Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1905 — RECORD OF THE WEEK [ARTICLE]

RECORD OF THE WEEK

INDIANA INCIDENTS TERSELY TOLD, ■ House of Tragedy to Be Torn DownAsylum Patient Dies from Mysterious Cause—Flight Starts Serious of Disasters—Murderer Confesses. The old Cripe homestead, known as “the house of tragedy," is to be torn down. For forty years the ill-fated house, which is situated three miles south of Rochester, has been regarded as a place of ill omen. Children, who have heard of the grewsome happenings in the homestead, have been afraid to go near the place even in the daytime, and older people have shunned the house by night, declaring that it was haunted. Only Dec. 6 last four persons met death in the homestead. Wilson Burns, crazed by jealousy, on that date murdered his wife, Joseph Cripe and Mrs. Margaret Braham, and then committed suicide. Here is a list of the tragedies at the homestead: Mrs. Abraham Cripe, committed suicide; Abraham (’ripe's sister, fell dead; Loran Cripe, became insane; Loran Cripe, choked to death; Elias Cripe, mysteriously murdered; George Ford, suicide; George Cripe, accidentally killed; Jay Cripe, now in an insane asylum; Joseph Cripe, murdered last December; Mrs. William Burns, murdered; Mrs. Margaret Braham, murdered; Wilson Burns, committed suicide. The house is to be entirely destroyed and all traces of it either burned or carried away. The lot on which the house stands will.be converted into a corq.field in the spring. Asylum Death a Mystery. The death of W. 11. Rankin at the cen tr.al hospital for the insane shortly after having been transferred from the Fletcher sanitarium was taken up by the grand jury in Indianapolis. Coroner Tuttwiler completed his investigation ami reported that in his opinion the grand jury ought to look into the matter. It was ascertained that death was caused by injuries he had received in some mysterious manlier. Dr. Mary Spink of the Fletcher sanitarium was before the coroner and denied strenuously that Rankin had received any other than the most considerate treatment while he was an inmate at the institution. Disasters Follow Flight. Because of the mysterious disappearanee of her father'alioift - iCniontli ago Gail, the 12-year-old daughter of Dr. Isaac H. Doolittle of Leavenworth, will possibly require to be taken to the hospital for the insane. The ; doctor, who was manager of the Leavenworth Pearl Button works, disappeared, leaving his wife and two children, carrying off all available money. The factory has been closed by reason of his absence, which leaves about fifty poor people idle. Says Slayer Confessed. Abram Mullen of Starke county lias added a chapter to the Effertz murder mystery by detailing a confession alleged to have been made to him by George Haines of the killing of a man supposed to be Jacob Harmon Effertz of Chicago, near Wilders, and the throwing of the body of his victim into a dredge ditch. Mullen says Haines explained in detail how ho shot the man through the head after running him several hundred yards. Pleads Guilty to Bigamy. Bert Turner, who married Miss Tolo Harnisch in Wabash county, and later wedded a La Crosse (Wis.) woman without the formality of a divorce, pleaded guilty to bigamy in the Wabash Circuit Court and was given two to five years in the Michigan City prison. All Over the State. Mrs. Louisa Olds, aged 80, living near Martinsville since 1829, is dead, Wilson Addington, who was wounded by an assassin’s bullet in Marion, died. Mandy McGlothlin, aged 17 years, daughter of Dan McGlothlin, a soldier of the Civil War, took an overdose of morphine at Booneville and will die. William Graybill, aged 71, was married in Washington to Mary E. Buckley, aged 64. Both are grandparents, and this is the third marriage for each. George W. Scott and the domestic, Lulu Hiser, were released from jail at Fort Wayne. Chemists were unable to find poison in the body of Mrs. Scott. E. R. Wood and John Raussman were appointed receivers for the Evansville and Ohio Valley Coal Company. The company has a capital stock of $300,000. Fire causjng a loss of $150,000 occurred in the power plant of the Terre Haute Traction and Power Company, and business was paralyzed to a considerable extent. „ The Elkhart county grand jury has indicted the Indiana railway company in five instances for failure to comply with the’ law. Twelve thousand dollars in tines may be collected. James Jordan, superintendent of the workhouse, was assaulted and badly injured in the county jail in Washington by a prisoner mimed Hemy Kutter. The officer was taking Kutter from the jail to work him on a rock pile when the prisoner seized a bar of iron and began beating the officer over the head with it.. Sheriff Fitzgerald and Officer O'Brien ran to Jordan’s assistance and probably saved bis life. William Williams was convicted of murder in the second degree in Shelbyville, and (he court imposed a life sen tence. He was arrested June 12. 1903, charged with murder in the first degree. He ami Thomas Howard had- a quarrel in an Indianapolis resort on the date mentioned and Williams stabbed Howard several times, causing death. Howard backed nway and begged William* not to kill him. Both were colored. Williams, who is about 50, has served a term for larceny. The citizens' committee of Terre Haute has decided to raise $5,000 by popular subscription to employ experts to examine the-comity records and not wait ou the county authorities, who are disagreeing over the selection of experts. <ln order to care for the needs of their Chicago business the Studebaker Brothers' Manufacturing Company will build ft plant at South Bend, where automobiles are to be manufactured. The buildings will coat $175,000. The structure is to be five stories in height, and will cover ground that measures almost an ■ere and a half.