Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1886 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

- -The pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Rnssiaville writes the following to the / Western Christian Advocate regarding the oldest woman in Indiana: “1 have been asked so many times in regard to Sister Mary Beneman, Who resides near here, and who is s member of our church, I thought it best to answer through your columns. Sister Benemau was born tn Sussex County, Delaware, April 27, 1769. She has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church nearly eighty years. Her maiden name was Perry, a daughter of Capt. C. B. Perry, of the Revolutionary war. Her first marriage was to William Coulter. In 1808 she with her husband and two sons moved lo Ohio, and Settled where Circloviile now stands. Mr. Coulter died there, and some years later she married John Beneman, who lived but one year. Khe is the mother of eight children, four of whom tiro now living. In 1833 she came to this county, where she now lives. Notwithstanding her extreme old age she spends all her wakeful hours in sewing, and can see to threa:l her needle as readily as many persons much younger. Her Sabbaths are spent in reading the Bible, and I never visit her but she invokes God’s blessing upoh me and my work. As one looks upon her a feeling almost of awe comes over him. Her face, though plowed with furrows of time, bears a strong look of intelligence and decision of character. April 27, marking the 117th mile-post of her journey, it was thought proper to celebrate it with her. Accordingly the citizens of the place turned out in a procession of two hundred, headed by the cornet band; and marched to her residence, where they spread mid partook of a sumptuous repast, after which all dispersed to their homes, feeling it a privilege to do her honor.” —The secretary of the State "Board of Agriculture has prepared a table showing the estimated gross value of the products of Indiana for 1885, as follows: Wheat, $27,210,474; com, $34,630,174; oats, $6,307,008; barley, $82,869; rye, $250,252; buckwheat, $40,953; Irish potatoes, $2,088,549; sweet potatoes, $137,946; flax seed, $198,371; clover seed, $1,105,223; timothy seed, $57,335; clover hay, $13,030,084; timothy hay, $15,096,551; flax straw, $60,000; tobacco, $1,104,268; wood, $922,435; coal and quarries, $3,703,412; garden, $5,074,629; orchard, $3,750,320; dairy, $11,758,390; poultry, eggs and feathers, $4,973,451; honey, sorghum, maple molasses and sugar, $5,903,741; hogs, slaughtered, $19,225,170; sheep, slaughtered, $278,845; cattle, slaughtered, $8,418,270 —making the total value of the products, $160,908,713. —Details were brought to light recently of an audacious outrage on a lady living at Lafayette. The lady lives with her mother, and about bedtime one night she heard voices in front of the house. She stepped out and found a colored man and a white girl seated on the front steps. She asked them to move on, and on their refusal threatened to call the police. This enraged the man and he grabbed her by the throat, choking her until she was almost unconscious. She attempted to struggle, when the girl also seized her, and finally drew a penknife and attempted to stab her several times,wounding her slightly. The lady finally screamed and frightened the two off. To avoid notoriety the lady kept the affair secret. —Near Alto, Howard County, two young men started to a meeting of a literary society. While walking along the road, one of them fired several shots from a revolver. The other one asked to see the weapon, and, thinking it was empty, began snapping it in his companion’s face, when, to his surprise, it went off, the ball entering below his right eye and passing diagonally through the head, lodging back of the left ear. The young man is in a very critical condition, and his friends fear he will die.

—A loud-mouthed Anarchist has made himself odious to the people of Logansport for several months past. He hss preached communism, socialism, murder, and riot, and has made a business of scattering incendiary literature about the city. A committee of citizens waited On him not long since and gave him five hours to leave town. He left on the first train. , —ln Brandywine Township a father and his son quarreled over a bottle of liquor which the old njan had taken home. The father got full and hid the bottle, and soon forgetting where he had placed it, accused the boy of taking it. A quarrel ensued, and the son drew a knife and Cut the father badly in the face and Head. A colored man, at Jeffersonville, has been arrested upon evidence offered by his son, a boy 14 years old, tfiat his father forced him to steal. The boy acknowledges to stealing, under direction of his father, a horse and wagon at one place, $l5O at another, and a quantity of corn at another. —A German shot his wife through the heart at Mt. Vernon, recently. It is supposed bis mind is unsound. He was a soldier of the Eighty-seventh Indiana and was in Andersonville prison, where he suffered greatly from hardship and disease. —At Volga, Jefferson County, a youngs man aged 20, of good family and education, was arrested by a United States detective, charged with fraudulent use of the United States mail. He acknowledges his guilt. —A man in Franklin Township, Clark County, Slipped and fell headforemost into a deep well at his home, but before striking the bottom he grabbed the well-rope and broke the fall, and then climbed out, —A wind and rain storm visited Evansville recently, causing a damage to property of $300,000, and killing three persons. —The old City Hall building' at Richmond, erected in 1835, has been torn down. It was built by Dr. Ithamar Warner, who died in that year and bequeathed its rents to the educational fund of Richmond. —A storm at MonticelTo demolished many shade trees and out-houses. Several barns were moved from their foundations and the roof an,d chimneys of the Presbyterian Church were blown off. —A tornado passed through Wayne County, recently, destroying everything in its track. One woman and two men, names unknown, are reported killed.