The San Juan County index. (Aztec, N.M.) 1890-19??, 1899-01-20

the children was found smothered in
bed. A neighbor made the discovery
and it is said that Mrs. Bean, when in
formed of the fact, carelessly remark
ed: "Oh, l know 1t; the child died half
an hour ago" No investigation was
made, but the people Of Dixmont sus-
pected that the mother caused the
child's death in order to be rid OF It,
Soon after the other two children, aged
2 and 3 years, died of a stomach COM
plant. There was suspicious whis-
pered among the neighbors, but the
deaths Of the Bean children were for
gotten for a time after they were laid
way in the village ~ehurchyard at Ply
mouth.
Bean pursued his medical studies in
what was known as a druidcal insti-
tute, where, It was said, diplomas could
be purchased for $25 or less. The leg
islature regarded this concern as a
fraud, and passed a law that killed It
before Bean had secured his diploma,
and both husband and wife then deaid-
ed to attend a similar institution in
Ohio, where without much study they
might get diplomas. Before leaving
Bean prevailed upon his parents to in
vest all their ready money in a farm,
upon which he was to live when he
returned from the west. The farm was
purchased and Bean received the deed,
giving to his parents a mortgage. For
various reasons this mortgage was
eve recorded, but was kept in the
house Of the elder Bean.
Willis Bean and his wife then bor-
rowed $500 and went to the Ohio med
ical school. Soon afterward came a
letter from Mrs. Bean saying that VIII
lis had died suddenly, and that the
doctors could not tell the cause of his
death. It afterward developed that it
was a stomach trouble, similar to that
which caused the death of the two
Bean children. Mrs. Bean came home
to stay with her husbands parents,
and when she had been there a few
weeks II was discovered one day that
the u%nrecorded mortgage had disap-
peared. Young Mrs. Bean had the
deed of the farm, and so the land,
bought with the elder Beans money,
was hers in law. She sold the place
and all upon 1t, realizing about $4,000,
and the elder Bean was so much the
poorer for his carelessEess In not hav-
ing the mortgage recorded. No one in
Dixmont had any doubt that she stole
the mortgage.
A short time afterward the widow
Bean married George Taylor, who be-
longed in Dixmont and was employed
in one Of the Lewiston mills. Taylor
was an Odd Fellow, and It was sup
posed that he had some insurance in
that order. He soon died Of the same
stomach trouble that carried of the
Beans, children and father. After his
death the fact developed that he had
not paid his dues in the Odd Fellows
lodge. so that his insurance had laps
ed: but the members contributed a
fund Of several hundred dollars for the
widow.
Mrs. Taylor did not long remain a
widow. but married a man named Elias
CoWan. a widower with one child, VIII
lis. aged 8 years. Cowan had decided
his farm to his wife, at whose death
the property descended. by the laws OF
Maine, to the boy, the father having
the entire income Of the place until the
boy attained his majority, and after
that, during his lifetime, one-third the
income. One day in September, 1894,
he boy died, and the cause of his
death was the same stomach trouble
that had affected the Beans and Taylor.
This case was Investigated, with the
result that Mrs. Cowan was arrested
upon the charge OF having killed the
boy with arsenic.
The body was exhumed and the
stomach and intestines sent to Bow
dom college for analysis. The chem
lists reported that the stomach contain
ed enough arsenic to kill an OK. Mrs.
Cowan was convicted Of murder in the
first degree and sentenced in Febru-
airy, 1896, to a life term at Thomaston.
II was lately learned that previous TO
the death Of the boy, Elias Cowan, the
father. was IN with the same kind OF
stomach trouble, and that AZ that time