Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 99, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1904 — INDIANA INCIDENTS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA INCIDENTS.

RECORD OF EVENTB OF THE PAST WEEK. Colfax Woman Attacked by Man Wearing; Dresses—New Veil Spouts Mach Gao—Spiceland Farmer Is Missing— To Reclaim Mach Valuable Land. Colfax was thrown into excitement the other day when an attempt was made to drug and rob Mrs. Elmer Hendricks at her home near town. Mrs. Hendricks believes her assailant was a man, although he was dressed in woman’s clothing, and heavily veiled. While busy with her household cares her assailant entered and demanded to know where Mr. Hendricks kept his money, and when she refused to tell the stranger seized her and attempted to make her swallow the contents of a vial. Mrs. Hendricks struggled and ns she fled screaming from the house she pulled the rope attached to the bell which summoned the farm help and at the sound of the bell the stranger, whether man or womnn, disappeared in a corn field. The footprints in the soft ground showed a No. 8 shoe, and a place was found where the stranger had evidently stopped to take off his female habiliments.

Monster Gas Well Is Shot. The biggest gas well that has been •truck in Blackford County for a long time is the No. 6 well on the Renner stock farm, which was shot with the largest quantity of nitroglycerin ever put iu a well in die Indiana field. It was drilled 600 feet in the Trenton rock and first shot with 300 quarts in the deep sand, then cleaned and shot with 200 quarts in the shallow sand. The well was drilled for oil, but made only a slight showing, while the gas volume is estimated at 2,000,000 cubic feet a day. Wealthy Farmer Is Missing. John F. Williams, a wealthy farmer residing one mile south of Spiceland, left home a few days ago, presumably to spend a week at Ingalls. When his wife attempted to inform him of the death of a relative she learned that he had not been at Ingalls. She was frightened, and, fearing foud play, an investigation was put on foot. It revealed the fact that $4,000 is also missing. Williams is a man of family, owns a 200-acre farm, and has always borne a good reputtttina. - » ■ . Lady Bug Saves Melon Crop. The lady bug has saved the melon crop, according to the reports of the growers in the lower Wabash valley, whence nightly trains of melons are shipped to Chicago and other points. About two weeks ago lice appeared on the melons and the growers predicted a lost crop. Then came the lady bug with a big appetite for lice and the melons were saved. To Ditch Kankakee River. Edward Johnson and F. W. Hanna of Chicago, government engineers, are engaged in the Kankakee district in running a line for the construction of a monster ditch to connect the Kankakee and Tippecanoe rivers. This would cause the waters of the Kankakee to bo diverted, would result in the reclamation of hundreds of thousands of acres of lnnd and would develop the Tippecanoe river for water power. Find Giant Guilty of Blaying, After being out thirty-seven hours at tho close of a trial lasting eight days a jury in the Orange County Circuit Court declared Alvin Oldham guilty of manslaughter in killing his uncle, Ephraim Elliott of Orleans. Oldham, who is a giant in stature, according to tlia testimony beat nnd kicked the older man until he flted from his wounds.

Short State Items. Two prostrations from heat, both resulting In death, are reported from Hammond. Frederick Sierp, 25 years old, was drowned while bathing In White river at Seymour. The corner stone of the new St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Whitestown, wns laid with Interesting ceremonies. Citizens of Peru and vicinity are subscribing liberally for a new school and dormitory building for the Dunkard Orphan’s home, at Mexico, Three members of the Limarson family, near Liberty, have the smallpox. Many persons have been exposed to the disease. The family has been quarantined. In a runaway accident ten mile* south of Richmond, Ralph and Reese Kitchell, children of Mr. and Mrs. Everett Kitchell, were seriously and perhaps fatally injured. \ At Franklin several light cases of scarlet fever have developed, and strict quarantine is being enforced to stamp out the disease before the beginning of the school year. James Wisehart, 42 years 61d, employed by Samuel Allen, near Anderson, was Instantly killed by a Big Four Railway train. It is thought that Wisehart intended to commit suicide. In a letter found by the Vincennes police tacked on a tree on the banks of the Wabash river, it is believed a mysterious suicide is disclosed. The letter is signed by Mary Taley, 17 years old, New Albany, Ind. > The African M. E. Chnrch at Hanover was struck by lightning and partially dismantled. A Sunday school was in session at the time, but no person Was injured. The home of President Fisher of Hanover College was also struck. Dr. W. E. Stott, president of Fraukliu College, which position he recently resigned, to take effect next June, will take up the work of writing n history of the Baptists of Indiana, for which he has been collecting data for twenty-five years, and to complete which he resigned the presidency of the college. Philip Snyder, 5 years old. wns instantly crushed to death by the falling of a sack of wheat front n thrashing machine. He lived hear Richland. Michael Starrett, aged 60 years, a wellknown citizen of Carlyle, while at the farm of Theodore Zieren wan kicked by a horse and died within a few hours. Senator Eben H. Wolcott of White County and his business associates are defendsmts in a suit on judgment for 94,884 filed by Gottfried Frick, who alleges there is a shortage of eighty-one acres in a tract of Vincennes township load sold W«n by defendants.