Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1858-02-19
A SINGULAR MURDER CASE.

forty-three years ago there lived IN
the vicinity of Manchester, VT, two men
by the name of Browne, and another
brother-in-law to the Brownies, by the
name Of Colvin. These three men lived !
with their families in log cabins upon
new territory, little out Of the way of
neighbors, where they often worked to-
gether in clearing the laad, and planting
and tending their crops. As it was then
the universal fashion in that now total
abstinence state to drink whiskey to ex-
cess, it followed as a matter of course
that there was ar occasional quarrel land
sometimes a drunken row, such as would
pass muster even at this day in New
York. Our informant stated, also, that
the women were not exempt entirely
from spiritual influences. Each of the
parties, we believe, had children at any
rate Colvin had several, and some of
these, in his drunken moments, he denied
the right of calling him father, and that
Droduced quarrels between him and his
wife. In these as the Brownies alleged,
he bs:hamefully belied and abused their
.ssr, and for which they had often been
lard to threaten him with vengeance
he witness said with death. 1t this state
Of family difficulties they were living,
when one day, while at work together,
either planting or hoeing crop, the
brothers and brother-in-law got into a
violent quarrel-so afterwards said the
women, who alone witnessed it-during
which Colvin disappeared.
OF course, everybody believed that
the Brownies had murdered and secreted
the missing Colvin. To all inquiries the
same tale was told, that he had gone off,
no one knew why or where, and Il where
could he be heard of by personal inqui-
ries or through the press. Newspapers
are now. The Brownies acknowledged
that in the quarrel one of them struck
Colvin pretty severe blow on the head
with his hoe, but that it did not disable
him, because he Immediately walked of
and went directly into the woods, hatless
and coatless and barefoot; and as he wa:
not again seen or heard of, they came tC
believe, in the course of the seven years
that interviewed between that time ant
their trial and condemnation for his mur
der, that he had crept away into some
hole in the woods, and there died of tht
wound in the head, of which they had NJ
means of knowing whether it was sever
or not They only knew that bloot
flowed freely from it, but that he walket
away as strong as ever. OF course nj
Indictment could be found against Col
wins supposed mu"derers, because tn
strongest proof of his death, his corpse
was undiscovered; and thus the cas-
rested for seven long years, his wife in
cluded, looking upon his children as fa
therless, and upon her brothers as mul
derers.
About that time the field where the
were at work at the time of Colvin's di:
appearance came into the possession of
man who had always believed til
Brownies guilty of murder, and, as the
said, determined to prove them guilty
and he commenced a thorough scare
and found in a sort of a sink-hol
partly filed with logs, and overgroW
with bushes and briers, some button
sworn to by the widow as having belongt
to the coat that Colvin wore upon Il
day he was murdered. \ jack-kni
which he carried in the pocket of tn
coat was also found, and near the san
spot were discovered several bones viii
had once belonged to human being
the buttons and jack-knife there was
doubt, not even in the minds of t
Brownies because they knew he did 4
wear his coat away. Of the bones /
ing those of the murdered man there W
some doubt, because men of goood jud
ment testified they were too old, and IL
if Colvin's they would not only be sour
er but more of them. Where was t
remainder of the skeleton? This qur
ton was often put and always unanswt
ed. And so the two Brownies were
dlcted and put upon their trial for mi
der Then all these contradictory sta
ments made in seven years were int
duced and contrasted with their asser,
lions Of that moment when they We
enylroned with danger, and anxious
escape charge of which they were
guilty, 50 far as Of intentional murd
although fully believing that Colvin h
died from the effects of that affray
As usual in all cases admitting of dou
mere was party in their favor VIII
nj