The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-12-23
Extensive Livestock Poisoning at
NLaNrenceburg, Ind.

For the past three or four wears, in
the vicinity of Lawrenceburg, Ind, says
the Cincinnati Enquirer of Dec. g., a
strange disease seems to have taken
hold of the horses, hogs, and cattle.
One by one, and sometimes in droves,
these poor dumb creatures have ''shuf-
fled off, noiselessly, but in evident ago
ny, and their owners have sought the
cause in vain. Two years ago the IA
tally became indeed alarming Death
invaded the Lawrenceburg distillery-
pens, and nearly $1,000 worth of stock
were destroyed. Finally, a saloon
keeper in Newton, by the name ofKoch-
Ter, announced that he had clew. An
inquisitive employee had been nosing
around a patrons wagon, as it stood in
Tthe street, and had discovered some
corn, a half bushel or so, Enthusiastically
done up, each ear in roll of paper.
he examined one of these ears carefully,
but saw no reason why they had been
so tenderly preserved. He was curious,
but curiosity seemed about to be de-
teated, and he was on the point of
abandoning the examination when he
accidentally broke one of the ears in
twain, and then he was more deeply in
Eolyed in mystery than ever. The cob
of each ear was hollow, and in the end
Hof each was neatly fitting plug. As
the ear or cob had broken, fine, sus-
picious looking powder fell to the
ground. The searcher was completely
mystified, and, taking some choice spe-
clmens of this ''patent-applied-for" corn.
he went TO his employer and unbosomed
himself. Mr.. Kochler, on seeing and
hearing, and on knowing the name OF
| the owner of these cavernous cobs, and
the owner of the wagon they had been
taken from, was verify enlightened. He
| straightway, to be convinced, invited a
| chemist to pronounce on that strange
powder, when loi it was found to be
corrosive sublimate.
Here was a startling development,
but who could prove what this corn was
prepared for? One clew led to another,
however, until, on suspicion, man by
the name of William Ehlermann, Ger
man, formerly Cincinnati gas-fitter,
but then the proprietor of a fertilizimg
establishments, just out of the corporate
! lllllllo VI was diIGSlcu
He was brought before the Circuit
Court, but the most satisfactory evil
dence could not be obtained, and Judge
Roberts, using all the power possible,
sentenced the culprit to three months
in the County Jail. Meantime stock
became healthy again, and the terrible
fatality, for a while, ceased. The sus-
| pected latter-daY Lucretia Boroia,
slightly modified, was in jail, and the
alarm of farmers took a brief rest, but
only a brief one.
During the trial Mr.. Frank Griffith,
of Lawrenceburg, had offended this
novel gas-fitter by appearing against
him, and a bitter revenge was therefore
breathed out. Very soon after Ehler-
mann's time had expired and he was
again at work in his fertilizing and
lard-rendering establishment, Mr.. Grit
fith's valuable horse took suddenly sick
and in terrible commissions, died. An
! examination of the manger afterward
developed enough poison to kill hun
| dred horses. Not long after some cat
tie in the neighborhOod went the way of
all the earth, and their carcasses found
ready market in Ehlermann s. stink
factory. One day Ehlermann was
known to 90 hunting across the river in
Kentucky and during the day to pass
the hog pens of a well-known Kentucky
farmer. The next day ter fat porkers
| lay dead in those pens, and Ehlermann
that same dag CHANGED 10 be again Orer
there, and offered to buy the carcasses
at 81 head. Similar deaths were oc-
curing all around Lawrenceburg. 1t
was rs if a simeon was daily sweeping
! across Miami BottomS-a simeon then
only fatal to cattle and hogs. Mean
while the smoke of the satisfactory
kept ascending. The dead bodies came
in to Ehlermann in satisfactory album
dance. The making of fat was we'll
enough, but this specializing genius was
not happy. He saw that the price OBJ
tanned for it would not yield quick
wealth. The d" deceased" hogs he had
obtained were fat and plump, and why
shouldn't he make them up into lard,
and thereby yield himself a handsome
revenue? The idea was original with
him. Nobody had ever. suggested ii to
him. None of the buyers in Cincinnati
need know that his lard, which he would
offer them at a comparatively low fig-
ure, was satisfactory lard. Why should
they? He would purify" and con-
sumers would never be the wiser. And
50 this wretch, regardless of the awful
consequences which might follow, went
on, as he has often boosted in Law
renceburx, trying out lard from his
strangely-deceased hogs, and introduced
the putrid stuff to the hapless Cincin-
natl consumers.
OF late Mr.. George Hays, living near
Lawrenceburg, has been missing hogs,
and strong suspicion had been forcing
itself upon him that perhaps Ehlermann
knew more of the disappearance than
he would tell. OnMonday last he heard
the report of gun suspiciously near his
house, and on prompt examination he
found Ehlermann rapidly making off in
wagon loaded with the yet warm and
bleeding carcass of a hog, which he
identified as his own. He straightway
had the butcher in new role ar
rested and brought to town, where, af-
ter preliminary examination, he was
bound over to the Circuit Court in the
sum of $500. Nobody would stake so
large a sum that Ehlermann would not
" skip" and so all day yesterday and
the day before he whiled his time away
in the Lawrenceburg Courthouse
heavily ironed, a single case of small
pox in the Jail preventing his being con-
fined there.
Daring Raid by Mexican Banditti.