The Dickinson press., 1906-05-26
ADJUDGiEID INSANE.
Chenoweth Gets Out Easy
Through Untirins Efforts
Of His Mother.

OF TITS motnor.
In the Chenoweth Jail breaking case
on trial at Bismarck, J. w. Follis, sheriff
OF Billings county in 1902, was the first
witness Friday for the prosecution and
testified that Judge Winchester turned
the accused owe to his care. ]. w.
Brown, who was deputy sheriff at that
time, told of the condition of the county
Jail and how n day that mansion was
found empty, with the door locked on
the outside, Chenoweth having taken
leave without permission. H. Gilbert,
who, in 1902, was the magistrate who
bound Chenoweth owe to the court, and
is now clerk of the court for Billings
county, was on the stand when court
adjourned for the day.
Saturday, the prosecution in the
Chenoweth case recalled some of its wit
nesses to further elucidate as t O the es-
cape of the prisoner from the Medora
Jail in 1902. and then rested.
Sheriff Ried of Billings county told of
the capture of Chenoweth at Casper,
Wyoming, where the prisoner had gone
to meet his mother, and of his return to
the Medora Jail, and how he had escaped
by the aid of a confederate who fur
nished him a cast of the keys of his cell.
Mrs. Chenoweth, the mother of the de-
PENDANT, was the first witness for the
accused and made an excellent witness
for him. She was given a free rein by
the court to tell her story, which she did
in a straightforward way, seemingly.
The prosecution objected to some of her
testimony regarding the insanity in her
husbands family, but the court, while
sustaining the objection in a way,
allowed the witness to go IN. The wit
ness told of her marriage to her husband
while he was a captain in the Union
army in 1864, and of his and her life
thereafter. He belonged to a prominent
Virginia family and volunteered in the
Union army at the outbreak of the war
while all the rest of his male relatives
joined the south. This, she said, wor-
ried him greatly and he could not sleep
for fear of meeting his relatives in bat
tie; he was constantly haunted by this
fear and at times his mind was so
affected that he was not responsible for
some of his actions and came near being
cashiered for them. She related the
history of mental arrangement which she
said was hereditary in her husbands
family and cited individual cases; told of
the death by suicide last year of her sis
ter's insane son, of the death of her own
little girl in infancy of brain fever and of
the mental breakdown under study of
her Oldest son and his final death from
consumption. Reverting t O the mental
condition of her husband after the war
and while consul to Canton, China, she
said he often asked her to commit sui
eide with him as his wounds received in
the war made life a burden, and of his
final death in China from consumption.
She then detailed the life of her son,
Arthur, the defendant, from childhood,
and how he had broken down at Harvard
from over study and striving for ad-
vancepent in art, and of his visits to the
west in search of health, where he
studied life on the plains while engaged
as a sheep herder and owner; told of
carrying him the news of the death of
his sweetheart and the great change it
made in him mentally, and how from
year to year he grew worse in this re-
spect. AT this point court adjourned for
dinner.
At the afternoon session of the court,
Mrs. Chenoweth continued her testimony
and described the peculiar and irrational
actions of her son after she had told him
of his fancee's death, all tending to the
belief on her part of his insanity, all this
from the isolation of the sheepherder's
life and hereditary causes.
DIR. D. L. Moore, superintendent of the
state insane hospital at Jamestown, was
the next witness and upon the hypothe-
sis of the mental condition of Arthur
Chenoweth as set up by his mother as
being true, he said he believed that the
defendant was insane in 1901, ever since
and is now
This closed the case for the defense
and after an eloquent statement of the
case by Attorney Townsend the cast
went to the jury.
After being out IS hours, the Jury
brought in a verdict to the following
effect:
We the jury in the above entitled ac-
ton, find the defendant was, on the 10th
day of January, A. d. 1902, not capable
Of knowing right from wrong, and there
fore not guilty of escape, as charged.
A warrant was then secured, charging
Chenoweth with insanity and he was
given an examination by the county
board and adjudged insane, and ordered
placed in the asylum at Jamestown.
The states case against Chenoweth
for grand larceny will therefore probably
be ultimately dismissed.
Saturday evening, Stock Inspector
Smith of Montana presented his requi-
sition for Chenoweth on the charge of
horse stealing in Montana, at the gov
ernor's office, but Mr.. Smith had about
abandoned hope of securing his man
then and the verdict of insanity will re-
move Chenoweth from the clutches of
the Montana law.
1t is not unlikely that Chenoweth's stay
in Jamestown will be short and that he
will o o find his way to Massachusetts,,
Arthur Chenoweth's record of stock
stealing in North Dakota, Montana and
Wyoming covers a period of five or six
years at least, and the inconsistent part,
in view of the finding of the Burleigh
county insanity board, is that he has
always managed to get hold of valuable
bands of horses, like the H T stock. He
said that he stole a fine band of Wyo-
ming sheep some years ago.
The case has cost Billings county a
good many thousand dollars, and a great
many people in both Stark and Billings