The Sentinel=record., 1911-12-28
WHOLE FAMILY IS MURDERED
JIM GRANT, FARMER NEAR sA. LINE COUNTY, KILLS SEVEN
 AND THEN HIMSELF.
Son Returning From the Neighbor hood Candy Pulling Finds Fath- CTS Body Hanging in Barn on
 Date of Former Wife's Death.

Murdering his own five children, his stepson, and his second wife to whom he was married last August, ana then retiring to the barn where he hung himself, James Grant, pros- porous and well to do farmer, mll man and merchant, early Tuesday. night committed one cf the most wide reaching tragedies ever enact ed in this part of the country.
 The scene of the tragedy was al the home of Grant, formerly the old Henderson place, just over the coun- ty line in Saline county.
 The crime was like thunderbot from clear sky. During the after noon before the tragedy there was a country "hog killingD at the home of Grant, asld Grant himself was said to have been among the most joviai Of dhe party.
 But a note the dead man wrote told the story that was ranking in his breast and led to the tragedy. The coroner of Saline county was in the neighborhood of the tragedy at the time 1t was enacted, and the note he found yesterday on the premises ill substance was as follows:
 Owing to deep dspair and that see nothing for me or TOT my children who ! believe will be better off in Heaven than they are here | commit this act. You will find money In the trunk to give us the best burial pos. sibIe at the nearest oespAtery Don't let father or mother know Of this un- tl we are all buried.
 The killing was done with an oak stove poker. The heavy wooden mis- slle brained the wife and children.
 The discovery of the tragic act was made by Hugh, the eldest son of the dead man, about 16 years of age. who was attending a candy pulling in the neighborhood
 But for this incident this young man too might be numbered among the dead
 About II o'clock Tuesday night Hugh came home, accompanied by a young man Of the neighborhoed who was going to spend the night with him All was dark and quiet about ehe house. They went to the barn to put the mules they had been riding, away. when Hugh saw the ghastly form of hls father hengng to the raf- ters
 Startled at this tho young me hurled to the house. in the open sitting room, before the dying embers Of an open hearth fire, sat the step mother, her shoes off and half dis robed. and apparently ready to retire, but her head lying gaping open to d horrible wound from which blood and brains were oozing.
 She had been dead for probably an hour.
 The attention of the young men was next tunned to the young mem bers of the household, each of whom lay in bed murdered with the heavy strokes of large oaken stick in the hand of a mad father.
 Jim Grant, the father, stepfather and husband, was prosperous and reliable merchant, mill man, and farmer. It was not ordinary insan- fly that drove him to such an act his friends say, but the breeding over the death of his first wife, who died just three years before. and whose death anniversary probably he had been burdened with in his own sor- rowing heart
 Grant had a number of brothers and sisters in this community One, Frank Grant. is employed by the Wells Far go Company here, and other brothers and sisters reside in this vicinity Ali are respected and loved. as was Jim Grant. who was believed by his friends to have been as far aloof from such tragedy as any other person III the world.
 The names of the children could not De learned last night, but the family is said to consist cf two daughters, four sons. a step-son, the wife and husband. None of the children were more than 16 years of age. and Hugh, who found the dead bodies, was said to be the oldest.