The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1913-10-11
Walter Nichols, a Guilford
Farmer, Found with His
Skull Crushed In
HIS WIFE MISSING;
ALSO HIRED MAN
A Neighbor Reports Seeing
Two Men in a Tussle on
Thursday Afternoon

Brattleboro, Oct. ll.--Walter Nichols
aged 81, a farmer of West Guilford, nine
miles from this village, was found mur.
dered yesterday afternoon in felC
about 100 rods from his home. Ervir
Wrisley, his hired man, 80 years old, is
missing, and so is Mrs. Nichols, 20 years
| old.
H. Willard Fisher, who lives about
half mile from the Nichols home, told
Sheriff G. E. Mann last evening, few
hours after Nichols body had beer
found with the back of the skull crushed
in and bloody hammer beside the body,
that Thursday afternoon at 2;3o he saw
two men struggling, as he thought, in
fun, at the spot where the body was
found Soon after he saw man who
he thought was Wrisley leave the Mich
OILS house and go up into the woods.
A few minutes later he heard two shots.
A gun kept in the Nichols home is miss
ing. Mrs. Nichols parents, who are Mr..
and Mrs. Moore, are confident that their
daughter has been victim of the MUIR
derer. There appears to be no question
Of her fidelity and none of her iewelry
or clothing is missing.
Walter Nichols purchased his fathers
farm last February, and his parents, Mr..
and Mrs. II. L. Nichols, had lived there
until last Monday, when they moved TO
the Eastwood place about three miles
away. Young Nichols and his wife, who
had been married two years, and Wris-
lev were on the farm alone. Wrisley
had worked there since the maple sugar
season.
Nichols failure to appear at the Bap-
fist church Thursday evening, of which
he was ianitor, led to an investigation
yesterday morning on the part Of Mr..
and Mrs. Homer Thomas, neighbors.
They found the house unlocked and
everything apparently In order. Believ-
ing that the inmates were somewhere on
the farm, they did not investigate fur
ther.
Rev. and Mrs. Fl. I. Kemp, upon call
ing at the house and failing to find any
one at home yesterday afternoon, drove
on a road leading into field, and about
100 rods from the house the clergyman
found the body of Nichols lying face
downward near the fence. The back OF
the head had been smashed in with
hammer.
DIR. G. r. Anderson of Brattleboro. who
was called expressed the opinion that
life had been extinct for "a hours. Sc
Iectman w. b. Warren of Halifax took
charge of the body, and Sheriff G. ~.
Mann, with Deputy Walter K. Howe of
Immediately went to the
scene. Deputy Sheriff George p Miller
Of Guilford soon joined them. As ex-
tensive search as was possible before
darkness set in was made of the sur
rounding territory, and it was not until |
dusk that the statement of Mr. Fisher |
as to what he had seen Thursday after
noon was obtained Sheriff Mann sent |
broadcast by telephone last night de- /
,criptions of Wrisley and Mrs. Nichols |
and the fact that a bay horse, weigh |
ng 900 pounds, and heavy black ex-
press wagon were missing from the
'arm.
Wrisley's description is as follows:
Forty years old, dark complexion and
five feet 10 inches, weight |
40 to $50 pounds, little finger and one
ieXt to it on one hand missing, bad
car on back of neck.
Mrs. Nichols is 20 years, light com
,lexion and hair, five feet seven, weight /
80 pounds. Nichols, besides his parents,
caves sister, Mrs. II. A. Carpenter of
greenfield, and brother, Austin g. of
fuilford.