The Portland daily press., 1895-04-30
LIVELY LINCOLN.
Lots Of Court Business and a Post
Office Robbery.

STRANGE STORIES TOLD OF INCEN-
DIARY FIRES AT BOOTHBAY.
The Suits Which Quebec and Wiscasset
| Railroad Has Brought Against a Score
of Subscribers to Its Stock-Leading
Lawyers Retained on Both Sides.
Especial to the PRESS.)
| Wiscasset, pril 2S.-ln the picturesque
court house here, whose quaint architect
ure. we'll worn stone staircases, and rude
| ly fashioned iron work bespeak IFS vener-
able age as we'll as the tablet in its walls
bearing the date ''1sa4, :" Judge Peters is
holding remarkable term of court for
Lincoln county. To begin with. the grand
jury was still in session today and it is al
most an unheard of thing here for the
grand jury to continue its sittings over the
| Sunday which begins the second week of
of the term. This long sitting of the grand
jurors indicate of course more indictme nts
| than usual and then there are civil suits on
| the docket of Iore than ordinary interest.
The Wiscasset and Quebec Railroad COM
pany is plaintiff in twenty-one of these civil
| suits and Wednesday,, which has been
assigned for their trial. will probably see q
great gathering OF lawyers. Spear and
Whitney of Gardiner, and j. B. Sawyer and
Ernest Hilton of Wiscasset, appear on the
docket as counsel for the plaintiff corpora
ton. And for the score OF defendants there
will appear Messrs. W. Fl. Hilton and r. S.
| Partridge of the Lincoln County bar. and
Messrs. George W. Heseltons, L. 7. Carle-
ton, W. S. Chute and A. G. Andrews. The
defendants named or the docket, are James
E. Ashford. ". P. Giddings. John NJ. Tur-
ner. Abner C. Blair. James H. Halloweli.
Seth E. Glidden. George e. .epson, Benja-
min C. Humphrey, Mary E. Bruce. Winfield
S. Choate. $. ". Mathews. q. E. Merrill.
Reuben B. Pier,e, Everett Trask, yestia
Studley, j. A. Reid. Edwin Cooper, John S.
Gray, Joseph calhoun, Allen Studley and
A. H. Ware, all of whom with perhaps one
or two exceptions are residents of Lincoln
and Kennebec counties. The suit against
Hon. $. W. Mathews has been settled ont
of court, and the entry neither party" APP
pears on the docket. 1t will be noticed that
Gen. W. S. Choate appears for himself as
we'll as for others of the defendants. These
suits are brought by the railroad in the at
| tempt to make the defendants pay for stock
| for which they subscribed. Subscription for
stock. We're solicited in the spring of 1894
and were received with the understandg
| that they should not be binding unless
| $30O0OO of the stock was subscribed for as
/ par The company claims that subscriptions
| for Stock to the par value ofS317, 900 were re-
| ceived and approved by the directors and
| that consequently all the subsc ribers were
obliged to pay the assessments. The first
assessment was for 10 per cent of the
amount of the subscriptions; then came
three for 20 per cent each and one for 25 per
cent. thus completing the payments. Some
| of the defendants 10 these suits have paid
| some assessments, but others have made nc
! payments at all. The amounts involved are
not large. rome of the suits being for much
over 500. The company really brings the
| actions 10 make test cases.
| In nine of the suits, it is generally under.
| stood that the defense will be that the su D.
| scribers agreed to take tine stock If they
i, ould pay for it in labor or by furnishing
supplies. Subscril tions were taken that
way and. in cases where it was specified
on the subscription books. the agreement
was kept. In these cases. however. the
plaintiff will maintain that there is nc
record uf such an agreement. Just what
the defence in the other cases will be is not
known here, but it is understood that il
will be claimed that the contract was moi
fulfilled by the company in various particu
lars. N
The railroad company was party to still
another suit. having been sued by B. K
Ware of Whitefeld for $500. which Mr.. Ware
llaims the road owes him for building
stations and tank houses. This case has
been submitted to referees, who are W. p
Thompson of Belfast, Moses r.. Mathews Of
i Warren and Mr.. P. Milliken of Richmond
They will give a hearing here in June. l.
NJ. Staples. Esq.,. of Washington. represents
the plaintiff and MessI ingalls, and Sawyer
the company.
But the real excitement will come shoulc
the grand jury return indictments in the
| Boothbay HarIor arson cases. In col
nection with these cases there is a strange
story TO be told. The late Dr.. j. ". Iowaro
of Augusta. owned a summer cottage al
Ocean Point in Boothbay Harbor, and II
the fall of 1892. this house burned down one
night. 1t was suspected at the time that the
fire was OF incendiary origin and Grant
Lewis was arrested. Lewis was living at the
time with Willie Poor and Mrs. Fannie Poor
Willie and Fannie are about forty years old
Fannie is the wife of Ruglas Poor, but hf
not lived with him Tor some years or since
the time when, it is alleged. Willie's fasci
mating ways tempted her from home
Ruglas, by tie way. is an uncle to Wlllle
The grand jury considered the charges
, against Grant Lewis and found no 1ndlct
ment. The affair had been almost forgotiel
until brought to mind by little boI
story, told during an investigation into IN
cause of another fire. On the night OF tn
18th of this month, the old Allen Le"i
pl sce, owned by George B. Kenniston, wa
burned down. This house Mr.. Kennls.o'
had recently fixed up for Mrs. Nellie Foor
and she intended taking summer boaroef
there. Mis-. Nellie Poor is the wife OF osca
Poor and is worthy woman. one
Fannie Poor's children is Hiram, poS