DEATH OF GEO. HANNA
[People’s Press, 26 December 1911]
The Grim Reaper gathered another one of Welland’s pioneers into the fold on Monday at noon, when Mr. George Hanna passed away in his eighty-fifth year, at the home of his son, Mr. Alpha Hanna, Young St. He had been suffering for the past five weeks with an internal ailment.
Mr. Hanna was a Canadian and lived in or near the site of the town of Welland for many years. He was in the employ of the government for over forty years as lock tender on the feeder near Welland. Seventeen years ago he was superannuated.
He was married twice, the first time, Miss Agnes Corbett was his bride, she predeceased him by fourteen years. His second wife was the widow of the late Wm. Toyne. For four years he has mourned her death.
Mr. Hanna was a member of the Anglican faith and in politics was a strong Conservative.
The immediate relatives who survive him are two brothers, Alex of Humberstone and William of Thorold township, two sisters, Mrs. Jane Dorrington of Falls View, Ont., and Mrs. Henry Boyd of Welland; one daughter and two sons, Mrs. Wallace Tuft of Crowland, Mr. Alpha Hanna of Welland and Mr. William Hanna of Crowland.
He funeral will be held on Thursday afternoon at 7 p.m., from Mr. Alpha Hanna’s residence on Young street to Fonthill cemetery.
Died: 25 December 1911
Five Women and One Man Stopped at Night on Streets
[People’s Press, 26 December 1911]
Six holdups on the streets of Welland in the last two weeks have been reported to the police.
Two weeks ago account was given these columns of the assault of a young woman in town, and on the same night a woman from Fonthill was stopped by a ruffian on West main street on her way to the car. In the beginning of last week a girl was stopped on West Main street and roughly handled for a few seconds by an unknown man. She screamed and the assailant ran away.
On Thursday night a young woman was grabbed by the arms of a man near a new building on Hellems Ave. “Here you have to come into this building with me,” said her captor, when he grasped her. She fought herself free and escaped from him by screaming and running.
On the same evening a prominent woman of this town was accosted on North Main street and insulted by a man whom she had never seen before, but whose appearance she remembers plainly.
The third attempt at highway robbery on Thursday evening was made on a man on North Main street. He was carrying a parcel and when a man stepped out from a dark spot and requested his money, he refused to give it up. The highwayman was about to take it forcibly, but met with rebuff, when the civilian showed strength. This would-be-robber gave up the attempt and “beat it.”
[People’s Press, 26 December 1911]
Ben Doan was brought in by Policeman Laing in the height of an extended celebration. He was caught at the Welland House. There the bartender alleged that Doan had robbed another man of $90 while the latter was drunk and while the two were left alone in the bar-room. Ben sneaked out the back door and went down North Main street. He gave the money to Harry Somerville, telling Somerville that the money belonged to him and to keep it until he came back for it. In police court on Friday he claimed he had taken the money to protect the intoxicated man from having it stolen by some other person. Ben was charged temporarily with vagrancy and remanded to gaol until the name of the victim can be ascertained. He will then be brought up and charged with theft.
Accident at Hagersville Proved Fatal-Young Man 28 Years of Age.
[Welland Telegraph, 14 November 1911]
After lying in the hospital with a broken neck for over two days, Robert H. Dennis died on Friday night.
The accident in which the injury was sustained occurred near Hagersville on Wednesday morning. Mr. Dennis fell from a load of lumber at the plant of the Crown Gypsum works. Although an operation was performed and every effort made to save his life, it was in vain.
The deceased was twenty-eight years of age. He was born in Gainsboro. His father, J.W. Dennis, and five brothers and two sisters survive.
Funeral services were held on Sunday morning at the residence of his brother on Albion Street, being conducted by the Rev. Mr. Swayze, pastor of the Disciple Church. Interment was made at Drummond Hill cemetery.
Died: 10 November 1911
Two Pedlars from Toronto cease Business in Welland
[Welland Telegraph, 14 November 1911]
Two men who were peddling the wares of a Toronto Aluminum Company on the streets on Friday, without a license, were apprehended by Officer Tattersall and taken to the police office.
The men were ordered to stop immediately and to secure a license if they wished to continue. As the license is from one to three hundred dollars, quite naturally no license was taken out.
It is understood that the men have complained to the headquarters of their company and that action will be taken in an attempt to quash the bylaw.
Several Heard From
[Welland Tribune, 30 November 1911]
The enquiry for heirs of Thomas O. Page, recently published, has stirred up information of several of that name.
The grandfather of our well-known townsman, Mr. C.J. Page, was Thomas Page, who lived on the Quaker Road, Thorold township. Clayt’ don’t know whether he had an O. in his name or not. He was killed by falling off a load of wood, about the year 1850. The family came from the States, so he might have been the missing link, and if so, his descendents are the heirs.
Another representative of the Page family tells us the fortune has been known of for a long time, and enquiries have been on foot. He thinks the Thos. O. Page, who is wanted, is a generation further back than Clayt’s grandpa.
Mr. Stephen Beatty of St. Catharines, a well-known local historian, thinks that the Thomas Page, as referred to in the Evening Journal of Monday, came to Bertie township in the county of Welland about 1797. He secured a large tract of territory in Bertie. William Page died about the year 1827 or 8, leaving at least one son, Otway, who for a long time resided in Fort Erie. Mr. Otway Page may have left descendents but the children or grandchildren may be of a different name.
Otway Page was a general and commission merchant and was a prominent and influential man in Fort Erie in 1846.
Descendents of this family, we understand, still live near Point Abino, in the township of Bertie.
The Tribune advises the heirs or supposed heirs of Thos. O. Page, not to lose any sleep of hypothecate any good coin in looking after other people’s millions. There are more fortunes made by sharp lawyers getting contributions from enquirers, than ever secured by the heirs themselves.
[Related TALE: May Soon Be Millionaire]
CANADA’S OLDEST METHODIST
MRS. HUGH HAGEN
[People’s Press, 17 October 1911]
Nearly a century of history was embodied in the life term of the late Mrs. Hugh Hagen, who died on Wednesday last, October 11, 1911, at 10.45 p.m., at the residence of her son-in-law, Mr. Geo. W. Bates, Welland.
The 17th of this November would have been her ninety-fifth birthday. Possessed of a remarkable intellect which remained unimpaired in the day of her death, she had lived her life to the full, and there were few sorrows by which her path had not been crossed.
Until twelve days before her death when she was taken to her bed, she read the newspapers daily, without the aid of spectacles. She was well acquainted with the current topics of the day, in politics, religion and other channels.
Mrs. Hagen, whose maiden name was Eliza Bailley, was born at Carrick-Fergus in the County of Antrim, Ireland in the year 1816. At the age of eight years, she joined the Methodist church, and at the time of her death was on record as the oldest Methodist in Canada.
In 1839, at the age of twenty-three, she was married to Hugh Hagen in Ireland, in the evening, and on the following morning they embarked for Canada.
Upon arriving in this country, they settled in Hinchinbrook in lower Canada. That district was then a wilderness and many incidents were told by her of the excitement and danger through which she and her husband and children lived. On one occasion she saved her husband’s life while he was ill in bed, by placing herself between him and the guns. A band of Papineau’s followers of the roughest sort who sought the life of his brother and had mistaken him for their man. She faced them in their anger until they explained who they were looking for and their reason for doing so. Hugh Hagen’s brother, an outspoken man, had openly objected to the liberties which the bandits were taking and had harmed them materially.
After residing at Hinchinbrook for several years, they moved across the border and lived for nine years on the frontier of New York and Vermont states. They had the misfortune of losing two sons while there.
They returned to Canada and took up a homestead in the township of Townsend in Norfolk county.
Later they moved north to a farm above Simcoe where they lived until the husband died. Hugh Hagen was twelve years older than his wife and his death preceded hers by the same number of years. The both lived to the age of ninety-five.
After her husband’s death, Mrs. Hagen came to live with her daughter, Mrs. Geo. Bates of Welland. She spent the whole twelve years here and it was here she died.
Mrs. Geo. Bates of Welland, and Mr. James Hagen of Wellsvale, Alberta, are the only two of her children who survive her. Two sisters, and one brother also remain alive-Mrs. Wm. Hagen of Walsingham, Mrs. Margaret Meecham of Hagersville and Mr. John Bailey of Hagersville.
The funeral of Mrs. Hagen took place on Saturday morning. Services were held on Friday afternoon at the home of Mr. George Bates at which there was a large attendance. Rev. C.D. Draper of Acton, a nephew of the deceased lady was expected to act as the officiating clergyman, but through illness was unable to do so. Rev. Daniel Ecker of Stevensville delivered the funeral sermon in his place. Numerous and beautiful were the sprays and wreaths of flowers which were sent by the friends of Mrs. Hagen.
On Saturday morning the body was conveyed to the 8.50 T.H. & B. westbound train and taken to Waterford for burial. Upon the arrival there was a large number of friends from that district gathered at the station and accompanied the funeral cortege to the cemetery.
The pall bearers were Messrs. Wm. Draper, Chatham; John Culver, Ernest Evans, Elgin Bates, Hamilton; Walter and George Bates of Welland.
..and Throwd him in a Hole,” says Old Southern Slave in his Reminiscences.
The Laughter and Tears of an Afternoon’s visit to Welland Industrial Home-Stories of Slavery Days.
[Welland Telegraph, 24 October 1911]
Picture to yourself an immense brick building standing back some distance from the road, a large, well-kept lawn fronting it, farm buildings in the rear and a properly cultivated farm adjoining the main building on three sides; old men and women who gaze at you curiously as you walk or drive up the gravel approach-picture this in your mind, and you have the Welland Industrial Home.
SPIRIT OF SADNESS
One cannot help but feel that a spirit of sadness prevails among these old people who have gathered here from the four corners of the county, penniless, and one might say friendless, to spend the remainder of their days in silent meditation and to wait patiently for the end.
Some of them have been wealthy in their day, but by some misfortune, unfair dealing or other trial or tribulation, their worldly possessions has left them and they find themselves face to face with poverty and the poor house.
PITIFUL STORIES
If each man and woman housed there and given shelter through the mercy of the county were to unfold their life story to you as you sat and listened, it would indeed be a tearful scene. It seems hard that these aged people when they near the end of life’s journey should have to depend upon charity to feed, clothe and shelter their aged bodies until life slips gently away.
Perhaps some day they enjoyed the comforts of life, were respected and had many friends. But when money slipped away, the friends went too. Simultaneously the two disappeared. Had they been wealthy the story would have been different. Still there would be no Industrial Home then and no need for one, either.
A VISIT
A representative of The Telegraph was shown over the building and the grounds by the genial keeper, Mr. Kottmeier, on Thursday afternoon. To describe the faces seen there would be almost impossible. On the countenance of nearly all those who are nearing the three score and ten years there was little expression, save one, and that that from their heart all hope had fled. Some sat around, pitiful excuses of human beings, their heads bowed down as if in thought. Others moved around engaged in some occupation or other while still others sat in the sun smoking and talking. One old man in chatting to The Telegraph reporter said that he was ending his days in the Home because he was foolish enough to give away his property which he had worked hard for, to his relatives, and when he became old and feeble they thought a nice place for him would be the poor house. There are many other cases of this kind, but not all are attributable to this cause.
One old man who is in the home has travelled over nearly the whole world and is well educated. But he can do no work, has no relatives, and as a consequence he is where he is-in the home.
RECALL OLD TIMES
When there is no work to be done the old men gather in their sitting room and smoke while the woman also congregate in their sitting room and converse with one another over their knitting. Deserted and thrown among strange acquaintances they seem forlorn but make the best of their new friends. The men recall their past lives and tell one another stories of their past, what it was and what it might have been.
MANY CHARACTERS
Among both the men and women there are some peculiar characters. Some are weak-minded, others are childish, some are quiet, others talkative. Some huddle up on their chairs, their bent frames and withered bodies remaining almost motionless.
Almost all occupations are represented. An aged Arabian woman is one of the occupants and a colored man who does not know his age, is another. One lunatic, not of a dangerous character, is kept in the Home. She has little to say, walking up and down with her head bowed on her chest, her hair in vile disorder.
WHAT THEY DO
In the summer time the sixty-acre farm must be tilled and crops raised and harvested. This is done mostly by the inmates who not only raise enough for their own use, but also have a surplus, which is sold. This work occupies much of their time. A large number of pigs are kept and also a number of cattle and horses. Food for this stock must also be grown. The inmates attend to most of the chores about the farm during the winter. There is also a carpenter shop and work shop where some engage themselves. A barber’s chair, where the inmates shave themselves, adorns one corner. Of course, some of the inmates are unable to work, and they bide their time by sitting around talking with one another.
THE BUILDINGS
In connection with the main building there is a small hospital where a number of men are incarcerated at all times, being attended by the Home physician.
In the main building there are the sleeping and eating quarters, the sitting rooms, kitchen, laundry, etc. The men and women have separate eating compartments.
One thing noticeable about the whole building is its absolute cleanliness and the neat and orderly appearance of everything. The Telegraph man called unexpectedly on a day which was not visiting day and he found everything as it should be. The bedrooms and the beds, and in fact, everything was perfectly clean.
FIRE ESCAPES
“How about fire escapes?” asked the reporter, having in mind the recent report of the grand jury.
Mr. Kottmeier pointed out the different avenues of escape in the building. There are four or five exits and two fire escapes, making it quite easy to get out of the building in case of fire. “I was not home at the time the grand jury called and consequently they were not shown over the entire building, and they did not see all the exits,” he stated.
GOOD MANAGEMENT
With such a diversified and forsaken class of people a good deal of patience and kind treatment is necessary. Mr. Kottmeier combines these two qualities and looks after the inmates with the greatest of consideration.
ONCE A SLAVE
Probably the most interesting character at the Home is an old man named Henderson. The old fellow is one of the happiest old inmates in the Home and is enjoying life very well. He doesn’t know just exactly how old he is, but thinks he has been on this sphere somewhere between ninety and a hundred years. He is a typical southern fellow and still has a noticable accent. His laugh is as hearty as that of a young man and he delights to tell of “dem agonizing, cruel, slavery days.”
Mr. Kottmeier and a reporter were walking over the farm on Thursday afternoon when coming down the field with a cane in each hand, was the old man.
“Come here, Henderson,” called Mr. Kottmeier, and the old man came over to where the two were standing. In one hand the cane consisted of a short bent piece of stout wood, while in the other was a piece of a broomstick, with many wires around one end.
“How old are you?” asked Mr. Kottmeier by way of opening the conversation.
“Lor’ master, I dunno, Ah guess ah is about ninety, Whah wa ah bohn? Ah was born in Florida near No’th Ca’olina, and ah was bohn in slavery, too.”
SLAVERY DAYS
Here the old man went into a violent fit of laughter.
Recovering himself again he recited about the time when Lincoln tuk his seat and he was freed. After that he came to Canada. He said many Canadians fought in the armies of the North to try and free the Southern slaves. He said Lincoln saw how the black people were being killed like dogs and he objected to their being used in that manner. The people in the North agreed and helped the President to free them.
FOUGHT IN WAR
“Did you fight in the war?” he was asked.
“Did ah? Why suttingly ah did, of course, ah did. Looka at dat thumb,” he declared, holding up the stub of what was once the thumb of his right hand.
MULTIPLIED LIKE CATTLE
The old fellow laughed again when he told of his early life. He said that during slavery days his race lived like cattle and multiplied in much the same way. When a child was born it was tabulated and kept track of. As a rule a child was not put to work until it was ten years old.
HAD SEVEN WIVES
“Ah had seben wives in mah time,” he said by way of explanation and laughed heartily over it as if it were a good joke. “I raised many black ones,” he declared.
According to the old fellow many black people were killed off when they did not obey their master. Often they were thrown in the rivers or old wells to “get them out of the way.”
DID THE WASHING
To the lot of this particular man fell the dishwashing and cooking of a Southern plantation. He related that he was led to believe that his master was lord of all he surveyed. Nearly all of the Southern slave drivers were very wealthy, he stated.
One incident, when he was watchman of a slave driver’s farm, he related with great satisfaction. A colored man had stolen two thousand dollars and skipped. He (Henderson) was appointed to the leadership of a band to search for the man. With a big mob at his back and over one hundred bloodhounds on the trail he set out, and after hunting about a day found the runaway and “fotched him back.”
KNEW JESSE JAMES
Henderson says that the original Jesse James was not the man known to most of the people in America today. Jesse James, the first, led a far more desperate life than the latter one is credited with, but his career, was far shorter for he was shot down by a Southern plantation owner.
During his conversation with the reporter the old man would frequently say, “Why, suttingly, of cose,” as if what he was saying could not be otherwise.
When he referred to Abraham Lincoln he spoke in quiet tones and spoke of him as a great savior of the colored race.
LITTLE REGARD OF HUMAN LIFE
He told of many incidents of the shooting of colored people, showing clearly how little human life was regarded in the South in the early periods.
Amid laughter he told of how he himself had once killed a fellow workman in the field. He had warned the man that he must cease his immoral relations with his daughter, he said. The man had refused and had beaten him with his whip. Finally becoming desperate one day, he (Henderson) had killed him. His story of the killing is best told in his own words:
“Ah jus’ naturally picked up a rock and knocked him down, vessah. Den ah mashed his haid all to pieces. When ah had his head all mashed ah throwed him in a hole. Da mastah huh about it and come aftah me but ah told him ah mash his head too. Ah was so mad.”
The old fellow said they finally tied chains around him and landed him in jail. His wife saved him from being hung. At that time a woman’s command was law, the women frequently taking the law in their own hands. His wife read about the affair in the papers. She came to the jail and demanded that the doors be opened. When the jailor refused she brandished a pistol and in this way gained entrance. Then she brought her husband out and drove away with him, and that was the last he heard of the affair. He said his wife had threatened to blow up “da jailah and da hull____jail.” unless her husband was released. “Cuss words” were commonly used by women in those days.
Henderson said he received but one beating from a slave driver, nevertheless, he was glad when slavery was outlawed. Children in those days, he said, were raised to be sold like cattle. There was no moral law.
The old Southerner pulled an immense pipe from his pocket and asked for some tobacco. The bowl on the pipe was fully four inches high, two inches around and the stem was about an inch around. The pipe consisted of a piece of gas pipe covered with a big piece of wood, the stem being a long piece of wood through which a hole had been pierced.
He continued to talk of his early life in Florida and of the country and its ways in early times. He has now grown old and his form is bent with years. His face is well preserved, and his beard is unusally long for a black man.
.. THE OPENING OF THE WELLAND CANAL AND BEGINNING WELLAND’S FIRST RAILWAY
An Old Time Wellander Tells an Interesting Story of the Early Days
[Welland Telegraph, 24 October 1911]
If time in its flight could turn back seventy years and you could have a look at the site of what is now the town-the coming city-of Welland, you would see nothing but farm lands, dreary and desolate.
If you-but you cannot do the impossible, so the best thing is to learn a little of early Welland from the only man who has lived here all that time, from a man who plowed the soil where the street car tracks are now being laid.
There may be older men in Welland than Jacob Ryan, who lives on the corner of Church and North Main Streets, and who in his eighty-fourth year is as bright as a man twenty years his junior, but they have not watched Welland grow from nothing but farm lands to one of the best known towns in Canada.
A LIFE-LONG RESIDENT
Mr. Ryan has lived in the vicinity of Welland and in the town of Welland all his life, and he remembers it as a farm, as a village, as a town and as it was before it began to get growing pains. And there is no man in Welland today who is prouder of his own town than Mr. Ryan.
A GREAT TRANSFORMATION
This old man has watched the first houses go up; he has seen the first railway line as it was laid into Welland; has seen the first boats pass through the Welland Canal; has witnessed the laying out of the streets, and best of all was employed in the first industry Welland had, a saw mill on the north bank of the Welland river. The first Welland Canal was built during his time and it was also enlarged while he resided here.
From a dark hole with a few dim gas lights burning here and there, and coal oil in the homes, he has witnessed the advent of electrical power. From the oxen teams and wooden roads he has witnessed the new era of macadam and automobiles. You, of course, have heard of all these things, but you are living in the present age and the only knowledge you have of early times is that which you gleaned from the lips of others. How different from the days gone by is the Welland of today with its many factories.
FIRST WELLAND CANAL
Reclining back in his easy chair, he told of living in Wainfleet township from the year he was born, 1827, until the age of eight or nine when he with his parents moved to Crowland, just outside of what is now the town of Welland. There he resided until about twenty years of age. During this time the first Welland Canal was built and he had frequent chats with Hamilton Merritt, who designed the scheme. Before the canal was built two farmers owned all the land which now comprises Welland. Their names were McFarland and Griffith, and Mr. Griffith had a log house near where the Court House now stands.
When the canal was enlarged the first time, a few houses were erected here and there in the mud, planted as it were.
The first canal, according to Mr. Ryan’s memory, was a mere ditch. The aqueduct for this canal was of wood only, and built only high enough over the river so that row boats and canoes could pass under it.
“When the first boats went through the Welland Canal my father brought us children to Aqueduct as the place was then called to see them. They were only sailing vessels of very small proportions for the canal was very small.”
Mr. Ryan says that the Welland Canal had its first outlet into Lake Erie at Port Maitland and that the boats instead of going to Port Colborne as at present went up the Feeder to Dunnville. Dunnville at that time was larger than Welland.
HIS FIRST JOB
When Mr. Ryan was twenty years old he secured his first job, that of millwright in a saw mill owned by a man named Sealey. The mill stood where Rounds’ planing mill is now located. There was a great deal of forest in this part of the country at that time, practically all the surrounding country being covered with trees.
MERRITTSVILLE
Mr. Sealey, who owned a planing mill here, changed the name of Welland from Aqueduct to Merrittsville about this time.
FIRST RAILROAD
“The first railroad which passed what is now Welland was the Grand Trunk,” said Mr. Ryan. “There was no bridge over the river near here, but there was a sort of a crossing several miles down toward Port Robinson.”
“Do you see those trees on Merritt Street?” he asked, leading his interviewer to the verandah and pointing to a number of tall poplars on Merritt Street. “I planted those and well do I remember the day. It was the day when Townsend, the noted murderer robbed Jacob Gainer near Welland, and shot Charles Ritchie at Port Robinson, later making his escape.”
Asked for particulars of the famous Townsend case, Mr. Ryan told what he remembered of the noted robbery and murderer. Townsend started his career of crime at Cayuga where he murdered a man named Nelles, who had caught him in the act of burglarizing his store, and had locked him in. Townsend demanded to be freed and when his captor refused, he shot him dead.
“The next day,” continued Mr. Ryan, “I was setting out those trees when Jacob Gainer came into the village to say that he has been robbed of his money by this man. A number of men organized into a band and went to Port Robinson to capture him. He was eating his supper at a hotel, so they waited outside. When he came out, Charlie Ritchie, who was constable, laid a hand on his shoulder and said, “You are my prisoner!” Townsend warned him that he better take his hand off but Ritchie refused, whereupon he sent a bullet through the constable’s head and made his escape. Many men stood around but they were too frightened to assist the constable or to try and recapture the man.
Some time later, he, or a man believed to be him, was arrested in Cleveland and brought here to face trial. He denied that he was Townsend and fully as many people swore that it wasn’t him, as those who swore it was him. After a trial lasting eleven days he was acquitted. His trial took place in the Court House here.”
FIRST HOTEL
The first hotel in Welland, said Mr. Ryan, stood where C.J. Page now has his electrical office. It was called the Sherwood. The next one was______.
“I remember well when the Court House was built. The contractors, Burgar and Henderson, failed in their contract and the county had to finish their work.
Welland’s flour mill was located at the end of where the old wooden aqueduct now stands. It was owned by a man named Phelps. At that time the road along the river was Welland’s only street.”
Mr. Ryan helped build the present stone aqueduct and remembers well when the Government maintained a guard on it to prevent dynamiters from blowing it up. The construction work occupied three years time.
Geo. Hanna is about the only other man in Welland anywhere the length of time that Mr. Ryan has made this town his home.
PAID TAXES SINCE 1853
Welland’s treasury has received taxes from Mr. Ryan since 1853. He is the oldest taxpayer in Welland and remembers well every Council which has governed the town.
The fourth house in what is now the populous Sixth Ward was built by him. In those days land was cheap, selling inside the town limits for one hundred dollars an acre.
Mr. Ryan’s ancestors did their part in building up the country and fighting for its defence. His grandfather was shot at the Battle of Queenston heights and his father went through the McKenzie rebellion.
“Do you remember the McKenzie rebellion?” he was asked.
“Yes sir. I remember the McKenzie rebellion distinctly. Many soldiers were taken up through the canal in old boats and scows during the time of the fighting.”
The picture of the oldest Wellander, as he deserves to be termed, is reproduced on this page. It was taken several years ago.
[See related OBITUARY: Ryan 1915 jacob death]
Thieves Make a Big Haul at Lane’s Jewelry Store
[Welland Telegraph, 22 December 1911]
Between two and three thousand dollars worth of jewelry was stolen from the store of H.C. Lane, East Main Street, sometime between midnight and seven o’clock Tuesday morning. The thieves gained admission to the store by removing the putty from one of the panes of glass in a rear window.
Just what time the robbery occurred is not known, but it is believed that it was about five o’clock.
Mr. Lane left the store on Mondy night about twenty minutes to twelve. Two hundred dollars, the amount of money in the tills, was placed in the safe, but all the valuable gold watches, rings and diamonds were left in the show cases and window.
Two lads delivering their morning papers Tuesday morning discovered the broken window and several cuff buttons and a gold handled parasol lying on the ground outside the window. They notified James Nixon and Chief Jones was in turn notified of the theft.
The theory is that there were two men in the job. Chief Jones believes that one man handed out the booty while the other remained outside to receive it. The electric lights in the store were left burning all night.
A number of valuable diamonds in the window were not touched and no attempt was made to rifle the safe.
No description of the men could be secured. It is believed they have been planning the theft for some time and that they made themselves conversant with all the details of the store as the theft was by no means a crude one. Chief Jones has notified the police in neighboring towns and cities.
Included in the jewelry stolen were fifty gold-filled watches, tray of rings and eleven wedding rings, three dozen lockets and bracelets.
A Clue
Later in the day the police were informed that three suspicious characters had been seen in the vicinity of the robbery earlier in the evening. One of the men was rather tall while the others were short and of slight build, probably boys. The pane of glass through which the thief entered the store would not admit a large man, so the theory that these men were implicated seems probable.
It is believed that Officer Tattersall, who was on duty at the time, was followed and watched by one of the men.
Chief Jones believes that the theft was committed by local men and he holds the opinion that they were boys or young men.
That the thieves went through Griffiths’ alleyway toward Division Street after the robbery was learned as several rings, jewelry boxes and prices were picked up along the lane. These were apparently dropped or thrown away by the men.
Chief Jones made a search of the market square on Tuesday morning in an effort to locate more definitely the direction taken by the men.
Found Cases
Chief Jones on Wednesday morning recovered three empty ring trays which had been dropped outside the window by the thieves and which were picked up and taken home by T. Hannigan. Mr. Hannigan informed the Chief that he had found the trays.
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