St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-01-05
COUNTY COURT.
Tine state VS. Thomas Ward.

The somewhat famous arson case,
The State VS. Thomas Ward, was
brought on in the county court Friday
morning before Judge w. G. Veazey.
The array of counsel was imposing, II.
c.. Ide, C. A. Prouty and Marshall
Montgomery appearing for the state,
and Bates & May, L. H. Thompson, j..
P. Lamson and Harry Blodgett for the
respondent 1t was evident from the
start that every inch of the way was
to be closely contested. Before the
work of getting a jury was begun the
defence contested the right of Mr.. Ide
to appear in the case, as he was Mr..
Fosters counsel in the civil case of
Foster vs. Ward, but the court ruled
the objection incompetent. Fourteen
out of 20 jurymen called were rejected
before the jury was empanelled. Fol-
lowing is the jury: A. H. Barnett of
No. Kirby, George A. Gibson of Rye
gate, Myron E Ham of Newark, A. H.
Gibson of Ryegate, James E. Smith of
Barnet, S. B. Bugbee of West Burke,
E. C. Houghton of Kirby, George w.
Taisey of GrOton, VIM. G. Page OF
Danville, Sumner Warner of Sheffield,
Charles Wiley of Sutton, Austin w.
Bean of Lyndon.
The occasion that gave rise to the
trial was the burning of Harvey Eos
ter's barns in Walden, Jan. 81, 1886,
preceded by an unsuccessful attempt
to burn the same barns Dec. 30, 1885
Thomas Ward of st. Johnsbury was
charged with the crime and justice
hearing on Feb. IL, 1886, resulted in
his being held for trial.
The case was opened with state
ment by Lawyer Ide for the state
which may be briefly summarized thus
On the morning of Dec. 80, 1885, Har-
vey Foster found on his barn floor
near dry straw a piece of pasteboard
on which were two bits of beet, in
each beet bit of candle, partly burn
ed, and near by an empty tin pail
Jan. 81, just two weeks later, the barn
was burned. On the morning after the
fire tracks were seen leading from the
main road back of Fosters house and
barn back to the main road again
Similar tracks and sleigh tracks of {;
peculiar nature, were found on the
Goodenough road near by. On the
afternoons of Dec. % and Jan. 26 Mr.
Ward hired sleigh at Clautier's liv-
cry, returning in one instance at about
A o'clock and in the other at about
o'clock the next morning and did moi
say where he had been. In both in
stances he hired Il sleigh of peculiar
make that fitted into the tracks made
where the sleigh had been turned OF
the Goodenough road he also bought
oats at Ide's grocery on the afternoon
of Jan. 26 and candle at .Scott's al
just about the same time. The state
claimed that Mr.. Ward had motive
for committing the deed in that he had
become enamored of Olivia (Amsden)
Brown, who had lived with the Eos
tiers for five years and afterwards had
married G.. HI. Brown and moved to
Wards block in st. Johnsbury thai
Ward afterwards secured divorce
from his wife and Mrs. Brown from her
husband that Ward then urged hel
to marry him but that she refused tC
do so ; that Ward attributed her re-
fusal to Fosters influence over her and
that out of revenge he fred Fosters
barn.
Harvey Foster was the first witness
called. He testified to finding the
partly burned candles on his barn floor
on the morning of Dec. 30, 1885, and
to the fire about I.3O on the morning
of Jan. 81, 1886; to the tracks about
the premises and to the peculiar sleigh
tracks on the Goodenough road Olivia
Amsdep lived in his family as daugh-
teri she married H. G: Brown about
eight years ago and they lived for q
time in Wards block /; finally she was
divorced from her husband had heard
of her intimacy with Ward and had
advised her to have nothing to do with
him had no personal enmity against
Ward. The cross examination was
long and severe.
Rev. M. III. Ryan testified that while
watching with sick man in Noyes-
vile heard a team pass between l and
2 o'clock on the morning of Dec. 81
driving rapidly toward st. Johnsbury
E. F. Osgood, also watching at the
same place, heard team going in the
other direction an hour earlier and
spoke of it.
Mrs. Mary Adams of New Hampshire
sister of Olivia Amsden, testified tc
sickness of her sister at her home and
to Wards visiting her at the time. w
s. Streeter gave expert testimony con-
corning Wards handwriting Oh postals
and letters.
Olivia Amsden was the next Witness
was %; when Is went to Fosters
making it her home until she married
Brown about four years later; moved
to Wards block Feb. 1884 divorced
in 1885; Ward gave her gold watch
on her 25th birthday anniversary was
sick at Manchester and visited by
Ward in 1885; Ward repeatedly pro-
posed marriage; said they would go to
Europe to live; corresponded more oil
less with him; Fosters people object