Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-12-03
IT IS DISGRACEFULL!
4 rlodern Sodom and G0marrah in
Wood County.


county there is a community which has
gained reputation that for corruption,
immortality and general depravitv
rivals ancient SodOm or GomarTah and
equals any possible condition of the
, world before the publication by food.
Chief among the characters of this
cesspOOl are old man Jacobs to W hOm a
fond mother gave the honest and his
tOriCal name Of David; Wm. Lord
whose shrewGness and name should
have kept him in the straight and
narrow wav; Chas. Emery, the head Of
a family whose name he has diSgraced
by sin if not by murder, and a number
Of less important persons who have
scared their cOnsciences by an associa-
ton with sin. Ihe central figure in
this panorama of seamy life is Emma
Houston, daughter of David Jacobs and
the wife Of Peter Houston at the time
Of his death. A full understanding of
the circumstances compeIs a pity for
this woman is but little better than a
child in years and more helpless than
an infant in determining right from
wrong. Deprived of a mothers care
when but II years of age, her ruin was
wrought by her own father. Sinking
gradually to the lowest depths, she be-
came the common playthIng Of the
nelghbOrhOOd; the CarTiOn about which
the dogs and vultures of that modern
GOmarr2h were wont to cOngregate.
Marrying Peter Houston there seems to
have been a feeble attempt at refOrma-
ton. Defective though he was in many
ways, yet the conditions were revolving
even to him, so he took Emma to
home Of his own; away from her
brother and father; where he
could guard her from Lord; where she
would cease to be q temptation to
From a careful perusal of the evil
dence it appears that it was this that
led to the murder. Lord was her
afianced husband before she married
the murdered man; had used every
effort to get her to leave her husband,
and, according to the confession of
Jacobs, had furnished him, Jacobs,
with a bottle of poisoned whisky with
which to kill Peter Houston, her
husband. 1t was shown that Peter and
William Houston had given Lord
thrashing for disrespectful remarks
about Emma; that Emery had stated he
would ''as leave shoot Houston boy as
a dog and that if he met Peter
| Houston in the woods and they both
had guns he would see that Pete did
not get to shoot first. Jacobs con-
tessed that he had threatened to kill
himself when Emma was taken from
under his care and attention. There
seemed to be Il general desire to get
Peter out of the way or Emma away
from him so the old relations could be
resumed
The evidence so far adduced is very
similar to the forecast outlined in these
columns last week. The state has piled
up formidable array Of cilcumstantiaI
Low a. To Al
OF Jacobs. knute knuteson, who was
in jail with Lord at Grand Rapids, testi-
fed that Lord offered him $40 if he
would spirit Emma away before the
first trial, Michael Vincent, the then
sheriff of Wood county, testified that
as he was taking Emery to jai just after
the inquest, the prisoner remarked that
he did not kill Peter Houston, but that
when the sheriff said it looked as if his,
Emery's, gun h"d been used for that
purpose, said '1es, it does VIM.
COrcOran eN-COunty surveyor. new
witness, met Lord and Emery as theV
were returning home from Grand
Rapids on the evening of the murder,
and says they had a single barrelled
gun between them in the buggy
Dwight Huntington, Grand Rapids
gunsmith told of having sold Lord -
guage shells loaded with buck shot
some time prior to the murder, but after
the previous deer season had closed and
ldenthed the two gun Wads found
under the window of Houst0n's house
as similar to those he had used in load
ing the shells sold to Lord. The shot
taken from HOuston's body were the
same as sold to Lord by Huntington,
and a shell containing similar shot was
found IN Emery's gun the day after the
| M 1rHn 1,o,,N
examined, but in the main their evil
dence was cOrrObOrative
Jacobs, the heavy william, was put on
the stand Tuesday, and under other
circumstances the great crowd that
greeted him would have beer tiattering,
Nature has given him an excellent
"make-up" for the part he plays. and
the unbushlng manner in which he
detailed the murder and his other
crimes leads one to believe he has had
no conversion and the life sentence he
is serving is but Il measure Of the
punishment be deserves. OF the inn
mediate circumstances of the murder,
he SAID Lord and Emery had come to
his house that night before dark; that
he had met them at the gate, and after
consultation it was decided to kill
Houston. After this conclusion was
reached Jacobs testified as follows:
Q. Well, what was done?
A. How?
| 9. What was done?
\. Well, they drove on and l went
and got my horse and come after them.
Q. Where did you next see them?
A. Down at the Houston road
Q. You mean by that the road that
turned off into the Houston place from
the Plainfeld road?
| A. Yes sir
Q. Well, what did YOU 10?
y. Well, we took and then we
drove right betwixt the two roads into
the woods and we went down through
the woods pretty near to Pete Hous-
toms place.
9. What did you do then?
y. Well, they got ont Of the buggy,
he did and Lord, and tied the horse
and got off my horse anC tied him.
and Emery took out the gun, out Of
the buggy and offered it to me and l re-
fused to take it, told him I didn't want
it and l wouldn't do it, and be said by
God he didn't want me 10 do it, he
would do that himself
Q. Any further talk there?
A. Yes, sir.
| Q. What?
A. After we drinked.
. q. Drank what?
a. Whisky.
Q. Out of what?
A. Out of bottle.
Q. What kind of bottle?