The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-04-01
OLD TIME JUSTICE.
THE WAY 1T WAS DISPENSED.

RUSHVILLE NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. AND
HALTER-BEGINEINa OF JUDGE TESTS
CAREER.
Among the interesting sketches contrib
uted by DIR. J. Arnold to
the Nashville Republican, the fol-
lowing is of peculiar interest, the more so
from the fact that the venerable Judge
Charles FL. Test, after the lapse of nearly
half a century, has been holding court dur
ing the past week on the same ground
where. as young lawyer, he defended the
murderer: / think it was in October that
the muster was held in my fathers store,
and, as was customary on such occasions,
the company INDUCED pretty freely in
drinking old Monongahela whisky, (Bour-
bon had not then attained its high reputa-
tion.) In the evening after the rest had
gone home, Elisha and Lewis Clark and
Richard Blackledge still remained in the
store. Ny father was tired and wished to
shut up; bad gone back into his residence,
thinking that they would soon retire. / re-
manned until they finally went out of thu
store, and turned their course to the west
When they passed out also went out on the
porch and walked 10 its west end. The three
men were walking abreast, Elisha Clark in
the middle; just then the gate opened, and
Swanson advanced three or four steps and
in an instant presented and fired his rifle
Clark fell, and Lewis Clark and Black
ledge sprung upon Swanson and fierce
struggle ensued, the men rolling over on
pile oflumber that lay there. At this moment
Mrs. Swanson, Mrs. Cruzan and Polly
Swanson, a stout girl of eighteen, rushed to
the rescue and instantly freed Swanson from
the hands of Clark and Blackledge. He
picked up his gun and returned through
the same gate. My father and the two men
took mp the murdered man and laid him on
q long table in our kitchen. He gave one or
two convulsive gasps after they took hold of
him and all was over. The ball had
passed through his heart. Lewis Clark and |
Blackledge appeared 10 be bewildered by the |
dreadful catastrophe and the liquor they |
had drank, so that for the time they were in
capable of any action. AS it was necessary
to give the alarm to the neighbors, my
father proposed going to Jonn Mungel's and
to my uncle Isaac Arnold's, but as | knew
that Swanson entertained a bitter hatred to- |
word him because he would not let him
have the farm another year, and as his fierce
passions were now fully aroused, / feared
that he would
wAYLAY AND KILL
my father If he left the house on that er-
rand, and therefore insisted that he should |
remain and that would go, for was swift
of foot in those days, and had no fear of his |
me by running, nor did 1 fear his |
rifle shot in the thick woods, for the night |
was dark. 1 went. and as dashed through |
the gate towards the east heard some one |
breaking through the brush by the side ofthe |
road. 1 supposed it was Swanson, and was |
right, for alter he was taken he said that |
lie was watching for nv father, thinking Il |
made no attempt to modest me, and ran on /
to Mungel's, but he would rot turn out I
until went and got my uncle Isaac and |
hired hand. When we got To my fathers
we found that Blackledge was gone to |
George lions, where there was singing
school. In a short time he returned with /
several men, and as the alarm was
given they continued to come in |
until late at night. Clark's family, con-
sisting of wife and six daughters, came,
and shall never forget their frantic screams |
and agonizlng cries as they embraced the |
cold and lnanimate form of the kind hus- |
band end loving father, who, but a few |
hours before, had left them ii the possession |
of vigorous health and strength. nave
since then witnessed many pathetic scenes |
beside the bed of death, but recollect none |
equal to this in terrible despair
from this awful and sud
den bereavement. The next day the whole |
was aroused and the woods far and |
near were secured by the excited people, |
out IN vain, lOr swanson nau Hlaue gO0Q Ills |
escape. A reward was offered for his appre-
hension, but he was too old woodsman to
leave any traces by which he could be fol-
lowed. His house was watched for some
time every night in the expectation that he
would return to see his family. At last
HE WAS TAKEN
about two weeks after the murder by Jerry
Washburn, who lived about half mile this
side of Williams creek, on what is now the
an Rushville pike. He was
building the old house that still stands on
his farm, and had two carpenters working
On it, He was also clearing up the field
south OF it, and one morning went out TO
stir up his log heaps before day
light. and saw beside one of them
q man wrapped in his blanket and
the barrel of rifle protrudiDg from it. Be-
lieving it to be Swanson he burriedly re-