
INDIANA TRAILS
INDIANA
TERRITORY NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS
The Sprig of
Liberty, Gettysburg, PA
September 21 1804
We learn from Vincennes, Indiana
Territory, that
about the middle of last month, (August) the
Delaware Tribe relinquished to the United States, all their claim to
the extensive tract of country which lies
between the Ohio, Wabash, and the road leading from Post Vincennes, to
the Great Falls of Ohio. It fronts the Ohio,
about 300 miles, and its acquirements by the United States, is of
immense value, as it will facilitate the establishment
of extensive settlements on White river, the Wabash and the
Mississippi; great part of it is first rate land, plentifully
watered, and abundantly supplied with good timber.
October 5 1804
We lately stated on information from the
Indiana
territory that the Delaware Tribe of Indians
had ceded to the United States, all the country between the Ohio and
Wabash rivers, as high up as the road leading
from Vincenes to Louisville. We are now informed that the title of the
U.S. was incomplete by the relinquishment
of the Delawares, as the Piankashaws who were the original proprietors
of the country, had refused to admit the
right of the Delawares to sell it. It appears that the latter, who are
emigrants from the shores of the Chesapeake
and the Delaware bays, went to that country about 35 years ago, and the
Piankashaws offered to divide with them
their land upon condition of uniting with them against their mortal
enemies the Chikasaws, with whom they at that
time waged a bloody and unsuccessful war. The Piankashaws on the
contrary assert, that the Delawares were only
to have the use of the country to live and hunt upon in conjunction
with themselves, but that they had no right
to sell it. The dispute however, has been happily adjusted, and a
treaty was signed on the 27th of August last,
by governor Harrison, as commissioner on the part of the United States,
and the chiefs of the Piankashaw tribe,
by which the whole right of the latter to the above described country
is vested in the United States.(Contributed
by Nancy Piper)
Indianapolis
Daily Star January 14
1923
POLICE RAID DAMPIER, HOME AND GET BOOZE
Police raided the home of John Dampier. 1208
Gimber
Street, yesterday afternoon and took away eighty six half pint bottles
of white mule, three pint bottles of red whiskey, and four
gallons of while mule in jugs. Dampier who is 44 years old and his son
Arthur Dampier, age 22 years old were arrested on a blind tiger charge.
Charles E. Humphrey, 27 years old, 1201 Tabor Street who was
found near the Dampier home with a half pint of white mule was
also arrested. Dampier was held under a bond of $5,000. The other
men were held under bonds of $2,000. each.
Dampier has been arrested and fined several times on
blind tiger charges, police records show. He was at one time a saloon
keeper. Officers who conducted the raid were Lieut. Eisenhut,
Sergt. O'Connor, Patrolmen Kohler and Sebert.
BODY
OF MINER FOUND AFTER FIRE BURNS
OUT
Bicknell,
Indiana Jan. 13- The body of Thomas
Kinney, 38 years old, who was reported missing following the explosion
and fire late yesterday in the Knox Consolidated company's Mine No 1,
in which Peter Daugherty, 32 years old was killed and John Brennan
injured, was found by a rescue crew shortly after noon today. The body
which was badly burned, had been over looked in the dense smoke and was
found near the shaft, after the fire had burned out.
The loss, caused by the explosion and fire has not
been determined it was said.
Oct. 27
1818
<>The crime of murder is
increasing in the country
to
a most alarming degree. Scarce a Mail arrives,
which does not furnish some new instance of that awful crime. It is but
a few days since we had to record the murder
of a father by his own son, and a wife by her own husband, and now we
had to add, a brother by his own brother.
The latter case is thus stated in a paper of the 20th ult. published in
Salem Indana....." A most inhuman
murder was committed in this county, about seven miles from Salem, on
the night of the 25th just, the horrid deed
was perpetrated upon Joshus K Lakey, whilst he was lying in bed, and
probably asleep, near the hour of midnight,
he was stricken two blows with the edge of an axe, across the side of
his head. He was discovered soon after the
transaction, and was the alive, but expired in a few hours. A
Cproner's inquest was held over the body of
the deceased, and the jury returned a verdict of willful murder and
that the act was perpetrated by Clj? Lakey,
brother to the deceased. We have not heard whether the said C.
Lakey, the supposed murderer, has as yet been
arrested.
<>MURDERS CONFESSED.
Feb. 13, 1882 Startling Disclosures by a
Dying Man In Indiana
<>
<>New Albany, Ind., Feb.
11.There is great
excitement
here over the announcement that an old German,
named Peter Hoffman, who died In Harrison county yesterday, had made
some startling disclosures regarding two mysterious
and brutal murders that had been perpetrated near his home. It appears
that Hoffman was taken sick a short time
ago, and as he grew worse he evinced great mental suffering. On being
informed that he was about to die he cried
out for a priest, and, in despairing tones, confessed that be had
murdered three men, One of the crimes he had
committed in Germany, to escape punishment for which he had fled to
thls country. The other two murders be said
be had committed In Harrison county,
and since he was taken
sick he had been overcome
with remorse. His mental torture became so
unbearable that he was compelled to confess his guilt His statement
about the murders are fully corroborated by
the evidence in the bands of the authorities.
<>THE ROADSIDE
MURDERERS.
<>[From the New
Albany Ledger-Standard.]
<>A Double Murder
in Indiana Supposed to have been Committed by the
Bender Family following a BloodyTrail.
<>
<>The details of the terrible
Bender murders in
Kansas
come to us with fearful emphasis, in view
of our discovery of the fact that the inhuman murderers were probably
for some time in the neighborhood of this
city, and that circumstances in connection with the recent developments
in Kansas strongly point them out as the
authors of a mysterious double murder which happened in our midst some
year and a half ago.
Our
readers will remember the
circumstances attending the murder of a German
and his wife by the name of Bandle, and the burning of the house over
thelr bodies. The mystery has never been
removed from that terrible tragedy, and up to this time no person has
ever been accused or even suspected of the
commission of that crime. We believe that the blood trail leads us to
the Kansas fiends. At the time of the Bandle
tragedy there was resident near this city a family by the name of
Bender.
The
familu consisted of two men
and two women. The men were employed on the
McCulloch farm, on Silver creek, at the time of the Bandle murder, and
it will be remembered that this identical
farm was the sccue of that homicide. Soon after the occurrence of that
shocking affair the Benders left and went
to Kansas. It seems that on reaching Kansas they entered on a career of
crime which is without parallel in the
history of our times.
Taking up their residence near
Cherryvale, Kansas, in an unfinished house
standing on roadside, and out of the view of any human habitation, they
constructed, with devilish ingenuity, a
regular trap for any traveler whom they could inveigle into their den.
They placed the table from which their meals
were taken near a curtain of cotton cloth, so that the victim would sit
with his back against the curtain. A candle
placed
on the table would of
course, shadow the form of the
person sitting against it on the cloth,
and a blow with an axe or hammer given by a man on the opposite side of
the curtain would fell the sitter to the
floor, and then the cutting of his throat could be easily accompIished.
The number of their victims is as yet unknown.
Eight bodies have already been disinterred and recognized by their
clothing, or by marks upon their persons.
The
circumstantial evidence which
connects them with the mnrder of Bandle
and his wife may be summed up thus:
1. The identity of the
names.
2. The description of
the Kansas murderers answers
exactly to the Benders who lived here.
3. Their manner ot
living in Kansas, the two men and
the two women living as one family, is
exactly as they lived here.
4. The Benders left this
city for Kansas, the place
we find them now
5. The time of their
departure from this point
corresponds with the time of their arrival in
Kansas
6. The residence of the
Benders on the farm on which
Bandle and his wife were murdered, and
the immediate departure from the scene.
The Benders fled from
Kansas when tiny discovered
the suspicion of the people there; but we
predict that before they all swing from the scaffold some one of them
will confess their complicity
with the Bandle tragedy near this city.
<>MURDER IN INDIANA.
June 17, 1874
<>
<>
Cincinnati June
10. Dispatches from
Lawrenceburg,
Indiana, report a horrible and mysterious
murder was discovered today, two miles from that place. Mrs. Mary E.
Bradley and two daughters, aged ten and twelve,
were found dead, horribly mutilated. Mrs. Bradley's body was cut
open and the vicera exposed. The faces of
the daughters were beaten to a jelly. The baby was found alive
suffering from a slight wound, and a three year
old boy was found wandering in the adjacent woods uninjured. The family
was poor and had no money. The husband
was absent working on a farm in Ohio. There is no clue to the motive or
persons of the murderers.
<>Oct 10 1878 A Horrible Murder in Indiana
<>
<>A dispatch from Vincennea,
Ind., gives an account
of
the murder of John D. Vacelet, his wife
and two sons, two miles South of that city, Pierre Provost, who
live with them as a farm hand, gave the alarm
to the nearest neighbor about half a mile away, at four o'clock
Thursday morning having come to them in his night
clothes, saying in broken Euglish that they had had a hll of a time
over to Vacelet's. On going to the house the
neighbors found two sons aged fourteen and sixteen in bed, the father
lying in the doorway of an adjoining room,
and in the next room the mother in her bed, all dead and cold. The deed
was evidently done with an axe, as the
heads and throats of the victims were cut and gashed by such a weapon,
and two or three bloody axes were found.
Provost is under arrest and can give no satisfactory account of the
affair.
He claims to have also
been attacked by the
murderers and escaped, but this is already proven
untrue. Circumstances are entirely against him. Threats of lynching do
not seemingly disturb him, and he preserves
astonishing composure amid the excitement. P. S. Provost
committed Suicide Sunday night.
<>September 6, 1880
BEATEN TO DEATH.
<>Brutal and
Unprovoked Murder In Indiana.
<>
<>BROWNSTOWN. IND., September
4. Yesterday evening
at
Browning's, three miles from this place,
Lafe Morgan was knocked down with a club and then unmercifully pounded,
by Dick Barr, a young stripling not
yet twenty-one. In a few hours Morgan died from the effects of
the beating. Barr was immediately arrested
and committed to jail. The assault was brutal in the extreme and
entirely unprovoked. Morgan
was a house carpenter, and leaves a wife and two smalee children in
destitution.
<>May 17 1885 ANOTHER
ITALIAN MURDER.
<>Laborerd Brutally
Murder their Boss in Indiana
<>
<>Kokomo, Ind. May 16, During
last fall a company of
eighteen Italians procured work on the New
Lafayette, Burlington and Western Railroad, under the supervision of
Contractor McCarty, now of this city.
Four of them it seems, rented an old building on the farm of Mrs.
Livingstone, twelve miles west of this city.
When winter set in and work was suspended these four Italians who were
all that remained of the 18, worked about
the neighborhood at odd jobs and lived as best they could until
Tuesday, the 5th inst, in hopes of getting the
wages due them from the railroad. The Monday following they were seen
buring rubbish near their cabin. Tuesday
they boxed up their things and hired Buck Livingston to take them to
Flora Station, in Carrell County, stating
to Livingston that they were going to Chicago. But onw was absent, and
the remaining three
bought tickets to
Cincinnati. Nothing more was
thought of the matter until Thursday morning,
when Buck Livingston and W.T, Kelly went to the shanty and discovered
an old mattress and two pillows in the house
badly stained with blood. This aroused suspicions and they immediately
instituted a search of the premises. On
going down the ravine one hundred yards from the house they discovered
a fresh pile of dirt in a secluded place,
and were soon horrified at finding a man's arm. They quit digging and
sent word to Coroner Smith, of this city.
The coroner had the whole body disinterred, and it was identified as
that of Antony Nicoli. the boss of the laborers
and a subcontractor on the railroad works. He had a rope about
five feet Iong around his neck and had his
skull crashed in by what appeared to be the pole of an axe, or a heavy
club. The rope was used to drag the body
from the scene ot the murder to its burial place.There is some
evidence going to show that the other italians
had threatened him, believing that he was responsible for their
pay, and this, most probably, was the cause
of the deed, as Nicoli had neither money or valuables to tempt them.
The last seen of Nicoli alive was Saturday
evening, May 2nd. This night, it Is believed by the neighbors, was the
time of his murder by his companions. The
inquest is now in progress in this city. The three companions of Nicoli
are suppposed to have gone
to Sharon, Ohio, to work on the public works.
<>May 1, 1885
MURDER AND SUICIDE.
An Indiana Wretch Kills His Wife and Himself.
<>
<>BRAZIL, April 30. An
atrocious murder and suicide
was committed here today. James Young, aged
50, who was janitor at the court house, killed his wife, firing three
bullets into her breast. He had accused her
of infidelity, and since January they had not lived together. Mrs.
Young was 45 years of age. The murder occurred
at the home of her mother, four miles from this city. Young sprang upon
a horse that was in waiting and galloped
back to the court house. He ran to his room in the basement, called up
County Recorder Kaiser through a speaking
tube and bade him good bye, and immediately afterwards fired two
bullets into his body, dying almost instantly.
<>August 29, 1895
Horrible Cause of Deadly Epidemics In an Indiana
Town Discovered
<>
<>South Bend, Ind., Aug. 28.
For several years
Mlshawaka, a small place three miles east of South
Bend, has been visited annually by contagious diseases, causing many
deaths. About three months ago an epidemic
of diphtheria broke out which quickly spread over the entire village
with many fatal cases. Workmen engaged on
an electric plant shut off the water to drain the large pit, or
reservoir, from which the the water mains of Mlshawaka
are supplied. The bed of the pit was covered with dead fish, snakes,
dogs, cats and other dead animals. Workmen
who attempted to clean the pit were overcome. All of the water used In
Mistawaka was drawn through this mass of
decaying animal matter.
<>December 5 1895
COMMITTED MANY MURDERS
<>An Indiana
Convict
Makes a Startling Confession
Long List of
Murders Which He Claims to Have Committed
A Western Farmer Butchered
in Buffalo
Other Bloody Crimes of Which He
Claims to Have Been One of the Authors
<>
<> Fort
Wayne, Dec.4. William
Stone,
formerly a member of the Dalton gang, under
sentence of 10 years here for shooting Deputy Sheriff Harold, has
confessed several murders.
Stone
says that he and his
partner, William Walrath, killed a man at Kansas
City in 1883 and robbed him, but later gave the money to Henry
Donnelly, a policeman, for protection. He confesses
to the murder of Mrs. Stewart and her son Clarence, in Cleveland. The
bodies were cut to pieces and thrown into
Lake Erie He says the following morning he killed a boy in the Big Four
yards in Linndale, Ohio.
In
Buffalo he and Walrath and a
man named Burns, a saloon keeper, killed
a wealthy western farmer who was looking for a good time. The money was
divided and Stone and Walrath returned
to Chicago and with their share started a restaurant. Here Walrath
married Stone's sister. Mrs. Walrath died and
Stone and Walrath left Chicago. Later Stone returned and was implicated
in the murder of a father and son named
Prunty.
Three
men are said to be now
serving life sentences at Joliet for the crime,
but Stone was not arrested. Another murder was
committed at Union City, Pa., the victim being
an old man, named Horton. Another murder was committed by
the trio near Youngstown, O.,
the victim being a resident of Ashtabula
The
last murder committed by
Stone and Walrath was on April 29, 1895, on
a Pennsylvania freight train. At this time Stone was shot and did not
get medical aid until South Bend was reached.
The next desperate act of the trio was the robbery of a Grand Trunk
train in Michigan where five watches and money
were secured.Two of these watches have been identified since their
arrest here.
This
afternoon, when the officers
learned that John C. Stone's confession
had become generally known, he was hustled out of the city to the
Michigan City penitentiary to serve a term of
10 years. When Stone made his private confession two months ago he
implicated his pal, John Duffey, as the leading
spirit in the bloody highway robberies. This sensational
confession was kept concealed till Duffey was placed
on trial yesterday for assanlt with intent to kill a posse
of deputy sheriffs. The confession
became public too late to have any effect on Duffey's case, as, when
the jury retired at night, the wild tale of
crimes had not reached the jury. Duffey only received a 4-year sentence.
Police Do Not Credit It.
Cleveland, Dec. 4. The
police of this city think the
confession of John Stone, at Fort Wayne,
Ind., is based largely on imagination. Nothing is known here of the
crimes which Stone says he and Walrath committed
in Cleveland.
<>November 29
1903
<>Crimes
Committed By Indiana Bandits
<>Will Stand
Trial For Murder At An Early Date
<>Indictment
Voted Against Murderer Of Officer Quinn
<>
<>
Indictments were voted by the
Grand Jury today
against Harvey Van Dein, Peter Neldermeier and
Emil Roeski, the three young bandits who were arrested yesterday. An
indictment was also voted against Gustav Marx,
who murdered Officer Quinn, and was with the others in the majority of
their crimes.
Indictments were voted charging Van Dein with complicity in five
murders; against Neidermeier for four charges
of murder and of Marx for four murders. Roeski will stand trial for one
murder. The following are the crimes for
which indictments were voted by the jury.
Van Diel and Marx for the murder of Otto Bauder July
9th; Neidermeier, Van Dein and Marx for
the murder of Frank W. Stewart during the car barn robbery August 20th;
Van Dein, Neidermeier and Marx for the
murder of John B. Johns at the barns for the murder of Detective John
Quinn November 21st; Van Dein and Neidermeier
for the murder of Adolph Johnson August 1st. at North One Hundred and
Seventy eighth street and West North Avenue
in the saloon of B.C. Legrosse, also the murder of Legrosse at the same
time.
Cognizance con not be taken in Illinois of the murder of Brakeman Sovca
in Indiana Friday, nor of the shooting
of Detective Driscoll and Zimmer in Indiana
It is the intention of State Attorney Dincen to bring the men to trial
as quickly as possible. It will take two
weeks, as all four of the men worked together, but it happened when the
greater crimes were committed one of the
men was absent. Roeski was not at the robbery of the car barns and had
no part in the murders committed at that
time. Marx was alone when he killed Officer Quinn and was in jail
yesterday when the murders were committed in
Indiana. Either one of these two, therefore, will probably have a
separate trial unless a general plea of guilty
is made by all four men.
Peter Neidermeier confessed tonight that he had been
guilty of robbing trains, in addition to
his other crimes. He admitted that he was the leader of a gang that
held up and robbed a Baltimore and Ohio passenger
train near Miller, Ind., about two years ago. The robbery was committed
the spoilt where the three men were discovered
yesterday by the police and Neidermeier said tonight that the dugout in
which he and his companions were found
yesterday, was the exact spot where he and hs partners in the train
robbery had hidden before holding up the train.
He also confessed to the killing of a train detective who attempted to
put him off a freight train on which he
was beating his way through Canada.
INDIANA
NOTES:
The Ninth Indiana Cavalry will hold
its annual reunion at Fortville on Oct.
12, 1899.
Oct. 4,1899
< style="font-family: arial;">Twenty-eight
divorce cases are docketed for the present term of the Circuit Court at
Peru
Wilson Bailey, a farmer of gill
Township, Sullivan County, is reported to have been robbed of $1,000 in
gold, which he kept in a corn bin.
A company of 54 men has been mustered
into the State militia of Muncie. J.K. Ritter is Captain, and John
Seldomridge and Jacob Melton first and Second Lieutenants, respectively.
Anderson Methodists laid the first
foundation stone of their $50,00 church yesterday, and the Christians
have commenced the construction of a $35,000. both will be dedicated
next Summer.
Bryce Moore was Wednesday appointed
truancy officer in Tipton County, vice Joseph major, who resigned.
Major resigned because the county Council cut his salary to $120 a year.
Isaac W. Little, of Blackburn, IN.
was locked up at Evansville on a charge of fraudulently signing a
pension voucher and securing the money. Isaac W. little, of Blackburn ,
KY. is the alleged victim of the fraud.
The charges preferred against
Councilman John McMillen and Commissioner McCandless, of Anderson, of
gross misappropriation of city funds and converting them to their own
use, were quashed and both men discharged.
The Terre’ Haute district Women’s
Relief Corps of the G.A.R. held its 6th annual convention at Terre
Haute Thursday, with about 60 delegates present. Mrs. Minerva Nolan, of
Clinton, was elected President. The districts work is very flourishing.
The third annual reunion of the
G.A.P. of Hendricks County will be held at Plainfield in the
schoolhouse grove, Saturday. Oct. 7th 1899. Adjutant General R.M.
Smock, of Indianapolis, and Walter Russell, of the Indiana Reform
School for Boys, will make the addresses.
An epidemic of malaria of a very
severe type has broken out along the Mississinewa river, near Matthews
, owing to the pollution of that stream. Whole families are sick, and 3
deaths have occurred within 2 days. The infected strip does not extend
more than half a mile inland from either bank of the river.
Jan. 04,1899
“Old Dick” the oldest horse on the farm of the Indiana Reform School is
dead. For nearly a score of year this faithful animal has served the
State. Last Thursday afternoon, while drawing a small wagon, he
staggered and fell over on his side and soon after breathed his last.
He was about 30 yrs old and was buried near the place where he fell.
>

©2007 Genealogy
Trails