Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1902 — RECORD OF THE WEEK [ARTICLE]

RECORD OF THE WEEK

INDIANA. INCIDENTS TERSELY \ TOLD. . Collision of Heavy Engines—Former Policeman Held for Evansville Murders—Heirs Arc Found for Hermit’s Wealth—Girl Courts Death In Ohio. As a Big Four and a Grand Trunk passenger train were slowly approaching the joint station at Granger the engines collided on the crossing. The Grand Trunk engine was pushed over on its side and crashed through the bay window of the depot. The operator and two other men leaped from the window just in time to escape .being crushed to death. The Big Four engine was derailed, but remained upright, and all. four engine men escaped injury, though the Grand Trunk engineer went over with his engine. The accident was due to hand signals which the engineers did not understand, the semaphore having been torn away by a snow plow. Held for Three Murders. Wilbur S. Sherwell, a former member of the Evansville police force, was indicted by the Vanderburg County grand jury on the charge of the murder of Lena Renner and Georgia Railey, who were choked to death in Evansville Nov. 11 last and their bodies thrown into a ditch. Three weeks ago Sherwell was indicted for the murder of Fanny Butler, a young mulatto woman, who was choked to death in May last. It was proved by several witnesses that Sherwell was on the beat of the Butler woman the night she met death. Several new' witnesses swore they saw Sherwell with the Railey woman on the night she met death. Hermit’s Heirs Are Found. Twenty years ago John H. Grossman was struck and killed by a train at Bremen. After a number of years facts were brought to light showing that Grossman, who had lived a hermit life in California, had died possessed of a fortune estimated at $2,000,000, the result of mining speculations. He had made no disposition in life for the disposition of his estate, but search for the heirs in the last fifteen years has brought to light sixty of his kin scattered over Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, who will share m the disposition of the estate.

Jumped Into the Ohio River. While suffering from melancholia, Miss Sallie Baxter, one of the most prominent young women in Jeffersonville, ran from her home, two blocks from the river, and walking out on the shore ice, plunged into the icy waters of the Qhio. Her brother saw her take the fatal jump. An hour later she was rescued, alive, but unconscious, and cannot recover. Woman Shoots a Thief. Mrs. Agnus Edwards of Kokomo saw a man enter the yard and commence to strip her clothesline. She was alone in the house, but went after the thief with her husband’s revolver, emptying the weapon on his retreating form. Blood on the snow showed the effectiveness of her act, but the wounded man escaped:

State News in Brief. Marion wants the C., R. & M. shops. Knox County will spend $20,000 for new bridges. William Carrigan, Brazil, was fatally injured by falling slate. Mrs. W, W. Fox, Peru, swallowed a big dose of laudanum by mistake. Doctors saved her. Goshen people are kicking against th® Council appropriating $50,000 to build a new school house. Burglars ransacked the home of Rev. Father Schott, Evansville, securing considerable money. It is said that the American window glass factory will equip all its factories with blowing machines. Cora La Follette, 16, Kokomo, wants a divorce from Merrill La Follette. She wants to return to school. Charles 8. Hernly, New Castle, says the proposed New Castle and Pendleton electric line will be built. Dexter Gardner, police commissioner, Vincennes, is dying of gangrene following the amputation of a toe. Pennsylvania railroad voluntarily increased the wages of its Fort Wayne men, adding $5,000 to the pay roll. George J. Marott, Indianapolis, purchased the Kokomo street railway. He will build a line from Kokomo to Logansport. The planing mill, saw mill and office of the Greenfield Lumber and Ice Com pany were burned, entailing a loss of $40,000. Joseph Buzzard, the desperado who shot his brother-in-law, Louis Cluster, near Logansport, was captured in Kokomo after a desperate struggle. As Arthur Wagner, 24, entered the store of Edward Hoffer at Cresco a shotgun leaning against the wall Dear the dOibr fell. It was discharged by the jar, and young Wagner was mortally wounded. Police Commissioner Dexter Gardner of Vincennes died from blood poisoning following the amputation of a toe. The toe was crushed by a drunken passenger, who turned a car seat and struck Gardner’s foot. Mrs. Rebeeco Evilsiser, who would have been 100 years old March 12, committed suicide at the home of her son near South Whitely. She choked herself to death by stufllng a large handkerchief down her throat. The Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern shop strike at Washington has been declared off by the American Federation of Labor. The shops will be gradually reopened and most of the 600 idlers will soon be re-employed. Twenty-nine deer from the farm of the late “Uncle Tom” Johnson, Vincennes, were sold to a representative of Forest Park, St. I-iouis, at $29 a head. Alex. Killion, farmer, Washington, is critically ill. It is said he is worth $300,<IOO. He makes a Christmas gift of $2,000 annually to each of his children. Herschel Abram, 5-year-o)d son of O* car Abram, was burned to death at Anderson. Mr. Abram was out hunting work and the wife went to a grocery, leaving the child alone. When the mother arrived the little one was a mass of flames and death resulted in two hours.