The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-03-05
Detected by a Dream.

In the number of Lippincotts Magazine
for January was published an article
headed "An Old-Time Tragedy" which
has been reproduced in a hundred West
ern newspapers. 1t purported to be the
story of the murder in Washington
county, near Greenfield, of Rebecca
McCrory, and the wonderful unraveling
of the crime in vision which was
dreamed by one Mrs. Morton. Mr.. A A.
Stout, of East Finley township, an old
lady born in 1900, and who was cousin
of the murdered girl, takes exception to
the article. She has written and fur
nished letter for publication in the Dis
patch, in which she relates the whole his
tory of the story as follows:
I have concluded to give you a true
statement of the matter: Rebecca
McCrory, the murdered girl, and I were
cousins. lived in Greenfield at the time
the murder was committed. Her father,
John McCrory, lived few miles west of
that place. He and Nixon joined farms.
Nixon and Rebecca McCrory were born
and raised in sight of each other. Nixon
came to her fathers one Saturday and
had some private conversation with her.
On the same evening she started to 60 to
her sisters, who lived in Bellevernon,
and said if it was too late to cross the
river she would stay with her grand
father, the Rev. Mr.. Speers. On Monday
her parents heard that she had not been
at either place. Her father then started
to hunt for her. While he was gone her
uncle, coming to her fathers, found her
corpse beside the road, in sight of her
fathers house, and he shouted for her
mother, sent for her father, and gathered
men to hold an inquest. Old man Nixon
came as one of the jurors, and asked Jehu
T.. = l. I'll g. Isl L.
He said no one. In few minutes he
asked the same question of Jackman. He
said: "Do they judge any neighbor ?"
That created suspicion, and the men did
not wait for any more. They picked her
up and carried her to the house, and sent
for DIR. R. +. Playford. The next day she
was buried. and men started on the hunt
of Edward Nixon and brought him before
William Hopkins who allowed him to 60
home. Then about fifty men raised and
took him out of his fathers house at
in West Brownsville, who sent him to
Jail. This was in the fall of 1928.
Men hunted for days to find where she
was killed, and gave it up, until woman
by the name of Mrs. Morton, who lived
ten miles from Rebecca's fathers house
near Bentleyville, related that in visit
or dream she saw Rebecca leave her
fathers house; two men met her in sight
of the house; they took her to the old
man Nixon's house and she ate her sup.
per there; the two men took her to an old
her to go in, but she would not, and
Nixon grabbed hold of her and put her
in; the other man held the door, and
| Nixon laid his arm around her neck and
gave her one cut with knife and she got
away from him; he then knocked hel
down, sprang upon her breast and fin
ished the awful deed. The body was con-
cealed over Sabbath, and at night he and
| and a woman threw her across horse
like they would a meal-sack, and took
her to the spot where she was found.
Mrs. Morton dreamed that she was an
eye witness and saw the cruel deed com.
mitted. She gave her husband no peace
until he consented to 60 with her and her
brother-in-law to the scene of the murder
She led the way and showed them the
house and road where the body was
found. She took six men to the house
where the girl was killed. Mrs. Morton
had never seen any of the McCrory fam
lily, and never was at the place before.
palmer than he, who had raised her,
could. Mrs. Morton said she was in the
the house and saw the awful deed COM
mitted. She offered to go to the Jail and
pick the perpetrator out of one hundred
men She gave the Kind of dress the
other man had on. She described Ed
ward Nixon to his very hand. DR.. Rob-
ert Playford said the wound lacked only
an inch of cutting the girls head off.
was the wife of Isaac Haveley when
the deed was committed. Abner Allen
was my brother. All the witnesses in
the Nixon murder case have passed away.
was born in 1S80-Pihsburg Dispatch.