The Conneautville Courier from Conneautville, Pennsylvania • 1

9 The Conneautville Courier. ESTABLISHED 1847. CONNEAUTVILLE, DECEMBER 26, 1901. VOL. 55.

No. 5. OF LOCAL INTEREST. "Merry Christmas." A Board of Trade was organized in Union City last week. The next thing in order will be the turning over of new leaves.

The school children are enjoying their holiday vacation in great shape. The thaw is softening the hubs and there is promise of fair wheeling for Christmas. The loss from high water in Pitteburg last week is estimated at a round million dollars. Mr. George C.

Kendig, of Erie, has been appointed mercantile appraiser for Erie county for 1902. H. J. Olds, editor of the News Letter, was on Thursday appointed postmaster at Orwell, Ashtabula county. Holiday travel began on Tuesday, when the reduced rates became effective.

It promises to be the largest ever known. The Catholie and Methodist Episcopal congregations at South Sharon will erect new churches, to cost about $10,000 each. The Presbyterian Sabbath school will hold their Christmas exercises on Christmas evening, one day later than was originally fixed. An epidemic of mumps is making matters interesting in both East and West Springfield, with sufflcient material left over to let the surrounding country in on the deal. The Albion schools were closed last week on account of a pupil coming down with scarlet fever.

The case was a mild one and so far there has been no spread of the disease. A small son of Evan Callahan, of Hickory township, Mercer county, was playing with some buttons on Thursday when he got one fastened in his throat, and before a physician arrived he choked to death. Henry C. Payne, the new postmaster general, when a boy resided in Fredonia, Chautauqua county, N. Y.

He is a nephew of Charles S. Payne, an old-time Conneautville resident, who is now a hotel man at Brocton. The COURIER bears date the day after Christmas, but is issued the night fore, in order to admit of our employes enjoying the holiday. We are thus in time to extend to all our readers the compliments of the season. The Odd Fellows and Daughters of Rebekah of this place sent their annual Christmas remembrance to the Odd Fellows Home in Meadville on Monday.

A barrel containing clothing, books and other articles made up the contribution. The rural mail carriers did the Santa Claus act in their rounds on Monday and Tuesday, being loaded with packages. The service is being more and more appreciated, and the patrons already begin to wonder how they got along without it. Conneautville postoffice has been a busy place the past few days, the rush of holiday business making the outgoing and incoming mails the largest ever handled. The money order business kept pace in its increase with the other departments.

While we have not so far had sufficient snow for sleighing, a few miles north of us roads have been blocked by drifts. The trolley line between Erie and North East was blocked from Saturday night until Tuesday by snow drifts. Snow also interfered with the Erie-Edinboro line. The territory between Stony Point and Shermansville, this county, is to be tested for oil and gas by a company of Cleveland men who have leased some three thousand acres starting southwest of the former place and running through the ridge toward the latter point. Six wells are to be put down.

It don't pay to do the humane act in Erie. A farmer who wrapped a quarter of beef in a horse blanket to keep it from the cold when bringing it to market, was hauled up before the Mayor, who 'fined him $5 and costs. It seems it wasn't the first time the farmer had done the trick, and failed to heed the caution given him by the officers. While casting at the Conneautville Iron Works on Saturday morning, moisture caused by frost resulted in an explosion which scattered the molten metal over the foundry. Messrs.

Frank, H. H. C. and Frank Moulthrop, were engaged in the work and all were hit, the latter being severely burned upon the hands. Frank, had one leg burned, and the clothing of all four men was set on fire in a number of places.

The accident might well have been much more serious. PERSONAL MENTION: Mr. Steve Allen, of Andover, spent Sunday in town. Mrs. L.

M. Hewit, of Buffalo, is visiting at her old home here. Mrs. L. D.

Sloan goes to Mercer on Wednesday to spend a week with her parents. Mrs. Horace W. Power came from Cleveland last week to remain over the holidays. Mrs.

Carrie Tew went to New Castle on Friday to spend the holidays with relatives. Mr. Joseph Otto went to Olean, N. on Tuesday, to spend Christmas with relatives. Mrs.

Livera Stilwell has gone to Youngstown for a two month's visit with relatives. Messrs. Frank Montague and Paul Sturtevaut are home from Pittsburg to spend Christmas. Mr. Herbert Miller and family, of Butler, are back at the old home to spend Christmas.

Mr. John Davenport has returned to his work at Rankin, after a month at his home here. Miss Alice Benning, a teacher in the East Springfield schools, is home for the holiday vacation. Miss Julia Klumph, who has been attending school at Oshawa, Canada, returned home on Saturday. Mrs.

Vesta M. Leet left on Tuesday to spend the holidays with her son, Dr. D. S. Leet, in Pittsburg.

Mrs. Emma Neal Dean and little daughter, Anna, are spending the holidays with relatives in Erie. Mr. George G. Foster, of Pittsburg, is the guest of his grandmother, Mrs.

A. P. Foster, at his old home here. Dr. and Mrs.

C. L. Townley and daughter, Emma, went to Woodeock on Tuesday to remain until Friday. Mrs. John Davenport went to Meadville on Monday to spend the holidays with her daughter, Mrs.

D. L. Collum. Mr. Harry Seeley, of Conneaut, spent Sunday at his old home 88 the guest of his brother, Mr.

E. E. Seeley. Mr. and Mrs.

W. R. DeGroodt, west of town, left on Tuesday to spend the holidays with relatives in Madison, N. Y. Mrs.

S. J. Cary left on Saturday for 8 month's visit with the family of her son, Mr. Fred Cary, at Evans City, Butler county. Mrs.

C. W. Reuiff and daughter, Miss Eva, went to Ashtabula on Tuesday, to spend Christmas with Mrs. Richard Sweet, 8 daughter of the former. Prothonotary E.

T. Mason spent Friday and Saturday in town, coming over to attend the meeting of the Current Topics Club, of which he is a member. Mr. and Mrs. Fred Knapp came home from Marietta, Ohio, on Tuesday.

Miss Lillian Fish, who has been visiting them the past month, returned with them. Prof. R. S. Penfield and family, of Chicora, Butler county, came up to the old home on Saturday to spend Christmas with the former's parents, Mr.

and Mrs. Orrin Penfield. Mr. Walter Miller, of Cleveland, was in town on Monday, on his way home from spending the Sabbath with his brother, Mr. J.

Miller, in Conneaut township, who is seriously ill. Messrs. Marion Lockwood and Watkin P. Sturtevant, the former attending Mt. Union College at Alliance, Ohio, and the latter the Military Institute at Bordentown, New Jersey, are home to spend the holiday vacation.

Mr. D. W. Sutliff returned on Thursday from a month's visit with his children at Latrobe and Allegheny. Mrs.

Sutliff, who was with him, came home on Tuesday and was accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Chas. B. Redmond and children, who came back to the old home to spend the holidays.

Miss Katarine Cruthers, of Allegheny City, who has been the guest of Mrs. E. L. Brown the past three weeks, left on Saturday for California. She will be met at Baker City on Christmas, by Mr.

George McCabe Brown, of this place, to whom she will be married, after which they will go to McKittrick, where the groom has a house ready for their occupancy. Mr. Brown holds a responsible position with the Standard Oil Company, and as his duties would not permit of his coming after his bride, the problem was solved by her going to him. The young couple will have the best wishes of a host of friends. Andrew Bales, of Sharon, has been appointed mercantile appraiser of Mercer county.

Lodged in the County Jail. Sheriff D. N. Scott reached Meadville on Thursday morning in charge of Frank Woodard, and the prisoner was safely lodged in the county jail, occupying a cell on the second floor. The prisoner gave his age as 35 years.

He is a man below medium heighth and weighs probably 150 pounds, and his appearance is not that of the desperado which he has been pictured. Woodard offered no objections to coming to Meadville without a requisition, but to make matters safe a paper was drawn up waiving his rights, which agreement he signed. When the document was presented to him, he asked what name he would affix. The attorney answered, "your own," and Woodard immediately signed, "Frank Woodard." This is the only admission he has sO far made as to his identity, and it may become a piece of important evidence at his trial. The West Virginia officials kept the prisoner in custody until reaching the Pennsylvania State line, when he was turned over to Sheriff Scott.

The prisoner gave the sheriff no trouble on the trip, but every precaution was taken to prevent his escape in case he attempted it. He did not sleep a wink on the trip, but slept soundly after being placed in his cell in the jail. On Friday afternoon Woodard was taken before 'Squire Lockart, in Meadville, and waived a hearing on charges of murder and burglary, the offences being the murder of Daniel McGrath, the burglary of the railroad station in Titusville, and the robbing at the house of Bertha Bloom where the shooting occurred. The prisoner pleads not guilty and says he knows nothing of the crimes with which he is charged. Sheriff Scott maintains a day and night watch on prisoner, the County Commissioners allowing him 860 per month for the night service but making no provision for the extra day work.

It is supposed the case will come up at February sessions. Struck by a Train. Edward McGuire, an aged resident of Conneaut Lake, was struck by a train on the Bessemer at the Raydure farm, just east of that place, on Wednesday morning and seriously injured. He was walking on the track and says he heard the warning whistle but thought he could make a board that led to a spring by the side of the track, but wasn't quick enough. The pilot beam struck him and fortunately threw him clear of the track.

He had two ribs broken and was naturally badly shaken up, but it is thought will recover. No blame is attached to the train men, as the accident occurred on a curve and full warning was given. Oriental Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, of this place, at their regular meeting on Friday evening elected the following officers to serve the ensuing year: High Priest, Lynne L. Rupert; King, Stephen E. Davis; Scribe, Dayton A.

Lawrence; Secretary, W. E. Wormald; Treasurer, E. Byron Fish; Representative to Grand Chapter, Dr. M.

B. Naramore. The officers of the Chapter and of Western Crawford Lodge will be installed on Friday afternoon of this week. On the same evening, the two organizations will have a banquet at the Power House for the members and their ladies. Mrs.

Rebecca Carringer, wife of D. J. Carringer, and sister of Mrs. James Brown, of this place, died at her home in San Diego, California, on the 14th, aged 69 years. She was a terrible sufferer for many months with cancer.

Mrs. Carringer was a native of Mercer county, but had resided in Colorado and California for many years. She leaves beside her husband two sons. Mrs. Brown is now the only survivor of her father's family of ten children.

Messrs. Moulthrop Sons, of the Conneautville Iron Works, recently shipped a car of grate bars to an Erie boiler manufactory, and the work was so satisfactory as to result in an order for a second car. The probabilities are that the foundry will be kept running steadily on this one class of work. Conneautville rural mail carriers are a healthy lot. They have now been on duty nearly three months, covering about the worst season of the year, and so far not one has missed a trip on account of sickness.

Two of the six, Messrs. Ed. Wing and Will West, have not lost a day. 404 The ladies of the Methodist church will serve their annual New Year's dinner in the church parlors Jan. 1st, at one o'clock.

Supper will be served at six and ice cream and cake during the evening. Paid to 1907. A remittance from Messrs. Ohlman of Brooklyn, New York, on Monday, advanced their subscription to the COURIER to Jan. 1st, 1907, placing them at the head of our list of advance paying subscribers.

Messrs. Ohlman gave us the same kind of a Christmas remembrance the last time they remitted, when they paid a half dozen years in advance. The Ohlman Brothers were among Conneautville's leading business men a quarter of a century ago, removing to their present home in order to secure a larger field. The move was a fortunate one, as their business has grown with each succeeding year, and for years they have ranked among the leading houses of Brooklyn. But prosperity has not caused them to forget the little town in which they got their start in life, and in all these years the old home paper has made its regular weekly visit to them, and they tell us it has always had a careful perusal.

To their business letter to us, Mr. Emanuel Ohlman adds a postscript: "I wish you all, and all my old friends, a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year." A Little Wreck. On Wednesday evening of last week, as train No. 2, on the Bessemer Lake Erie Railroad, the express from Pittsburg to Greenville, was pulling out from Houston Junction, the rear trucks of the rear coach became detached and the end of the car dropped to the track. The conductor was in the car and he quickly pulled the bell rope and the train was brought to a standstill by the time the car had been dragged the length of itself on the ties.

Fortunately but little damage was done and no serious injuries were inflicted on any of the passengers, although nearly all were well shaken up and more or less bruised. Clyde Baily, of Meadville, who arose to his feet when the shock occurred was thrown against the car and received 8 cut over each eye which required the attention of a physician and he WAS taken to the hospital. The trucks left the track and struck the pilot of 8 freight engine standing on the side track damaging it considerably. The coach was left at the junction and after a half hour's delay the train went on to Greenville with the smoker. Charles Tallman, a farmer living four miles southeast of Girard, was killed in 8 runaway on Saturday.

Himself and his twelve year old son were on their way to Girard in a cutter when in descending a steep hill the hold back straps broke, causing the horse to run away. The sleigh was overturned and its occupants thrown out head foremost. Mr. Tallman struck his head against a post, fracturing his skull and causing his death in a few minutes. The boy escaped serious injury.

Mr. Tallman was about 69 years of age and leaves 8 large family. The Arctic weather which was with us when the COURIER was issued last week, continued until Sunday, when there was a decided temperature, the mercury getting into the thirties for the first time in a week. Since that time, mild winter weather has prevailed, with occasional ligbt falls of rain. Thursday and Friday nights were the coldest of the season, the mercury dropping to ten below zero Thursday night and standing at six below at 7 o'clock Friday morning.

Etta Van Wyck, a widow, aged 43 years, committed suicide at her home in Oil City on Thursday, by hanging herself with carpet binding twine, which she suspended from her bedroom door. She had been dead several hours when found. It is supposed she killed herself while suffering from temporary insanity caused by a year's illness. Three weeks ago she made an unsuccessful attempt to end her life with poison. Clarence Klumph, a son of Mr.

Delos Klumph, of Conneaut, Ohio, formerly of this place, who was an employe of the Bessemer here last spring, has enlisted in the regular army and is now enroute to the Philippines. He kept his intentions a secret from his parents, who supposed he was visiting here until advised by Letter from San Francisco that he was about to sail. Conneautville merchants, and especially those who advertised liberally, are congratulating themselves on their Christmas trade. While the weather could not well have been more unfavorable nor the roads worse, the business was larger than was ever before done here, and rounds up the best year in history of our town. A Horrible Accident.

Nine men were killed and five others injured in a gas explosion in the Soho furnace, operated by Jones Laughlins, in Pittsburg, on Thursday morning. The explosion occurred in the big blast furnace. The men were at work on top of the furnace, over 120 feet from the ground. Some of them were employed as "fillers in" and were just getting ready to quit work, being members of the night crew, when the gas which had accumulated in the furnace as the result of cinder, exploded. Tons of molten metal, cinder and slag were thrown over the unfortunate men on the top of the strueture.

When the gas exploded a panic ensued on the little walk about the top of the furnace. All made a rush for the elevator, but it had gone down and there was no escape. To jump meant death. To remain on the platform was certain doom. The only thing that they seemed to try to do was to spring over the edge of the iron railing and try to shield themselves from the fury of the flames by holding to the railing.

There the men hung until the tons of molten metal and flame fell upon them and burned them until they were unconscious. Then they dropped to the roof of the casting shed below, a distance of 85 feet, almost every bone in their bodies broken, an almost unrecognizable mass of human flesh. Ordinarily only three men worked on top of the furnace, but Thursday morning one of the heavy iron wagons used in taking up the ore to the top of the furnace got stuck on top of the structure and the three men sent for assistance. A few men went up but they could not move the wagon and more joined them until the number reached 14. It was while they were trying to get the wagon released that the explosion took place.

All the men at work on top of the furnace were Slavs and Poles. The nitro-glycerine magazine of the Pennsylvania Torpedo Company, two and one-ha lath of Butler, blew up ternoon of last week, ser over acres of ground the fragments of two men, killing two horses and leaving to mark the spot where the magazine had stood a hole in the ground 10 feet deep and 40 feet in diameter and demolishing the nitroglycerine factory of T. B. Humes, 200 feet from the magazine. The names of the two men killed are Charles D.

Parker and Thomas L. Edwards, who were careful and experienced workmen. The cause of the explosion will never be known. A search in the neighborhood of the explosion was the means of discovering about twenty pounds of shreds of human flesh which could not be identified, and the remains were interred in one grave, a funeral service in memory of both men being held on Thursday. Rev.

John Peate, of Greenville, a superannuated member of the Erie Conference of the M. E. church, and a former presiding elder of Meadville district, who is SO well known as a scientific man and expounder of the gospel, has been made an LL. D. The fact that Rev.

Peate is not a college graduate and never attended a college as a pupil or to take a postgraduate course is a peculiar feature of the case. His learning has all been secured through practical experience and it is few men of his stamp who are honored by degrees, from colleges. The American University, of Harriman, conferred the degree on Rev. Peate. The record for new churches in Western Crawford in recent years by a single denomination is held by the Methodists, who have built modern edifices in Springboro, Linesville, Harmonsburg, Espyville and Westford, and have one nearing completion in Conneaut Lake.

The Smith church, near Rundell, has also been overhauled and made better than when new. Major Isaac B. Brown, of Corry, Deputy Secretary of Internal Affairs, has formally announced that he will be a candidate for the Republican nomination in 1902 for Secretary of Internal Affairs. Major Brown served during the civil war under General Hartranft and his candidacy is endorsed by the survivors of Hartranft's division. In the Mercer county court last week, P.

S. McFarland, of Pymatuning, pleaded guilty to selling liquor with out a license and on Sunday and was sentenced to pay costs of prosecution, a fine of $250 and to undergo an imprisonment of 20 days in the county jail. Another Pittsburg Accident. Three dead, one missing and twelve injured is the result of a terrific boiler explosion at the Black Diamond Steel Works of Park Brothers, in Pittsburg, on Friday. It was about 6:15 o'clock, as the night crew was about to turn over the mill to the day force, that four boilers in the ten-inch mill No.

3, exploded with terrific force, scattering death and destruction in all directions. From what can be learned the four boilers exploded at one time, reducing the mill to a hen of burned and charred timbers and twisted iron. The mill had sixty men on each turn, and it is thought that almost one hundred and twenty men, both crews, were in the plant at the time of the explosion. They were all at work or just about to begin work, and all the night men were clad in their scanty working attire. When the boilers exploded a panic ensued, and the men fought their way to the entrances, and all that were able rushed to the street.

A few minutes after the boilers let go, the big mill was a heap of ruins. The injured and known dead were found under wreckage, and in the mill yard where they had fallen in their race for life. And Still Another. One of a battery of five boilers used to operate the sheet mills of the Singer- Nimick plant of the Crucible Steel Company of America, exploded at 6:55 Saturday morning. Seven men were scalded, one cut and twenty or thirty burned.

It is reported that two of the scalded men will die. About 60 men were at work in the sheet 1 mill when the boilers let go and a panic ensued. The mill was filled with hot water and steam. Men rushed wildly through the blinding steam for places of safety. Some fell and were trampled upon, but of the 60 men in the plant at the time fully onehalf were more or less injured.

The cause of the explosion is attributed to frozen pipes which supplied the boiler with water. John Swagger, of Lake township, near Sandy Lake, was burned to death Monday night of last week. On Monday morning the residence of Swagger was burned to the ground. Swagger went to the ruins of his little home Monday night and built a fire of the debris, preparing to spend the night there. He was found by a neighbor the next morning with all his clothing burned off and his body frozen.

It is said he had been drinking heavily the day before his death. Mrs. Rose Kane, wife of James J. Kane, of Meadville, died suddenly of apoplexy at her home on Thursday morning. She was engaged in preparing breakfast when stricken down and died in a short time without regaining consciousness.

Deceased was 45 years of age and leaves beside her husband three sons. Eight employes of the Pennsylvania Company were arrested in New Castle last week on a charge of engaging in worldly employment on the Sabbath. They were taken before an alderman who fined them each $4 and costs which were paid. The complaint was made by a former employe of the road. The Baldwin locomotive works in Philadelphia have already contracted to deliver approximately 700 locomotives next year to railroads in this country and other parts of the world.

Of this number 307 are for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. A coal famine in Cleveland obliged the coal dealers to make deliveries on Sunday, more than a hundred wagons being employed in the work. The delivery had been kept up all Saturday night but it was found necessary to work all day Sunday. At a joint meeting of the various tents of the Knights of the Maccabees of Allegheny county, held in Old City Hall, in Pittsburg, on Thursday night, a class of 850 members was initiated. This is the record for the order in the United States.

The American Express Company last week announced that each of the 10,000 employes of the corporation in the United States would receive a Christmas gift of $10. Last year the company gave each of its employes $5. Martin Lucius, aged 14 years, employed in the tin mill in Sharon, fell while at his work on Thursday and was caught in the machinery and so badly crushed as to cause his death a few hours later. The Maccabees will hold their annual masquerade ball on Friday evening, Feb. 7th..