Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1871 — The Lagrange Tragedy. [ARTICLE]

The Lagrange Tragedy.

(From the loillauspolls Journsl, 16th iu»L] Our correspondence at Lagrange furnishes the following additional particulars of the recent horrible affair in Lagrange county, a brief account of which appeared in our telegraphic columns Saturday: Lagrangb, Jnii., June 23, 1871. Miss Anna Dwight, School mistress, was murdered yesterday in r d«l blood, at Stone Lake school h< rise, Van Buren township, by a ivoung mon named Chauncey 1 Barnes, of Elkhart county. Barnes left his father’s house yesterday morning, walked to White Pigeon, Michigan, four miles dis tant, there hired a horse and buggy, and with a woman whose name and character I have not learned, went to the school 'house where Miss Dwight was Uaching; Miss Dwight at the time of their arrival was enjoying tl;e noon recreation on the margin of trie lake, near by. The woman ;n the buggy with Barnes called Miss Dwight to the buggy, when Barnes jumed out, and asked her to accompany him a short distance as he wished a private word with her. She . conaentcd, and they walked a short distance and sat down on a log and conversed together a fe’A minutes, when Barnes m as seen to rise up, and dr.ew a revolver from his pocket and fired at her. She fell at the first shot, and a second sbbtrwas—fired after she felt. He then placed the pistol at his own head 1 and fired several shots. The children rau toji neighbor near by, who immediately ran to the npotj; found Misa Dwiglit d -a i and the young man bleeding f?oni his wounds, but reloading hjs ; i. to 1. i.■ as taken Into cus-tojy.-i Surgeon Elliott, of White I Pigeon, was sent for. He reported four wounds in fits h«ad, two of which penetrated the brain, and that they would ultimately prove iatiiL-Jdanies at;! t);c woman were examined -before Justice Goilr.way,' the young man committed to jail and the woman held to bail in the sum of SI,OOO Charles Dwight, the father of the murdered girl, going her bail. The young man was brought to jail last «Mght, and infesting quite comfortably this meaning. There is some differencepf opinion among the physicians hero as to the seriousness of the wounds. Great excitement prevails In the' locality of the homicid*; all the parties standiug respectably in the community. The only supposed for the homicide is the rr-jec-ition of the young man, as a suitor, a short time eii’.ee, and her acceptance of the attentions of another person. The bailing of the woman by Mr. Dwigljt is occasioning some comment. The neighbors, it is reported, proposed finishing the work , the young man had attempted on 1 himself, but Mr. Dwight protested i against it.

The Kentland Ouzelle shows from reliable figures, that the whiskey traiKe in Newton county for the last three years hits cost the taxpayers tho sum of thirteen hundred and fifty dollars. The Gazette adds: “'Ve, hope and trust we are st tho end of this mad policy iu Newton county 2 this taxing ourselves for a ftiud to regulate a business that makes ’.'early all the crime Hi the land. We can do without thir whiskey business and save that money.” At a political meeting in the South some time ago, a cololred orator told the following story: “That man Beckly has made a personal .attack upon me, but I won't little mvself to answer him. JIo ’minds I . " . I ne of a tale what my grandmother i told me ’bout old Gin’l Washing- ! ton. Gin’l was coining from church ; one day, and he saw a pretty little i white thing in th? road and. shot at i it. The thing shot back in its peculiar way, and Gin’l Washington had to bury his clothes. A man make’s nothing by fighting with skunks.”

An effort is being made in Warren county to move the county seat to West Lebanon.