The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1854-01-20
A MONUMENT TooA YOUTHFUL


/ A scheme has been devised, and a com
mittee appointed at Mllwsukie, TO carry
lout the plan for raising 4 monument to
EMANUEL DAMON, the boy who died rathl
er than tell ale.
The age OF heroes snot passed, as is
proved in the case Of this murdered boy,
whose sufferings and death are beyond
i belief, were they not substanliated by in
disputable testimony. Tho case is this:
The boy Damon was leftan orphan soon
after he came from England. His uncle
adopted him, but he soon died, ind the
! boy Emanuel was taken TO the poor
house, from which,a the age of six years,
he was adopted by a man residing in Mars
quette county, Wisconsin, with whom he
lived two and half years, and until he
4 was found in the house Of his foster-fa>
| lher, dead. The man and his wife were
arrested for murder, and the following
facts are taken from the charge Of the
Judge who tried the CASE .,'.''' "
4 "The defendaD,s-husbaud and wife
were respectable farming people, resi-
ding in Marquette county,and were child
less. They had two orphan children
bound 10 them--ono a little gill abou,
len years Of age, and the other the boy
Emanuel, eight years Of age i have no
means Of ascerlaining anything Of the
previous hstors Of Emanuel, and only
know that he was taken from the Milws,I>
kie poor-honse. He was fragile child,
and had never been in robust hcalth.--
Those who knew him spoke Of him as an
intelligent, bright, blpe>eyed boy, aud
very winning in his playfullii,le ways.
II appeared from the testimony Of the
little girl--who was the sole witness 10
the torture-that Emanuel was charged
With having told a le. What the lie was,
we could not, by either pursuasion or by
the fear of punishment, induce her 10 tell.
The counsel FOR The State exhausted their
ingenuity in vain; nor could I, after draws.
ing her 10 me and by soothing words EN-.
deavorng TO quiet her fears, induce her
TO tell what the lie was. The child had
evidently been in,imidated by threats Of
personal injury. This was afterwards as
cerained to be the fact when the trial was
over, and her fos'er-parents safely lodged
in prison. She said That Emanuel had
by chance discovered tl.o woman in
criminal act, and had told her, and she
had told her wicked parents. Hence il
became all important TO the woman, (who
had succeeded in quoting her husband J
that the lie should be whipped out Of
Emanuel. Accordingly the man procured
six whips-the toughest kind Of swamp.
wllow--whch by his own confession
were four feet in length and as large at
the butt end as ones little finger, and
about nine O'Clock al night took Emanuel
who still persisted in telling the truth
i'd the loft of The calm, and having
stripped him 10 the Shirt wound that a
round his neck and tied him up by cord
By both wrists 10 a rafler, 80 that his feet
but barely touched The fpor, ..Y %.T
Here he whipped him for Two hours,
only resisting at intervals 10 procure
fresh whip, or 10 demand Of his victim
that he should own that he had told a lie.
The boys only answer was, "Pa, did
not lie." The girl said ina, Emenuel did
not cry much, and it is probable that he
tainted during portion Of The time, as
the inquiries upon his body showed tor>
ture under which even the physical
strength Of an adult would havesunk.--
The physician who examined the body,
testified that thcte was not spot, from
the arm.p!is to the ancles, large enough
to place your fngernpon, but was scover>
ed with liyid welts; sand in very many
places The skin was broken. as9t u
And still The brave boy held out! He
must have had a sainied mother, for the
teachings Of none other could have so i'm
planted truth into his every fibre.
Yes-still he held out; and when he
was taken down, with the cords cutting
deep into his little wrists, and the warm
blood trickling from his limbs, and his
head upon his murlerer's shoulders. his
lasi words were, spa, ! am so cold !"
and then his pure spirit fed forever, be-
yond the reach oftorture and inlumani,y,
10 that brigh. world where wrong and op>
preston can never be known. ,.ssl3
He unques,ionably died with Truth
still in his heart, and was a martyr 10 il.
The whips were quite worn up, as the