The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-11-19
CRIME AND RETRIBUTION,
Upon Little Girl by Drunken
Human Brute--He is Lynched by In
furiated Citizens Shortly After the

Outrage Upon a Little Girl by Drunken
Human Brute--He is Lynched by In
furiated Citizens Shortly After the
Deed.
The following are the particulars of
a fiendish crime perpetrated near Glib
sons, small mining village in Penn
sylvania, and as fendish, however
merited, a retribution following it -
Martin Groves, an ignorant and dissi-
pated man about thirty-five years old,
had lived for years on the mountain
back of Gibson's. He was in the habit
of making periodical visits to the vii
lage, where he invariably became more
or less intoxicated. Drunk or sober, he
was always considered man of british
and unbridled passions. On one Satur-
day he was in Gibson's. He was not
very drunk, and about the middle OF
the afternoon was missed. This was
something unusual, as it was his GUS
tom to continue his orgies late into the
night before departing for home. AS
merely excited passing remark.
About two o'clock is the afternoon
Mrs. Davis, the widow of a miner, had
sent her daughter, about thirteen years
of age, on an errand about q mile out of
the village. She had not returned at
four o'clock and her mother began to
grow uneasy about her. A few min
utes after four the girl was carried into
the house by two men in an almost in
sensible condition. They said they had
found her lying near the road, in q
piece of woods, about half mile ont
of the village. Her clothing was badly
torn and her face was bleeding from a
large but not dangerous cut above the
left temple. When spoken to she
opened her eyes and essayed to speak,
but was too weak to articulate. Recog-
nizing the girl, the men brought her
as quickly as possible to her mothers
house. It was clear that she had been
violated by some fiend, who had evi-
IDENTIFY knocked her senseless by the
blow on her head. The mine surgeon
was summoned, and, under his treat
ment, about nine o'clock at night the
girl was able to talk. Her story was
that she was on her way home after
doing her errand, and when she reached
the piece of woods near Moons creek
she saw Martin Groves sitting by the
side of the road. She was afraid of
him, and stopped, undecided whether
to go through the woods and come out
in the road below him or pass right on.
His head was hanging down on his
breast as if he were asleep, and she
concluded to go noiselessly by him in
the road. When she got about oppo-
site to where he sat he raised his head
and then rose to his feet. He stepped
in front of her and said:
eyer afraid of me, are ye?"
eyes, Martini" said the girl, " but
please don't hurt me-"
He made no reply to this, but took
hold of her by both shoulders and
pushed her towards the woods. She
screamed loudly for help, when he
struck her blow with his fist on the
side of her head, and she remembers
nothing until coming to her senses
some time before the men found her.
She knew she was lying in the woods,
and her condition, but was too weak to
move.
When this story was made known
throughout the village the greatest ex-
citement prevailed. A crowd of twenty
five men gathered and decided upon
seeking out Groves and giving him
summary justice. They proceeded in
a body up the mountain and captured
him in the woods. They then took him
down into a deep depression between
two lofty hills. In that lonely vale, by
the light of the moon struggling
through heavy mist, the infuriated
miners executed the sentence they pro-
nounced against him, which was that
he should die. His eyes were bandaged
and his hands bound behind him, and
then he was hanged to the limb of a
chestnut tree and left there until he
was dead. He was afterward buried
near the hut where he had lived for
years.
The outrage on the Davis girl was
not Groves first crime of that nature.
The commission of three similar out
RACES was laid at his door by general
belief, which had made HIM terror to
all women and children.