Iowa Old Press
Daily Gazette
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
May 17, 1883
IOWA IN PIECES
-Dr. E.A. Guilbert of
Dubuque, a physician well known over the entire State, has lost two children
this Spring, a daughter, and a son, aged 19.
- The bridge over the Des Moines River between Bentonsport and Vernon, was
opened to the public on the 11th inst. and pronounced to be a grand success. It
is 725 feet long.
- H.M. Soper of Lynnville, had a fine mare killed by lightning on the 10th inst.
He is the champion horse loser in the State, having lost twenty-four horses in
twenty-three years.
- There are nine people in Cass County who are interested in a fortune of
$100,000, said to have been left by an ancestor in England. A union of the
descendants of this ancestor (Col. William Bradford of "Mayflower"
fame,) has been formed with the purpose, first, of perfecting the genealogy and
history of the family; and, second, to secure their share of the big fortune.
The headquarters of the Union are in Cleveland. The Cass County people who are
interested are Mrs. Julian Phelps, Rev. H.M. Case, E.V. Burke, H.L. Case, A.A.
Case, Mr. Burton, Howard Case and Mrs. William Kennedy of Lewis, and Clement
Tuttle of Oregon, formerly of Atlantic.
- T.V. Harrison of Clarke County, has a Bible with a history. It was printed in
1700 and in 1723 belonged to Joshua Swank, (an ancestor of Mr. Harrison) who was
then living in Eastern Kentucky. In that year a party of Indians, led by Simon
Girty, were prowling near, and one transfixed Mr. Swank's body with his spear,
who fell to the ground with the open Bible beneath him, the point of the spear
cutting from the ninth chapter of Esther to the seventeenth chapter of I.
Samuel. The Indian set his foot on the Bible to pull out the spear and thirty
years ago the print of his bloody foot could be seen. Now it is a dull, rusty
stain. Thus it is made priceless by the sacrifice of his ancestor.
- Ferdinand Dunnebecke was found lying in a yard on Eugene street, Chicago, on
the morning of the 15th inst., with a gaping wound in his throat, and a jack
knife on the ground beside him. He was still alive and was removed to the
hospital. The police of Chicago say it was an attempt of suicide; but his
friends at Dubuque indignantly repel that theory and say that the truth
doubtless is that Mr. Donnebecke was assaulted by a footpad, who, after cutting
his throat, dropped the knife beside him to create the impression that he had
attempted suicide. The wounded man is the assistant city assessor of Dubuque; he
is about 26 years of age, his family reside there, his domestic relations were
pleasant, he possessed a genial, hopeful, sunshiny disposition, and he could
have no desire to take his own life.
- A young woman in Ottumwa was married in 1870, to a man named Louis Marie.
After two years of wedded life the man ran away, and a few months afterward the
woman received the news of her husband's death. Years passed on and Mrs. Marie
was married again, this time to William Lucas of Eddyville. A few days ago a man
appeared on the streets of that town inquiring the whereabouts of Mrs. Lucas, or
really, Mrs. Marie, for it was Louis Marie, long supposed to be dead. A child,
Peter Marie, was the fruit of the first marriage, and his father, who came back
with plenty of money, proposes to bestow a snug little fortune upon him. Mrs.
Lucas, (or Marie), by the advice of counsel, leaves the bed and board of Lucas
and applies for a divorce from Marie for willful desertion, and asking the care
and custody of the Marie child, Peter. This brings the tale up to the present
time.