NEWS: Items from The Cambria Freeman, May 27, 1904, Cambria County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Patty Millich Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cambria/ _________________________________________ Cambria Freeman, Ebensburg Pa Friday May 27, 1904 Volume XXXVIII, Number 22 Local and Personal Attorney T. J. Bell of Johnstown has been elected borough solicitor of Gallitzin. F. K. Shiber of Cresson was seen here on Tuesday. Mr. and Mrs. Robert McBreen spent Tuesday in Altoona. Rev. R. S. Craig spent a few days at Princeton this week. Ex-Sheriff Joseph A. Gray of Spangler was in town yesterday. Stewart Kinkead left for Philadelphia on Saturday last. T. A. Weible of Carrolltown was in this place on Tuesday. Miss Estella Creery has returned from her visit to Livermore. Landlord Stoltz and Harry Blair drove to Johnstown Tuesday. Thomas Illig of Carrolltown paid this place a visit on Wednesday. Miss Elizabeth Schand of Altoona is the guest of Mss Lovell Barker. Thomas Barnes of Barnesboro was transacting business here last week. The International Bank of Barnesboro will appear in new uniforms on Memorial Day. Edward Owens who has been upon the sick list is now able to be around. Attorney E. T. McNeelis was looking after professional matters on Monday. J. J. Westover, the genial Spangler hotelman, was in this place on Monday last. Mrs. Louis Kaylor of this place has been taken to Mercy Hospital for treatment. Attorney Thos. J. Itell was transacting legal business in this place on Wednesday. D. Forster Lloyd of Pittsburg is visiting his sisters, the Misses Allie Margaret Lloyd. [as printed in the newspaper] C. W. Jones, Cloyd D. Pennebaker and O. A. Kinkead drove to Johnstown on Tuesday. F. E. Farabaugh of Patton the genial and businesslike county auditor was in town on Tuesday. Hon. J. J. Thomas of near Patton visited his son, Dr. S. O. Thomas of this place on Monday. Webster Griffith has returned from Pittsburg where he was in attendance upon the U. S. Court. Cone & Batvin are at work erecting a new office building for Westover & McAnulty in North Spangler. John Riffle of Summit, one of the few surviving veterans of the Mexican war was in Ebensburg Monday. Mrs. Kempher of Emporium has been a visitor at the home of her sister, Mrs. G. D. Kinkead. Miss Linda Jones of Renova has been visiting her aunts, Mrs. Fergus Lloyd and Miss Sue Kinkead. G. C. Divers the well known Bakerton hotel man was registered at the Metropolitan on Tuesday. Mr. and Mrs. Fred D. Barker have returned from Pittsburg. Mrs. Barker is much improved in health. Miss Eunice Jones of Cyclone, O., is visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. R. Jones of South Ebensburg. Miss Carrie Hays of Pittsburg is stopping at Fenwick Hall while her summer cottage is being opened up. Mrs. Sarah Richards of Zanesville, Ohio, is visiting her son and daughter-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. T. M. Richards. As part of its general retrenchment policy the P. R. R. has decided to close the new Portage branch recently built at a cost of $5,000,000. Miss Josephine Luke of South Fork and Miss Bernice Jones of Johnstown spent Sunday in this place with Mr. and Mrs. Robert Ferguson. Jno. Parrish the enterprising Union News agent at Cresson has purchased a spic and span wagon from which he now delivers his papers. Miss Nellie Stokes of Johnstown, who has been visiting her sister, Miss Katherine Stokes of Ebensburg for the past week, returned home on Saturday. Among the out-of-town visitors on Monday last were J. B. Gountner of Cresson; A.H. Swope of Flinton and Milton Spencer of Barnesboro. Among the graduates at the Millersville Normal this year is Miss Ruth Light, daughter of the late Prof. F. A. and Mrs. Light of Kane, but formerly of this place. Frank Sell of Lilly was visiting friends in this place on Wednesday. Mr. Sell has just successfully completed a course in stenography and typewriting at Pott's School of Shorthand, Williamsport. The Rev. Father J. J. Ludden, pastor of St. Thomas' Catholic Church at Ashville, until recently of this place, celebrated both masses in Holy Name Church here on Sunday during the absence of Father Fox, the pastor. During the past two weeks dogs have killed twelve and wounded five sheep belonging to C. E. Little of Chest Springs. Additional Local J. O. Stanley of Hastings has purchased a meat market in Philipsburg and moved to that place. Spangler Methodists have decided to erect a new church as soon as a suitable location can be purchased. James Randall of Chest Springs has gone to Blairsville where he has leased a grist mill for a year. If at the end of that time the business is satisfactory Mr. Randall may buy the plant. The lads and lassies of South Fork can now "get their pictures took" without having to take a trip into civilization as Samuel Nederland of Houtzdale has opened a gallery in the coal town. While fishing recently A. M. Bennett of Ivison shot a large crane which measured four feet, seven and one-half inches from tip to tip, says the Johnstown TRIBUNE. Just where the fishing part comes in remains untold. The Lilly SIGNAL says work in the mines of that section of the county is very dull. A drove of mules, twenty-three from Ehrenfeld and fourteen from Benscreek were put out to pasture a few days ago, their services not being needed. Squire Caron Leahey of Lilly was taken down the mountain on Sunday last to the Memorial Hospital at Johnstown, where he is being treated by Dr. Charles E. Hannan for two abscesses. Squire Leahey's many friends throughout the county will be pained to hear of his trouble. A. B. Forsythe of Portage who is a brakeman on the Pittsburg Division of the P. R. R. running between Altoona and Derry met with a peculiar accident the other night a few miles west of Altoona. He was struck in the face with a lantern of a fellow trainman and a gash was cut under the left eye. One of the arteries was severed and he lost considerable blood before reaching the hospital in Altoona where the wound was dressed. Bright News from Patton William Graner of Altoona spent the early part of this week at Patton. Miss Byrd Hurd has been called to La Jose by the serious illness of her father. J. J. Donnelly and George E. Prindible spent a few days last week in New York. Miss Nora Galer, a pupil at the Ebensburg Normal school spent last Sunday at home. Rev. M. E. Swartz addressed the young men at the Y. M. C. A. rooms last Sunday afternoon. Miss Aimelia Goldstein who has been so seriously ill with pneumonia is gradually improving. Mrs. Wilson of Cresson was a visitor at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Levi Gorsuch one day last week. Clark Tyler was at Windber last Friday night attending a meeting of the Royal Arcanum Council of that place. W. C. Helmbold, Esq., of Curwinsville was in town Tuesday looking after his insurance interests at this place. Miss Jess Taport returned on Monday to her home at Tyrone after an extended visit at the residence of Hon. W. C. Lingle. Dr. Dowlen and wife have returned from their southern trip. The doctor is much benefited by the rest and change of climate and we understand will resume his practice at Patton. Rev. L. M. A. Haughwout who has been in charge of Trinity Episcopal church will be ordained a priest of that denomination next Sunday at Pittsburg, Bishop Whitehead officiating. Efforts are being made to have the American Express Company install a telephone in their office. Such a move would be an accommodation to their patrons and at the same time an advantage to the company. The Odd Fellows now occupy their new quarters on the third floor of the Good Building. The lodge room is large, well ventilated and handsomely furnished making one of [remainder of sentence totally faded] John Burk, employed at the clay works, was so unfortunate one day last week as to have his arm so baldy inured that amputation was necessary. The operation was performed by Dr. Van Wert assisted by Dr. Morrell. The public school grounds present a beautiful appearance just now, owing to the many flowers out in bloom. Mr. Edminston gives great care to his plants and keeps the lawn cut close which makes the place very attractive. A spic-span new merry-go-round has hoisted its tent in Patton and is gathering up all the loose nickels and dimes in town. The small boy is in his glory seated upon the back of a noble charger or reclining in one of the luxurious chariots. Dr. B. F. Shires who has been doubly afflicted, first by a visit from the stork which left at his home a dear little baby girl and secondly a severe attack of rheumatism which seriously interfered with his locomotion is rapidly recovering in his health and spirits. If anyone doubts the aesthetic taste of Landlord Mullen let them survey the grounds surrounding the Palmer House. For some days past he has had a landscape artist engaged in beautifying the premises and as a result a decided change has been made which is pleasing to the eye. Roy Wheeler who for many years has been clerk and book keeper at the Palmer House, will leave that position on June 1 to conduct the Central Hotel at Hastings. Mr. Wheeler by his obliging and accommodating manner has made many friends who wish him every success in his new venture. H. S. Lingle has accepted the honorable and profitable position of advertising manager for the "Trinity Calendar." We congratulate our contemporary in securing his valuable services as his remarkable versatility of talent will insure an era of prosperity for that bright and lively publication. Mr. Lingle possesses all the qualifications necessary to make the advertising columns as interesting and captivating as the first chapter of a continued story. Leg Amputated Harry Adams of Cresson, who was admitted to the Altoona Hospital about a month ago suffering from a compound fracture of the left leg, caused by falling from a haymow, had the injured member amputated at the knee by the hospital physicians the other day. The crushed bones in the leg refused to heal. Tierney was Not Lost The people of Ebensburg were startled this week by the rumor that our esteemed fellow citizen, Wm. Tierney, had been lost in the wilds of Barr township. Considerable excitement prevailed for a time and Capt. Thos. Davis organized a rescue party and was preparing to leave to begin a thorough search for his friend when Mr. Tierney put in his appearance. The report concerning Mr. Tierney was both cruel and false as that gentleman knows every tree in Barr township. The only thing that was lost as Mr. Tierney well remarks was some people's judgments. It is to be hoped that those who circulated the rumor have been amply punished by witnessing the pain their senseless story caused. Will Try for Tournament The P. C. & C. C. Tennis Club, composed of the office force of the Pennsylvania Coal & Coke Company at Cresson and the Cresson Tennis Club are putting their courts in condition and the admirers of the sport are looking forward to some warm games. Both clubs have some good players and an effort will be made to arrange a tournament before the season is over. Ebensburg Pastor Speaks The eighteenth annual meeting of the Pennsylvania State Association of Congregational Churches was in session last week in Pittsburg. Much interest was taken in the final session because of the number of interesting addresses made by speakers of prominence in the church. Among them was the Rev. J. Twyson Jones of this place who spoke on, "The Need of the Positive Note in Pulpit and Pew." Church for Cresson Cresson is to have a new Catholic Church if the present plans go through. Father Kiernan and the male members of St. Aloysius Catholic Church held a meeting Sunday forenoon when committees were appointed and definite steps taken for the erection of a new house of worship at Cresson. The structure will cost from $12,000 to $14,000. The new district which the proposed church will cover is composed of all the territory north of the road leading from a point on upper Keystone avenue, Cresson, crossing the pike at Eckenrode's store to Lilly. The church is very much needed as the Cresson members of St. Aloysius are compelled to make the trip to Summit and in bad weather this is a most disagreeable task. Will Erect Hall Local Union 472, United Mine Workers of America, of South Fork, will erect a hall which will cost $7,000. The building will be a frame structure, three stories high, with a frontage of thirty-three feet on Main Street and running back seventy-four feet. The first floor will be used as an assembly room for the miners or rented for dances or other public entertainments. On the second floor will be two sets of living apartments and the third floor will be the real headquarters of the union. Gallitzin Sand Company The Gallitzin Sand Company of Gallitzin has been formed by business men of that place. The offices will be in Gallitzin and the company will make a specialty of mining and shipping white engine sand, yellow building and jig sand. The mines of the Woodbury Land Company at Ormenia, Blair County, on the Williamsburg branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad have been leased by the new enterprise. The Time Changed Union Memorial Services to be Held Sunday Morning The time for holding the Union Memorial services has been changed from Sunday evening, May 29, to Sunday morning at 10:30 in the Court House. Rev. C. W. Teasdale will speak and everybody is invited to attend. The old soldiers and Sons of Veterans will meet at the Post room on Julian street at 10:00 a.m. Memorial Day Exercises Arrangements are now complete for the appropriate observance in Ebensburg of Memorial Day, Monday, May 30th. The following is the outline of the program: The members of Capt. John M. Jones, Post 556 G. A. R. and other old soldiers, Sons of Veterans with firing squad and the Ebensburg Band will meet at the Post room on Julian street at 1:00 p.m. The line of march will here be taken up to the Court House where the oration of the day will be made by Brigadier General John A. Johnston, after memorial services by the officers of the Post. A choir will sing and the band will play. After the ceremonies the Sons of Veterans and flower committee will march to the various cemeteries where the graves of the heroic dead will be decorated. Gen. Johnston is a brother-in-law of Thos. E. Murphy, Esq., of Johnstown, who will accompany him here and who also may be persuaded to make a few remarks. The little girls of town are all requested to get out early on the morning [line completely faded] be taken to the Opera House where the young ladies of town are requested to gather at 9 o'clock and form wreaths, etc. Hughes is Carrier Isaac J. Hughes of Summerhill Township has been appointed carrier for the rural free delivery route in the vicinity of Wilmore at a salary of $720 per year. The route is nineteen miles in length and already sixty-five boxes have been erected with thirty-five more to be placed within the next few days. The route is as follows: From the Wilmore office to the Settlemyer schoolhouse then along the north branch of the Conemaugh River to Isaac J. Hughes' and Lemuel J. Hughes' homes in Cambria township, from there to the Ebensburg road to the home of John E. Jones, then past the home of John McCormick to the old Ebensburg plank road northward to Pensacola in Cambria Township, and on to the Lutheran Church in Jackson Township, from there to New Germany to Paul Wuersel's home then south on the township road to St. Paul's United Evangelical Church on Pringle Hill and from there back to Wilmore. Home Musicians Selected Edward A. Brown, of Lilly, a clerk in the Register and Recorder's office, has been employed by H. S. Butterworth, proprietor of the Ebensburg Inn (formerly Maple Park Springs) to organize an orchestra for the entertainment of guests at the hostelry during the summer. Mr. Brown has not selected all his players but among them will be Cornetist John Isenberg of the Cambria Theater Orchestra in Johnstown and Miss June Boney, pianist of this place. The inn will be open for the reception of guests on June 1st, but the orchestra will not be pressed into service until it is in good playing form, probably about June 15th. Many Mines Shut Down Owing to the dullness of the coal and coke trade, the Pennsylvania Coal & Coke Company has shut down five of its operations in Cambria County for an indefinite period. Among those shut down are the mines and coke ovens at Hastings, the Beaverdale shaft on the Lloydell Branch Railroad, the Cresson Shaft and No. 1 Mine at Benscreek. The company's mines and ovens at Gallitzin are still in operation It is said the shutting down of so many mines will be seriously felt by many families of the places named. Will Shave Payroll It has been announced in Philadelphia that orders have been issued by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for the reduction of wages on its various divisions east of Pittsburg to the level of 1902. This will mean a cut of ten per cent and reduction in the working force in the Pittsburg Division alone of about 2,000. The order results from the continual stagnation of freight and is taken to mean that the company does not look for any heavy increase in either tonnage or earnings until after the Presidential dispute has been settled. The Pennsylvania lines west, it is said, will be treated likewise. The closing down of many blast furnaces and steel works last winter and the long delay in ordering steel this spring have resulted in a surprising decrease in freight carried by the Pennsylvania and the coal business has not been particularly good either. Another Baby Mystery The baby mysteries continue to multiply. Now comes one from Dunlo. The remains of an infant were recently found partially interred in the Catholic cemetery at that place. An Italian who is known to have buried twin children only a few days ago was placed under arrest by Squire Jackson on suspicion, but he conducted the authorities to the cemetery and showed them just where his children were buried, thus putting an end to what little case there was against him. Coroner Miller, who was notified of the affair Monday evening, told the Dunlo authorities that he would make no official investigation of the case and authorized them to have the remains buried properly at the county's expense. The people about there are considerably worked up over the matter, however, and it is said that there will be some interesting developments within a few days. Has Killed Two Women Frank Davis Confesses that He has Twice been a Murderer Killed a Colored Girl in Jacksonville, Florida. Story Confirmed When Frank Davis, the colored murderer at present lying in the county jail under sentence of death, swings, justice will have evened up two scores. Davis has been twice a murderer by his own confession. On last Friday, Davis, whose indifference has been slowly breaking under the strain, called Deputy Sheriff Bearer to him and said that he would like to make a confession concerning his career. The colored man had been praying and reading his bible and said that the Lord had told him to tell everything. Deputy Sheriff Bearer in the presence of Warden Reynolds took down the colored man's confession which was frequently interrupted by the sobs and tears of Davis. The condemned man prefaced his statement by saying that his real name was not Frank Davis but Willie Mungen and then went on as follows: "I was a very wicked man. I used to go with a woman down south. Me and her got into a fight one day about 12 o'clock about some money she had belonged to me, and she was a very mean woman to me and all the money I made working, I gave to her because I loved her. One evening about 4 o'clock me and her were fussing and I enticed her to go into the house where I was rooming and I overpowered her and killed her that evening by choking her to death. Her name was Susie Battles. After I killed her I got scared and took her body and put it in a fireplace in a room. At about 12 o'clock that night I took the body and buried it in a lot on an adjoining property. Then I got scared and left. This was done in Jacksonville, Fla. "Then that night I left from there and I came to Savannah, Ga. I saw my people and then I left for Newark, N. J., and about 5 or 6 months after I arrived at Newark, a colored detective came there from Savannah. He knew me and knew what I had done. That evening a little fellow came up to me at the corner where I was standing and took a hold of me and followed me to a theatre that night and paid my way into the show and I showed him where I lived and went up to the place where I was stopping. I then went down Railroad street to another boarding house [the remainder of the sentence is faded]. "Laura Taylor, the girl I was living with in Johnstown, she was the first girl I went with after this affair occurred and I first met her in Johnstown and loved her very much. Me and this girl got into some fuss and I told her that evening that I was going to quit her and she told me she would follow me to hell. This woman and me had a little fuss occasionally but it never amounted to anything. We always made it up shortly afterwards. She caused me to lose two good positions in Johnstown and after I fell out of a job and spent all my money, I didn't care much what I would do. I made two or three attempts to kill that woman because she worried my life out after I couldn't get away from her. She was always at the place I was working, bothering me and I fell back into friendship with her after I did so it lead to destruction. "That night she was going away she asked me if I wanted to go. I told her yes and shipped her trunk to the depot at Johnstown. But it never got any further as she was under bail and was trying to avoid the bail. Before she skipped away Ike Harris captured her. It was her intention to skip out and when she found she couldn't she laid the whole blame on me. She said I was the cause of her being caught. So on Monday morning about 6 o'clock and after she got angry with me - I think it was on Tuesday morning - she was arranging to go to Cumberland I asked her not to go and before I suffered her to go, I got up that morning and the old razor I had in the drawer, I got it, got back in bed and tried two or three times to cut the woman. The last time I tried to cut her I was successful and I cut her and after I cut her, deputy, I got scared and drawed the same razor across my own throat two or three times. She runned out of the room after I cut her. She howled. One of the girls yelled, "Frank has killed Laura." I went back into the room and fell across the bed and there I laid until they moved me. And, deputy, I was mean and had a bad temper and after I got to Johnstown, I tried to behave myself until I had taken up with this woman. The old lady I used to live with, Miss Ambay, she used to try to avoid me of the Frankstown road and everybody was respecting me until I got to drinking again and I thought I don't care what happened to me and sometimes I was afraid to walk on the streets for fear the Lord would strike me down and I beg Him now to help me and ask pardon and forgiveness of every person who knows me for what I have done. "Walden Jones, who swore against me in court, I never spoke to him in my life that I know and I forgive him. And he got upon the stand and swore he saw me sharpen the knife or razor and I told him that I was going to kill Laura Taylor. I never saw that man nowhere that day for I was not out of the house that day as I stayed at home all that day, being sick from drinking. I never came down off the Frankstown road from Monday evening until Wednesday morning. He is about 65 or 70 years old and I thank God I am able to tell the truth so that everybody can know as he swore false against me, through Ike Harris. I am pretty well satisfied and thank God I have forgiven him from my heart and all who trespass against me as I hope the Lord will forgive me for all the sinful deeds that I have done. "And, thank God, I have a chance to pray, that I have prayed and He has answered my prayer. This is His will I am doing. I have given up everything on earth - father, mother, sisters and brothers, and am looking to Jesus to plead my cause." Subsequent investigation made by the Sheriff's office substantiated the confession. A letter was written to the chief of police at Jacksonville, Fla., and on Wednesday the following reply was received: "Yours of May 21 received and in reply I would say that Willie Mungen murdered Susie Battle in this city on June 10, 1901, and doubled up her body, placed it in a sack and buried it under a house adjoining the one in which he killed her, and he was been a fugitive from justice ever since. What you say he has told you is all true. There is no doubt you have the right man. If so, you will find one finger off one of his hands. I think it is the forefinger of the right hand. As he is sentenced to death, I suppose it is useless for me to think of getting him. But keep me posted as to the final disposition of his case. I send you a clipping from one of our papers, giving an account of the affair. Very truly yours, W. D. Vanzant"