Wabash and perhaps other towns may be admitted. The circuit was a big financial success last year. D. A. Messner, Jr., who has a farm at Oxford, where Dan Patch, the famous stallion, is in winter quarters, says his horse will be raced next season, provided the stewards make a 2:05 class.

Cora La Follette, aged 16, asks divorce from Murill La Follette of Kokomo. Plaintiff says she was married at 14 in short frocks and regrets it. She wants to return to school. The decree will be issued. William Hamilton, a dairyman, of Madison, aged 46, started oht to deliver milk and was soon after found dead of heart disease in his wagon. At the meeting of the Muncie Typographical union, a resolution was passed assessing a $5 fine on members for patronizing nonunion barber shops or chewing or smoking other than union-made tobacco or cigars. Joseph Downie of Hoosick Falls, N. Y., has signed as catcher with the Terre Haute, Ind., team of the “ThreeI” league. The session of the convention of Knights of Columbus at South Bend was largely attended. The delegates and visitors attended mass Sunday at St. Patrick’s Church, where Rev. Thomas Ewing Sherman delivered the sermon. Options on Illinois and Indiana bituminous coal mines have expired and the work all must be done over again if a second attempt at a combine is made. Arthur Priest’ Earl Middleton, Eddie Stanley, Cyrus Walker and Earl Calvin, whose ages range from 15 to 13 years, were arrested at Marion charged with robbing business houses and in shoplifting. They confessed their crime in jail. A large amount of the booty has been located. The boys robbed as many as ten places of business in one night. Arthur Priest is the leader of the gang. Examinations for color blindness on the Fort Wayne and Panhandle divisions of the Pennsylvania road have been finished and not a defective case is reported among the trainmen. A few were found to be temporarily deficient in sight and will be treated. This means considerable, for it is said to be practically impossible for a man with poor eyesight to pass the examination. Stockholders of the Fort Wayne Southwestern Traction company, now building the electric line from Fort Wayne to Wabash, forty-six miles, twenty-six miles of which is in operation, voted to increase the capital stock from $600,000 to $1,000,000, and also to apply tfce present $500,000 bond issue and execute a hew mortgage of $2,000,000 on the property. The bonds and stocks will be placed in the east. The sum realized from the increase in the capital stock will be used to complete the line to this city, and the bond issue is to build the extension to Auburn, Warren, and Marlon this year. The voluntary return of Chester Evans to the Indiana reformatory, after having served one year as a scout in the English army, furnished an unusual story, and now a more romantic chapter is to be added. Evans returned rich. Just how much money he possesses and how it was acquired has not been learned, but he had his pockets full of money when he walked into the reformatory.

Thwarted in her desire to marry the choice of her heart, Miss Evaline Showalter, the pretty 15-year-old daughter of William Showalter, attempted suicide by shooting herself in the breast with a revolver. She will recover. The Showalters reside at New Lisbon, five miles northwest of Dublin. Lawrence Boyd of Laporte, six years old, while playing soldier, accidentally shot himself in the side with a rifle. At Bedford Mrs, John Miller was severely burned by a celluloid comb in her hair bursting into flame. George Ilgenfrltz, aged 80, and Marla G. Landis, aged 50, were married at Frankfort. The bridegroom owns 400 acres of land. Mrs. Carrie Poynter of Terre Haute wants SIO,OOO damages from the Indiana Powder Company for the death of her eleven-year-old son. ( R. L. Leeson, Jr., of Elwood has sold his farm of 134 acres to Samuel P. Hobbs, one of the wealthiest farmers of Tipton county for SIO,OOO. Two students in Concordia College have developed diphtheria, and quarantine measures are being enforced. Farmers in the vicinity of Laketon have, organized a company for the purpose of supplying the people of that locality with fresh meats. A similar company is operating at Pacaerton. The Kokomo city council has passed an anti-sidewalk spitting ordinance, compelling “tobacco users to walk in the middle of the street with other live stock.” The deal has been closed looking to the purchase of Trinity Springs at Bedford by John R. Walsh, president of the Southern Indiana Railway Company, for $12,000.

President Daniel Storms of the Lincoln league of Indiana has issued the call for the annual meeting to be held in Terre Haute Feb. 12 and 13, allotting the representation by counties, and showing that a total of 3,141 delegates will be entitled to seats in the convention. The basis of representation is one delegate from each Republican club and one additional delegate for every fifty members. The invitation is extended to all Republicans in the state to join in the “love feast” which is to be a special feature of the meeting. Six months in jail and a fine of SI,OOO and costs was imposed by Judge Buskirk of the Orange Circuit Court on Oscar Shepherd for maltreating a child one year old. Shepherd married the mother of the little one, and he developed a devilish hatred for the infant. It is alleged that he tortured it in every way possible, until the body was covered with bruises and cuts. The Oospel Workers, a religious sect, is arousing much interest at Belle Center. Falling in trances is of nightly occurrence, the apparent unconsciousness covering hours. One of the workers did not awaken at close of services, and she was carried to her home, where she remained until 9 o'clock the next morning before recovering her normal condition. Christian Schneider, eighty-four years old, has served as postmaster at Orland for forty-five consecutive years. He settled in Orland sixty years ago, and it has been his custom to ring a bell in the rear of his lot every morning at 6 o’clock, winter or summer. Elkhart capitalists, together with Cleveland (0.) Investors, have organized a company with SBO,OOO stock to develop a rich glacial deposit in southern Alaska, said to be worth $200,000,000. Civil engineers estimate that there is 2,200,000,000 cubic yards of gold-bearing dirt in the deposit. The Rush county Republican convention will be held March 15, and delegates to the county and congressional conventions will be named February 8. Michael Costello was received as a patient in St. Elizabeth Hospital at Lafayette nineteen years ago, and after convalescing he became an attendant, continuing until his death. He was eighty-eight years old. The main building of Concordia college, aF’Fort Wayne, the oldest Lutheran Institute in America, will be rebuilt at an expense of SIOO,OOO. The capacity of the steel castings works at Peru will be doubled. Kokomo has $50,000 laid aside for acquiring the waterworks system and a municipal ownership campaign has been waged for over a year, but the council considered the sum insufficient for the present and has extended the franchise to the water company for another eight years. Prof. Howe, the expert engineer employed by the county to prepare plans for a Wabash river bridge, has reported that a bridge can be built for $179,000, as against $212,000, the bld on the plans on which bids were made last fall. This estimate is on a bridge of 38 feet roadway, which is to allow for two street car tracks. Prof. Howe presented estimates for a concrete and steel bridge, running up to $228,000. It was his opinion that a concrete bridge would be cheaper in the long run, as the cost of repairs would be less than for the other kind of bridge. The Mishawaka Woolen Mill Company will add to its establishment at Mishawaka a vulcanized rubber plant. The Gaston Canning Company has been organized here, capital stock $lO,000, headed by Mark Powers as president and Charles Houch, treasurer. The faculty of Indiana University will permit a cane, or color rush, on February 22, on condition that the contest be held in the day time. “The outlook for wheat is very poor,” says State Statistician Johnson. “From what I have seen myself and from what I have learned in conversation with others, I should say that the wheat is almost 50 per cent killed.” While Frank Leon was tying up a package" of clothes a diamond ring slipped from his finger. The ring was returned by the customer. Daniel Rich of Muncie has been appointed receiver of the South Bend department store. Louis Moreau of Brazil will go to Belgium to take charge of his mother’s estate, valued at $160,000. A Pennsylvania company has leased 1,000 acres of land in the eastern part of Hamilton county and is preparing to drill for oil. A tubular well sunk on the farm of Prof. R. A. Ogg near Lyons is becoming quite noted, the water possessing medicinal qualities of a high order. A vein of coal thirty Inches thick was penetrated at a depth of 150 feet. The Central Traction Company is negotiating for the purchase of the old tinplate mill plant at Atlanta, and If the deal is successful, will convert the building into a factory for the manufacture Of electrical supplies. The husband of Ida A. Norcross, of Evansville gave his note to a life insurance company for the first year’s premium. When it became due Norcrpss released the company from obligation. Judge Foster rul§d that the transaction was illegal because the beneficiary had not signed the release paper.

By an agreement the Big Four and the Lake Erie & Western, who own the belt road at will let the other lines entering that city use the tracks to the different manufactories. The Indianapolis & Vincennes is placing consiberable material along the right-of-way, preparatory to making a number of permanent improvements on the road this year. The Juniata Iron and Steel company will begin work within thirty days on the new plant at Greencastle. It is capitalized at $250,000. Exhibitors are looking forward to the annual horseshow to be held at Jamestown this spring. The Elwood U. R., K. of P., is negotiating for the purchase of the Coliseum, to be used as a drill room, preparatory to participating in the San Francisco tournament. The Shirley Manufacturing company will locate a >50,000 shoe plant in Washington shortly, giving employment to about 200 people. Editor J. A. Kantz of the Kokomo Tribune has been appointed postmaster. Harry E. McMonigal will be chief deputy. The workingmen of Elwood are threatening to hold a mass meeting and nominate a full city ticket, the action of the city council in accepting the Carnegie library gift precipitating this move. The broom makers in the Jennings handle factory at Newcastle struck because Edward Anderson had his wages cut, and the company discharged him for refusing to work. S. A. Fleming of St. Paul, Minn., has purchased the Kendrick holdings near Montpelier. Altogether 831 acres of timber land are included, the consideration being $24,930, Lee Warren of Matthews thinks he has solved the perpetual motion problem, and he reports that he has invented a machine making six hundred revolutions a minute, the details of which he reserves as his own secret. Joseph Wise of Chicago, with Flora heirs, has sued for partition of a $125,000 estate belonging to the late John Wise. Mrs. Gertrude Wilson of Kokomp, the Adventist, who persisted in keeping Saturday as the Sabbath, and whose husband ignored her conscientious scruples, has been granted a divorce. Receiver Martindale having reported that, the plant of the International Distilling company at Vincennes is being operated at a loss, the court has ordered a shut-down as soon as the product on hand is consumed. Sixty persons are employed in the plant. The West Elwood Land Company, owning sixty acres on the west edge of Elwood, has reorganized and will dispose of the property that has been laid off in lots for several years. A sawmill and fence factory will locate in the addition. The will of Henry Barnard, probated at Kokomo, leaves an estate of $50,000 to a young wfie whom he recently married and gives his four grown children but $5 each. The disinherited children will contest the will. As the result of a quarrel over a game of poker in a gambling room as Ga* City, Elmer O’Brien, aged 25 years, 1e lying in toe hospital in a critical condition, and William Tomlin, aged 50, is under arrest, and may answer to the charge of murder. Mayor Kinsley, of Hartford City, who resigned his office to become postmaster, is six feet six inches in his stocking feet and weighs three hundred pounds. The Carnegie library committee of Muncie decided to ask for $5,000 additional to the gift of $50,000, that the library building may have a marble exterior. The first sassafras oil from the new. factory at Muncie has been pressed. The daily capacity is 300 pounds. Five new cases of smallpox have developed at Fontanet, and the schools have been closed. < • The Marlon police department has received a •brace of bloodhounds for use in tracking criminals. Jos. E. Williams of South Bend was unanimously elected president of the National Retail Grocers’ Association at the convention in Milwaukee. After being shut down a month to change its fuel from natural gas to coal the Muncie iron and steel plant has resumed operations. The directors of the Newcastle-Pen-dleton electric road have authorized Hon. Charles S. Hernly to raise $400,000 to build the road. The city council of Hartford City has ratified the contract by which the Hartford City Light Company is to be eventually transferred to the city. Lede Hart of Newcastle found a tobacco sack containing S2OO in bills. The state convention of the Independent Order of Foresters has been called to meet at Hammond Feb. 4. The big grain elevator, owned and operated by the Lafayette Mill and Elevator company at Altamont was burned. The elevator contained about 175,000 bushels of grain. The loss Is $125,000. The Logansport and Kokomo railway company, composed of the owners of the Logansport and Kokomo street railways, have consolidated. The consolidation assures a line between the two cities.