Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 August 1902 — INDIANA INCIDENTS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA INCIDENTS.

RECORD OF EVENTS OF THE PAST . WEEK. Ghost* Cause Farmer and Family to Flee Rnaaiaville Man Forget* Hia Wedding Day—Muncie Man Takeo Poiaon—lncrease in Tax Valuations. George Flowers, a young farmer, bought a strip of land at Sandridge, on which was located the oldest cemetery in that section. The cemetery was surrounded by a grove and contained 300 headstones. Flowers removed the headstones, throwing some of them into the Embarrass river and with the rest, built foundation for his house. The cemetery he plowed up and planted in melons and potatoes. Although similar crops on the rest of the farm grew in abundance, the cemetery crop has been eaten up by a strange bug. Flowers’ house has been haunted for several nights, the building has shaken violently and Flowers, his wife and two children have fled from the place. People having relatives buried there threaten to prosecute Flowers for obliterating the graves without giving them notice so they could have reinterred the dead. The grand jury of Lawrence County is investigating the case. Forgets Hi* Wedding Date. Otto Ammon, proprietor of a hotel and restaurant at Russiaville, forgot his wedding day. His fiancee, Miss Jennie McCormick of Keokuk, lowa, arrived at the appointed hour, but he was not at the station to meet her. Miss McCormick went to the restaurant and found the groom behind the lunch counter. He did not recognize her, and, thinking it was a customer, asked: “What can I dd for you?” “Well, I think you can marry me,’’ replied the girl from Keokuk. In tbs joyous welcome that followed the groom forgot to apologize and no apology, was demanded. As soon as Ammon could doff his apron the happy couple came to Kokomo and were married by the Rev. Newlin, pastor of the Friends’ Church.

Kills Himself for Love. Samuel Hughes, aged 33, vowed he would not live without Mrs. Mattie Miller as his wife, swallowed poison and died at Muncie. His body was found in the city park by a picnic party. Hughes was a well-known contractor and paid court to Mrs. Miller. She told him she was unable to wed him, as she was rot from a husband who abandoned her after refusing to sectire a divorce. Hughes threatened suicide, but she did not take him seriously. Body of Missing Farmer Found. The partly decomposed body of David McPherson, who disappeared from his home southeast of Warsaw, was found by boys who were hunting in the woods, eight rods from his home. McPherson was in the habit of leaving home for weeks and his absence caused no concern. Coroner Smith decided that McPherson ’died from an attack of epilepsy, several days ago. Adds $9,179,040 to Valuations. The State board of tax commissioners, after listening to the representatives of corporations for ten days, all of whom asked reductions in their assessments, announced that it had increased by $9,179,045 the valuations upon which steam and electric railroads, telephone, telegraph and express, pipe line and transportation companies must pay taxes. Brief State Happening*. Miss Zella Smith, aged 24 years, committed suicide at Richmond by taking carbolic acid. The child of Adam Snider, a Terre Haute hardware merchant, died from blood poisoning resulting from a mosquito bite. Rev. August Rehwaldt resigned the pastorate of the First German Lutheran Church at Valparaiso and accepted a call to Alcester, S. D. x Mrs. Carrie Romack, wife of Jesse Romack, a merchant of Sharpsville, committed suicide by taking poison and then cutting her throat with a razor. The lifeless body of John Cahill was found at the side of the Michigan Central tracks in Hammond. Cahill was returning from Niles, Mich., where he attended the funeral of his father.

Rev. Charles Hill, a Congregational minister, confessed at Terre Haute that he accidentally fired the shot which killed the widow Smith at the mining town of Benwood fifteen years ago. In Indianapolis Arthur E. Ferguson filed suit for divorce from Goldie M. Ferguson, whom he married two years ago. Ferguson alleges that his wife is so addicted to cigaret smoking that she forgot to prepare his meals. An expensive wreck on the Pennsylvania road between Winona and Warsaw occurred late the other night, badly smashing two locomotives and twenty, freight cars loaded with farming machinery and merchandise, entailing a loss of about |75,000. Because Marcus Skinner, her sweetheart, had refused to call and take her for a drive. Miss Daisy Johnson of Marion drank an ounce of laudanum. The prompt arrival of physicians, however, prevented her death. Farmers living in the counties tributary to New Albany report young quail* in greater abundance in the stubble fields, meadows and woods of that section than was ever known before, insuring fine sport for the shooting season. Indiana Spiritualists are excited over an alleged exposure at the camp at Chesterfield. During a seance given by Mrs. J. H. Mendenhall, a widely known materializing medium, it is claimed Mrs. G. W. Kinard, a member of the Central Christian Church of Chesterfield, seized the supposed “spirit,” and when the light* were turned up it was found she waa holding Mrs. Mendenhall. Isaac Carter of Bloomington waa struck by a Vandalia train at Marshall, 111., and instantly killed. The Amalgamated Order of Street Railway Employes ordered a strike on the Lafayette street railway and the Central Labor Union declared a boycott against the company. Union men on the line quit work. The large barn on the Joseph Whittenberger farm, five miles east of Roches- * tear, burned. Seven head of horaea, twelve hundred bushels of wheat, nearly aa many bushels of oats, and farm machinery were burned.