Charged With Arson

Among the county items on the second page of thi8 paper appears a brief account of a fire in York on Tuesday night, March 30, by whioh the dwelling honse of Charles T. Estleman and its contents at the time were destroyed. When the item was written ifc was snpposed that the fire was aooidental, bat snbseqnent developments seem to indícate tüat such was not the case. The house was insured in the Washtenaw Germán Mutual Fire Iusnrance Co. for $700 and its contents for $750. The first suspicion that all was nnt quite right was oaused when JEstleman hauded to the direotors of the company a sworn inventory of nis household efiects, etc, amountiüg to fl 1,000. They thought this was rather a large amouut of personal effects for a young couple only sis roonths married to have and on Monday night last they employed Marshal M. C. Peterson to make some investigations. He went over to York and looked the premises over, had some talk with the neighbors, and finding Estleman and his wife had gone to Toledo, he went over to Aaron Canine's, who is Bstleman's brother-in-law, and there he 'ound Mrs. Estleman, sr., who was in he house when it caught fire, and had a talk with her about the fire and the goods. She made a totally different statement of ihe qnantity of household effects in the house at that time to tbat oontained in the inventory. Froii! other things that he learned Mr. Petersoa was able to state when he oame back to Ann Arbor that he believed the building had been set on flre by Mrs. Estleman on the uigbt of March 30, and that she had then taken the horse and buggy and gone after her hnsband who had purposely absented himself from the house. Acting on this information Jacob Jt? Eiohert, president of the insurance oorupany, swore out a warrant bef ore Justice Pond for the arrest of Estleman and his wife. On Wednesday Marshal Peterson and Deputy Fred Jerry, of Saline, took the noon train on the Ann Arbor road aud went to Milan where they waited until the narth bound train arrived there at 4 o'clock, when they boarded the train and arrested the parties who had been to Toledo to get a duplícate of their marriage certifícate, the original having been destroyed íd the fire. Estleman tried to cheer up bis wife, telling her that it would be all right aud both of them stoutly maintained their innocence in the matter. When they arrived in Ann Arbor Mrs. Estleman was taken over to the prosecatiug attorney's office and there asked to give au jnventory of tbe goods destrojed by the fire. Her statement differed matenally from the sworn inveutory furnisbed the insuranoe compauy, also from the statement of Mrs. Estlèman, sr., and when Estleman was taken in and gave his version of the aniount of goods destroyed it was i'ound that hiw statement differed from all others. Other conflicting admissious were made by both parties which only served to further fasten the chain of evidence against them. For iustance, when Mrs. Charles Estleman took her mother-in-law, ou the night of the fire and drove after her husbaud, she claimed that she harnessed ihe horse and hitched it to the buggy and lighted the lantern in the stable. SkillEully qnestioned, Estleman admitted that he had harnessed tbe horse and left the lantern turned down low in the baru. Brought botb together Mrs. Estleman gave in and said tüat her husband had planned the job three weeks previous. She was to set the honse on flre after he had got away from it, theu wait nntil the flre got well started so as to be beyond the hope of pntting it out and then hiteh np the horse and drive after him, whioh was done. She also said that lots of the goods were saved: Estlemau also fiually adruitted that what bis wiffi bad said was true and told Mr. Riohert and the offiners of the uompany that he did not want the iusurauce money they oould keep that, and he woald do anything to save bis wife. He took all the responsibility for the crime on hirnself, said that he bad told her to do the job and that he waa to blarne for the whole matter. It transpires that the major portion of the personal property had been removed from the honse before it was set on flre. He also had the deed to iris farm and the insuranoe papers in his jocket. The $100 that he elaimed to iave lost in the fhe was donbtless a myth. The prisoners were remauded to jail as bail could not be given theru uutil he examination has been held.