The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-01-05
l Railway Wicker Killed By an

VIII De remembered, says the Gin.
cinnati Enquirer Of the 2Sth, that some
six or eight weeks since brief account
was given Of passenger train being
wrecked on the Ohio & Mississippi rail.
way between Willow Valley and Huron.
two stations beyond Mitchell. 1t was
thoroughly established that rail had
been torn up by some unknown wretch or
wretches on purpose to ditch the train.
but whether for revenge or plumber was
not known. There was but paucitv of
facts to aid a detective, but with them
Detective Stewart, or, as he is sometimes
known, Martin, went to work. He put
this thing and that together, and finally
traced his man to some woods near HUI.
ron, where he succeeded in freeing him
and identifying HIM as formerly an
he procured q warrant and q sheriff from
Mitchell, and last Friday made efforts to.
yard capture. The man, whose name
was given yesterday as Williams, was not
to be taken so easily, however. He had
been living in the woods on the shores
the White River, not far from Huron,
ever since his devilish crime was commit
ted; had endured all sorts of hardships
to escape justice, aud he certainly was not
going to yield himself willing prisoner.
AS the sheriff and detective came upon
him in his retreat he therefore broke and
ran for the river, evidently bent on cross
ing it, and on the other side expecting in
some way to find refuge. Plunging in he
had waded up to his arm pits and vas
making good Roadway toward the oppo-
site shore when Stewart began firing upon
him and commanding Him to halt. The
sheriff also ordered him to return, at the
same time threatening to shoot. Will
li'ms seemed to take all that was said,
however. as empty threats, and the firing
as only done to scare, and so he continued
his fight. The sheriff then, in much
quicker time than it requires to tell it,
took deliberate aim at the fugitive's
head and blazed away. The aim was too
fatal; for, with terrible yell, and with
death'leap characteristic of the
American savage, Williams sprang
we'll nigh. out of the
water, and then splashed back corpse,
shot in the ear and through the head.
BY this time a hungry crowd had COL
lected. among which was Williams BROTH
er. He had come up in town to witness
the Sheriff's deadly skill, and was max
ing toward that officer, intent on re-
venge, when ne, too, by the same officer,
was ordered to halt or 60 where his
brother had gone. The Sheriff's cour-
age was all that saved him. for they have
way Of dealing very summarily with
cowardly officers down there in Indiana.
The body Of the dead wretch was after
ward recovered, and over it an inquest
held, and the Sheriff exonerated. The
burial took place Sunday. 1t has since
developed that Williams purposes in his
6endishness, in which he had risked the
lives of whole train of passengers, was
to obtain revenge on the railroad CON-
pany, from which he had received some
imaginary wrong. The roughs Of Mitchell
and Huron are terrible loud in their
threats against the Sheriff, and swear
they will kill him sooner or later. The
awful vengeance meted out by an out.
ragged community at Seymour few years
ago, when the three Reno brothers and
three other wretches were found hanging
to a tree one pleasant morning, seems to
have been forgotten by these courageous
threateners.