The Cordova daily times., 1922-12-26
FAMILY 1CURSE' BLAMED FOR
 MURDER

I SYRACUSE, N. Y, Dec. .26,-pThe curse of the Stowells." It is. to this that countryside gossip attributes the murder of Miss Minnie Calkins, 52, niece of U. s. Judge George Wash ington Ray, by her young nephew, l George T. Stowell, near Lebanon, Madison County.
 I The history of the Stowell family for the last three generations is I grim tragedy, marked by insanity and suicides, in which the staying of Miss Calkins is the final chapter.
 Clinton H. Stowell, father of the murderer, died of paresis only two wears ago. He was insane during much of the last year of his life.
 Mother a Sufferer l Alice P. Calkins Stowell, mother of the. accused boy, died of locomo- tor ataxia seven years ago, after lingering illness extending over fif- | teen years. Her father lost his mind some time before, his death. Her father-in-law and his wife both sui fered mental lapses before their death. Eunice Stowell, an aunt of the alleged murderer, is said by friends of the family to have died after years of insanity at a county home, and another aunt suffered the same fate in a western state. l George Stowell, former Sunday school secretary, admittedly one Of the best-read men in his community and now raving maniac over whom picked troopers of the State Con stabulary keep sleepless vigil, was well educated. He graduated from the little country school at Lebanon and from the Earlville High School, winning honors in history and in science.
 The years after his graduation from high school were spent lE working for his father, whose trust ed aid he was until the fathers death.
 FinarciaI Trouble
 Then tragedy and disaster came Ito the ill-fated youth. Almost all , of the little farm left by his father was seized by a bank in settlement of an old loan. The boy was left with a tiny plot of less than three I acres, a little equipment and an old house. With these he must face the world and earn living for himself and the little aunt who had been a
 mother to him since his mothers death.
 After his fathers death the boy supported his household by odd jobs for neighbors and by trapping. It | was his trapping that made him an enthusiast of guns. 7 Stowell was an expert shot, ac' cording to one of his neighbors, Mrs. Fiske, who declares that only short time before the fatality he showed wonderful craftsmanship to group of men and boys with light rifle he had just bought.
 For two months before the trag Iedy Stowell was scarcely seen With r out gun in his hand and a heavy : belt of shotgun shells about his waist r His own neighbors in the village ,- -,were alarmed by his actions, and he Twas considered dangerously eccen
 tric. Firing about his own house was so common that neighbofs who heard the shooting on the night of the trag
 edy paid no attention to it. II Minnie Calkins was one of the most lovable souls in her community j, according to the testimony of he1 friends and neighbors.
 She came to the Stowell home when the boy who was to end he1 life was tiny baby, called to the as
 sistance of the mother, who ever , then was a sufferer from the disease which later killed her. All through ! the life of George Stowell it was his
 aunt who cared for him and who later cheered him through the darf times that followed the death of his , father
 Minnie Calkins was an accom- , plished musician, member of the
 United Church of Lebanon and its organist. She was for many years music teacher of note in the coun tr,r ornund tho little village