The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-19
A Supposed Horrible Crime In Columbia
County, New York;

HUDSON. N. Y, Dec. 18.-There is an intense
excitement here over reported horrible crime,
said to have been committed by man and
woman for the purpose of securing ap amount
OF money. Mr.. and Mrs. Brown residing IN
the town OF Canaan, Columbia county, recently
took out lie insurance policy for $4,000 IN the
Travellers Accident Insurance Company, OF
Hartford, Conn, on.the life of their daughter,
an interesting RIrl twelve years OF age.
Last week the house In which tney resided
was burned down, and the daughter perished In
the flames. Suspicion attached to the parents,
who were arrested, but after an examination
were discharged. Since then some officers OF the
Connecticut insurance Company, entertaining
suspicion hat all was not right, had the body OF
the poor chlld disinterred aud examination
made, the result OF which IS SAID to have DIS
closed the fact that she had been struck on the
head and the skull fractured prior to being
burned.
All sorts of horrible rumors are a1oat; among
the rest that the deceased was not the daughter
Of the Browns, but a girl they had enticed away
from Ohio.
An older for the arrest of the Browns, now in
Connecticut, he's been made and the most in
tense excitement prevails. Their lives would
scarcely be safe in this community should they
be brought here.
ARREST OF THE SUSPECTED MAN AND WOMAN.
The Hartford papers give additional partcu-
lars of the burning AZ a chIld at Canaan N. Y,
and the presentation, by Mr.. and Mrs Joseph
! Brown, OF q claim upon the Travellers Insu-
rance Company, of Hartford for $4,000, which
! amount was held on the lie of the child in a
general accident policy. Mr.. and Mrs. Brown
! were eSoneraed by jury of inquest, but the
insurance company were not satisfied, and pur-
sued their Investigations further.
The remains were exhumed, and a post
mortem examination held, resulting in the
discovery of certain marks on the back of the
head and the neck. MIR. and Mrs. Brown were
arrested in Western New York and taken to
Hartford on Monday night. The Times says
they are probably not married, and that there
are circumstances which lead 10 the belief that
the child was stolen from the depot ia Dayton,
! Ohio, taken to Canaan, and then. at a conve-
nient time killed aud thrust into a closet, in
which fire was kn6led with the intention of
burning the house, and thus covering up the
crime.
The man and the woman, the Times adds, for
meIly lived in Hartford, where they bore bad
characters and were well known to the police.
The maiden name of the woman was Jose ephIne
| Fox; che was at one time the wife of hotel
! keeper in East Hartland, but was divorced from
| him. 1t was ascertained that the life of the
child was insured for $4,000 at the agency of the
Travellers Insurance Company in Cie9eland.
| The n ost acceptable theory as to the killing of
! the child was that she was poisoned instead of
receiving blows on the head, though some evil
| dence appeared in the post-mortenl examination
TO show that violence was used about the neck,
AZ if the girl was Choked to hurry her death.
| When the remains were taken. up the stomach
was removed, and is now in the hands OF Yale
! Professor tor analysis.
Mrs. Browns story about the child is that she
was her husbands daughter by former wife,
and that she has lived with her grandfather
browns father) in Canada East. That a couple
Of years ago, while the Browns were in Dayton,
Ohio, the Canada friends all died, and the girl,
ten years old, came on alone from Canada to
Dayton, to take up her abode with her father
and stepmother. Mrs. Brown says she met the
child at the depot, found her in the sitting
room, ana she said she wanted to see Mr..
Brown. Mrs. Brown don't know the town in
! Canada from whence the child came. She says
the girl proved to be well educated, spoke Eng
lish and French, and that Brown was Every
much attached to her." The matter will be
thoroughly investigated.