Chariton courier. (Keytesville, Chariton County, Mo.) 1878-current, 1879-05-10
FLIGHT WITH A FELON.

pa1u LOT IN ADVANCE. Regular aQVerL1Scment9
must be settled for the first Of every month.
FLIGHT WITH A FELON.
A sherins Daughter Releases a Prisoner
and Elopes with Him.
On Tursday night, the LIST inst, John
Wood, a burglar confined in the Colom-
bia County Jail at Portage, Wis, was
released by Miss Conklin, the Sheriff's
daughter, and both fled together. As
supposed at the time, subsequent events
have proven that it was a genuine elope-
ment The girl had fallen in love with
her fathers prisoner, had let him out
had fed with him.
1t appears that, a little before u
O'Clock Thursday night, Sheriff Conklin,
County Jail, thought he heard a noise
below, he being in bed in the second
story. On rising and going down stairs,
he found the front door open. He had,
on going to bed at about 10 O'Clock,
locked it, leaving the key on the inside
of the door. He also found the five
doors from the hall to the cell in which
the prisoner, John Wood (who had been
arrested in KilbOurn, in January last,
on charge of burglary at the railroad
ticket office), was confined was unlock
ed, and that Wood was gone. He also
found that his second daughter, girl
of about IL years, who had been sleep
ing, when he went to bed, in room on
the first floor, adjoining the parlor, had
vacated her room, and that the window
of her bedroom was open. The keys
of the various doors between the hall
and the cell had been left, the evening
before, in their usual place in a small
| locked closet, which had been opened
and the keys taken.
At first it was reported that none of
her clothes were missing except an old
dress, pair of shoes and small shawl,
and there were some circumstances
from which it was charitably believed
that she had been forced to yield up the
keys and been herself spirited away.
But on further investigation it was
found that one of her best dresses, her
best shoes and her best hat were gone.
1t had been also found that Thursday
evening she purchased, at one of the
stores, a small suit of mems clothes, too
small for Wood, with blue shirt, say
ing that her father was going to give
the clothes to a boy who had worked for
him, and that the shirt was for pris-
oner. Tracks show that she got out of
the bedroom window, and woman's
track beside mans track pointed away
from the Jail. The alarm was immedi-
ately given by the Sheriff. kilograms
were sent out in all directions, and de-
scriptive postal cards mailed by every
train in the latter, the father described
his daughter as follows:
"My daughter is II years old, tall and
slim, dark hair and eyes with bangs.
None of her clothes are missing, but an
old dress and shoes she wore yesterday,
and the night dress she had on last
night
Wood is q handsome young fellow,
the beau ideal of the average stage rob-
bing dime novel hero, and he doubtless
smote the pretty, romantic little girl s
heart at first sight. The Sheriff says
his daughter was never known to have
, had any communication with him, but
the result proves that Mr.. Conklin has
,, not kept as good watch of his daughter
as he has of his prisoners. Itnow turns
, out that decidedly amorous messages
passed between Wood and the girl, the
notes being hidden in the often specially
prepared food. Wood was a general
!. favorite and was apparently assisted in
a his game by the other priso ners, who
now assert that they have all along been
q cognizant of the progress of events
and it is limited that the girl had made
a arrangements by which there should be
general Jail delivery that night, it be.
ing only frustrated by the Sheriff being
awakened by the noise kicked up on the
! escape of Wood and his inanaorGta
1t seems that they left for the soutf
along the Madison and Portage Rail
way; they were tracked along the road
. . bed for IL miles, as far as the woods
q north of Arlington Station, where the
= tracks led off and were lost among the
trees. The excitement in Portage, wher
: the news first became bruited about, wa
1 intense. There were talks of lynching
q but there being no one who appeared t;
o deserve such fate, the notion was sool
!. abandoned, though the popular cry wa
. for b-lud on general principles. Gang
q of men went out on volunteer skirmish
q ing expeditions, and by noon at leas
q so men had followed the tracks dow
q the railroad and were beating the brusl
2 north of Arlington.
o At O'Clock the eloping couple wer
r surprised and captured. The Conklil
q girl was in boys clothes, with he
. "bangs'' cut off. She was evidentl..
much the worse for the tramp. Th
burglar and the girl were returned t
the Portage Jail, anu the latter vii
doubtless be prosecuted for assisting he
p lover to escape.
"a The affair has throughout create
great excitement and Indignation in Por1
1t age, and the greatest wonderment at tn
h insane romance of the silly girls nature
her reputation is of course blasted fo
If life,