The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1898-11-26
LIGHTNING AND LYNCH Law i,
How the First Wiped out tho Witnes.

. E931
ss =sS 3s55s of the Other.
Gazing mort Inward from any train
on the Big -Four road assit runs across
the fertile plains Of Benton county,
! near | Temp pleton Junction, Ind. 100
miles N out from chicago, no obserYant
passenger will fail to. see, perhaps
half a mile distant from the tracks,
the charred and shattered, Il sharp
pointed stump of what was once a
great tree. Around it for a radius Of
twenty feet are piled old rails and
pieces of timber. Well cared for and
generally rich with heavy crops Is the.
held in which the tree, one Of the few
IN Benton, which is Indiana's greatest
prairie county, fourished. But not so
around the blackened trunk. The.
ploWman and all who till the land
seem to avoid any familiar proximity
to It, and the rude barrier which sur.
rounds 1t seems to tell that the spot
was the scene of some uncanny5 doing.
II And so it was-the scene Of the ven
geance meted. out to the perpetratort
OF one OF the most terrible crimes in.
lndiana's annals. Sixteen years ago;
Benton county was not the well-popu-1
lated and prosperous one it is today
It was favorite place for Illinois and
Indiana hunters to seek when the
prairie chicken was plentiful. The
wolves Of Benton county, and even
lions and other ferocious beasts sup
posed to have 1airs there, were used
to terrify children, and even some
older people. A few years before only
had railroads opened up the country.
In 1882 a Mr.. Atkinson was one Of
the most prosperous farmers in Ben
ton. With his wife he went to the
nearest town one day late in the fall
OF that year. They returned home to
find their beautiful daughter Ada, 10
years old, dead-murdere and man
gled horribly. No clew was left by the
murderer, but suspicion fell on Jacob
Melting, farm hand employed on the:
Atkinson place. He was arrested, and,
despite the fact thatsno actual evidence
could be adduced, so great was the IN
aroused against him that he
was hurried overland & to Lafayette,
Ind, and lodged in the Tfppecanoe
county jail, which was guarded by
troops, ordered out by the governor.
Z While confined there man who
now occupies a responsible position
with leading Chicago hotel was in
troduced into the Jail as a prisoner.
He was really an employe of Chi
cago detective agency. He gained
Nelling's confidence, and to him the
latter related his guilt of the murder
of, Ada Atkinson. Melting was ad-
vised by the lawyer he engaged to 60
to Benton county and plead guilty, the
lawyer, promising to follow and make
plea for mercy. Melting was taken
to Fowler, Benton county, on the day
before the one set, for his trial. Early
the next morning his lawyer was wait
ing in Lafayette to take the train for
Fowler, when he received telegram
telling him not to come: 'tYour client
don't need you,'' it said. 4 Nelling's
body was dangling from a limb Of the
tree not far from the scene Of his
crime. a mob had broken into the jail
a few hours after his arrival there and
taken him to the place of vengeance.
The tree never fourished after bearing
such CHASTITY fruit. It was dying when
a blast of lightning from the heavens
struck and shattered it. And the bar
rier was placed around it, and there
the stump remains, an object lesson or
warning or whatever it may be.