The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-03-29
MARRIED In A COUNTY JAIL
Miss Laura Zurich, of This City. WEEDS
]. Frank Benham at Richmond.
They We're Engaged Long Ago and She Stood
by Him Effort Likely TO Be Made to Cat
the Governor TO Commute His Sentence.

Miss Laura Zurich, who is now Mrs. j.
Frank Benham, offered her resignation.
Saturday night. as q teacher in the Insti-
tnte for the Blind. to take effect at once,
but Superintendent Griffith refused to &C.
cept it. She left on the evening train for
Richmond. The marriage ceremony which
united her and DR.. Benham was solemnized
in the parlors of the sheriff's residence.
Monday night. Rev. DR.. 1. NJ.
Hughes. of the First Presbyterian
Church. officiating The parents of
the groom. his two sisters. Mrs.
Winterowd. of this city. sister of the bride.
and several others. were present After
the ceremony the new y-made husband and
wife parted, he returning to the jail and
she taking up her home with her husbands
parents.
The ofiense of which Benham was con-
victed was the criminal seduction of q
daughter of o day laborer much beneath
him In social position. When frat accused
he fed TO Cincinnati but was
discovered and brought back. Bail
was furnished and proceedings. both
criminal and CIVIL were begun
and sentenced to two years in the State
Prison South he was at liberty under bond.
He was to have been sentenced Monday.
but stay of proceedings was asked and
Monday. By that time Governor Matthews
will be home. and 1t Is possible executive
clemency will be petitiOned for. Prosecut-
ing Attorney Starr called at the Governors
office yesterday and asked to be notified II
such q course was adopted. He desires
to be heard before clemency of any
sort Ia granted. 1t was inferred that he
expects Benham's counsel TO seek com.
mutation of sentence from penitentiary to
the county Jail. Nomotlon. 1t is said. for
new trial has eft been made.
j. Frank Benham is q young man, proba-
bly, twenty-five years of age. we'll educated
and of quiet, retiring deineanor. He Is o
graduate of the State University at Bloom
ington. and also of q medical college at
Cincnnati. 1t was while at Bloom.
ington that he met and became en-
gagged to Miss Zurich. At the time
his troubles began he was engaged in the
practice of medicine in Richmond with his
father. Miss Zurich is highly esteemed as
o woman and q teacher by Superintendent
Griffith. She is twenty-three years of age
and very preposseesing In appearances. She
vania street. She believes her husband
guiltless of the act charged. and was so de-
termined to marry him that her friends
interposed no opposition. She believes he
will live to show himself innocent and to
remove the clond that hangs over him. She
will remain in Richmond for the present
Married at Thirty Miles an Hour. er,r
A travelling man from this city. a passen-
ger on the Big Four from Chicago. was wit
ness to a marriage upon the train. yesterday
afternoon. just after the train crossed the
Boone county line. The groom was Martin
L. Warren. o farmer. probably thirty years
of age, residing in Boone county, and the
bride was Miss Priscilla Mcdonald. q
biushing maiden of about twenty-sIx, re-
siding in Benton county. The groom board
ed the train at Lafayette, but the exact
point where he was Joined by the bride was
not learned. At Colfax Squire Saylor
of Thorntown, boarded the train. The
justice OF the peace. being Boone county
officer. had no authority to act outside of
his bailiwick and the impatient couple
were compelled to wait until the train had
crossed the Boone county line before they
could be made one. As soon as the line
was crossed the couple stood mp in the
aisle of the car and joined hands. and the
justice pronounced the words that made
them man and wife. sgr
The strange part of the whole proceeding
was that both the bride and groom were Of
legal age. and there was no impeachment to
their having been married quietly at home
if they chose.