Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1907 — Indiana State News [ARTICLE]

Indiana State News

GIVES SOX PECK OF CASH. Indjanian Makes Good Wedding Promise of Twenty Years Ago. “The girl who marries that boy will receive a bigger pile of money than she ever saw outside of a bank,” said Zimri Sheets of Owen township-twenty years ago, referring to his son, Walter, L. Sheets, at that time an infant. The other day Mr. Sheets, who is an ex-county commission-' er, made good his word by giving to that son and his bride a peek of United States coin. During the last twenty years he has been laying aside money, secreting it in jars that he had hidden beneath an old apple tree on his farm ten miles north of Frankfort. The money was kept in the secret hiding place until a storm blew down the tree a few months ago. The hoarded wealth has not yet been counted, but it wasi composed of coins of all denominations ranging from pennies to silver dollars, and weighed more than seventy-five pounds.

CUTS THROAT WHILE ASLEEP. Indiana Man Anxious for a Shave Inflicts Fatal Wound. The theory that T. Kirby Heinsohn, a wealthy Muncie man, inflicted a fatal wound while trying to shave himself, in his sleep at Sylvester, Ga., was advanced by members of a committee of Elks who accompanied the body to his home J. H. Westberry, cashier of a bank at Sylvester in which Heinsohn was interested, says Heinsohn was taken ill last Friday. He worried because he was unshaven and decided to shave himself Sunday morning. It is surmised that he arose and went to the bathroom half asleep and returned to bed with the razor and that the determination to shave being on his mind he drew the razor across his throat, cutting the jugular vein. Too weak to speak, he wrote on a paper that he did not know what he was doing. DISCOVERS OIL NEAR CHICAGO. Standard Said to'lfave Made Strike in Porter County. That the Standard Oil Company has located oil in Porter county, though it is denied officially, is believed by farmers there to be true, and there is great excitement in the county. The remarkable price paid by representatives of the Standard to Mrs. Dombey of Hobart, who owns a farm near Chrisman, proves that the company either has or knows it can drill into oil beds. Mrs. Dombey received $60,000 for a sixty-acre tract not fit for farm land. The Standard began wells at McCool nad Wheeler last year, but abandoned them and began to drill near Chrisman. It is reported the Standard has secured options on other tracts of farm land in the vicinity.

HAMMOND BOY FEUD VICTIM. Frank Lavra Shot by Member of Band off Polish Boys. Frank Laws, 9 years old, grandson of John Laws, one of the wealthiest citizens of Hammond, was seriously wounded when struck by a bullet fired by one of a crowd of Polish boys. For almost a year border warfare has raged between boys of Hammond and West Hammond —• the latter Poles. Last October John Mikalezak was shot in the groin and while he was in a hospital active hostilities were abandoned. The latest clash occurred on the commons, where the Hammond boys were skating. No arrest was made. FIRE BURNS $150,000 BLOCK. City of Goshen Visited by Disastrous Conflagration. The most disastrous conflagration that has ever visited Goshen occurred the other evening when the new Jefferson block, built last year, covering a Quarter of a square, was totally destroyed by fire. The loss will approximate $150,000, with about 45 per cent insurance. The heaviest losses were: Sanders, Kay & Neidig, on building, $95,000: Stiver & Smith furniture. house, $40,000; Elks’ lodge and club rooms, $6,000; Stauffer & Ecklebarger, $2,000; Dr. Ihrig, offices, $2,000. The fire, it is thought, had its origin in excelsior stored in the basement. VALUES HUSBAND AT $25,000. Wife, Aged 10, - Sues Parents oi Helpmeet, Alleging Alienation. Mrs. Dan Osborne, 19-year-old wife of Jesse Osborne of La Porte, has sued Amos and Alice Osborne, her husband's parents, and Melvin and Everett Osborne, her brothers-in-law, for alfenation of her husband's affection. She asks $25,000 damages, and claims her husband's family caused him to desert her after disposing of their household goods to his father. The Osbornes are wealthy.

Minor State Items. The car shops of the Central Indiana railway at AvondaldJ a suburb of Muncie, were destroyed by fire, causing a loss roughly estimated at $25,000. The J. P. Polk Company’s vegetable canning factory at Greenwood, the largest of Its kind in the world, was destroyed by fire. The loss is $220,000. Angered because his housekeeper slapped his daughter, John Morello of Diamond, shot and killed the woman and then fatally wounded himself. While on the way to the station a mob almost succeeded in taking Morello from the officers. It wm stated that ho would die. Alexander Calhoun, a freight conductor on the Lake Shore, was killed at a crossing at Butler. Mr. Calhoun’s home was'in Toledo, Ohio. George Logan, 35 years old, was caught in the belting at the plant of the Greer-,Wilkin»on Lumber Company at Franklin, amT killed instantly. Owing to a failure to convict theater managers for running shows on Sunday the ministers of Michigan Olty have taken steps toward forming a permanent organization to “lend moral force to the police and to assist in a better enforcement •f ths law.” A