Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-09-27

Chattanooga, Tenn, Sept. 25.-In all
! the pages of southern romance and
sensationalism there is no page more
romantic or more sensational than the
RCss-SkeltOn seduction and murder
case of Scottsboro and Stevenson, Ala,
the facts of which will be brought to
light in the trial which is soon to begin
at ScOttsbOro. Ross was shot and
killed by the brothers Of the girl while
trying to escape from their wrath.
Annie Shelton was the beautiful
daughter of wealthy and aristocratic
family Of ScOttsbOrO, a town seventeen
miles from Stevens She was -
years old and the youngest child of a
large family. She was idOliZed by her
brothers and fairly WOrshiped by her
mother. At very early age she had
sWeetheartS without number Young
fellows went crazy over her-crazy
over her beauty and crazy over her
manners.
Annie had one sweetheart, however,
of whom she seemed to think more
than all others, but her affection even
in that case was often doubted from
the cOQuettish manner in which by her
fiirtations with others she made this
young man miserable. His name is
John D. Freeman, and his connection
with the case, though merely incidental
is very interesting and becomes Of
more Importance recently because of
their rumOred marriage since the
tragedy.
Possessing a character in common
with young girls, Miss SHELTON always
manifested a great desire to get out
in the world. She wanted to see that
world, At the age of Is she went to
Days Gap, Ala, near Birmingham, to
teach music, but purely for pleasure,
for it was rot necessary that she
should have worked at anything
Some people think that this was the
turning point in the young woman S
career. At any rate, when she re-
turned from there a few months later
she was a changed girl. There was an
element Of reckleSSneSS in her nature
never seen before. Her friends noticed
it. And when J. c.. Musgrove, now
United States marshal of Birmingham
| district, married a few months after
her return, t. that reckleSSneSS was
! added a sadness that possibly did
much to unnerve her and to weaken
her resolves. She had met Mr.. Mus
grove at Days Gap, and. for the first
time in her life, it is said that Annie
Shelton first felt the exquisite pangs
of love.
How long after that it was before
Banker r. G. Ross appeared upon the
stage of her life is not known. He
glided into her existence so gradually
and so quietly that the ripening Of
their acquaintance into friendship and
! then into something that at least
initiated love was scracely noticeable.
The meeting of these two was the
most fatal incident in the lives Of each
! Ross was essentially a man Of the
/ world. He was not a native of Scots
| boro, and was clearly out of his ele-
ment. Born at Neillsville, Wis, Sept
! u, 1858, he had lived there and at La
! Crosse until 1879, after which he went
to Iowa, and finally moved to Alabama
| in 1915. On June 1 of the year follow
| ing he was married to Miss Ida Ross.
| a cousin, IN st. James church, at Eu-
! faUla, Ala, by Rev. J. c. Davis. Five
children were born to them before
Ross met his death at the hands of the
| Skeletons, the last child but five days
previous to the tragedy.
Ross was a man of wealth. He
came into Annie Skeletons life and Sug-
! gested in his fascinating Suavity OF
manner and stylish apparel the per
fume Of that world into which she was
eager to go. He was a part of IL and
she loved him as Such-nOthing more
| AS for him, Annie SHELTON supplied
! that association which he missed il
| the little country town of ScOttSborO
| He cultivated her acquaintance aSSidu
Cusly; he was most devoted. He gave
her handsome presents. 1t offered d
relief to his budding love of pleasure
and dissipation, corked up as in a
bottle at home, for he said to Miss
Shelton in one of his letters:
My wife is so wrapped up in hel
household cares, her kinsfOlk and hel
children, that | am little more than q
boarder N my own house"
Thus through the summer of 1898 the
wheels of the gods rapidly carried the
ohariots of their destiny to destruction
1t was during the days of the worlds
fair. Annie Skeleton had been consumed
with a desire to visit Chicago. But a
| last aware of the dangerous Friendship
! existing between herself and Ross, hel
family decided to send her away on I
| visit to her sister, Mrs. S. V. Kirby o,
Little Rock. Ark. Ross manifested thu
great test regret at the necessity of tbeil
parting He was going to the world:
fair.
One morning Annie Shelton took TIL
train for Memphis, on her way to Littl
Rock. On the same day Ross took TIT
t~ain for Chattanooga. Their way
seemed far apart Did they meet il
Chicago? 1t Will be the endeavor o
the attorneys for the defense to SHOW
that at the trial as an evidence of hi
guilt in the seduction. The proof il
part will be that, although the rid
from Scottsboro to Little Rock shoula
have taken but a day, Miss Shelton di'
not arrive at her sisters house TO
more than a week after her departur
from Scottsboro, during all Of whicl
time her trunk was being held an
storage charged upon it by the station
agent at Little Rock. And about tn
= time she arrived there Ross returned
] Scottsboro. In one of his letters h
: SavS RI hay.