Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1907 — Indiana State News [ARTICLE]

Indiana State News

SOME HOOSIER HISTORY, First Settlement Wan Made at Vincennes in 1703. Investigating and research continue to corroborate 1702 as the correct date of the first settlement at Vincennes, and to refute the single writer who essayed to startle all ’historians for a century with the statement that it was 1731 when Morgan de Vincenne came here and built a fort to protect the settlement formed 30 years before and which was exposed to the Indian dpredations. The theory of the alleged discoverer of “new facts” was that the reference,in early manuscript to the “poste on the Oubache” did not mean Vincennes, but referred to a spot where Cairo now stands and that the lower Ohio river was called the Wabash by the -Indians. Besides the error of believing that the children of the forest who learned all they knew in the book of nature “and thought that thC .OhlU emptied into the Wabash (the big river running into the little oneK -we have additional and irrefutable records that there was no fort years after at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Many years after, Gen. Hamilton in his report to Haldimand who was in charge at Quebec in August, 1781, suggested that importance not of rebuilding but of locating a fort at this point, which disposes of the wild theory of the latter day history makers. These facts a-re fully given in a compilation by the late Consul Butterfield, who had access to British historic records and who wrote many works on history.

GIRL SEEKS MOTHER SIX YEARS. Child Discoyyr* Slater* in Orchis Asylum—Parent Dead a Year. “Little girl, your mother is dead.” More sorrowful than the fall of clods on a casket were these words to Miss Etta Scott at the end of a long search for her mother, whom she had not seen for six years. The speaker was Miss Josie Moreland of Marion, but her words were only the tragedy of the little glimpse of life, for later Miss Scott visited the Grant County Orphans’ home and met her two younger sisters, who were placed there at the

time of the mother’s death. Eight years ago the father died and the children were sent to different homes, Miss Scott to Laurel, and the two babies were placed in the Orphans’ home in Marion. A year ago the mother died and the daughter at Laurel did not hear of it. She decided upon a visit to Marion, and when she arrived did not know where to find her mother. She was found crying at the traction station. When taken to the neighborhood where her mother had lived Miss Moreland succeeded in finding the history of Mrs. Scott, and went with her to the Orphans’ home, where the children’s reunion took place. .BOYS LEAVE A BROAD TRAIL. Alleged Thieves Rounded Up by County Detective Association. The Madison County Horsethief Detective Association corralled three juvenile thieves at Elwood and put a stop to the taking of rigs from the city hitch rack. During the last two months a dozen rigs d'sappe-red, so.ne of which were recovered, while a few were never heard .of again. Sunday, Russell Harris and John Dem. 15 and 17 years old, went to Ingalls and. hiring a rig, drove to Anderson. where they attempted to dispose of it. Failing, they drove on to Elwood, but left such a broad trail behind them they were easily followed. When the officers attempted to arrest them they whipped up th® horse and got away. An automobile was brought into use and they were headed off. When “sweated” they confessed to numerous escapades of the same kind, robbing grocery st ores and stealing ■chickens. They implicated Lloyd Downham, aged 17, and the trio will be turned over to the Circuit Court, under a bond of SSOO each.

ROAD TO GRAB WORK OF YEARS.

Gary Man Makes Farm of Sand Danes and May Lose It. A condemnation suit started against a plot of farm land between Gary and Miller, by the Chicago, Lake Shore and Somh Bend Interurban railway has brought to light the story of Gustave Anderson of Miller, who spent fourteen years leveling a mountain of sand into the adjacent sloughs and swamps so that he might raise crops. He was too poor to buy a team, and worked with a spade and wheelbarrow for fourteen years to prepare the ground for agrioulture and had just succeeded. Fire Sweeps Indiana Town. The village of Charleston was saved from destruction by fire the other morning only by hard work by several hundred citizens. The, fire started in the drying room of Susman & Wrieckhoeffer’s harness factory, destroying the plant. Twelve other buildings burned. The loss Is $50,000, with $15,000 insurance. • Within Our Borders. In Madison Willard McKay’s place was raided by the police, an entire “blind tiger” outfit being captured. Burglars used dynamite on the safe of Zanger’s bakery in Logansport and obtained over SIOO in cash. The Public ■ Officers’ Association of Hamilton county has bfen organized with Judge Ira W. Christian president, and E. A. Hutchens secretary. Fire believed to have been incendiary destroyed the plant of the American I .amp Glass Company}at Evansville. Loss SIOO,OOO, insurance SIO,OOO. Alexander Gueskin, graduate of a coltegt in Germany and son of a professor of Latin, committed suicide in La I’orte by taking poison. He was despondent over ill health. Edmund Hall was appointed receiver for the Fowler Glove and Mitten Comj>any of Fpwler by the federal court on -etitiou of several St. LoifTs and Indianspoils concern*. The factory ha* several hundred employe*. j « .