The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1872-04-02
A Murder in Union County Thirty years
ago,and just Confessed.

The Lewisburg Journal of last week con-
tains the following; -.fa
No doubt may of our readers will re-
member a rumor which was in circulation
some thirty years ago, that man travel
ing on horseback through Penns Valley
Narrows had been foully dealt with. The
rumor was based upon the fact that the
body of horse was found some twenty
rods from the pike, which had apparently
been knocked down with cudgel and
killed. The horse was found several days
after he was killed by some boys who were
out cunning. Other circumstances CON
nected with the affair caused a great deal
of excitement in the neighborhood Some
halfdozen of the citizens were soonl after
summoned to the spot, who reported kthat
the case required thorough investigation.
A call was made upon the citizen en- maSse,
and day appointed to make search for. the
body of the man supposed to have been
murdered.
On the day appointed number of men
from Centre and Union counties repaired
to the spot where the horse was found and
set out in squads through the woods, and
searched all day diligently, but found
nothing. They then concluded that if
there were any grounds for their suspicious
and that man had really been murdered,
his body must have been sunk in a saw
mill dam close by. Another day was then
appointed to let the water out of the dam.
On the night before the day fixed upon
to let off the water, the gates were drawn
by some unknown parties and the water let
out. The feelings of the searching parties
can only be imagined whom the next day
they found things in such condition.
Those who had given the matter very little
thought and had ridiculed the idea of there
being any cause for such apprehensions,
at once changed their minds, and the ex-
citement became intense. Search was,
however, made in the mill dam, when fresh
tracks were found which had no doubt
been made the previous night by parties
who had been wading through the mud,
but no further developments were brought
to light.
Various rumors were in circulation.
Several parties were implicated in the
crime, but as in most cases of this kind,
the rumors were mostly, if not all un-
founded, and the occurrence was seemingly
forgotten.
Some ten.yearslago, however, it was pub
lished in the newspapers in certain locali-
tes in this State that man, who had been
a former resident of Union county, had
confessed on his death bed that he was one
of party who had murdered man in
Penns Valley Narrows some twenty years
previous to that date This news created
some little excitement at the time but it
also died out.
Within the last few days, rumor has it
that certain man who moved to the West
from the upper end of the county many
years since, had lately died and had con.
fessed at his dying hour that he was one
of the party who committed the Penns
Valley Narrows murder, some thirty years
ago, and had implicated three others That
they had played cards with the man they
afterwards killed) at tavern this side of
the Narrows, and there discovered that he
had large amount of money, being drover
from Berks county; that they at once laid
a plan to kill and rob him; that they fol-
lowed him through the Narrows to the
place near where the horse was found, and
killed him and the horse. After the horse
was discovered they moved the mans body
and sank it in the mill dam, and when the
matter was talked of, and the citizens de-
termined to let the water out of the dam,
he and the other parties implicated, let out
the water the previous night and took the
body and carried it several miles away,
towards Brush Valley Narrows, and buried
it; and were the first on the ground the fol-
lowing morning to help search.