Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1865-05-17
URBAn1A OHIO, WEDNESDAY,, MAY II. 1865.


'ood hang EN-" she said, and that's sar-
tin he'll never come out alive" But Of
course no heed could be paid to this, and
Fitch went. In two days he became
much worse, and said he should like to
see the clergyman before he died. The
doctor passed with me on our regular
round, and I dispatched Brown for the
curate of the parish. Fitch would last
another day, we both thought, and, leav-
ing him with Mrs. Brown went into the
next ward. When the clergyman came,
Fitch was dead. I went up to study in
London after the epidemic had passed
away, and forgot Stumpy Brown and
Woodbridge until the following facts
we're narrated to me about seven years
afterwards.
It appeared that a man of the name of
Green was charged at Woodbridge with
burglary. This man I knew was an old
companion of Browns, and seemed al
ways to have a sort of very mysterious
connection with him. When awaiting
his trial, he wrote to Brown that unless
he came and swore to an "alibi" for him,
he would "Iet him Brown know. =
Brown did not come forward, and accor-
dinghy, when in prison Green turned
kings evidence, and implicated old
Stumpy in the murder of Farmer Aigh-
ton. It was nearly thirty years since the
murder occurred, and Brown was now
feeble old man. Whether it was on ac-
count of his old age, and the time which
had elapsed since the murder, or wheth-
er in default of evidence, I cannot say,
but Brown, who was tried at Bury assizes,
was convicted Of aggravated man slaugh-
ter only, and sentenced to penal servi-
tude for the remainder of his days. The
ship in which he was to have gone to
Botany Bay was one Of the last convict
transports which left England. It was
wrecked in the channel off Boulogne, and
all on board were drowned. The one of
the mysterious murders was explained in
the person oGmy old acquaintance, and
ezpiated:
Mrs. Brown dia4not long survive her
husband. As she lay on her. doath-bed
she said to the doctor, I should like to
speak to some one before I 60" The
clergyman was sent for, but when he
came the old woman raised in her bed
and said, that's no use in your coming
here, that's no good you can DO me. It's
the magistrate 1 want" After this she
relapsed for some time, and with her last
energy said, "I ha' got summit to tell
yer afore I die. Stumpy's gone, and so
shall 1 be soon, so that don't matter. You
know the officer as was murdered and
robbed close by the MartIesome Lion p
I and Stumpy la done that. CA pause,)
Yer know the captain what was found in
it sack?-I and Stumpy put i'm in. We
drugged him first, and then took his mon
ey and sewed i'm up. Fitch saw Stumpy
put i'm in the river, but he dursn't tell,
cause Stumpy said he'd do the same for
him if he did. When you sent for the
Clergyman when Fitch was a-dying
Stumpy says to me, says he, 'hesa-going
to blab, you best stop'm" I knowed
what he mornt, and so I stuck the pill
low on his face after you were gone. He
went off quite easy and naturaI-like, and
he hadn't long to live anyways. That's
all-about Fitch. (Another pause. y
Stumpy killed ovid Aightou cause he
prosecuted i'm and that warn't likely he
stand that. Stumpy's drownded, so yer
can't git him, and I amt fur off dying.
can die more quiet-like now I have lost
my mind. That's getting that cold now,
I feel as if there were a kind O. smother
ing me. Oh, Lord !" And thus the old
woman died. No great publicity was
given to Mrs. Browns confession, and to
many the Woodbridge murders are still
mystery-Once a Week.