Andrew Grandstaff, a young desperado of Richland Centre, Wis., was captured June 2nd, and confessed the crime of killing old Reuben Drake, his wife and two grandchildren. He was taken from jail by a mob, and lynched, being tortured to death.
There was almost a riot at the Second Presbyterian church in Newburyport last Sunday, owing to the parish committee having locked the doors and stationed an officer to prevent the late pastor, Rev. Theodore Beizeley, from entering. Legal complications are expected to ensue.
New Hampshire Items
Neil Sheehan, of “the landing,” at Dover, one of the liquor sellers who some time ago signed the “waiver” under the nuisance act, was on Friday held in $400 for the grand jury, on a charge of selling liquor since signing.
Mrs. John P. Hale, her daughters, Mrs. Kinsley and Mrs. Chandler, and Senator Chandler, will erect a statue to John P. Hale in the New Hampshire state house.
No Wonder He Wanted a Divorce
At Chicago, June 1st, while Mrs. Meckie L. Rawson was waiting in court for the divorce case of her husband, the banker Rawson, to be called, she fired four shots from a pistol at her husband’s attorney, Col. H.C. Whitney. Two of the bullets hit the lawyer, and it is thought he is fatally injured. Mrs. Rawson emptied her revolver at Whitney before she could be captured. She was arrested and taken to jail.
Mrs. Corner, the Christian Scientist, was held in $5000 on the charge of manslaughter.
Mrs. Ivory Bean and Mrs. Orrin C. Boothby of South Waterboro, York county, Me., got into a dispute on Memorial day, Mrs. Bean accusing the other woman of being too intimate with Mr. Bean. Mrs. Boothby resented this by knocking Mrs. Bean down, hauling her out of the house by the hair, and beating and kicking her. Mrs. Bean, who is in delicate situation, will probably die from the effects of this treatment, and her assailant has been arrested.
The Portsmouth [baseball] club managers overstepped their agreement to only pay their men $650 a month. Their salary list is over a thousand. What’s the use to play with such a club as that? Haverhill and Nashua want to throw them out of the league for breaking their agreement; Dover and Rochester should consent at once. Fun is fun, but when the Portsmouth people, who were so anxious to fix the $650 limit, are the first to break it, they should be taught a lesson. What’s the use of putting a club that costs $650 a month against one that costs $1000? Leonard, that won’t do. – Dover Democrat.
Squealing already, Dovers, are you? If it don’t cost more than $650 a month to hire a nine that includes such players as Jordan, Brennard, Moriarty and Dunn, then we’ll treat to a mess of clams dug from the flats of our base ball grounds.
New Hampshire Gazette, June 7, 1888
Pistol Practice in Tennessee
In Paris, Tenn., on the evening of June 4th, a young man named D. Porter, a son of Ex-Governor [James D.] Porter, was shot and killed by Alexander B. White, cashier of the Commercial bank. Porter had accosted White, and made a motion as if to draw his pistol. Earlier in the evening Kennedy Porter, another son of the ex-governor, assaulted one Edmunds, and shot him three times. Edmunds had shot Porter some months before, but failed to kill him.
Twelve thousand crates of choice Florida fruits and vegetables were dumped in New York harbor, last Saturday, to prevent a glut in the market and keep up prices. The parties guilty of this soulless conduct ought to be sent to Sing Sing for life.
Miss Mary Stauffer of Schuylkill Haven, Pa., was fatally burned last week by her chothes taking fire from burning brush. She was engaged to be married to Luke Fisher, and wishing to die his wife, was married to him five minutes before she ceased to breathe.
Forty-five non-union lasters have been secured in a shoe factory in Hudson, Mass., in place of strikers. The town is giving the new men ample police protection.
The remains of Rev. Fr. Deasy, late vicar of the American college at Rome, were shipped to this country as marble, to allay the superstition of the crew.
Murder By Train Robbers
An attempt was made to rob a train twelve miles from Cincinnati on the night of June 8th by a gang of masked men. Joe Ketchum, baggage master, was shot four times, and soon died. One of the robbers reached the engine, but was knocked down with a wrench and pitched from the cab; the others escaped, without any booty. The marshal of Aurora, Ind., on the 9th arrested four men who were rowing down the river in a skiff. They were not able to give a satisfactory account of themselves, and were thought to be the robbers.
Ex-Secretary of the Navy [George M.] Robeson, who has for some years past made Little Boar’s Head his summer home, will not be there this summer, owing to financial distress. Mr. Robeson is hereafter to practice law in Trenton, N.J., and begin over again as a practitioner before the supreme court of that state. The ex-secretary owes his misfortune, it is said, to unfortunate speculations in Wall street.
[“Robeson was the subject of two Congressional investigations in 1876 and 1878 on profiting and bribery charges from shipbuilding contracts but was exonerated for lack of material evidence.
“Elected in 1878, Representative for New Jersey, Robeson served as minority leader of the Republican Party. … Defeated … in a bitter highly contested 1882 election campaign, Robeson was left $60,000 in debt and forced to sell his Washington D.C. property. As a result of his financial troubles, his wife and family abandoned him while traveling abroad. … Although Robeson showed decisive action during the Virginius Affair while Secretary of the Navy, his reputation was marred by allegations of corruption during his tenure.” – Wikipedia]
Maritime Notes
The schooner Lizzie J. Call, of this port, Call master, which is to bring to this port from Bridgeport, Conn., the soldiers’ monument, on her return trip from New York, sailed from Bath, Me., for New York, on the 3d inst.
The British barque Balaklava arrived in San Francisco on the 5th inst. from London, after the remarkably long passage of one year and seventy-four days. Her misfortunes were many. There was not on her arrival a sailor on board who shipped in England. Ten sailors were washed overboard and drowned in a storm off Cape Horn. While at Valparaiso for repairs, the remainder of the crew deserted. The barque was again caught in a storm after leaving that port, and lost two more men.
It was in shockingly bad taste for the band in the democratic national convention hall at St. Louis to strike up “We’ll Hang Jeff Davis on a Sour Apple Tree” at an interesting stage in the proceedings. Such a wanton insult to a man who is idolized by a large portion of the democracy cannot be too strongly deprecated.
New Hampshire Gazette, June 14, 1888
Our thanks to the Portsmouth Athenaeum, holder of the newspapers from which the items above were excerpted. – The Ed.