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Horrible Tragedy

Horrible Tragedy image
Parent Issue
Day
14
Month
June
Year
1878
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Fvom au Atlanta (Ga.) paper we glean the following particulars of a frightful tragedy whioh was recently enacted near Americus, Ga.: "The negro laborera of John W. Caldwell, a well-to-do farmer, 45 years old, saw him standing on bis house-top, waving his hand. They started to the house, and met his littl'e girl, Emma, 5 years old, who said, "Pa has killed ma I" When they arrived at the honse, the laborera say, Caldwell jumped to the ground. ïhe f all stunned liim. They took him np and carried him in-doors, where they saw Mrs. Caldwell, her sister, Miss Mitehell, itnd three of the children Iying side by side - all brained by blows from a heavy iron - aud gallons of blood puddled about on the floor. The laborera laid Caldwoll down and ran. He gotup and, followirg, begged them to kill him. He then went to the well and jumped íd, got out and jumped in agam, got out again, and went to the gin-house, where he met his eldest son, 1G years old, and told him he had killed all the people at the houso and was going to kill himself. The son dissuaded him, but he climbed to the roof ond threw himself to the ground, produeing death instantly. When the reporter reached the soene, a horrible spectacle met his view. Caldwell and his wife lay on one bed and the three children and Misa Mitchell on anotber, all with the most ghastly wounds upon their lieads and faces. A ñeavy bar of iroD, a hoe and a smoothing ironwere the weapons, and were marked with blood and hnir. The victims had been killed at variouB places abont the house and then dragged together in the diningroom by the fiend. The neighbors, gathering, hnd placed them on the beds. The door and yard were marked all over with Caldwell's foot-prints in blood. The littlo girl, Emma, who escaped, states that he asked her if she wished to live, and then told her to run. Many neighbors stated to the reporter that thoy thought Caldwell perfectly sane when he committed the deed. His old est son stated that his father was on the plautation in the forenoon, and at dinner was moróse and ate little, stating that he would remain attho house in the afternoon. Citldwell had eight children. Three were at school. Thoso killed are: Nancy Alice, aged 10 years; Eobert Homer, aged G, and Leita, aged 2 years. Mrs. Caldwell was 40, and Miss Mitchell 30. The latter was killed in the yard while trying to escape, being brained with hoe. All the wounds were on the he;ids. Neighbors running to the scène saw Caldwell jump from the gin-house. He told the negro lïborers to run for Representativo Davison, his near neighbor, as lic had " played heil," but was , in his sensee. The "reporter was told that he had been aberrated for some time, but the neighbors deny this. He was usually a mild, quiet man and a good citizen, in good circumstances. Caldwell was a good farmer, highly respected, and a ohurch member. It is thought from the statement of little Emma that Mrs. Caldwell was the iirst victim. A Fhenomcnal Storm. A correspondent, describing the cffcots of the late terrible cyclone that laid waste the town of Richmond, Bay county, Mo., killing eighteen people, says: The stories that are told of the force of the storm soera ineredible. The trail of the cyclone was swept clean of trees and shrabs as well as buildings. Horses, cattlc, and hogs were whirled away or left dead on the ground where the storm struok them. Tho streets of liichmond are still etrowr with fragmenta of wagons, and the bodies of thirty horses have been hauled away from the town. In one instauce a team of horses and a wagon were lifted from the ground and dropped into the branches of a large oak, which was not prostrated. Were it not eo serieus, there are features of the storm's fury which sound funny. Half a dozen country stores wc-re destroyed and thoir contents scattered. Bolts of cloth, shoes, and such things have been found as far as fourteen miles northeast of Richmond. Trees were earried through the air. One of them struck a young medical student, named Campbell, who had gone out of a building for safety, and killed him outright. Men were lifted up aud carried throngh the air, and in one case a man was let down 100 feet from where he started. His shoes were torn from his feet, but he sustained no injury boyond a few bruises. The Baptist and Presbyterian churches were eompletely torn to pieces, and tho large bell on the Presbyterian church, wcigiiing 1,800 2)ounls, was carried across the street. An eye-witness of the iormation and approach of the cyclone, who was jast ofl the track of it, says that at a point Beemingly about five miles eouthwest of the city he saw a little black spot about the size of a man'e hand circüng and waving furiously. It increased and took the shape of a large funnel, and seemed to rise from the enrth until it had a circuit of about 150 yards. Wheu it reached point a mile from the town it stood on a hill, but conlinued to circle and roar furiously. At length it sped onward until it reached the southwcst corner of the tewn. The havoc and desolatioB which then enaued are beyond description. Not a houso is lelt to mark that our.e beautiful portion of the town. Houses wero blown over houses. There is not a singlo foundation that was not swopfc away. The city of Toxarkana is built at the junction of Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. It received its name in 1S19, when an enthusiastic surveyor, while running the lines, blazed tho thxeo fragments of the names of the new States on a tree, and predieted that a greac city would be built thero. Threo years ngo, wheu the town wns founded, the name, still to be geen on the old tree, was adopted, and tho prediction seems in a fair way to be verifled, as tho town no' has 3,000 inhabitants, und r njj ïmportautrailroatl crossing.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus