Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1889 — ARSON OR MURDER? [ARTICLE]

ARSON OR MURDER?

A MOST MYSTERIOUS OCCURENCE IN CARPENTER TOWNSHIP. .¶ The people of the southern part of of the county are wild with excitement over the burning of the barn on the Bukosky farm, occupied by the Balser family, last Saturday night or Sunday morning, some mention of which may be found in our Remington correspondence. .¶ According to the story told by the Balser family, the old man Balser must have burned the barn for the purpose of spiteing [spiting] the other members of the family, with whom he had a fierce quarrel, and probably a fight, on Saturday evening. So many contradictory statements have been made however, and so many suspicious circumstances have developed, that a great many of the neighbors have adopted the theory that a worse crime than arson was committed, and that the barn was burned to create the belief that the old man had committed a crime of such character as would account for his absence from the neighborhood. In other words, there is a suspicion in the minds of many that the old man was killed during the progress of a family row, and that the barn was burned to avert suspicion and to furnish a reasonable explanation for his disappearance.

.¶ Among the circumstances which are considered suspicious by those who believe the murder theory, are the alleged contradictory stories in regard to the quarrel made at different times by the members of the family. The claim is also made by them that when the barn was found to be on fire all the doors were fastened on the inside, and that the old man, after setting fire inside, himself escaped through the manure hole, but Robert Bakosky, son of the owner of the farm,' declares that there never was a manure hole in the barn, and that the manure was always thrown out of one of the doors. The Balsers also state that when they forced the doors of the burning stable open, all the imprisoned horses except the blind one, rushed ont so percipitately that they fell in a heap outside the door. This to claimed to be contrary to all experience with horses in a burning building, and that it is a matter of the utmost difficulty to get horses to leave a bnilding that is on fire. .¶ Another supposed suspicions circumstance is that the young man Balser, immediately after the fire and before he could take time to investigate how many of his horses had died in the burning barn, rushed to Remington, before it was day, and procured a warrant for the arrest of the old man charging him with stealing his best horse, and that subsequently a horse track, like that made by said best horse, was found going a few miles west, in the beaten road, and then to turn in a piece of open prairie and return to the Balser farm, keeping to the side of the road and in the grass as much as possible, as though the rider was trying to hide the backward tracks. During the day following the fire, this best horse was found securely tied in a maple grove, not far from the Balser house. .¶ Still another circumstance held to be suspicious, is the fact that the fresh track of a buggy, like that made by a buggy owned by the young Balser, was found on Sunday, leaving the Balser house and finally taking a little traveled road which led into a region of swamps and water holes. .¶ The women of the Balser family, it should be added, testified in an examination held Tuesday that on Monday the old man came to the boose and asked for food and writing materials. .¶ Large numbers of men from the neighborhood and from the town of Remington were searching for the old man Tuesday, but without result. .¶ Yesterday the search was resumed by a smaller number but in a more

methodical manner. With what resuits, if any, we have not learned. .¶ Although the above enumerated circumstances have raised the suspicion of murder in many minds as above stated, it is still probable that the majority opinion is that the old man imprisoned the horses and fired the barn, and that he is still hiding in the vicinity in a more or less deranged condition of mind.