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Laura Jane Harvey Murder: Part Fourteen

Two weeks before the sentence of B.A. McComb, to be hung until dead, was to be carried out, a stay of execution was issued by the Iowa Supreme court until the case could be heard on appeal, most likely not until the December term. This information was duly passed on to Judge Trimble who passed it on to Sheriff Derby. The public however, was in the dark about this stay of execution. By mid morning of July 27, 1864, the streets of Ottumwa were quickly filling up and by noon, they were said to be crowded. It was a peaceful crowd of 2000+ men, women and children who presumably had come to see McComb hung. At noon, the time of the execution, the crowd centered around the jail and a dozen of the more vocal started shouting for the jailer to bring out the prisoner so that he may be hung.  Sheriff Derby became involved and a pushing match ensued with the Sheriff knocking down several of the ringleaders and calling for more assistance. Four high ranking citizens came to Derby's aid, Senator

Plotting With a Plat Map

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  1860 Plat Map of Springfield, Mercer, Pennsylvania I recently discovered this plat map dated 1860 of Mercer County, Pennsylvania showing where my 4th and 5th great grandfathers, both named Adam Grim, lived. (Bottom third and left of center next to the color changed notch.) This is significant because both go missing from between 1850 and 1880 leading to a great confusion between armchair genealogists that often combine them into one person. I wrote about this a year and a half ago here. In 1860, my 5th great grandfather Adam Grim Sr. is likely dead but his son was most likely living at the site of his mill along the Indian Run river that is a tributary to the larger Nashannock Creek that you can see more clearly in the above map. Adam A. Grim Jr. though was very much alive as he is living with two different children in the 1880 Census taken a few week apart. Why he never shows up in the 1860 or 1870 Censuses, I can't say for sure. Perhaps because of his itinerant nature, possibly

My Yorkshire Pudding

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  Above is the tombstone for Ann Chicken which I had to probe though the pine needles and other debris to eventually find and unbury. I had known that it was there by previously seeing an online picture that had been taken by someone else and posted on the genealogy website Find-A-Grave. According to the credits, it had been posted on their site in 2016 but judging by the severe deterioration between my photo above taken in 2018, I suspect it had been taken many many years earlier. It says: Ann Wife of Joseph Chicken Was Born Aug 10, 1812 Died (Here is where the tombstone is broken obscuring what had been etched into it) Frances Daughter of J & A Chicken Born Apr 10, 1851 Died Feb 11, 1858 At the time, I didn't know much about Ann and up until recently, still hadn't. But now that it is cooling off a bit and outside work slowing down, I decided to remedy that. I didn't know much about my 4th great grandmother other than her name was Ann and that she died sometime in the

Laura Jane Harvey Murder: Part Thirteen

Forty-five minutes after being given lengthy instructions on how they were supposed to analyze the case against Lant McComb, the jury came back with their decision which was presented to Judge Trimble by the jury foreman, H.D. Hall. We, the jury, find the defendant GUILTY of murder in the first degree.  The defendant's lawyers immediately filed a motion for a new trial. The court appointed the following Tuesday morning for sentencing and recessed for the evening. On June 13, 1864, court resumed at 8 a.m. with Judge Trimble once again presiding. The Judge directed that prisoner be brought into the court and the Sheriff did so. B.A. (Lant) McComb was directed to stand up and Judge Trimble passed the following sentence upon him: "Benjamin A. McComb, you have been charged by indictment in due form found and presented to this court by a grand jury of the county of Wapello in the State of Iowa, with one of the highest crimes known to the law - the crime of murder. To this indictment

Heir To Millions

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  I have somewhat tracked down the answers to the questions I posed at the end of my previous post on the orphan William W. Taylor who was adopted by my 3rd great grandparents Stephen B. and Frances M. Hubbard Cogswell from a New York orphan train.  Willie's mother died in 1876 at the age of 31 and I have been unable to turn up anything at all about his father. Willie and his two fellow orphan brothers were put on an orphan train which made it's way west until they were adopted by three farm families who all attended the same small church with the thought that they could visit each other on Sunday. Eventually Willie and younger brother Richard would emigrate to Iowa along with their adoptive families. In another instance of a small world, Willie would apprentice as a leather smith in another 3rd great grandfather John Kuck's leather shop. Dates are a bit iffy on the apprenticeship so by then, it could have been run by John's brother Frederick or even John's son Geor