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Charged With the Canaan Robbery. MONDAY MORNING. Every one connected with this case came into court this morning looking fresh and invigorated. Conducting an important trial is exacting labor for the Court, the attorneys and the jury. But with the rest from Satur day noon we may wook for the trial to be pushed forward with him Judge Friedley is very prompt to big actions, and performs his duties according to good business, energy and regularity. The detendants, Jennings and Green, having to come a long distance, were a little behind time in making their appearance, but the Court waited their arrivals, which was at nine thirty o'clock. Mr. Joseph H. Lochard was the first wit ness examined. The direct examina tion will be conducted by Mr. Brown. He has been in the mercantile busi ness for twenty years past until 1878 when he was superseded by his son Cyrus. On the night of March 22nd he was in his son’s store. There was an iron fire proof safe in the store, which sat behind the front door when opened. There are three outside doors to the store room, each securely locked and the back doors, in addition to being locked, were fastened with iron vars. The witness owns the building and his son Cyrus owns the stock. On the night of March 22 the witness left the store and went to his home, adjoining. Not being very well he did not sleep soundly and was up a number of times during the night. He was up for a few minutes at 12 o'clock, went back to bed, and got up again at 2 o’clock, remaining up till 3 o'clock. The witness is deaf in the right ear and nearly deaf in the left. Going to the store in the morning before any one else he found upon entering a brace, a chisel,a lamp and a tin tumbler with about a teaspoonful of powder in it, on the store floor. The front door was still locked, but the side door was standing open, and the window on the west end had been pried off its hinges, the latter being broken and the window open. One shutter had been opened at the side window, and there were appearances at the cellar window as though an entrance had been attempted. The safe was occupied by the wit ness and his son Clive. In his own drawer in the safe in which was an iron box he has $12,000 in notes, worth about $9,000 money. He had also in this box $10,000 in four per cent, government bonds and a great many private papers. The witness here produced the bonds, they having been recovered. He had in the box $35 in money, also, including a $20 gold piece and a $5 bill belonging to Mrs. Mitchell who had deposited it there, in an envelope. The box thus refered to and all its contents were gone on the murder of Mara, 23rd, when he entered the store. There was some change left in the counter drawers the night before, and it was gone, the drawers being pried off. Cyrus Lochard was Postmaster at the time. A registered letter con taining $5 was opened and the money taken. There were also fifty other letters in the office that were opened. A clock was kept in the store. It was running when the witness left on the evening of March 22, the buying wound it, and the next day it was no ticed that the clock had stopped at 1:30 the night before. Two holes had been drilled into the safe door, the one above the knob entering a hollow, into which something had been put and exploded. The door was blown open, the rivets torn off and the door bent out of shape about seven inches. The witness had been ac quainted with Christie about three years. He was not acquainted with Green, but he knew him when he saw him, and Jennings was a stranger to him. Green was at his store a few days before the robbery, and also the day afterward. On the latter occasion Green informed the witness that he (Green) had some notes in the safe and wanted to know of witness if they were stolen. The Witness examined the safe for them, they having been deposited with Cyrus, and found them and returned them to Green. Green then asked Mr. Lochard to go to the back room, and going Green informed the witness that Jen nings was a United States detective, and suggested his employment to fer ret out the robbers. Green though, it was lucky for the witness, Jennings was here, as he is a good detective, and the witness should offer $500 reward of the papers, and Jennings would get there in two weeks A few days later Green came back urging the employment of Jencing, when he was informed by the sitness that a detective had already been employed. The witness stated that on the twenty-fhrst of July last Mr. Banta came to him and told him he had found his box in a blackberry patch. Cyrus Lochard, Thomas Baggot and George Heagan accompanied Banta to the spot and later returned with it to the wituhes. The box was opened and the notes and bonds were scattered around. The envelop containing Mrs Mitchell's money contained the $25, but instead of a $20 gold piece and a 85, bill there was a $10, gold piece, a $10, bill and a #5 bill. The box was a little rusty, and the chisel found with the box was considerably rusty. They con cluded to keep the finding of the box a secret, and employed a man to watch the spot. The iron box which was stolen, and the chisel were here produced and exhibited to the jury. The box was locked when taken, and had been pried open. Mr. Brown conducted the cross examination. The store room was twenty-two by eighty-four feet, run ning east and west and fronting the east. As soon as he entered the store and saw that a robbery had occurred, he immediately went to his son Cyrus, and informed him. He returned first, and saw that the back window was open, but did not examine it. There was no fuse kept about the store that the witness known of. Mrs. Mitchell’s money had been in the safe about four years. The witness could not remember when he last saw this money before the rob bery. He and his son each had a key to the safe, and each had certain drawers in the safe and key for the same. The distance from the safe to the place where the witness slept was about sixty feet. There are two win dows and two doors on the side of his dwelling fronting the store, but no window in the room to which he slept fronts the store. The witness is hard of hearing, but he can hear noises. He believes that if the blowing had been done while he was awake that night a few minutes before twelve and from two to three o’clock on the night of March 22 he would have heard it. He lies while asleep on his left side. He is deaf in his right ear. Cyrus first informed the wit ness that the box had been found in Dr. James Lewis’ woods, that Banta had informed Cyrus of the finding. When Banta informed him of the finding of the box he came into the store, walked into the back room and called Cyrus, who called his father and informed him. Cyrus Lochard, George Hogan and Thos. Baggott went with Beverly Banta to the place where the latter found the box and found it leaning up against a beech tree about eighty-five steps from the road, two hundred yards from Banta’s house and the same distance from Lochard’s store. Banta said he was blackberry ing and saw the box within about ten steps of where he was. The sight scared him so he instantly started to Lochard’s store where he arrived in time, as stated. Banta has no family except a stepdaughter who was work ing for Lochard at that time. George Hagan is the father of Beecher Hagan, who clerke for Lochard. Hagan, Bagot, Banta and the Locharde con cluded to keep the finding a secret and offer a reward for the return of the box, then heave the place watched where it was found. Adjourned at twelve till one o’clock. AFTERNOON, Court met promptly at one o’clock Mr. Lochard still in the witness chair. Geo. Hagan, Bucher Hagan, Wm. Buchannan and Cyrus Lochard were to watch the place. They watched about two weeks. Sam Lewis was in company with Green when the latter proposed to witness that he employ a detective. The witness and Dr. Chris tie have not been on friendly terms for several years. The examination of Mr. Lochard ended at half after one o'clock. Cyrus H. Lochard was next put on the witness stand. The witness gave a description of the building corresponding with that given by his father. He owns the stock of goods and has the building rented from his father, who owns it. He remained at the store till about 10:30 o’clock on the night of March 22. He saw that all the windows and doors were fastened, locked the safe and went home. He lives about one hundred feet from the store. He went to bed about eleven o'clock that night, and heard poeoise. Something woke him up that night, but he did not know what it was. He soon went to sleep and slept till his father waked him up the next morning and informed him of the robbery. He hurried over there and found things as described by his father. He examined the safe and found that his father’s department had been rifled. His own drawer to the safe was opened robbed of $20 in paper, $5 in gold and $6 or $8 in ailver. Ome checks, payable to order, were left in the drawer. A pigeon hole contained $40 in silver and sev eral old coins and a ehot sack contain ing $35 in change. Everything was taken except one old copper cent. There was one five franc piece among the old coins that were taken. Of the $20 there were two $5 bank bills and one $10 national bank bill. Norman Green had some papers in the bank.A few weeks before the robbery Green came to him and wanted to know if his safe was bur glar proof. When informed that it was not, Green concluded to leave his papers there anyway. The papers were not disturbed by the robbers. On examination as to how the robbers got into the store the witness found that one shutter at the back window had been pried off its hinges or the hinges cut or broken in some other way. The wit ness saw two different tracks in the clay ground beneath and around the widow, one of s six or seven shoe or bout and the other was a #176 larger. While making this examine ation there was no one with him ex cept Bucher Hagan, who clerks for him. The brace and chisel were rec ognitd as the property of a wagon maker and blacksmith to Canaan. The powder found in the tumbler was not the same as that kept for sale to the store. After looking carefully for evidence to identify the robbers he came to Madison, no one in the vicin ity having yet come to town that knew anything of the robbery. He reached town a quarter to eleven, going to Berin’s stable. He then went to the river and depit to see if any strangers had left. He then came back to the stable where he found “ Green, who told him (wines) LD understand you had a robbery that night.” Green wanted to know if his papers were ygone and proposed to stand his pro vate share to employ a detective. It was between eleven and twelve o’clock when he met Jennings. One the fol lowing Saturday night Green came to his store, inquired about the robbery, and here suggested the employment of Jennings as a detective, and that Jennings had laid out several nights trying to get pointers for him and had got several. Green suggested that Lochard offered a reward for the recovery of the papers. The following Monday he first saw Jennings, with a man named Klutcher who lived on the Christie farm, Dr. Lewis introduced Jennings to winners, who inquired particularly as to the circumstances of the robbery and who said the work was undoubtedly done by experts. A few days later Jennings again came to his store, in answer to a request made by witness paying off his revolver and requesting Loehard to take care of it, who asked Loehard what he wanted. Leehard told Jen nings that Page wanted to see him at once to get him to help work up the case. Jennings advised Loehard to advertise in the papers near home, Todianapolis, Cincinnati, Louisville and Madison, and offer $500 reward for the return of the papers without prosecution. On this same occasion Jennings bought some cigars of witness, and in payment gave him a $10 bill, which he recognized at one he had received from Mr. O'Neal, and which was taken from the safe when it was blown open. The bill was on the Circle ville, Ohio, back. As we go to press Mr. Lochard is still on the stand. A downtown girl stuffed the arm of an old coat with hay, and placed it around her waist and sat near the window where the electric light re flected its soft light one evening last week. The other girls in the neigh borhood are just dying with envy. Mite Building Association issues a new series of stack Sept. 2d.
Newspaper Details
Madison Herald
Madison, Indiana, US
Mon, Aug 30, 1886
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Robert S.
USA 26 May 2026
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