USA > Indiana > Madison County > History of Madison County Indiana (Volume 1) > Part 39
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A peculiar homicide, with an equally peculiar aftermath, was com- mitted on Thanksgiving day in 1847 at a distillery a little west of the mounds and about two and a half miles from Anderson. A shooting match had been arranged and among those in attendance were two young men named Tharp and Cox, between whom there was ill feeling. Tharp was the larger and was inclined to play the part of a bully in his treatment of Cox. The latter had several times moved away to avoid Tharp's insolence, but at last "forbearance ceased to be a virtue." Snatching a rifle from one of the bystanders, he brought the barrel down upon Tharp's head with such force as to fracture the skull, caus- ing almost instant death. Cox crossed the river to his home, about a mile away, but the next morning he was arrested and lodged in jail at Anderson. At the next meeting of the grand jury an indictment for murder was returned.
Cox had many friends who took the view that he had acted in self defense, or at least had been provoked to make the assault. Knowing that the old log jail was not invulnerable, some of these friends determined to effect his release rather than to permit him to stand trial. Five men were in the secret. In visiting Cox in jail these men managed
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to elude the watchful eye of Sheriff John H. Davis long enough to take an impression of the lock in beeswax. A key was made, secretly tested and found to work. A night was then selected for the release of the prisoner and about an hour before midnight, when everything was still, the five men quietly approached the jail, one of them leading Cox's horse, which had been freshly shod for the occasion. While four stood on watch, the fifth noiselessly unlocked the door and Cox came out. A few minutes hurried conversation in muffled tones and he mounts his horse, turns his head westward and sets out on his journey toward freedom. Pursuit was made as far as Logansport, where all trace of the fugitive was lost. There were then no telegraphs, telephones, nor even fast mail
MILTON WHITE
routes in the West, and the apprehension of a fleeing person under the ban of the law was a much more difficult matter than at the present time. The exact manner of Cox's escape was not known until long afterward. Some twenty-five years later a citizen of Madison county happened to meet Cox in northern Wisconsin, but no effort was ever made to bring him back for trial.
Upon the morning of April 8, 1867. Daniel IIoppis, a farmer living about three miles south of Anderson, missed some meat from his smoke- house and noticed tracks leading toward the dwelling of Milton White.
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Accompanied by a neighbor, a Mr. Swearingen, Hoppis started for Anderson to secure a search warrant, but the two men met White before reaching the city. After a short conversation between the sus- pected man and Swearingen, the former agreed to permit Hoppis to search his premises without the formality of a warrant and the two men started together for White's house, Mr. Swearingen returning to his home.
When Mr. Hoppis failed to return home either for dinner or supper, his wife informed some of the neighbors of his prolonged absence. In the meantime the story of the stolen meat had been circulated and White was at once suspected of knowing something of the missing man's whereabouts. Accordingly a number of citizens called at White's house to make inquiries. White was asleep, but upon being aroused denied all knowledge of Hoppis. He was kept under surveillance, however, until daylight the next morning, when he was forced to join the party in search of the man he was accused of having killed. In a little ravine running through a small piece of woods, near the road known as the east New Columbus pike and about two miles from Anderson, was found the body of Hoppis. Near by was a sassafras club about four feet long, bearing hair and clots of blood, showing plainly that it was the weapon that had been used. This was near the place where Hoppis and White had last been seen together by Patrick Allen. White was given a preliminary hearing before Justice of the Peace Schlater and was bound over to the circuit court. At the next term of court he was tried, found guilty and sentenced to be hanged on September 20, 1867, but a respite was granted until the 1st of November by Governor Baker, to give him an opportunity to consider a petition for the commutation of the sentence to life imprisonment. Upon considering all phases of the case the governor declined to interfere, and on Friday, November 1, 1867, White was forced to pay the penalty of his crime upon the scaffold. This was one of the most brutal murders that ever occurred in the State of Indiana. Daniel Hoppis was a kind-hearted, inoffensive citizen, industrious and devoted to his family, and without an enemy in the world. It is quite probable that if White had returned the stolen meat he would never have been prosecuted for the theft.
Later in the same month (April, 1867) William Traster was killed by Granville Dale, but this tragedy was of a far different character. At that time Robert and William Traster were the proprietors of the Moss Island Mills. They had many friends and their mills were a favorite resort for fishing and picnic parties. One Sunday, late in April, a number of Anderson men, among whom were Captain Ethan Allen, R. C. Reed and ex-Sheriff Benjamin Sebrell, went to the mills on a fishing excursion, intending to take dinner with the Trasters. They took along something to drink and Granville Dale, who was in the employ of the millers as a teamster, took a little too much. When the call came for dinner, Dale was attending to the horses. A slight con- troversy arose between him and William Traster and the latter made a move as though he was going to inflict some personal chastisement upon Dale. Although fuddled by drink, Dale realized that he was no match
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for his employer in strength. Seizing a stone about the size of a goose egg, he hurled it with all his might at Traster, striking him upon the head and fracturing the skull. The fishing party carried the injured man to the house, but he died soon after being struck, all efforts to restore him being futile. Dale gave himself up to the sheriff, admitted his guilt and at the succeeding term of court was sentenced to seven years in the penitentiary for manslaughter. He served his time and afterward was employed as cab driver for several years in Indianapolis. He always spoke of his act with regret, as the man he killed was his best friend. Both were under the influence of liquor at the time. Had they been sober the deed would in all probability not have been committed.
On October 21, 1874, the body of Albert Mawson was found in an abandoned well on the Mawson farm, about three miles southeast of Anderson, with the front teeth knocked in, the jaw-bone broken and the side of the head crushed. A rope was around the neck, blood stains could be seen upon the boards around the mouth of the well, and for several rods across the field to south were evidences that a heavy body of some kind had been dragged toward the well. Coroner Maynard was sum- moned and when the body, in a nude condition, was taken from the well it was seen that decomposition had set in, indicating that the young man had been dead for some time. His mother, a widow, told a somewhat incoherent story about her son's disappearance some time before. Investi- gation developed the fact that she had had some trouble with another son, and while this disagreement was at its height Mrs. Mawson deeded her farm to Albert, her youngest child, saying that she had some hopes of his becoming a useful man, while the other son was inclined to be a spendthrift.
Subsequently Albert became rather reckless in his habits and showed a disposition to stray away from home. At one time he found a position as brakeman with a railroad company and this displeased his mother, who wanted him to remain at home. Suspicion pointed to her as her son's murderer, the motive being to regain possession of the lands she had deeded to him. After the hearing before the coroner she was arrested and placed in jail to await the action of the grand jury. The verdict of the coroner's jury was that "Albert Mawson came to his death by a blow inflicted with an axe or some other hard substance, in the hands of Nancy Mawson (his mother), which the jury finds to be the cause of the death of the victim."
This verdict was rendered on October 21, 1874, and four days later Mrs. Mawson ended her life in jail by taking arsenic, having secreted a quantity of that drug in her clothing prior to her arrest. The scene of this tragedy was not far from the place where Milton White had murdered Daniel Hoppis seven years before.
A shocking crime, and one that awakened wide-spread interest in Madison county, occurred in the early autumn of 1883. That was the killing of Susan Nelson, widow of William Nelson and a member of the well known Bronnenberg family, though the murder was committed near Terre Haute, in Vigo county. On September 7, 1883, Mrs. Nelson called at the Anderson postoffice and left an order for her mail to be forwarded to Kansas City, Missouri. Later in the day she told the drayman who
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took her trunk to the Big Four station that she was going to visit her son, Jasper Nelson, who had written to her that he was seriously ill. Her absence was noticed by her friends and acquaintances, but none could tell whither she had gone.
In October, James Porter, while hunting in a piece of timber about three miles southwest of Terre Haute, discovered his dog carrying a human skull in his mouth and upon searching the neighborhood found the body of a woman concealed in the shrubbery. The coroner of Vigo county was at once notified and held an inquest. Physicians agreed that the woman had been dead for several weeks, but the body could not be identified. Some days later an insurance policy issued by Bain & Harris, of Anderson, upon the household goods of Susan Nelson, was found near the place. The policy was torn and blood-stained, but it furnished a clue to the identity of the woman. A detective visited Ander- son and in company with Marshal Coburn went to the house where Mrs. Nelson formerly lived, on North Main street. Here they found a letter from her son, bearing the postmark of Brazil, Indiana, and dated August 23, 1883, only about two weeks before she left Anderson.
People who knew Jasper Nelson knew that he was something of a spendthrift, but that he had great influence over his mother. As Brazil is only sixteen miles east of Terre Haute the theory was formed by the detective that he had persuaded his mother to visit him and had tried to get money from her. Whether he succeeded in this or not, he had murdered her and then made his escape. He was found at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and arrested upon suspicion, but was acquitted.
About the time young Nelson was tried, Perry Manis, a former preacher who resided near Frankton, was noticed to be rather flush with ready money-an unusual condition for him-and it was remembered that he had left his home about the time of Mrs. Nelson's departure. An investigation was started and soon a witness was found who had over- heard a conversation between Manis and the murdered woman, in which it was agreed to go to Kansas City and open a boarding house. Manis was arrested for the murder and taken to Terre Haute for trial. There he was identified by witnesses who had seen him and Mrs. Nelson together, and in the trial it developed that he had hired a buggy and driven away with the woman, but had returned without her. He was therefore convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to a life term in the penitentiary. In the trial William A. Kittinger, of Anderson, assisted the prosecuting attorney of Vigo county and rendered valuable service in securing the conviction of Manis.
An affray occurred in Anderson on the evening of August 7, 1890, that resulted in the wounding of John Davis and the death of James Benefiel, a young man who had been rather fond of Mrs. Davis before her marriage. On the date named Benefiel and a young man named Edward Brown called at the Davis home on old South Noble street. Finding no one at home they entered the house and carried away among other things a revolver belonging to Davis. While they were lingering in the neighborhood, apparently waiting for the return of the family,. Davis came home and seeing that things had been disturbed went out to find an officer. Failing in this he borrowed a revolver from a friend and
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again went home, entering the house by the back way. In the meantime Mrs. Davis and her mother had returned and Benefiel insisted that Mrs. Davis come down to the gate. She at first refused, but finally stepped out in the yard and asked him what he wanted. His reply was that he had been sent by officers to search the house, but did not say what for or upon whose complaint the search was to be made.
Mrs. Davis then went back in the house and told her husband, who went to the door and ordered Benefiel and his companion to leave the place. Benefiel turned as if to depart, but after taking a few steps turned suddenly and fired, the ball taking effect in Davis' right side. Davis had at one time been a soldier in the regular army and while in service on the western frontier won a reputation of a marksman. He promptly responded to Benefiel's shot, the bullet entering the head just below the left eye and passing through the skull. Benefiel never recov- ered consciousness and died about 6 : 30 the next morning. The coroner's jury that investigated the case found a verdict justifying Davis in his course and he was not arrested. The parents of young Benefiel lived at Elwood and were respected people, though he had formed bad associa- tions and acquired reckless habits.
A few months later, December 28, 1890, Charles Kynett was shot and killed by Edward Downey, then city marshal of Anderson. Kynett was on one of his periodical sprees and started a disturbance at the old Rozelle House, at the corner of Eleventh and Main streets, when the marshal was called upon to arrest him. When the officer told Kynett to behave himself the latter, instead of obeying assaulted Downey, who several times ordered him to stop or trouble would ensue. Finally the aggressor became so violent in his demonstrations that the marshal drew his revolver and fired one shot, which struck a vital part and Kynett died shortly afterward. The marshal surrendered himself to the authori- ties, but the coroner's jury brought in a verdict that the shooting was justified and in self-defense. Kynett was a laborer and when not in his cups was an average citizen, but when drinking he was inclined to be boisterous and quarrelsome. Marshal Downey expressed his regret at the unfortunate incident and it is said was much relieved when his term as marshal expired.
As a result of a quarrel among neighbors, in which several families were involved, John Moriarty shot McLelland Streets at the corner of Main and Ninth streets, in the city of Anderson, about ten o'clock on the morning of April 10, 1893. The report of the pistol attracted a crowd and Edward King took Moriarty into custody until the arrival of the officers. The general impression was that Moriarty, who ordinarily was a peaceable man and law-abiding citizen, had lost his reason over the trivial affairs that led up to the shooting, and it is said was never the same afterward. He was arrested and placed in jail, where he managed to commit suicide on June 16, 1893, by hanging himself to the bedstead in his cell. Little was known of Streets, who had been a resident of the city but a short time, and the sympathies of the community were generally with the family of Moriarty.
About 1894 the boom which followed the discovery of natural gas was at its height. Just as the so-called "sporting element" is attracted
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to rich mining camps, so the same class of people is drawn to cities that are enjoying a period of industrial activity, in the hope of garner- ing some "easy money." At the time mentioned Anderson had a number of saloons with wine rooms attached and on May 26, 1894, a young man known as "Dote" Mccullough was killed in one of these places, con- ducted by a man named Welsh, on North Main street. It seems that young Mccullough had become enamored of a certain Laura Skidmore, a woman of questionable reputation, and upon the evening of May 26th he entered the wine rooms at Welsh's place to find her in the com- pany of another man. He immediately began making threats of what he would do to the couple, when Dora Welsh came in and ordered him out of the place. Mccullough went, but in about five minutes came back with a revolver in his hand and declared he would kill Welsh, at whom he leveled his gun. Welsh sprang toward the young man and struck down his arm just as he fired, the ball taking effect in Welsh's thigh. The two then clinched, but Welsh managed to draw his own revolver, broke away and fired suddenly, the bullet crashing through Mccullough's head, kill- ing him almost instantly.
Welsh was taken in charge by the police, the coroner was notified and the usual inquest in such cases was held over the body of the slain man. At the preliminary hearing Welsh was acquitted on the grounds that he acted in self-defense. The incident had a salutary effect upon Anderson, inasmuch as it brought about a better enforcement of law and rid the city of some of its undesirable characters.
During the four score and ten years that have passed since the county of Madison was first organized, a number of homicides. cold- blooded murders, or brawls in which one or more of the participants met death have occurred within her borders. Yet it is true that her people, as a rule, have been no more turbulent nor less law-abiding than those of other counties. To describe in detail all these unfortunate events would require a volume, and the above cases have been selected because they were of unusually heinous character or surrounded by an atmosphere of mystery that made them more than a "nine days' wonder."
On the evening of July 9, 1913, at the little town of Ingalls, a hom- icide occurred that attracted far more than ordinary attention on account of the prominence of the parties engaged. Some time before that an election had been held in Green township under the local option law and the people had voted that no intoxicating liquors should be sold in the township. As is always the case, this mandate of the people, as well as the law, was disregarded and liquors were sold. Early in June, 1913, Constable Albert Hawkins, of Anderson, conducted a raid on the hotel of Ingalls and confiscated a quantity of liquor and the fixtures. W. W. Brown, proprietor of the hotel and trustee of Green township, naturally did not feel kindly toward the constable. In the meantime Hawkins went to a hospital in Indianapolis, where he under- went an operation. It is thought that on his way back to his home in Anderson from the hospital he stopped off at Ingalls on the evening of July 9, 1913. Town Marshal Manifold stated that he met the con-
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stable that evening and that Hawkins told him he was there on business, but did not expect to make any arrests.
About 10:30 that evening, according to newspaper accounts of the affair, the body of Hawkins was found lying in the street in front of Alfont's store, a short distance south of the Union Traction line. Ear- lier in the evening he had been standing in front of the hotel, but had gone up the street and for an hour before the finding of his body had not been seen. At 10:10 an interurban car arrived at Ingalls from Indianapolis and four young men-Raymond Higgs, Fred Piper, George Kuhn and Lester Copeland-who had been spending the evening at Fortville, alighted from the car. Some of them afterward stated that when they stepped from the car they noticed three men in front of the hotel who appeared to be quarreling. A little while later Fred Piper, while on his way home, heard a man groaning. He hurried to the home of J. M. Roberts and told him that some man up the street was hurt, perhaps killed. Mr. Roberts, who had not yet retired, started toward the spot and on the way met Marshal Manifold. About one hun- dred feet south of the Union Traction line, at a dark spot in front of Al- font's store, they found the body of Albert Hawkins. An artery in the neck had been severed and blood was still issuing from the wound, al- though the man was dead. There was also a gash about an inch and a half in length on his right side.
Coroner Albright, Sheriff Black and one of his deputies left Ander- son on the 11:15 car for Ingalls and arrived there before the body had been disturbed. The officers went to work on a clue and soon ascer- tained that the two men suspected were still in Ingalls. The sheriff summoned Prosecutor Shuman by telephone and that officer, accom- panied by Deputy Sheriff Ambrose, hurried to Ingalls in an automobile. All trains were watched, the house of one of the citizens, in which the men were supposed to be hiding, was surrounded and every precaution taken to prevent any one from leaving or entering the town without being observed and identified. Notwithstanding all these measures, Trustee Brown and his son, William, Jr., twenty-seven years of age, managed to elude the vigilance of the officers and at one o'clock on the morning of the 10th arrived at the county jail in Anderson and gave themselves up to the turnkey. The young man stated that he had killed Albert Hawkins and was locked up, the father waiting in the office of the jail for the officers to return. Sheriff Black received word at Green- field, whither he had gone in the effort to intercept Brown and his son, that they were at the Madison county jail, and hurried back to Ander- son. While waiting for the sheriff's arrival the elder Brown gave out the following statement, which was published in the Anderson Herald of that date:
"I was in Fortville last evening and returned to Ingalls on the 10 o'clock traction car. When I stepped from the car, my boy, William, was sitting in front of the hotel crying. When I asked him what was the trouble, he told me that Constable Hawkins, of Anderson, was going to kill him. The boy is a little hard of hearing and easily angered. He told me that he had met Hawkins last evening in Phillips' grocery, in the north end of Ingalls, and at that time Hawkins showed a revolver Vol. 1-21
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and told the boy that he was in Ingalls watching, and was going to kill some one before leaving. Hawkins and my son had some words and all evening Hawkins seemed to be looking for trouble. Late in the even- ing my son and I started home and Hawkins followed us across the street. They had a few words in the middle of the street and Hawkins still followed us. In front of Alfont's store they mixed and it was then that Hawkins started to draw a gun on my son and William cut at Hawkins, stabbing him in the neck. My son did it in self-defense, hav- ing been followed by Hawkins all evening and threatened many times."
The case against Brown and his son at this writing is still pending. Soon after his being confined in the jail, Mr. Brown's bondsmen asked to be released, but he filed a new bond and is still trustee of Green town- ship, transacting much of the township business in jail, or in some of. the county offices, where he is taken under guard for the purpose.
On the night of November 12, 1851, the buildings on the south side of the public square in Anderson were destroyed by fire. The fire originated in the frame building at the southeast corner of the square occupied by Sherman & Wolf as a fanning mill factory. It was dis- covered shortly after midnight and was supposed to have been of in- cendiary origin. Next to Sherman & Wolf's place was a small frame cottage, at that time unoccupied. The next building was a three-story frame, in the lower story of which was Joseph Fulton's clothing store. Next to that was the shop of Adam Reed, a hatter, and the next build- ing was the general store of Dr. Townsend Ryan. Then came the Myers House, a two-story log structure owned and occupied by "Uncle Billy" Myers as a tavern, and just back of it, fronting on Meridian street, was a livery stable. All these buildings, with a lot of personal property contained in them at the time, were totally destroyed and the loss fell entirely upon the owners, as no insurance companies were at that time represented in Anderson. The entire population turned out and did all that could be done to check the ravages of the flames, but the facilities for fire fighting were of the most primitive character and all their efforts were without avail. Three men-William R. O'Neil, Seth Smith and James Kindle while trying to save their effects were so seriously affected by inhaling the heated air that they died within a short time after the fire.
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