Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1900 — INDIANA INCIDENTS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA INCIDENTS.

RECORD OF EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK. Rocky Road to Matrimony—Boy Shoot* Him.elf Rather than Reveal Marriage to His Father—Arrested for a Crime Thirty Years Old.

John W. Clemmons eloped at 2 a. m. with Miss Florence Jackson of Bridgeport, Ind. Muddy Fork creek, which the couple had to ford.to reach the home of Magistrate Coombs, was bank full from rains, and when Clemmons waded in he was swept away, and had to swim for his life. He finally gained the bank and found Miss Jackson, who could not see him for the darkness. Putting her on his shoulders, he carried her across the creek, although they were both in danger of drowning at-any moment. Magistrate Coombs marpled the couple, and, with their clothes still dripping, they went to the home of a farmer friend of Clemmons to borrow dry clothing. .The farmer suspected burglars and fired on Clemmons, but missed him. Sirs. Clemmons screamed, and the farmer recognized his callers. He gave them dry apparel, and just as the sun rose served them a wedding breakfast. Afraid to Tell His Father. Otto Cottom, of Terre Haute, 17 years old, fatally shot himself because he could not summon courage to tell his father he had been forced to marry a woman 27 years old. He had been from home twenty-four hours, when his sister heard a pistol shot and sauNmr brother stagger into the house and falPon a bed. During occasional periods of Consciousness Cottom told a story that a woman ,named Lou Chandler of National City, near Peoria, induced him to marry her on July. Several letters purporting to be written by the ChnWiler woman’s father to Cottom were found, in which he threatened the youth with arrest unless he lived with his wife. Wife Beater Fatally Hurt. John Dowd was stabbed six times at Muncie, and probably will die. He was whipping his wife when Mrs. Larey Carey and her daughter interfered. Thereupon he struck them. Mr. Carey appeared and attacked Dowd a knife, stabbing him six times in the face and three times on the body, one under his heart. Arrested for an Old Crime. Thirty years ago in a fight at Needmore, Williatn Fleener killed John Cullon and escaped. A man named McClurg, who was mixed up in the brawl, served three years in prison. Recently Lase Percifield, formerly a Columbus constable, but now living in Oklahoma, arrested Fleener on the Texas line.

State News in Brief. New coal field will be opened at Riley. Broom corn crop short; brooms will cost more. Cigarette smoking prohibited in Winona park. Miss Sarah Martin, 90, is dead in New Albany. Whitestown is overflowing with counterfeit silver dollars. Miss Laura Munseii, 60, New Albany, killed by suburban train. Miss Florence Willing Gonnly, Lafayette, will go on the stage. Alois Kruk, 7, South Bend, beheaded while attempting to jump on cars. Fred Todtenbier, 10, Connersville, killed by a pile of lumber falling on him. Smith Duncan, Eureka, Ky., with sl,000 mysteriously disappeared from Evansville’. Mrs. Samuel Whetstone, aged 27, living Elkhart, was found dead in her dWjryard. Elmer Colgan, Hartford City, is insane and thinks a mob is trying to steal bis Bible. Albert Spencer has gathered 1,300 gallons of blackberries from a farm near Portland mills. An explosion of paints and oils started a ’fire that destroyed Welling’s carriage factory, Sullivan. Enos Phillips. Muncie, has gone to Cincinnati, to undergo an operation because he is double jointed. Tillie Coyle, 20, Elwood, tried to kill herself with chloroform. Family troubles. Physicians saved her. De Witt Simpson. Wabash, saved Richard Oswalt and Thomas Jones from drowning in the Wabash river. Rev. E. F. Hasty. Muncie, is trying to raise SIOO,OOO for infirm ministers and ministers’ widows and orphans. At Anderson Alex. Rogers, a lineman, took hold of a live wire while at the top of a pole and was electrocuted. Fire gutted Simon J. Carroll’s building at Logansport. Loss $12,000. Adjoining buildings were damaged $3,000„ Studebaker company. South Bend, has built twelve ammunition and ambulance wagons, to go with troops to China. The horribly mutilated body of an unknown man was found on the Lake Shore Railway six miles west of South Bend. The body was cut in two. It is believed the man’s name was Johnson and that recently he came from London, England. The indications are that he had been robbed. Numerous melon growers in the famous Indiana melon districts report that there will be no crop this year. Many declare that they will not be able to realize suf; ficient to compensate them for the seed. Numerous producers claim that there are already symptoms of the dreaded rust, which is so detrimental to melons, and that if it spreads, as it invariably drfes. there will be absolutely no crop, as the melons will dry up before the arrival of harvest time. Rev. Samuel L. Hamilton died in Buffalo, N. Y., and was buried at Lebanon. He was Lebanon’s first mayor. Luther Phillippi. Bicknell, wants $50,000 damages from Morten Ruble who stabbed him in a dispute over an oats crop. McMarty & Butler, commission merchants, eatftuate that 1,333 gallons of berries were consumed at Rockville in two weeks. i The Goshen milling company ground 740,000 bushels of wfieat last year, more than 300,000 bushels being purchased from farmers nearby.