Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1891 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

Fort Wayne has seven dally papers. One of the suburbs of Wabash is known as “Choketown." William Sherwin, of Point Isabel, was fatally kicked by a horse. Richard Wells, of Clay county, was fatally wounded white hunting, General Manson’snew pottery company at Crawfordsville has SIOO,OOO capital. George H. Moore has been chosen mayor of Marion, vice A. E. Steele, resigned. A gas well estimated at 50,006,000 feet daily has been brought in at Hartford City. The first seal ever used by the Kosciusko county commissioners was the reverse side of a silverten-cent piece. The colored churches at Crawfordsville joined In giving a baby show, and there were twenty-two entries. Itis believed that there is oil and natural gas, in a tract of swamp land near Lagrange, and leases are being secured preliminary to experimental boring. Hog cholera in the form of an epidemic has struck Daviess county, and hundreds of fine porkers are dying. Farmers are much alarmed and fear to kill for meat. The Cincinnati wire nail company, which is building one of the largest nail plants the world at Anderson, has increased its capital stock to $300,000 and changed its name to the Hazen company. Logansport business men are circulating a petition praying for the Legislature to pass, a law for the suppression of itinerant venders of cheap goods, who move from place to place without paying taxes. Albert Ford, of Muncie, imagined that he was called as an expounder of the Gospel, and he persisted in attempting to. minister to a country church, until the con gregation prosecuted him into silence. 1 Treasurer-elect of State Albert Gall has appointed John C. Shoemaker deputy treasurer. Mr. Shoemaker was Pace. Am* ditor of State, has held county office, is acquainted with the books and forms of State business. Travis Carter and wife, of Seymour, celebrated their golden wedding on Christmas eve. Mr. Carter and bis wife have beep of Jackson county since 1820, and located in Seymour with the purchase of tho first lots. 1 John Q. Thomas was fatally burned on the night of the 24th, while playing Santa Claus at the Second M. E. Church at Marion. He approached too close to a gas jet, when his trappings took fire and in a moment he was wrapped in flames. Jacob Thenes, of Madison, died on the 22d, aged sixty-three. Some months ago ulcers began showing themselves on tis lower limbs, and these extended until they reached his vital organs, with the physicians unable to do anything in-relief. The complaint in the divorce proceedings instituted at Anderson by Maria B. Woodworth, the evangelist, against Philip H. Woodworth, whom she married in 1786, alleges cruel and abusive treatment on his part, culminating in a separation in June last. The barn belonging to Simon P. Kuhns, in Green township, Noble county, was burned by incendiarism Monday night and over 300 bushels of wheat, oorn and oats were included in the general wreck/ Kuhns is the father of Marvin Kuhns, the desperado, in jail at Fort Wayne. Two highwaymen attempted to rob tho driver of a street car at Indianapolis, on the night of 26th. The driver had been warned and when attacked drew his revolver and shot one of the men dead, and the other escaped. He has not been identified, the one killed. At a Christmas entertainment at church at Nabb’s station, near Jeffersonvilie, Thursday night, Joseph Taflinger and Bud Robinson were probably fatally wounded. The fight sprang up in the rear of the room while tho programme of the Sunday School was being carried out. . Conrad Keller, a farmer near Kellerville, was found with his skull crushed and a gun stock lying near, which the murderer had used in dashing out his brains. Suspicion fell upon James Cane, with whom the victim had quarreled during the day, and he was placed under arrest. While workmen were engaged in rebuilding the O. & M. railway bridge over White River at Shoals, Sunday, a girder was let fall which knocked a stationary derrick down on the workmen. Theodore Wiseman, aged forty-five, of North Vernon, was killed. The seriously hurt were. Lewis Long, P. W. Jackson, Isaac Little. Otis Hughes, while intoxicated and walk ing across tho Blue river bridge near English Thursday night, fell a distance qf seventy-five feet. His companions hastened down and found him sitting. They carried him home. Friday heoomplains of Btiffness in his joints, but beyond that is comparatively unhurt. In tho southwestern part of Bartholomew county and in Jackson and Scott counties • disease is raging among the horses which is very similar to that of distemper, but much more fatal. A farmer from the lnj cality mentioned reports that several fine animals have died recently from the disease and that it is especially hard on the young animals. Harley Crews, of Vincennes, a young married man of good family, is on the miss-, ing list, and it develops that he has left numerous creditors, some of whom hold paper on which Crews’s father’s name is said to be forged. Three of the banks hold about SLSOO altogether, while other parties are caught in various sums, ranging from S3OO to $2,000. During the past ten days Warsaw has been the abiding place of a large number of cats which, from their actions and appearanoe, have been adjudged mad. Jerry Kudder, an expressman, was bitten by one of the rabid animals, an exceedingly painful wound being inflicted. To guard against all possible danger all cats showing the least symptoms are forthwith shot An accident occurred at Ellettsville Monday evening that was remarkable that did not result in two deaths. Mr. and Mrs George Walden were crossing the Monon track, when a freight train at full speed struck the buggy in which they were riding, completely demolishing the running > gears and killing the two hdrses that were

attached to the vehicle. Mr. and Mrs. Walden were barely scratched, though they were thrown thirty feet from the track f Mortimer Eubanks,the old man who was on trial for being an accessory in the murder of his daughter Mary, Nov. It. changed his plea to guilty of manslaughter Tuesday morning. The case was taken from the jury and Eubanks was sentenced to the penitentiary for two years. His age and feeble coriditionhad its" effect. / His son Bee, the principal, was taken to'the penis tentiary at Jeffersonville, where he wilt spend the remainder of his worthless life. In answer to an iinquiry by the State Superintendent, Attorney General Smith Thursday, gave an opinion that children of school age who are inmates of the State Reformatory and benevolent institutions can not be legally included in the enumeration which furnishes the basis for the apportionment of the school fund. These children are given especial educational opportunities in the institution which they occupy. - Indiana inventors were issued patents on the 23d as follows: J. Biel, Terre Haute, wrench; F. Coates, Terre Haute, oil burner; A. J. Helvern, Walton, seed dropping attachment for planters; W. A. Horrell, Washington, treating wood and liber; F. B. Hunt, Richmond, bicycle; W. Macnas mara, Indianapolis, cion operated recepta-* cle; J. F. Maine, Indianapolis, mail sack crane ■ W. H. Peffe.y, Colburn, whip socket and rein holder; John Runkle, Tippecanoe, harrow; I. H. Shambaugh, Avilla, churn. A terrible fire and explosion occurred on the 23th at Plain ville, 11 town of nearly 500 inhabitants, in Daviess county. Some one placed dynamite under the large hotel and store erected by J. E. Jenkins at a cost of $5,000, and exploded it, wrecking the building and setting the ruins on fire, and the whole was destroyed. T. E. Littel‘s building and store, located close at hand, was also totally destroyed by fire. Jenkins’s hotel was the finest building in the town. It was only partially insured. Littel’s loss will aggregate nearly $3,000. Great consternation is caused in that vicinity by the calamity, and it is safe to say that if the people had their hands on the guilty parties the law of tho mob would likely prevail. James C. McGregor, one of tho best known residents of Terre Haute, and possessing an independent fortune, was killed on the 22d, whilo hunting in Vigo county. He was accompanied by William Crawford, and in searching for game the gentlemen separated. Mr. Crawford heard a shot, and sometime afterward, upon going to McGregor s carriage, he found him lying dead in tho field, with his breech loader in such a position that it was evident that he had discharged the weapon accidentally while shitting it in the vehicle. The load took effect in his stomach, killing him instantly. Rev. Mr. Pettit, in jail at Crawfordsville for wife-murder, is muscularly disposed. On Monday evening he gave a fel-low-prisoner a thrashing for taking one of his letters. The prisoners were all taking exercise in tho corridor, and a man named Von Winkle, who was serving out a sentence for stealing a shirt, asked Pettit if he could have a paper which was lying on a table in Pettit’s cell. Pettit gave permission and the old man reached through the bars and got the paper, and also a letter belonging to Pettit. Pettit noticed this, and at once proceeded to show his disapproval of such doings, and struck the man a or to in order to get back his letter. The letter was recovered, and Pettit was afterward sorry that he had hit the fellow. A telegram was received on the 24th from New Corydon, a small place in Jay county, giving details of a bloody tragedy ’ enacted there on the 23d. Wrisley Tullis, a well-known young man, thirty -years of ago, was desperately in love with Miss Virena E. Fravel, the daughter of a store keeper. Her mother objected ~Eo —tho match, however, and commanded her daughter not to receive his attentions. TuesdaymorntHg,atV o’clock, "TuTlliTeri-” tered the store kept by Mrs. Fravel, and walking up to Miss Virena, who was standing behind the counter, asked her again to marry him. The girl, acting under her mother’s orders, refused. He asked her again, but she turned to walk away, when Tullis drew a revolver and shot the girl through the heart. She dropped dead, and, walking up to her lifeless body, he placed the revolver to his head and blew out his brains. The tragedy has caused a tremendous sensation in the quiet little village. Harrison county was the scene of another brutal White Cap outrage Thursdaynight, and in this instance the cowardly night riders, not satisfied with tho brutal beating of a defenseless old man, added robbery to the crime of ku-kluxism. On the night mentioned John Cosby, who resides near Kendall’s Landing, about thirty miles below this city, on tho Ohio riven was awakened by some one knocking violently at his door. On answering tho sum mons he was seized by three masked men and dragged into the yard. Eight others then entered the house and compelled tho other members of the family to arise and going to the open air, and, though a suow storm was raging at the time, no time was allowed for them to dress. Cosby family consisted ofo his wife, sister-in-law ami two sons, all being present except one sen. All the Regulators compelled the party to walk several hundred yards in the bulw with nothing except their night clothes to protect them from the chilling winds. Reaching a small grove, the masked men tied each of their victims to trees and pro ceeded to administer a severe beating. Old man Cosby received seventy lashes on the bare back, and was left unconscious. All the others were given fifty strokes with switches. Leaving the nosfr almost dead unfortunates, marauders returned to the house, which they thoroughly ransacked but took nothing but what fire arms they could find. All the Cosbys are said to be a shiftless set of questionable characters, but this by no means justifies the severe treatment they received, After the White Caps went to the residence of James Shaf er in Scott township, Harrison county .and 1 ordered him to, make known the fact of ! the raid. Information was brought to this city by a neighbor of the Cosby family, and it is stated that the citizens ih the vicinity of the place are greatly incensed at the outrage.