Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1894 — A Sad and Fatal Accident. [ARTICLE]

A Sad and Fatal Accident.

WILLIS McCOLLY THE RENSSELAER NIGHT WATCHMAN IS KILLED BY AN ACCIDENT. - A sad and fatal accident occured in Rensselaer the latter part of last week. The victim was Willis Mc,Colly, the night watchman of Rensselaer, a deputy sheriff of the county and a well esteemed citizen. A party of four Rensselaer Odd Fellows had gone to Remington, Thursday night, to visit the lodge there, driving one of J. F. Iliff’s livery teams. They reached here on their return, about 3 o’clock Friday morning. Mr. McColly, according to his occasional custom when teams arrived late at night, went to the livery stable to put the team up, in case none of the stable hands were awake. He found Frank King, one of the stable boys, taking care of the horses, but began to help him in the work. In doing this he started to take some corn out of a large low box, at the front end of the livery stable, and bending over to reach th e corn, his revolver fell out of its holster and falling upon the floor was discharged. The bullet struck Mr. McColly near the lower point of the abdomen, a little to the right of the center, and passed through his body, ranging a little upward, and j, through the right hip bone, lodging near the surface. The weapon was evidently discharged while McColly was in a bendiflg position, or the bullet would have taken a more upward range through his body. As soon as the accident occured, he called out to young King, who was farther back in the stable, that he was shot, and then walked into the office room of the stable. He, laid down upon the bed in the office, and Will Iliff, son of the proprietor of the stable, v. ho was sleeping there, and young King, went, one for Drs. Loughridge and the other for Mrs. McColly. Other assistance was soon called, and the unfortunate man was carried to his home. The bullet was removed from his hip, soon after he was taken home. H s wound was at once seen to be very dangerous, and probably fatal, and so Mr. McColly himself declared it to be, from the very first; lie felt that he was wounded to death and no arguments to the contrary had the least effect to change his conviction. But he met his fate with perfect courage and calmness. He lingered until about G o’clock Saturday morning, or 27 hours after the accident, and then peacefully and painlessly expired. A post-mortem examination of his wound, showed that death was its inevitable result, as the intestines had been perforated in six or more different places, by the large 38 calibre bullet

The funeral was held Sunday afternoon, under the auspices of the Rensselaer Lodge, of Odd Fellows, of which the deceased had long been a faithful and prominent member; and the Daughters of Rebecca. Short services were held at the residence conducted by Rev. J. L. Brady, while at the cemetery the solemn and impressive funeral ritual of the Odd Fellows’ order was duly pronounced. It was one of the largest funerals ever held in the town, and the number of Odd Fellows and Daughters of Rebecca in the procession could no t have been less than 150. Among them were 30 or more from Remington and four from Wheatfield. The pall-bearers were H. W. Porter, Isaac Hemphill, W. H. Coover, J. F. Warren, Geo. W. Goff and J. F. Antrim.

The deceased was cut off in the strength and vigor of his manhood, his age being 43 years, 1 month and 20 days. He was born in Delaware county, and became a resident of Jasper county in 1867. He leaves a widow, who is the daughter of James Cox, of Union tp.,and four children; two boys and two girls, ranging in age from 7 to 20 years. His father is the venerable Clark McColly, of Union tp. The number of relatives

present at the funeral was remarkable. They included besides his wife and children his own parents, his wife’s parents, and five brothers and three sisters. Ex-Judge Hammond left for Hot Springs, Ark., last Friday, on a receipt of a telegram from his neice, announcing the sudden death at that place, of her husband, Anthony Sweeney, of Denver, Colo., and requesting the judge to come to her assistance. The cause of Mr. Sweeney’s death was apoplexy. His home was Denver, where he was one of the wealthiest and best known citizens. His wife was the daughter of the late governor Hammond, of this state. Frank A. Clements, a prominent farmer living at the north edge of Crawfordsville, was killed Saturday morning by being kicked by a horse. He was leading two horses out to hitch to the plow, when they began to bite each other and then to kick. Mr. Clements was thrown around so that the new horse brought down its fore foot on his stomach, knocking the breath out of him. All efforts to revive him were useless. The deceased was born on August 18, 1854, at Lafayette, and was for many years a passenger conductor on the Monon. Lawyer Douthit has scored the first divorce case, for the June term of the Circuit Court, the same having been filed last Thursday* The plaintiff is Mrs. Minute Cleaver, who desires to be divorced from Jasper Cleaver. The plaintiff alleges that the defendant, although a strong, healthy man, is idle and neglectful, that he does nothing to earn a support for his wife, but rather “lays around” and lives off of what she earns at washing and house-cleaning. They parted March 12tb, and he is now in Lake county. They have no children, but the plaintiff has a little girl, by a previous marriage.