The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1890-05-09
THE SUSPICIOUS STRENGTHENED
IN THE HIRAM GROUSE CASE AT
LAIRDSv1LLE.
CIRCUMSTANCES STRENGTHEN THE BELIEF
THAT HE WAS MURDERED AND THE
STORE BURNEp TO COVER THE
CRIME-wHAT THE "LUMI-
NARY" OF MUNoY, SAYS
ABOUT IT.

| The Muncy L,tminary speaks in its
issue of May as follows:
Was Hiram Grouse robbed and
murdered aud his building then set
on fire to destroy the evidence of crime
is the question that is agitating the
people of Lsirdsville and vicinity. Ii
is safe to say that nine-t tenths of all the
people familiar with the circumstances
believe the question can only receive
an affirmative answer. While this
| belief is almost universal, very little,
If any evidence has been discovered to
support the belief, but the position of
the body when found and the location
of the fire when first discovered are at
least suspicious. The cellar uuder the
store room extended abo 1t rour feet
into the street beyond he store front,
and was covered by a porch, with
steps to enter the store door; the room
over the store, in which Mr.. Grouse
slept, extended as far front as the Gel.
lar below, and over the porch. Mr..
Crouse's bed stood with the head to
the north, and at least fifteen feet from
the front of the room. After the fire
the buckles of his trousers, his knife,
aud small amount of money was
found in the cellar, among the irons of
his bedstead. This it would seem sat
isfactorily proves that Mr.. Grouse had
been in bed. His body was found
face down against the front wall of the
building, his head about three feet up
the wall and his back bent to the front
by the weight of the timbers that had
fallen upon him. Those who advocate
that Mr.. Grouse was dead when placed
in that position, think that had he
fallen from the front of the room up
stairs, he would have been in plain
sight and would have fallen on the
porch, as that part of the building wa
the last to burn. Again the fire broke
out in the rear of the building, in the
ware room, and his friends think he
would have been able to make his way
to the window in the front of the room
and that had he been in that room
when Joseph Smith entered 1t from the
window, he must have been seen.
And then, the walls were pushed in TO
protect other property, and it would
certainly seem that such being the case
the body would have been found near
er the centre of the cellar. Mrs. Will
liam Ritter, who resides next door,
was up at l o'clock, and she distinctly
heard noise, twice repeated, that s. e
now feels certain came from Mr.,
Crouse's store. She was somewhat
startled, but concluding that the noise
was made by horses, in some stable
near by, retired, without awakening
her husband, and in less than one hour
the store was discovered to be on fire.
All these circumstances led the people
to believe that robbery and murder
most foul was first committed; that Mr.
Grouse was killed up stairs, his b DIV
carried or dragged down cellar, placed
where it was found, covered with the
emty boxes and barrels that was in
that part of the cellar, to make the dis
truction of the body certain. AS it
was the remains were so disfgured
that no absolutely certain identities on
could be made. The friends of
the deceased are very anxlously look
ing for evidence and will do all that
lies in their power to arrive at the
trnfh