Put That in Your Pipe and Smoke It

News of the Week ending with August 6 1880    

SP Barton shipped 14,000 bushels of wheat in July.  Excursion tickets to Chicago were $5.59 on the D&SW railroad.  Wells’ Chicago boots sold for $2.75 and were warranted for one year. “Gutter snipes” was another way of saying “cigar stumps” picked up and smoked by tramps.

Thomas F Hardacre’s quiet old horse took a scare with him capsizing the buggy and bruising Mr. Hardacre considerably. The surveyor James Benefiel, assisted by GW Barr, engineer, commenced laying off ditches on Allison Prairie. Mr. J. Traur and Company opened an immense stock of clothing at their Bridgeport store. The Presbyterian congregation at Sumner was preparing to build a new church.

The Lawrenceville papers stated that John Moore, boarding at the Hotel de Scott for some time, (aka Jail) for adultery, marched up before his Honor Judge Conger, accompanied by his would be’ fraulein’ and received 10 more days in Paradise Hall. However, the Vincennes papers identified the parties differently.  “In the case of the People versus Phillip Moss and Mary E Hale, who had been confined in jail on a charge of adultery, the grand jury failed to find an indictment and they were discharged by the court. Mrs. Emerine Moss was granted a divorce from her former lord and master Philip Moss and was granted the custody of her two children. Phillip Moss whose wife obtained a divorce in the Circuit Court Tuesday was married about 15 minutes after the decree was made to Mary Hale whom he had been charged with being intimate with.”

At the basket meeting last Sunday of the Independent Order of Good Templars,  the roup, feeling that they owed Miss Ella Blackburn a cake, that she won at the supper last spring and failed to get, on the motion of Frank P Shields, purchased one and presented it to her.

Doctor Jesse K Dubois and his brother Fred left for Idaho. The doctor had been appointed physician at Fort Hall, Indian Reservation. They went via UP RR and Northern to Port Neuf, then by stage to Fort Hall.  The time to make the trip was about 8 days.

The following deaths occurred: July 4th Amos Rich Russell Township of typhoid fever, aged 26 years; and  July 10 Elizabeth Neal Lawrence Township of catarrhal phthisis, aged 55 years.

Bridgeport brevities August 4th, 1880, Bridgeport has a street sprinkler. WM Lewis has shipped 5 carloads of wheat. A nice shower occurred Monday morning and the farmers were busy plowing for wheat. Mrs. WM Lewis returned home from French Lick Springs. John Novall was blind.  Adolf Schmalhausen’s wife had a baby boy. A great deal of wheat had been coming into market for the past three weeks, but the buyers said it was very damp. Charlie Eshelman intended to attend Lebanon Ohio for school. HK Lanterman of Bridgeport leased the Centennial hotel for another year. Sage and Son contemplated building another story on their flouring mill at Bridgeport.

Died at the Centennial house on Sunday night August 1, Captain Jenks, the little white dog who, for several years past, has been shot at and given Strychnine and arsenic, but nothing would have any effect till last Sunday night when something like an epidemic started out slaying Henry Sage’s little nappy and several others too numerous to mention. Rumors had it that Captain Jenks had been poisoned.

A farmer living a half dozen miles south of Sumner, was victimized to the tune of $76 by a lightning rod agent, a few days ago. The agent called upon the rural gentleman and contracted with him for a rod which he was to furnish for $26. When the rod slingers came around to put up their work the farmer was absent. The slick scoundrels took advantage of his absence and put rods all over the house, on a smokehouse, and on anything they could fasten one to. The farmer returned, gave his note for the 76 dollars and has gone into a period of mourning to last 90 days.

A great number of farmers in Russell Township had lost several hogs from cholera. Henry Draim Sr., a farmer there, invested in a quantity of hog cholera medicine because his porkers had nearly all been attacked with the fatal disease.

During a thunderstorm Monday a horse belonging to Marcus Potts who lived 3 miles West of Saint Francisville was struck by lightning and instantly killed. Missus Potts, who was nearby, was severely shocked. Among the horses in the vicinity of Saint Francisville, that are afflicted with’ wrangles’ is a very fine mare of Doctor Charles Frazier of Saint Francisville. That disease is still very fatal in that locality.

Peter Smith told the reporter of his remarkable ‘staying’ quantities.  He was 78 years of age and could read without glasses. He did not require the aid of a cane in walking, and could make 8 or 10 miles a day without much fatigue. He had not been sick for 10 years. Mr. Smith attributed his good fortune to the fact that he was strictly a temperance man and had never used tobacco.

Circuit Court was opened Monday morning Judge Conger on the bench. After empaneling the jury, the first case tried was that of the People versus Jacob Saar for selling whiskey to an habitual drunkard. The jury returned a verdict of guilty and assessed his fine at $20 plus costs. Motion for new trial was overruled. Pleasant Gowens was tried on a charge of having removed a cornerstone, but the jury found him not guilty. The case of People versus William Casey, who was charged with stealing wheat, was tried. The jury found him guilty and sentenced him to the penitentiary for one year.

The case of the People versus Silas Rich, brought to Lawrence County from Crawford County on a change of venue for the outrage of Miss Haskins near Hardinsville, August 7^th, 1879, was called but was continued till the next term of court. The next case taken up was that of the People versus John Wood for forgery. The verdict of the jury was guilty, with the punishment assessed at one year in the penitentiary. Joseph Pebble Jr was granted a divorce from his wife Mary A Pepple.

The measles were very bad in Lawrenceville, Sumner and Bridgeport.  The 14-year-old son of Judge Potts was lying in critical condition, and his recovery was extremely doubtful. A party of men explored an old furnace hidden in the bank of the Embarrass River near Lawrenceville on the eastern end of the dam. In repairing the dam, the water fell so low that it was revealed to the gaze of the curious. It was presumed to have been used at some time in the past by counterfeiters, as a coin, old, and much dilapidated from having lain so long in the water, was recently discovered in the river a few feet below the entrance to the cave. The coin is in possession of Mr. BL Cunningham.

Russellville claimed to be a temperance town but from the amount of prescriptions on the books of the druggists it seemed that a saloon would have done a thriving business. FW Curry, a prominent farmer of Russellville Township, finished delivering his wheat to Russellville Saturday. He sold it to Mr. Tindolph and only received $0.82 on account of its dampness. Mr. Curry had a hard time because in the endeavor to save his wheat from high water he was compelled to stack it while damp. Mr. George W Foreman, proprietor of the Russellville mills, informed newspaper correspondent that his mill, then under control of William Thomas, a well-known miller was turning out 38 lbs. of XX flour from each bushel of grain.

The editor of the Chrisman Advance published that they had purchased a large safe with “a three Tumbler combination, back action, double barrel, automatic tension, steam winder self-feeding lock” to deposit their subscription money.  The Rural Republican editor answered that she had a great big double and twisted pocketbook, all first-class leather, well- bound and warranted to hold all the loose silver that her subscribers deposited. “Put that in your pipe and smoke it”, she said.