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idgment ills. The nd that dement.AN OLD. OLD STORYa heavy 1 The Legend of the Murder ofera. The wer theNolte toy Damon.'ought thet night, tarriedig grew tementvawakejut this a a dis-d fierce fellowsoncilia-it it outuerican ) underand allmt went tch other it thirty-probably fpound-a knock-it be had Kmed theard camey prison-itonishedvery re-len must le enjoy-nard did u*t took ked them seriously , Mayor no doubt them.r, at the it closes parties, trted thatf getting-KRTKR.5 -6has beenind largeMr. If. follows:As is generally known the first murder committed in Floy’d county was the killing of a German baker and confectioner named Xolte by John Damon. After the commission of the crime it was traced to Damon, and he was arrested, convicted aud hanged, being the first man publicly executed in the county. The murder was committed in a small frame house that stood at the southeast corner of Pearl and Main streets, the body of Nolte being sewed up in a bed tick, dragged to the river and weighted with stones and then thrown in, and after, wards hooked up by a fisherman on his trot line.The agitation for the removal of the post-office to the corner where this murder was committed has revived a legend of the murder and the murderer, which may be published as illustrating the superstition of those days.Damon was a very bad man, and it was of current report at the time of the Xolte murder that he had killed a peddler in Crawford county. Before his execution Damon made a confession of his misdeeds. He was buried in the old graveyard of this' city. His grave was regarded with superstitious dread by many people. It was said that if a person went to the grave at midnight of a dark night and called out— “Damon! Damon! why did you kill Xolte?” the response would come back from the grave: “I don’t know; I don’t know!” Then there would be groans, succeeded by profound silence and darkness. Many people believed this impossible story, and some of these survive to this day.Another legend i9 to the effect that for many years after the murder the restless spirit of Damon could be seen “when graveyards yawned.” It was told that when a storm raged in the night this unhappy spirit could be seen flitting from spot to spot between the locality where the murder was committed and that at which the body of the victim was thrown into the river, and only the most courageous could be induced to lay in wait for the shadowy Damon. This improbable story found many believers. The “spook” of Damon has long been “layed,” however, thanks to the common school system of Indiana and the enlightenment it has brought to the people; and if postmaster Hurley and his clerks areultimately consigned to the corner in question it is not likely Damon’s ghost will trouble them.AYtruRIVER AND RAILWAY.A S PMTO WIN AFBUTION, c: DAY, APR ing.LouisiansThis insti the LegislaCharitab e |Twenty-1Inviolable i pledge has b ular vote, setution adopcapital of $1 reserve fund ITS ORA TION will t day.Look at tl100,000 Tl HA1 Capital 1 Capital1 Capital2 Prizes lt;6 Prizes lt;20 Prizes lt;100 Prizes lt;200 Prizes i 500 Prizes i 1000 Prizes lt;A9 Approi 9 Appro; 9 Appro 31857 Prizes,fiesponsil points, to w For furtt full address Letter, or M toor M. A. DiAU our QLhe superviseBEAUREGmarOWedWIT.
Newspaper Details
New Albany Daily Ledger Standard
New Albany, Indiana, US
Wed, Apr 06, 1881
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
New A.
Indiana, USA 16 Jun 2021
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