{ title: 'The Wickes Pioneer (Wickes, Mont.) 1895-1896, September 28, 1895, Page 8, Image 8', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about Chronicling America - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85053310/1895-09-28/ed-1/seq-8.png', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85053310/1895-09-28/ed-1/seq-8.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85053310/1895-09-28/ed-1/seq-8/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85053310/1895-09-28/ed-1/seq-8/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
About The Wickes Pioneer (Wickes, Mont.) 1895-1896 | View This Issue
The Wickes Pioneer (Wickes, Mont.), 28 Sept. 1895, located at <http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/sn85053310/1895-09-28/ed-1/seq-8/>, image provided by MONTANA NEWSPAPERS, Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana.
1\ - • :..sersneLl=111P - _ a • P THE CREEK MYSTERY. -- • WHO STRANGLED HAPLESS CLARA SHANKS? V tgliance Committee In Parke and Foun- tain °unties, Indiana. Trying to Lo- cate the Guilty Party—Story of the Crinsw (Bloomingdale (Ind.) correspondence.) 7 HE McIRDER OF :! ) Clara Shan k s, which has been ex- ) citing Parke and Fountain counties for several weeks, i is still shrouded in as great mystery as on the morning her lifeless body was taken from Wolf creek falls. Three of the shrewdest criminal attorneys of the two counties, two detectives of more than local reputation, all assisted by a vigilance committee comprising a doz- of the best farmers of the neighbor- hood, have worked day and night on the case trying to find sufficient evi- dence for a conviction of the guilty parties, but the'plot seems to be a fit subjest for the pen of a novelist. Clara Shanks was the beautiful 18 - year -old daughter of Frederick Shanks. She was the third child -of six, and was in many ways the star of that rural home. The Shanks place is one mile north of Grange Corner, and just over the county line in Fountain county. Just across the road, in Parke county, is the home of Daniel Keller. During the CLARA SHANKS. recent drought the Shanks family has been carrying water from the Keller place, andl it usually fell to Clara Shanks to do this. These frequent trips to the Kellers led to a suspicion on the part of Mrs. Keller that a fiirta- tation had sprung up between Clara and her husband. Her jealous nature be- came excited, and her opinion was soon magnified to such an extent that she believed there had been Improper rela- tions between her husband and Clara. The latter's two youngest brothers had an idea that their sister liked Dan Kel- ler, and whenever they would see him out in his barnyard they would taunt their sister with such remarks as \Clara there goes your feller.\ Daniel Shanks, the oldest brother, heard of Mrs. Keller's allegations, anti on the evening of July 5 he went over to their place to investigate. Mrs. Keller told him of her suspicions and that Clara must not be allowed to come for water. Other members of the fam- ily could come, but she must not come into their * yard. Next morning about 11 o'clock Mrs Roller, her sister. MISR Emma Cox. and her husband. Daniel, went out to the rail fence at the road separating the two houses to make up the difficulty. They called for Clara to come to the door, but her brother Dan would not let her go. Mrs. Shanka responded, and there in the open door. yard the charges were told the mother, who declared that she did not believe them. To this Mrs. Keller turned to her husband with this: \Will you let them deny what I say\ This scene ended, the Shanks family went hack into the house. At 12 o'clock the family sat down to dinner, and there for the first time the father. Fred- erick, Was told of the allegations made by Mrs. Keller. Mrs. Shanks turning to her daughter said, \Clara What_ about this'!\ The daughter denied all the charges, DANIEL KELLER. and then a profound silence , settled over that dinner table. Clara t not eat and in a few minutes got up and left the table, that !ming the last time the family saw her tiny. She left Ott house. litit no one thought to net 1,f1 her Fly 12 o'clock the mother became un- easy and sent the children out to look feT the girl Daniel Keller Was in his batwarti at the time, and seeing the children searching the premises he abotaltd to them: \If you are looking for Clara. I saw her going down the lane more than an bout ago,\ The Shanks family hunted the Wolf I creek thicket for their daughter that afternoon, but notwithstanding that I !sirs. Shanks testified before the cor- oner's jury that she always thought Clara was in Wolf creek falls, they never looked for her there, and at o'clock gave up the search. No neigh- bors had been called in, and at an early hour the family retired as usual. Next morning at 5 o'clock Mrs. Shanks called her son Daniel and told him that she had dreamed all night of seeing Clara strangling in the pool at the foot of Wolf creek falls. Young Shanks ran to the pool, which is a half -mile away, took off his clothing and waded in. He found the body in five feet of water, and without making any effort to get It out, he put on his clothing and came back to the house. Taking his Win- chester shotgun he walked directly over to the Kellers' front gate and called Daniel Keller to the door. \Clara is Drowned in Wolf Creek Falls and you caused it,\ exclaimed the en- raged man. He threw up his gun and fired twice at Keller, who was standing in the door, but owing to his nervous- ness the shot was too low, burying its - self in the door sill. Keller sprung back anti his wife came back begging young Shanks to desist. A neighbor, James Rice, appeared and took Shanks home. The community was aroused, ' and the lifeless body was taken from the pool to the Shanks home. Coroner Young of Fountain county, assisted by Dr. A. L. Spinnings of Wallace, made a hasty examination, and returned a ver- dict of suicide by drowning. The same day Daulel Keller went to Rockville and swore out a warrant against Dan Shanks for an unprovoked assault. Deputy Sheriff McLain proceeded to the scene to arrest Shanks, but upon his arrival found the home surrounded by a mob of 300 excited men, who in- formed the sheriff that if he arrested Shanks they would hang Keller. The sheriff, took in the situation and re- turned his warrant unserved. Clara Shanks was buried in the old Zackmire cemetery the next day, but the public was not satisfied. The sus- picion was so strong against Keller that there - was danger of mob violence, so the family left their own residence and have since lived with their brother George, across the Mill Creek valley. A vigilance committee was organized and' began holding secret meetings at an old schoolhouse just east of Grange Corner. It became the universal N'er- diet of the settlement tisat Clara Shanke was murdered and afterward thrown into the pool, which is some 40 by 20 feet, with five and six feet Ore:titer the year round. Ten days after the burial a post-mor- tem examination was ordered, seven competent physicians chosen from both Fountain and Parke counties doing the work. They found several heavy bruises about the head, a congested state of the I brain, with an entire dislocation of the 4s. 1 1, •-t.\<< , DANIEL, SHANKS. head at the base of the skull. The larynx and lungs were free and ther! were no signs of strangling. A careful examination disclosed the fact that the dead girl had no cause for secret shame, which had been the basis for all suicidal theories. The nnanimous verdict of the seven physicians was: \We find that Clara Shanks met her death by vio- lence; sources unknown.\ The weight of the evidence brought oueby Attorney McCabe and the Keller. was to fix the murder of Clara in her own family. They all stated that they believed the girl had been murdered, but by whom they did not know. It was held that the Shanks family to- ' ated the body entirely too easy not to know something of how it came there. The dream of Mrs. Shanks was thought to be toe realistic le come from a sleep- ing brain. Also the Kellerm testified to having seen young Shanks cross the field to the Wolf Creek thicket twice during the afternoon, once on a run, Ararat night all retired as thongh noth- ing had happened. Here this strange mystery rests. At- torney Thomas says there Is evidence which cannot he given out yet, but will come out soon. The Shanks. the Fellers. the citizens all talk freely and all cry for justice, anti all firmly belleve light will be soon thrown on the dark plot. No more fitting place in all Parke or Fountain counties e0111,1 have been found for much a deed than this weird place (-ailed Wolf Creek F'alls The en tire valley is a hook of romance and mystery. Named by the red man Wolf \reek it has come down loaded with traditions More Indian relics have been found here than any plate In the country: Indian kettles can be genii t o every turn in the rocky gorge, aline an old Indian grave is to he found on the high cliff overlooking the fails Last Sundey GOO persons ‘ikiteil the scene of the tragedy, and min week be- fore 700 persons drove down the hol low to see the pool where the body of Clara Shanks was fool The interest grows as the rape Is being unraveled. HE SAVES THE LOWLY A WONDERFUL BEING DISCOV- ERED IN NEW MEXICO. The Country lire Gone Wild Over HI. Drede—Prerers to Wender Among th e Poor Doing tiood—The Rich Envy the Beggar's Power, characteristics, enacted here. In New Mexico, where the native pop- ulation may be seen daily in the whc.a.t fields cutting grain with a stelae, where the grain is still separated from the chaff beneath the feet of horses, Where the mortar and pestle are still commonly used in the home manufac- ture of flour and bread is baked in a clay oven resembling a dog kennel (for stoves are very uncommon in the adobes of the Mexicans outside the principal towns), there suddenly burst upon the view of these people, whence no one seems to know, a man bearing a strik- ing .resemblance to the pictures of the Christ who looked upon just such scenes as these nearly nineteen hun- dred year: ago; a man who tastes not of food; a man whose touch brings sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, motion to the halt, peace unto the suffering. Like the Christ, he was first doubted by these people, though he came among them professing to be no more than he appeared. Like the Christ, he won his followers by his kindly deeds, his cures of the afflicted, his unselfish devotion ONDE It F U I, LY like the story of the Scriptures as re- hearsed in the New Testament is the tale upon every lip In the central part of New Mexico to- day. Wonderfully like the scenes of the Bible, in setting and in some of the have been the scenes Han Science doctrine is founded. Monday afternoon, July 15, a Mexi- can attache of the morning noWspaper In Albuquerque rushed breathlessly into the office, his face. the picture of amazement. The day previous he had been at Pendia, a small town on the Rio Grande river, about twenty miles south of that city. There, he said, he had seen a man who was the perfect picture of the prints pf the Christ which adorn the walls of the ancient Cathedral of San Felipe, the towers of which have been outlined in the blue sky of this southwest land for more than three hundred years. This man had been surrounded all day long by crowds of people. He had held the CURING A BLIND MAN. hands of a blind man and sight had been restored to him; he had Witched the hands of a woman who had been paralyzed for years and she left as well as in the days of her maidenhood; he had treated many others, and all had been benefited. Since his advent into that village, in a miraculous manner, several days before, it was known he had not tasted food. He is a man of about six feet In FRANCIS SCHLADER. to mankind. Like the Christ, be was persecuted by the higher class of the Mexican population, threatening him as an imposter, a sharper, a schemer, a lunatic, and his persecutory; he trans- formed into his stanchest friends. For more than two weV'ts he has been followed by hundreds wherever be has gone. To day a constant stream of people passes before him praying that he touch their hands. Blind. deaf and halt are led or carried to him, women with tiny babes bring them to him to be healed of ailments real or imaginary; old. middle-aged, young, ignorant and educated Mexi- cans, Americans of the highest stand- ing in the community visit him at the lowly homes he most frequente or In the homes of the rich and prominent, in which he .14 a Welcome guest. Great lines of carriages and wagons and sad tile horses stand before every house he enters; the owners, drivers or riders have come for him to take him to the home of some one who is suffering Each and all, high or lowly, ha treats the same, and from no one will he take a rent for the services he has per formed, though money is repeatr.iiv pressed upon him For all he has he same kindly greeting, the Raffle It I reatment Stories of lila cures are l'evotoi In lief. Many of them have been Investi- gated, and now even the most Incredu- lous is %% tiling to admit the man le doing many men good and no man harm that lie is honest in his endeavors to sit s‘ifTerIng homanity and consistent in his ,i,tions. As to whence 1111111 - 44 hla power opinions differ. Among the Mexicans few doubt it comes direct from heaven, among the Americans It is attributed to animal magnetimm and the principles upon which the Clit;s height, and weighs probably 160 pounds. His form is that of the athlete, and, like the athlete, he has all the stipple grace of the man of trained muscles First to apply to him for the healing touch was a relative of the host, an old man who had totally lost the sight of one eye. Motioning him to a seat by his side, the \Healer\ took the hands of his patient In his own. For five minutes the two sat there speechless. The lips of the \Healer\ could he seen to move from time to time, and or- cattionally his big blue eyes were tt rected upward. Now and then, too, a shudder seemed to pass over . him, his body swaying with emotion. The old man's sightless orb was directed to- ward the face of the man to whom he appealed for succor and his body swayed with the emotioh of anticipa- tion. They sat there speechless until the old titan arose, and with a sigh de- parted 10 Ille plaits. Men. Wonlen and children took the seat he hail vacated, and the former proceeding was repeated. Some left the chair declaring their pain had van• lithe& others said they had netleed no beneficial results As. the \Healer\ held the bandit of his patients he talked with the people. \1 'hall be 29 years of age In a few\ days, - he said. In ans.er to a ques- tion \I was born in Altar. Lorraine when It was a French possession, and am, therefore. a Frenchman.\ The voice and accent Indicated the German. and the name given by him, Frantic.' Si hinder, proved he was of Ger- man extraction s T A/ 6 y yengliing Schlader appeared in Albuquertple, at the home of Mrs. Werner, In that porSion of the city called Old Town. , 0. to THE nINT 1 For Imported And Domestic Liquors, Wines, Cigars mid , 1 nilwaukee and St. Louis Bottled L Beers. 1 The Anheuser-Busch Celebrated BEST IN THE \Premium On Draught. WORLD. Pale\ 1 ! 1 SPARLING Wickes, Proprietors, & SCHARF - - Montana. ______ . .... _ J. W. MONAHAN, WICKES, - MONTANA DEALER IN Hay, Grain, Flour, Rolled Oats, Corn Meal, FRY FL_C)UFR. Lowest Prices for Cash. DEAN & TAYLOR, Whulesale and Retail Dealers in Beef, Mutton, Pork, Hams, Bacon, AND MONTANA LARD. Wickes, - Montana. •
