Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1898-08-30
a MURDER RECALLED
BY the Efforts of the Victims Daughter
TO Secure Warrant for the Man
Whom She Alleges Committed the
Crime

TO Secure Warrant for the Man
Whom She Alleges Committed the
Crime
CUMBERLAND, Md, August 20
Last Thursday Henry Wills, of Hynd-
man, Pa, came here and created a
sensation, by relating story that
had just been revealed to him by his
wife. Mrs. Wills alleges that when
she was a girl five years of age, that
her father, Hiram lines, was murder
ed ia this city by four men, admitted
into the hourse by her mother She
further alleged that they robbed the
house of So, 600 threw the baby into
the canal, and that one OF the men
left with her and her mother and
went TO Kansas. That she and the
man afterwards returned to Pennsyl-
vania, where she married Wills.
Prior to which time the man impllcat-
ed kept her lips sealed by threats OF
violence.
Investigation into the story reveals
facts that bear out the woman's
statement, with the exception of the
location OF the crime. 1t did not take
place in this city, but at a small
house two and a half miles below Paw
Paw, on the B. & O. railroad lines
lived in that vicinity eighteen years
ago. One evening in July, 1880, a
man, Frank Childers, a character Of
some notoriety in that neighborhood,
met John Lewis on the railroad tracks
a short distance below where lines
lived, and said in an excited manner.
''There is IA man lying on rock in
the middle Of the river down below
here, and the people think it is
lines.
This was Sunday, and lines had
been missing since Friday.
The body was taken from the river
and identified as that of lines. A
coroner's jury was impanelled, of
which LEWIS Sargent, afterwards Sher-
if of Morgan county, w. Va, was
foreman.
At the hearing, Ines five-year- old
daughter (the present Mr.. Wills), tes-
titled that two men came into the
house. and struck her papa with a
poker, and killed him under a lounge.
Rumors Of sensational character
were rife, but the jury, falling to I'M
ravel the mystery, ordered the body
to be inferred
After burial, rumors still ran so
high that another investigation was
demanded. Accordingly, the body
was exhumed and an examination
made by DR.. Jersey The doctor
found that the mans neck had been
broken, but nothing further was done,
and the body was reinterred.
This. however, did not stop the
talk, and all kinds of sensational ru-
mors continued in the village of Paw
Paw, and even up till to-day, wild
rumors are rife.
Prior to Hirem lines death, he
lived here, having, removed here
from Pennsylvania, where he sold
farm, and had money. Shortly before
his mysterious death, he moved to
near Paw Paw.
One OF the most important rumors
in the connection with the mystery
is the charge that one man, who
threatened to give testimony implica-
ting well-to-do man, was given $500
to keep quiet. This man left, and no
one knew where they went.
Mrs. Wills was here with her husband
for the purpose of swearing out a
warrant against man now living at
Connellsville, Pa, hut the States
Attorney being away, the Sheriff adj
yised her to wait until he returned.
With the exception OF the location
Of the crime, the woman's story seems
to be well founded, and this county
is threatened with the greatest sensa-
tion within its history, as there Is
said to be a man living near here also
implicated in the murder. Mrs.
Wills does not know where her moth
er is, or if she was living.