Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 123, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1903 — INDIANA INCIDENTS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA INCIDENTS.

RECORD OF EVENTS OF THE PABT WEEK. Woman Confesses Part in Murder Twenty Years Back—Bad Fires in Winslow and Indianapolis—Jealous Lover Tries Murder and Suicide.

.¶ Mrs. Nellie Andrews, formerly Miss Nellie Conrad, made a sensational confession just before her death at Jasperthat clears up the mystery of a tragedy that caused excitement in southern Indiana in 1885. On the night before Stanford Freeman, a well-known young farmer of Dubois County, was to be married, two men and two women rode up to his house on horseback and called him to the gate. He had a conversation with the visitors for a moment; then there was a scuffle and his intended bride, whom he had left on the porch, heard him groan. As she hastened to him the two men mounted their horses and with the two women rode rapidly away. Freeman had received several wounds from a knife. He died without revealing the identity of his slayers. Mrs. Andrews said the other day that she was one of the party that visited Freeman that night; that one of the men died six years ago, and that the other is now in the Tennessee State prison. She said the woman who accompanied them and who disappeared several years ago was murdered and buried in the grave with her mother, the crime resulting from fear that she would betray the murderers of Stanford Freeman. Mrs. Andrews said that she was in love with Freeman, and that one of the men was in love with Freeman’s intended wife. When he was called to the gate that night a demand was made that he marry her at once. When he refused he was stabbed to death. Fire Destroys Entire Block. .¶ A block of business houses at Winslow was burned the other day, entailing a loss of from $40,000 to $50,000. The fire originated in a restaurant and spread to the center of the town. Joseph Millard, while fighting the flames, was overcome by the heat and died in a short time. His sons, Edward and Fred B., were also overcome by the heat and the latter may die. His daughter also is in a serious condition. Miss Carrie Thomas Miss Dora Carter were badly burned about the face and hands. Several business men were prostrated, but none is in a serious condition. Big Blaze in Indianapolis. Fire broke out in the five-story plant of the Daggett Candy Company on Georgia street, Indianapolis, one of the most valuable buildings in, the wholesale district. Two men were injured in a coHisicn between a street car and a fire truck. The fire was discovered by Rusrell Harrison, son of ex-I’xesiilent Benjamin Harrison. The loss to the Daggett Company building alone is estimated at S<JO,OOO. Shoots Sweetheart and Tries Suicide. Sain Brady shot Miss Cora Seaman in Martinsville and then attempted suicide by taking carbolic acid. Miss Seaman was struck in the left shoulder, but the wound is not serious. It is believed that Grady will recover from the effects of the carbolic acid. Grady was in love with Miss Seaman, and objected to her keeping company with other men. Brief State Happening* Alonzo D. Daoter, a pioneer citizen of Marion, was run down by a Pennsylvania yard engine and probably fatally injured. While watching bis brother land a fish out of Wolf river at Hammond, John Baker, 10 years old, fell in and was drowned. John Stoebel, a former player on the Evansville baseball team, in the Central League, died from lockjaw. He broke a finger while playing and tetanus followed. John F. Jarrell, Edwardaport, was decapitated by a train at Linton. Jarrell got on the wrong section, and when he tried to step off he‘ivas thrown between the ears. Mrs. Edward Ryan, a poor woman of Valparaiso, was notified that she was one of four heirs to an estate valued at $400,000 left by her brother, John Sullivan. at Seattle. Wash. The Attorney General has given Auditor Herrick an opinion in which he holds that fraternal associations cannot issue Xflpcrve fund insurance. The question has been before the insurance department inauy times, as several of the fraternal insurance companies issue policies with all the features of the old line policies. The several branches of the trainmen employed by the Big Four have formulated demands for an increase of wages, and will shortly present them to the railroad olllcials. The firemen have already filed with Superintendent Van Winkle a petition for an increase, which is understood to amount t£r from 15 to 18 per cent. .¶ Ezra Miller, aged 15, living near Goshen, forced his mother to sign a bill of rights before he agreed to return to his home in Clinton township after he ran away. His widowed mother belongs to the Amish sect and reared the lad in the ways of his father, denying him the privilege of reading any books save the Bible. The boy was not permitted to go to school and when he found the time approaching for school to reopen he ran away. He agreed to return when his mother signed the following bill of rights: That he should be allowed to attend school three months in the year; that he should be allowed to read good books and newspapers; that he should be allowed to attend Sunday school and to visit on Sunday in the neighborhood; that he should be allowed to have 50 cents a month of what he should earn, the balance to go to his mother. For the first time in eighty-two years women hav4* been permitted to sit with men In the sessions of the rtghty-sev-•nth yearly meeting of the Society of Friends St Marion. It was voted that men and women should meet together at all sessions. Thirty-five former students and teachers of the old Bugar Grove school, established bt Hendricks County In 1820, whan the county was covered with forest, wers present at a 'reunion In the Friends’ church In Plainfield. Several hundred persons attsnded the reboot during Its existence. Of these 110 are living.