Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1872-02-29

Z, MINNESOTA, THUR
ANOTHER LUCREIlA BORGlA.
an,,s anu Tie v:fo of.f3.s First ii"s-
bun0. =
From the Louisville {Ky.> Ledger, Feb. 8,
Some twelve years ago there came to
Louisville, from Germany, u very at
ttactive-looking German girl, of about
eighteen years, OF age, lsamed, if our
recollection serves us right, Catharine
Melchior. She was what is termed q
beautiful woman, tinel7 developed,
with faultlcss form and graceful mo-
tion-a woman who world attract at
tention wherever seen. She remained
at Louisville bat Il short time, when
she left the city for The twn of Rock
port, on the Indiana, sidt'0f the river.
about fifty miles aboT, Louisville,
where she soon obtained, service in the
family Of an old and wealthy farmer
named Sharp, residing spine two and a
half or three miles abey5 .tl,e town.
Mr.. Sharp and hls hdsed wife lived
alone together, their Children having
all married and removed from the old
homestead. The old people we're very
highly esteemed, aRa,N.fe we'll known
to neagly al the cisas the county.
Catharine found hef new home j. very
pleasant one, and was apparently we'll
contented and very happy. About two
years after she had entered the Sharp
family Mrs. Sharp was taken i'll. She
was confined to her bed for some time
but, growing better her speedy recov-
cry was fondly hoped for by her hus-
band and children. Very suddenly,
however, she was taken worse, suffer.
ing intense pain in the abdomen for
some hours, when she died. The symp-
toms of her fatal illness, it was remem.
bered few years later, were decidedly
those of poison from arsenic or stryci-
nine.
Mr.. Sharp and his children mourped
her death, but no one seemed to feel it
more deeply than Catharine, and this
was remarked throughout the neighbor-
hood; and SO MI. Sharp prevailed upon
her, which was not difficult, to remain
in lis house as his housekeeper and
general superintendent of the domestic
department. Of his extensive farm. pay
ing her a handsome salary for her ser
vices. Time wore OF, as time is always
doing, and the wounds that grief at tie
demise OF his wife had inflicted upon
the heart of Mr.. Sharp were healed.
And then it bethought him that, with
Catherine as his wife, his declining
years would be full of comfort and so
he paid court to the young maiden.
She was averse to the union proposed
by the old man; it would be too much
like uniting June with December, she
argued, as she looked up languisllingly
from her lustrous black eyes and beau
tifnl face into the countenance of her
aged lover. Those glances, she well
knew, were not to be witllstood; and SO
the old mans passion WAS only infiamed
and his suit pressed with more earnest
determination.
Cathar1ne took few days to deliber-
ate over the matter, and then she re-
turned answer to her persevering but
gray-haired lover that she would marry
him on condition that he would deed
her his farm, valued at about twenty
five thousand dollars, and certain other
moneys and property. This the old
man agreed to do, and in due course of
time ali the necessary papers for the
transfer were legally drawn and placed
in Catharine's hands. Then the we'd
ding took place, and for couple of
years or more the infatuated old man
baShed in the sunshine of her smiles,
and received her loying with all the de-
light of child. But Suddenly he died.
His disease was lang uishing one at
first, aud indicated toward its fatal
Termination a speedy recovery. But
those dreadful pains that had been no.
ticed in the illness of his wife immedi-
ately prior to her demise supervened,
and as suddenly and painfully as his
aged wife had died SO died lie. His
children and many of his neighbors be-
lieved that both he and his first wife
had died from poison at the hands of
Catharine, but they dared only breathe
their suspicious suppressed in whis
pers, lest the law should take hold of
them in the shape of an action for SLAM
der. =,
Catharine was rich. She had but
just reached the prime of womanhood,
was the most beautiful woman in the
county, and it is not at all surprising
that the days of her widowhood were
made bearable by the attentio s she
received from both men and women.
In due course of time her grief was so
much assuaged that she received as a
s'litor for her ''and y He!lknown and
popular merchant, named Batchelor,
who did business, we believe, ut Rock
port and Evansville. Mr.. Batchelor
was supposed to be wealthy, and so his
suit for Catharine's heart and hand
prosper ed, and they were married. The
course OF their married lie ran smooth
ly enough. Indeed, their apparent
happiness became the subjec; of re-
mark. Both were apparently devoted
to each other.
But after q year or two of bliss Mr..
B,ttchelor was attacked by a languish-
! ing illness, which Increased and dimin-
lshed in severity by turns, until the
disease, which puzzled the skill of the
physicians, took u favorable turn, and
strong hopes were entertained for its
speedy and favorable te1mination. It
was a noticeable feature of Mr.. Batch
elor disease, as it had been of the dis
ease 0: which Mr.. Sharp and his first
wife had died, that he was seated in
the stomach, and no medicines seemed
TO reach or control it. His partial re-
cOvery was therefore unaccountable to
the physician or any other hypothesis
than the great physical recuperative
powers Of Mr. Batchelor. But in the
midst OF the fond anticipations of his
friends for his recovery, Mr.. g. sudden
~ died in great agony, suffering in
tense pain in the stomach.
He WAS buried, and the widows vail
sounded over his grave and was re-
echoed from the old forest that skirted
the cemetery. But the dead husband
was Mason, and in the lodge his sud-
len death, and the sudden and similar
decease of Mr.. and Mrs. Sharp, were
discussed, and the conclusion arrived
at was, that poison bad aided their
sudden exit from the world, and that
Catherine BatcLelor was the poisoner.
And SO the remains of Mr.. Batcholor
We're quietly disintcrred, the stomach,
taken from them and sent to II noted
physician and chemist for analyzation.
The result Of the analysis was the dis.
toyery Of enough mineral poison to
produce death: and the evidences that
Mr.. Batchelor had died from poison.
Mrs. Batchclor was arrested, lodged
in Jail, indicted by the Grand jury,
and i'll duo time arraigned for trial
But upon affidavit made by her that