Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1893-07-29
The STRANGE NEWLY CASE
All the Evidence in and the Argu.
ments Being Heard.
Nomadio Career OF the Defendant. Always
Wandering, With the Prison or the
Poor Hou,e His Coai..FooI
or Fraud, Which2

SPRINGFIELD, ILL.,, July 23.-The end
of the Newly trial is now in sight.
The evidence is all in and the argu-
ment have begun. Thursday the
prosecution put on the stand Silas Big.
gerstaff, of Hamilton county. who ties.
titled that defendant came to his house
as a tramp in March, 1891; that he re-
manned there several days, and during
that time claimed to be Allen Newly,
and that in conversation with old sol
diers who called to see HIM he talked
of Bill Newly as having been killed al
Shiloh. Witness was greatly puzzlet
at his conduct and considered him
''off."
A. A. Holmes, an ex-special pension
examiner, produced an affidavit taker
by him last January and signed by de
PENDANT. The defense objected to this
but it was admitted and read. In it the
defendant, claiming to be william
Newly. gave u detailed account of him
self. lie averred that he was born il
Smith county, Tennessee, April 20
1925, and removed to Illinois when .
years old; married to Ferribe Files in
lS49, and had six children; enlisted in
Company n, Eourth Illinois infantry,
August :, 1861, was struck on the head
with IL shell at Shiloah and was a week
in a rebel prison; was known at Ander
scnville as "CraZv Jack went naked
there and was las crazy as a bedbug."
From Andersonville, he was taken To
Key West, Fla, by "a man who claimed
to be his uncle, but spelled his name
Nuby.
This man lived on n plantation ten
miles from Key West and was called
Captain Nuby.' When Captain Nuby
died his daughter Lydia gave defend
ant enough money to take him To Jack.
Sonville, Fla. There he passed through
the yellow fever scourge but escaped
h disease: then he fell in with tho
Cherokee Indians and remained OH
their reservation for some time: leaving
the Indians he took refuse in the pc l.
houses and jails, making his way Ia
Tennessee. Here he was sem to tho
penitentiary for fifteen years for horse
stealing, but released in 1889, after
serving seven years and five months.
He was committed as Allen Lewis.
but vas known in prison as ''Rickety
Dan" He travelled through Missouri,
Kentucky, Illinois and Ohio, putting
up at the poorhouses and occasionally
getting into Jail.
In all his wanderings il never oc.
Cured to him that he was William
Newly. lie assumed n name his
tickle fancy suggested. and always de,
signing to get into the poorhouse or
into Jail; to use his own expression, ho
hardly ever told the same story
twice"
81 was always by myself" said he,
unless picked up a IN The
last woman ! had with me was Alice
Showers. She was abou: % years old
and was with me about a year.
Later on in the affidavit he remarks:
lie turned up at McLeansboro. H.,
In 1891, under the name of Daniel Ben
ton. There he was recognized as Will
am Newly.
lie at first Indignantly denied his
but as he wandered through
the fields and along the roads and
which he used to frequent his
memory suddenly returned and he was
more in his own mind William
Then at the suggestion of
Lay and others he applied for a
pension, and this led to his arrest for
to defraud the government.
The prosecution next called Captain
W. s. Campbell. of the adjutant gem
erals office, who produced a copy Of
the official record of the Fortieth iii.
nois infantry. 1t was sought to es-
tablish by this that Iii Morris, the
man who, in the theory of the defense,
was mistaken for Newly and buried
pt Shiloh, was not killed at that
battle. The record shows that he was
discharged for disability April 10,
1863, the next year after the battle
of Shiloh. AS to William Newly,
the record describes him
as 35 years old, 5 feet IL inches high.
dark hair, gray eyes and dark complex
ion. and that he enlisted August Is,
1861. This is a good description O,
Newly. considering the ravages of age.
and is the date of enlistment given by
him.
Then the prosecution called DR.. b. NJ.
Griffith and DE-. II. w. Dresser. oil
Springfield, who expressed the opinion
that defendants ailment is not the re
suit OF a blow on the head, but Is s
nervous disease, generally hereditary,
known as Frederick's ataxia.
- Thomas Ii. Mcbride, of Cincinnati
was the last witness called by the pros
ecution. He is the special pension ex
aminer who worked up this case for tn,
government and detailed the incident
Of "a trip he made through Kentucky
with the defendant last April. Defend
ant was there recognized as Dan Ben
ton. Witness regarded defendant as &
sane man with a remarkable memory