Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-01-01
A YEAR IN RETROSPECT.
The Striking Events of 1896 in
Windham County.
Criminal and Sensational.

The criminal and sensational events of
the year make record of which Windham
county is not proud, but crimes were not
as numerous or startling as in the two pre-
vious years.
An attempt to rob the post-office at
Townshend was made on the night of Feb.
2. Milo Gray, formerly of Bellows Falls
and Westminster West, pleaded guilty at
Woodsville, n. H., March "a, to the charge
of numbering his wife at Landau, n. H.,
in 1891 and was sentenced to Is years of
hard labor in state prison. A bogus ocu-
list performed an operation for cataract on
Mrs j. T. Noyes of Guilford in April and
received 500 in payment.
Chief of Police Hall captured Will Har-
rington April 16, the latter having escaped
from a Massachusetts penal institution 10
years ago. A family row between Rud-
yard Kipling, the novelist, and his brother
in-law, Beatty Balestier, was aired in court
in April. Balester was placed under bonds
in the sum of $500 to keep the peace. An
imposter who styled himself as A. H.
Barnes of New York swindled w. W. Cook
of Brattleboro out of 500 in May, by get
ting him to sign a draft for that amount
Z. b. Pratt was arrested in Bratteboro,
May %, for old debts. He was wanted also
in Bellows Falls and Fall River. F. R.
Cobb of Athol, son of A. r. Cobb of Brat
tleboro, was shot by G. NJ. Fry the last of
May, but has recovered. Mary Cunning
ham of New York, a 12-year-old niece of
Rev. Father Cunningham of Brattleboro,
was strangled to death in a tenement house
in New York May 30, by villain who at
tempted to outrage her. Mrs. A. F. Boom
er eloped from Putney in January with
John Bryant, the Putney "lilac." S. w.
Estey of West Dummerston was robbed of
SAC and gold watch on July "a by John
Moynihan, a boy employed by him, who
was caught in Boston the same day.
The body of Joshua Chief Weber was
found in the hay loft of II. r. Browns
livery stable July 80. Harry Dudley and
Adonis Bovey, 10-year-old boys of Brattle-
boro, confessed to the theft of $37 from
George Wilson of Richardson's meat mar
ket, Aug. I, and were sent to the Vermont
industrial school. James Lewis, who stole
bicycles in Putney, Bondville and other
places, was arrested in Palmer, Mass, in
August and was taken to the Bennington
Jail. The lower meat market of W. f.
Richardson & Co. of Brattleboro was
burglarized Sept. 10, and $40 in money
taken. Ira II. Knight, formerly of Brat
tleboro, was arrested in Concord, n. H.,
Sept. %, charged with fraudulent use of
the mails. He was convicted at Boston
Nov. IL, and sentenced to Is months i'm
prisonment.
A murderous assault was made at Mon
son, Mass, Sept. 20, upon Rev. James
Tufts, a native of Wardsboro. "Col." W..
A. Fl. Sillowaye, the Grand Army fraud,
who has previously been exploited in The
Phoenix. appeared in West Farms, N. Y,
in O. 4 er in connection with a campaign
f.. 81 Burton G. Thatcher, well known
in I.l.tleboro, shot former employe,
Daniel Marston, in the thigh, at Chester
field, Oct. 2, when Marston attempted to
break into his house. A human skeleton
was found on the Farr farm in Westmns-
ter in November. 1t is supposed to have
been that of an idiot who mysteriously dis
appeared about 100 years ago.
Judson Stafford and Walter Wilder of
Wilmington eloped with Mabel Ballou and
Ida Canedy, two young Wilmington girls,
Nov. %, and were married in Hinsdale, n.
Fl. Mary Walker and burly negro named
Monroe Jones, who eloped from Dalton,
Mass, were arrested in Nottingham, Dec.
8. The negro was placed under $500 bonds.