Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-03-12


ought to be arrested.
Accordingly, on dreary day in No.
| vember, two officers, from the county
shore, came and climbed the steep road
to the lonely Lighthouse, and arrested
John. It was undoubtedly a dreadful
blow to those two lonely people living
| isolated in the wilderness. Perhaps there
ought to have been some crying and a
scene, but there was no such thing. The
officers testified that neither John nor his
mother made any fuss about it. There
was a slight twitching of the strong
| muscles of her face, as she talked with the
officers. but no other outward sign.
John gave more evidence of the wound
he felt. He was white and quivering, vet
he silently, and without objection. made
ready to go with the officers. He was
soon prepared, and they started. John.
as he went out of the door, turned and
said, Good-by; it will all be made right,
mother" She simply answered, Yes,
good-by know it, my SON."
The trio went on foot down the road to
| the next house, where the officers had left
their team. Jupiter, standing up with
his fore paws upon the top of the fence,
gazed wistfully after them. When they
passed around the bend of the road out
of sight Jupiter went into the house.
The strong woman was there about her
work, as usual; but the heavy tears would
now and then fall upon the hard pine
floor. She knew that her own boy would
spend the coming nights in the county
jail
At twelve O'Clock of that November
night the woman and the dog went out
Of the house; she fastened the door, and
then they went together down the dark
mountain road, while the autumn winds
swept dismally through the great wilder
ness, and the midnight voice of the pines
mourned the dying year. The next day
at noon a very weary woman on foot,
with a small bundle and large dog, put
up at the little village hotel hard by the
county Jail.
Another day passed and then the pre-
liminary examination came on before
Justice, to determine whether there was
sufficient evidence to mold John in Gus
tody until a grand jury of the county
should pe assent led for the next Court of
Oyer and Terminer.
Three days were spent in this exami-
nation before the Justice; the Captain of
the sloop who had overheard the quarrel
in the night told his story, and the boat
men who had found the body told theirs.
Two men who had been the crew of
Johns little vessel were also called. But
they could tell little more than that they
were absent on shore upon the 4th of
July, and when they returned to the vessel
William had gone, they knew not where
nor why.
The evidence against John seemed to
the magistrate clear and conclusive But
the counsel for the accused employed by
Johns mother) took the ground that, as
the 0ffense was committed in Canada, a
Justice in the United States had no iuris-
dictiOn in the matter.
This view prevailed, and after five
days the accused was set at liberty.
But that voice of the people, which the
ancient prOverb says is like the voice of
God, had decided that John was guilty.
1t was under this crushing condemnation
that John and his mother left the county
town on cold December day, turning
their steps hOmeward; and at evening
they climbed the activity so familiar to
them, and reached the lonely Lighthouse
upon the mountain. Their neighbO1s
were glad to see them back again, but
were plain to say that " it appeared like
as if John was guilty" These jewellers
in the solitudes we're accustomed TO speak
truly what they thought. John and his
mother too spoke openly of this matter
1t was only of showing affection and love
that these people were ashamed and
shy. They both admitted to their neigh
bors that the evidence was very strong,
but John added quietly that he was not
guilty, as if that settled the whole matter
But the voice of the people and
sense of justice would not let this crime
rest. 1t came to be very generally known
that man guilty of murder was liv-
ing near the shore of lake Cham
plain unmolested. Arrangements were
effected by which it came to pass that the
Canadian authorities made a formal APP
plication to the United States for the de-
livery of one John Wilson, believed to be
guilty OF the murder of his cousin William
Wilson.
And so again two officers, this time
United States officials, climbed up to the
little Lighthouse upon the edge of the great
valley. Through a drifting, binding storm
of snow they were piloted by neighbor
to the lonely house. They made known
their errand, and in the course of half an
hour the officers and their prisoner were
out in the storm en- route for the distant
city of Montreal.
1t was many days before the woman saw
her son again. For four months John was
awaiting his trial before the
Canadian courts. Doubtless those four
months seemed long to the solitary woman
She had not much opportunity to indulge
in melancholy fancies; she spent much
of her time in pulling brush and wood
out of the snow and breaking it up with
an AK, so as to adapt it to the size of her
stove.
The neighbors tried to be kind, and
often took commissions from her to the
store and the grist-mill in the valley:
Z" But after ALL" said Pete Searles, one of
Johns friends, in speaking of the matter
"what could neighbors amount
to, when the nearest of them lived q mile
away, and all of them were plain to say
that they believed she was the mother of
a murderer"
But the neighbors said the woman did
not seem to mind the solitude and the
rough work. Morning, noon and night
she was out in the snow or the storm at
the little hovel of barn back of the
house, taking care of two cows and a few
sheep which were hers and Johns. At
other times travellers upon the Wilderness
road would see her gaunt, angular figure
clamberlng down rocky ridge, dragging
poles to the house to be cut up for fuel.
She received two letters from John in
the course of the winter. The first told
her that he was imprisoned, and await
ing his trial IN Montreal, and the next
one said that his trial had been set down
for an early day in March