Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-03-13
p A TENNESSEE TRAGEDY.


| Nashville American.
| A report reached the city shortly before
o'clock yesterday afternoon to the effect that
an old lady named Mrs. Osborne had been
murdered on the Elliston place, three miles
from the city, between the Harding and Char
lotte turnpike, only an hour or so previous
by her son-in-law, Thomas Merriman.
| A reporter of the american mounted q
horse, and in less than half an hour after he
started was at the scene of the tragedy. On
the side of long rocky hill, just above the
Northwestern railroad, he saw the house, a
small frame shanty of two rooms, surround
ed by few young fruit trees. The ifeless
body of the occupant of this
humble cabin lay on a shuck mattress q
| few feet from the house, and covered with 8
bed-spread. Some six or eight ladies of the
neighborhood we're near by, anxious for the
coroner's inquest to be over, that they might
cleanse and dress the body.
| When the reporter arrived there we're only
four men present, beside the coroner, and il
required seven to compose jury of inquest
The reporter was summoned as juryman; q
man walking along the railroad was also
called and required to serve, and messenger
was dispatched for the nearest neighbor to
complete the jury.
After much delay the jury were sworn at
O'Clock. Just as they we're being sworn, the
daughter of the deceased and the wife of the
murderer, middle-aged lady, arrived in
company with two of her children, boy and
a girl. The scene that followed was dis
| no hove
the body of her mother and cried at the top
of her voice, "Lord help my poor mother.''
| "Let me die with her." "Lord, have mercy
upon her, Her face was greatly swollen,
and, when asked the cause of it, she said that
her husband had beaten her up in the fore
noon, and would have killed her had it not
been for her grown son, who came to her
relief, and by main force took his father
from the house. The father then attempted
to kill the son; and about noon left the house.
! The jury of inquest now surrounded the
mattress, the coverid was removed. and the
dead body was exposed. The deceased was
60 years of age, with dark skin, black hair,
sprinkled with few strands of white. There
was not a tooth in her mouth. She was
quite feshy, and had been in unusually good
health of late years. She wore a brown
checked wrapper. A portion of her clothing
was removed, so as to show the wound to the
jury. 1t was six inches long and half as
wide, in her left groin. The examination of
the witnesses was then begun.
The husband of the deceased, Morris o.
borne, stated that between l and O'Clock he
was sitting by the side of the house, with his
chisel and Ratchet, myrticing hole in a
piece of scantling, when his son-in- law,
Thomas Merriman, made his appearance and
asked him what he was doing. He simply
| looked up and made the reply that he was
doing what he was always doing-working.
| "Where is Carrier" (his daughter) asked
Merriman. He said he wanted her to come out
of the house and place herself before his
gun. She did not come, and Caroline-the
murdered woman-who was in the house
Smelling peas, came to the door and asked,
"What's the matter, Thomas?" when he de-
iberately placed his gun against her and
fired. She fell out the door and cried "mur-
der" twice. Merriman then cursed the
witness number of times, and when he
called for help, Merriman ran as fast as he
could in The direction of his own home. He
was not in the house more than two min
utes. Mrs. Osborne died in about half an
hour after being shot.
The gun was double-barreled shotgun.
Osborne thought Merri,nan was intoxicated.
He made no excuse. He had threatened to
kill the old woman before, and had previous
ly said that he intended to kill Osborne if it
took him fifty years. The family, Osborne
said, had always been kind to Merriman,
who used to act badly, but had conducted
himself better of late years.
Miss Carrie Merriman, the murderer's
daughter, was the only witness to the killing
except Osborne. She said, when called upon
to testify, that her evidence would be the
same as that of her grandfather.
| The jury then retired and returned a YER
! dict 'fthat she came to her death from gun
| shot wound in the groin, the gun being in
the hands of Thomas Merriman, and that it
was done without cause or provocation.''
The body has been removed into the
| house, and the jurors, or most of them, re-
turned to the city.
Deputy Sheriffs John L. Price, Jr., and w.
81. Blackman, learning that Merriman had
gone in tie direction of his home, in the rear
| of Heffernan's in the Thirteenth district, fol-
| lowed up in that direction as early as posi-
bic, but could not overtake him. Sheriff Price
| and Deputy Blackman kept on, however, to
Cockrilps Bend. They went to the house of J..
! Cockrill, nine miles from the city, and were
informed where Dick Copeland, Merriman's
son-in-law, lived. In company with Mr..
Cockrill, they went there about o'clock
last night, and found Merriman seated be-
side the fireplace. They arrested him with
out resistance, brought him to the city, and
placed him in jail, arriving at the Latte:
place at 10 o'clock. Copeland stated that
Merriman came there between and 5
O'Clock, and his supper was being cooked
! when the officers arrived. The prisoner
talked very little, saying nothing except
when asked questions. He was as calm and
sober as any one could be. He said he was
not Intoxicated when he did the shooting;
but that he only shot Mrs. Osborne in the
leg, and that the gun went off accidentally
| when she took hold of it after he had shot
her.
! Merriman is about SO years old, and q
| farmer by occupation.
"Wife! wife! our cows dead--choked
with turnip." II told you so. always
know'd she'd choke herself with them
turnips." But it was pumpkin--a darned
big one" oval, it's all the same. l
know'd all along how it would be.
Nobody but ninny like you would feed a
COW ON pumpkins that wasn't chopt.
''The pumpkinslwas chopt. And 'twant
the pumpkins neither that, choked her.
| Twas the tray-the end ont is sticking
out Of hermouth now.""Ugh ugh There
goes my bread tray. No longer ago than
yesterday, I told you the COW would
break that tray" ~. - 49, e~"g =
ga thousand pardons, darling, for not
being here in time to claim yeu for the
first dance; an important business engage
ment kept me-" said a perspiring youth
| TO bis, hearts idol, at a: ball recently
given in this city. eyes" was the calm
reply;;s "she came directly from your
house to mine, and told mamma and me
that there was very little probability of
your being here at all tonight, as she
really could not leave your washing any
more unless you paid her for it."