Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1897-05-12

AoA, WHO lnIen0S % start q sheen
ranch. and he has promised me more
wages chan | could make at anything
eiSe, l concluded % take tat least
until can strike someGnmg better"
He wrcte other letters to his family.
making the same statement. But nc
more letters did he write. Never more
did his mother or sweetheart see hin
alive.
Hfllmon and Brown and Walters
started out on a wagon, towards Bar
Der county. The next news from the
party was the report that Brown had
accidentally shot and killed Hillmun
winnie they were in camp. on the 17uh
OF March; that he had taken Hillmon's
oody 20 Medicine Lodge where a CO..
oner's inquest was held and the body
buried fer decomposition.
The Baldwins went down there to
get the body; they Gid not get it. but
fenced in lhe ground where it was
buried. Col. Samuel Walker and two
insurance agents soon after arrivei
| from Lawrence, and insisted upon dig
ging UP the body and taking it to
Lawrence. These three men knew and
said 1T was not the body of Hillmon.
| When the body was exhumed, Alva
| Baldwin, then boy sixteen years old,
and a brother of Levi Baldwin, who
stood by the side of the grave, ex-
claimed when the face was uncovered,
Hell, that aint john Hillmon" A
| coroner's inquest was held at Lawrence
the verdict Of the jury was that the
body was not Hillmon's. A warrant
was issued for the arrest of John H.
Brown for the murder cf an unknown
man. Brown ran away to Missouri
and eluded capture. While a fugitive
| from justice, Brown sent for a lawyer
and made a confession. He declared
that the body brought to Lawrence
was net the body of Hillmon, but of
another man whom Hfllmon had mur-
dered for the purpose Of palming it
off on the insurance companies as his
own. Browns full confession had
been introduced on all the trials eX-
| cept the last. His deposition, taken
by the Hillmon attorneys, was not
used in the last two trials. 1t is said
the lawyers hold the policies and are
the parties in interest, but the wild
ow" even Of a murderer is often in
fluenttal with a jury, and Mrs. Hill
mon appears as the plaintiff John
H. Brown and Alva Baldwin have
never been brought into court as wit
nesses by the Hillmon lawyers, for the
possible reason as suggested that they
fear cross examination.
On the 18th of September, 1879, Mrs.
Hillmon signed full release of all her
her lawyers office and demanded the
policies. He said he had a lien on
the policies for $4,000 and refused to
give them up. From that day to this,
the parties demanding the payment of
the policies, 1T is said have been the
lawyers and not Mrs. H.ilmon; she is
their creature, their slave. 1t is
said they threatened one Super
intendent Of Insurance with prcsecu-
ticn if he published a history of the
case; and endeavored to have Super
ir'.endent Snider exclude the companies
from the state, and who prevailed on
Superintendent McNaH to do so.
The body at Lawrence remained
unidentified until the father of F. A.
Walters, through the Masonic Lodges
at Fort Madison and at Wichita, OBJ
tanned intelligence Of the tragedy and
copy of the photograph Of the alleged
dead "Hillmon.'' 1t was the lost son,
Walters. When this ghastly photo
graph was shown to the aged mother
she exclaimed, 20 God, it is my son,
and tainted.
More than twenty witnesses from
Fort Madison identified the photo
graph. The Odd Fellows Lodge, OF
which Walters was a member, con-
vinced Of his murder, PAID his life
insurance. A monument has beer
erected to the memory Of this victim
Of assassins.
All of the relatives CT Hillmon, in
cluding his brothers AID sisters, sweal
that the body IS not chat of Hfllmon
AT the last trial all of uAe jurymeI
except one were On the side of tn,
insurance companies, although thel
are corporations and the supposed
plaintiff is widow. Sympathy for Z
widow and hatred Of corporations have
kept a case in court seventeen years
that, had both parties been citizens
vould nave been decided on the 1rst
trial.
And yet a state officer has ordered
these life insurance companies out o.
tie state, companies in which thou
sands Of our citizens hold policies
end companies that do business ant
are held in high esteem all over ths
globe.
Cairo, ILL.,, has experienced tw,
shocks from earthquake this week.
II is a good time now Tn declare wa