The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-05-02
HER HUSBAND GUILTY.
Hit Little Anna Dishman in
Head With Broom.
Body Buried But Afterwards
Dug Up and Burned.

Mrs Cummings and her two sons as
accessories after the fact. Mrs. Cum
mings confessed that her husband had
killed the girl.
1t was stated that Cummings would
accept a sentence to clear some mem
Der of his family whom it was init
mated was the actual murderer.
Mrs. Cummings was glad Of a chance
to tell Of the murder. She said she
wished IL known 10 everybody. Here Is
her story, in her own words. exactly
as she told it, sitting in the room III
which she, 80 years old, has suffered an
anguish that has, in three years, turned
her hair white.
Anna Dishman was only 10 years old
when she came to work for us, and she
was here only eight months when she
was killed. We got her in Arkansas
City Her father was dead and her
| mother was very poor She was an I'M
/ spirit and pride. She was a pretty lit
tie girl and held her head up and
wouldn't let anyone impose on her.
| That's what led to her murder, Ny
oyerbearing. When I married him Is
| years ago / was only Is years old, while
he was 80. I was an orphan working
for So q. week in a hotel in this county
and he owned this farm He was al
ways cruel to me. He beat me many a
time. Oh, how I hate him noWl He
| took dislike to Anna because I liked
her 1 was glad to get such a smart
child to help me with my work He
kept scolding and abusing the child and
telling me I would have to let her go.
The child got to hating him and would
never speak to him or mention his name.
Finally, the morning of Tuesday, Aug
ust IL, 1889, while we were at breakfast,
and l was pouring the coffee my nus
band cursed Anna as she came from the
summer Kitchen. He said she slObber-
ed in the dishes. She picked up the
dishpan that was sitting on chair and
went back into the summer kitchen and
stood by the stove He grabbed the
broom, ran to the door. and threw il
with all his might. exactly as a spear is
thrown straight at her head. The end Of
the broom handle struck her just back
of the temple and a little above it. It
cut a deep cash and the blood flowed
down over her clothing. I dressed thu
wound and we finished breakfast. Anna
kept at her work the rest of the week
Saturday her head began to swell and
L became uneasy. Saturday afternoon
1 took off the bandages and showed him
! the wound and asked him if he didn't
think it was dangerous. I told him l
thought blood poison was setting in. He
cursed and said there was nothing dan
gerOus about it.
Anna slept in the smokehouse back
of our house. My husband hated her so
that he would not let her sleep in thu
mouse and SO she slept out there. Sun
day morning when 1 got up I noticed
that Anna was not in the kitchen and
asked him where she was
Sc She's sick he told me.
4 never went near her till between II
and II o'clock that forenoon. It was an
! awful hot day and she lay there with
her head swollen. I spoke to her and all
/ could hear her say was water, water.
4 Her voice was changed and I knew
right away that death had struck her
/ When I came into the house my hus-
4 band was standing between the smoke
house and our house waiting for me to
come out.
why didn't you tell me Anna want
/ ed q drink2' I asked him.He only grum-
bled. took her out some water and
she drank two tin cupfuls. She just
gulped it down. I came out and asked
my husband:
DO YOU think it's too late to get a
doctor?'
'' Yes, it's too late.' he said.
Our two boys had just got home
from Sunday school and We're eating
1 watermelons in the patch near the
barn. I told my husband to send the
1 boys to Bledsoe's for dinner so they
/ would not find out about Anna I knew
| she'd die soon. Her head was sWelled
/ so and turned green and black exactly
I like heads I'd seen in collins. My hus-
band wouldn't let the boys go away
! He said they might suspect something.
So I cooked dinner and while we were
eating it Anna died. I wasn't with her
when she died, but the boys went away
to Sunday school again right after
/ dinner, and then I went to the smoke
house and she was lying on her face
dead. I came in and told my husband.
| I believe Anna is dead
He went out and looked at her.
/ never touched her. I was afraid to.
! And l never saw her after that. That
/ afternoon we sat in this room and
| talked it over and he decided that ne
would put her in a straw stack that
/ night and burn her. But that night he
brought the spade to the back door ana
said:
7 don't believe I'll burn her. I'll
bury her in the hollow and dig up her
bones afterward and burn them
That night at l o'clock he took the
spade and dug a grave down in the
hollow and wrapped her in a wagon
sheet and drug her through the weeds
and buried her. The weeds was all
broken down where he drug her
through, SO he plowed up the ground,
/ over the grave and all, and sowed win
ter wheat on it that fall.
4 After that my husband didn't dare to
sleep without a light He kept a light
burning all night and I slept in this
room here with my boy and with the
doors and windows nailed up Just a
year after he buried her he went one
night at 1 O'Clock and dug her up and
hid her in a corn shock and kept there
a month. We had been disputing about
whether her skull had been fractured or
not and he said it wasn't fractured. He
wanted me to go out and see that II
wasn't fractured. but I wouldn't go
Then he got up one night and dragged
| her about half q mile to the straw stack
and burned her up. When the fire was
out he dug around in the ashes and
found some bones and hid them in the
henhouSe. The next Sunday morning
while the boys were at Sunday school
he built a rousing fire in the cook stove
to burn the rest Of the bones. I went
down to the henhouse with him to look
at the bones. There was about q quar-
or them. When We were looking al
them his sister. Mrs. Shaw, came to visit
and he told me to take her in the parlol
! and keep her there while he burned the