Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1896-12-21
TIE LIQUID POISON
Which Killed and Orazed the Ben
wood Oil Men,
Is Said to Have Been Purchased
and Shipped from This City.
Several Other Victims Will Pro-
baby Die-The Monroe County
Officials are Acting With Great
Vigor-Traces Of Arsenic Said to
Have Been Found.
Special TO the Register.

Special to the Register.
Sistersville, W. Va, December 90
The full details OF the terrible poison
ing affair which occurred late Satur-
day evening at Benwood, Monroe coun-
ty, Ohio, the new oil field in this sec
ton, have just come to light. This
afternoon your reporter was able to
get Benwood by telephone and learn
the full particulars of the affair. Ac-
cording to the story received this after
noon, there are three people dead, three
not expected to live, two or three in
an insane condition, and quite a num-
Der i'll. My informant said that the
whisky. or whatever it might be called,
which the men had drank, had not been
peddled about the field, but had been
bought in store at Benwood and was
put UP by
A WHEELING DRUG FIRM,
and labeled Essence of Cinnamon. ="
Those who are dead from the effects
of the poison are:
W. H. PRICE, a wealthy farmer, on
whose farm the first well of any con-
sequence in that field was drilled by
the Fisher Oil Company.
CHARLES SEIBERT, a merchant,
whose home is in Sardis, o.
THOMAS CLEGG, a workman of the
Fisher Oil Company, who had charge
of a we'll.
The names of those who are ill and
not expected to recover are:
HENRY ROTH, a worker in the field,
and one of the first persons to sue
cumb to the stuff.
COLONEL CLEGG, a brother OF the
man by the same name who died.
The cook in one of the boarding
houses. who also took quite a lot of the
stuff, is reported in
A TERRIBLE CONDITION.
He has lost his reason and is raving
maniac. and it is not expected that he
VII recover. Beside the people men
toned above who are i'll there are quite
a number of others whose names could
not be learned, but the total number
of those who are affected by the stuff
at a late hour this evening was fifteen.
All of the men were affected the same
way after they had taken some of the
drink. and in very short time they got
sick and commenced to purge. Short
" afterwards they were taken with ter
rible pains in the abdomen and it was
only a little while until they had died.
VIGOROUS ACTION.
Word was received here this evening
about six o'clock to the effect that the
Prosecuting Attorney of Monroe coun-
ty had gone to Benwood and had taken
several physicians with him, and held a
post mortem examination on the re-
mains of Charles Seibert, the butcher,
and one Or Ille uISJ l4th " NAS' ~ 80
reDorted that in the examination traces
of arsenical poison was found in the
stomach and that after consultation
that organ was removed and taken to
Woodsfeld and will be analyzed by an
expert. The authorities have taken
hold of the case with a vigor and will
sift it to the bottom, and it is likely
that they will make it pretty interest
ing for the manufacturers of the stuff
as the Pure Food laws of Ohio are very
strict.
AT about the same time the above re-
port was received a message came,
which stated that Henry Roth, the man
who is so seriously i'll, was getting
worse. and that it was not believed
that he could survive more than a
couple of hours.