The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1885-06-04
A LIFE PRISONER:
John Warren and His Aged Father-AWel.
come visit--A convtcts Sorrow:
From the Hartford Conn. Times.

John Warren and His Aged Father we1.
come visit--A Convtcts Sorrow:
From the Hartford Conn Times.
Something like twenty -fve or twenty
six years ago, one John Warren, Of Toll
land county; was sent to prison for life:
His crime-the murder of his child wife
was an atrocious one. Both were
young-he only %, if we remember
right, and she but about Is. They had
been married, we think hardly year.
He had got her to 60 with him up a
secluded road through the woods be-
tween Morrow station, in Mansfield, and
the Wilmington thread mill, and at a
lonely spot, down a steep wooded bank,
he got her into the Willimantic river
and held her under until she was dead.
He carried the body to some bushes and
covered it with brush and leaves. Even
when the crime was proved upon him,
he showed very little trouble or concern.
Warren, whose father lives in Mansfield
still, was young man then, but now
his head is si1vered with gray. His be-
havior has been such as to make him a
general favorite with the officers of the
State prison, and for years he has en-
joyed the distinction of being Estate
shoemaker" This simply means that
he cobbles shoes for prisonsers and also
keeps the officers in boots and shoes
When Warren was committed to pris-
on, his father was in the prime Of life,
but now he is an old man. He grieved
deeply for his erring son, and once a
year from that day to this, he drives
thirty miles to the prison to see his son
and brings him something that grows
on the farm where his boy passed his
innocent childhood days. If it is moth
ing more than few punches Of grapes
and half barrel of apples, he always
comes to show that he has not forgotten
his boy, and the meeting between them
is always affecting. These annual visits
are looked forward to with increasing
interest on both sides, as each knows
and feels that they must, in the natural
order of things, soon cease. The old
man is feeble, but his devotion to his
son is touching. When visiting the
prison, he drives the entire distance,
and takes two days to accomplish the
journey. His wagon is pretty we'll
freighted with good things for John.
Apples, pears and grapes; a loaf of cake,
Ike, pie or two, homemade doughnuts,
little tobacco, new pipe and some
warm, woollen handknit stockings,
made by mother or sisters, are among
the things sent. While all these things
are welcome to the prisoner, he cares
less for them than for good
long chat with his father. A.
ter the visiting is done and he has
said goodbye, and had his little
fit of detection at the thought of the sad
parting which may be the last, he turns
to the gifts from home. The apples
are of three or four varieties. He takes
up Baldwin. He knows just where the
old BALDWIN tree stands. His thoughts
carry him back to boyhood again. The
picture of quiet happy home lifeis be-
fore him. He recalls with sadness his
boyhood's hours, and remembers with
painful distinctness the aircastles he
built, and how they have been toppled
to the ground by the hand of adverse
fate. And so, as he handles each article
sent, his thoughts are busy with the
past. His quarter of century of i'm
prisonment has carried him from % to
middle age, and his parents from mid
die age to old age, and still he Is a
prisoner. He has not much hope of par
don, for his crime was too atrocious for
him to expect mercy in this world. And
while his thoughts go back to the hap
ny hours of childhood and youth, is it
unlikely that the shocking scene OF
drowning his girl-wife is often before
him? The memory of that crime is q
ghost that will not down at his bidding.
Nay, the apparition of the murdered
girl has astounded strangers driving
past the spot where the crime was per-
petrated. and who had never heard Of
the crime, 49, -. - =.