The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1876-09-15
rERRInLE TRAGEDY
a Father HKIHls his SOn-In-Law
-Gets shot HAImselE-IDauRh-
ter and Mother VIII
Die OF Grief

ter and Mother WIFI
Die Of Grief
A thrill of horror was created In
Baxter Springs on Tuesday evening
by the enactment of a tragedy most
horrible In its details. The facts in the
case were obtained last evening on the
arrival of the Missouri River, Fort
Scott 81 Gulf passenger train from
Baxter. This train left Baxter yes
terday morning, the morning after the
tragedy, and brought Hp the latest de-
tails of the bloody and unnatural
occurrence.
1t appears that John Craige is a
well known q nd steady working car
peoVer In the town of Baxter Springs.
lie Is about forty-five or fifty years of
age, aud was the father of bright,
handsome and Industrious daughter,
now about nineteen years. Katie
Craige has been for two years past
up to the past two months-a member
OF the family of Matt. Clury, the well
known conductor on the Missouri
River, Fort Scott 90 Gulf railroad.
She was light.hearted and gay, and up
10 last Sunday no one supposed that
Katie had ever thought of love. But
she had. There was a hard-working
and steady young man In Baxter,
named George Elliot. He was team
ster, owning one or two teams, and
was making his way steadily upward
in the world by hard work and steady
habits. He and Katie had seen each
other, loved each other, and kept their
business a secret until last Sunday.
Last Sunday morning, Katie Craige
and Geo. Elliot left Baxter Springs
and came up the road to Columbus, a
lively young city in Cherokee county,
and there Katie Craige became Mrs,
Elliot. The happy pair went back to
Baxter on Monday, and found a home
in the home of friend of both families,
not more than 200 yards from the
railroad depot.
No one except Katie suspected that
anything serious would result from
this runaway marriage. But the
blithsome bride beseeched her hus-
band to be careful, for her father was
q dreadful man when angry. But
Geo. Elliot, conscious of having done
no wrong, went out to work with his
team, on Tuesday, and after his days
work was nearly ended, drove to Bax-
ter Springs depot for job OF hauling.
He had been engaged TO haul load
of commercial travellers sample trunks
oyer from the Baxter depot TO Joplin,
twelve miles distant. He was waiting
at the depot, just before shutdown,
looking northward for the Kansas
City train, the smoke of which was
just visible in the far, dim distance OF
the prairie. Then it was that John
Craige, the father OF Katie, the bride,
walked up to Elliot, aud said through
his teeth:
"Georse Elliot you have acted like a
Cd id dog" With that Craige
commenced to boot at point blank
range. The first shot passed through
Elliot's body. He turned and started
70 run across the railroad tracks, three
In number, and turned southwark to-
wards the house where his new made
wife was living. AS he ran he receiv-
ed two more shots in his body from
the pistol of his father-in-law and
staggered and fell with his head upon
the iron rail of the side track just as
his young wife came rushing towards
him from the house he was seeking to
reach. Father and daughter met face
to face, the latter reeled aud fell insen-
sible as her husbands corpse was be-
ing raised from the track and laid
upon the platform. The murderer
turned and ran to his house, which was
close by, and arming himself with a
double-barrelled shot gun and two
revolVers, started westward across the
prairie on foot. The City Marshal OF
Baxter and his deputies started in
pursuit, but Craige levelled his weap-
Ons upon his pursuers and brisk
fight ensued. Tie fugitive was
wounded in the head by a bullet, but
continued to fight and retreat, loading
as he fell back.
The City Marshal and and his posse
returned to Baxter and the Sheriff and
a well armed posse took the case In
hand. From the blood on the grass
and on the weeds they were led to 8
the high weeds the murderer was
found bleeding to death. But he was
prepared to fight till death, anC
1t was only by a charge made will
Overpowerlng force that the desperate
man was taken. He was arrested anC
taken into Baxter Spings, where hC
ut last accounts, was In hopeless
condition, bullet having entered Iii
head between the two eyes.
Mrs. Craige is an INVALID, and thi
shock may kill her. The bride passe
from one swoon to another, and it
thought her reason is upset. The case
taken in all its phases, is one of tn
most terrible tragedies ever enacted Il
Southern Kansas. The bridegroom
killed, the father-in-law MORTAL
wounded, the mother-in-law on til
point of death and the bride on til
road to insanity. There was no caus
for the murder other than a person,
antipathy on the part of Craige tt
wards Elliot. The former had forbid
den any young man To see his daugt
ter. He was proud and naughty, bI
a quiet, hard working machani,
He Is said to have come from Bowlin
Green, Kentucky. From there /
went to Arkansas, and then to Texa
This Is not his first killing scrape, l
having killed one or two men in AR
ansas or Texas. He has lived in Baxt'
Springs about three years.-Kansa
Cffv Timea