The Stephenville Empire. (Stephenville, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 23, Ed. 1 Friday, February 11, 1910 Page: 1 of 8
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VOL. XXXVIII.
CO-DEFENDANT TURNS
STATES EVIDENCE
Sensation Created in Murder
Trial at Easlland.
STEPHENVILLE, TEXAS, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1910.
NO. 23
Readers of the Empire will re-
member with meager details of
the murder of Mr. Oates an aged
traveler in the southern part of
Eastland county a year ago. Bert
Carter and Sam Grant were ar-
rested, but the jury failed to
indict them. But last month an-
other Eastland county grand jury
was in session and filed bills
against them.
Tuesday during the trial of
Grant in Eastland, Carter in ac-
cordance with an agreement
made with the district attorney
two weeks previous, took the
stand as a states witness and
testified as follows:
‘ ‘The old man was coming down
the big road and we were hunt-
ing a place to hide and there was
a tree top there and Sam says
this is the place, and he got be-
hind that tree top and broke off
a little limb and I got down west
of him standing in an open place,
and some trees to my side on the
east side of me. In a few min-
utes the old man came along and
Sam shot him, and when he pitch-
ed forward I run about twenty
yards, I reckon, and Sam holler-
ed wait, and I looked back and
he was going over the fence to
old man Oats. I went on a little
piece further and stopped and in
a few minutes he came on down
there and we tore out in a run
and taken down the branch, run-
ning northeast, and went intc
the big road. We crossed the
big road into another pasture
We taken a near cut then through
them pastures home.
“We got home about 12:30 or
1 o’clock. It was about 12:30.
After the shot was fired and ole
man Oats had been shot, in go-
ing home then, we went fast;
pretty, rapidly. We run most of
the way until we got about half
way: and then we walked pretty
rapidly all the way; kind of in a
dog trot. Sam Grant gave me
some of the money. He divided
the money. I believe there was
$18.35, and he divided it up
equally.
“After the gun was fired I did
not go back to the road to see
about the old man. Sam went
to him. I saw him when he got
over the fence and started to-
ward the old man, and I was
about twenty yards, I reckon,
and he hollered for me to stop,
he was not gone from home either
on the afternoon of the 17th or
the morning of the 18th of Feb-
ruary, 1909.
Boy Cuts Himself Very Ser-
iously.
John Jackson, the youthful star
witness in the late case of the
Rostic boy, happened to an ac-
cident Saturday evening which
came near terminaring his earth-
ly pilgrimage.
He had bought a new knife
with a keen blade in it about 4
inches long, and it is said he was
showing his little brother how
skillfully he could handle it when
he made a miscalulation in one
of hi movements and plunged
it into his own abdomen. Physi-
cians say the blade- made a very
dangerous incision just below the
navel, severing some of the in-
testine fat, and that although
resting well now, the danger
cannot be said to be over. Marks
on the blade showed it went in
to a depth of nearly two inches.
John is only 15 years old, but
bears his suffering bravely, anc
blames no one else with the ac-
cident. _
Two Deaths at Alexander.
and I looked abound and he was
going over the fence. I went on
a little piece from there and
stopped and waited, and it was
not but a few minutes before he
came on. I reckon I was about
fifteen steps from Sam Grant
when he fired the gun. I was
about ten or fifteen steps from
the road. He was about the
^ same distance. The old man was
sitting up in his buggy going
west at the time Sam fired the
gun. After we had gotten home
Sam told me that he would come
over in a wagon and we would
go to town. We had single bar-
rel shotguns, 12-guage, that morn-
ing when the old man was killed.
They were breech loaders. I was
using new club cartridges. I
think I got them from Mr. Bowles.
Sam Grant shot old man Oats
with a 12-guage shotgun, with
No. 2 shot.”
Grant is a young man 24 years
old and is married, having a wife
and three children, and resides
in the southern part of Eastland
county, within a few miles of the
A telephone message received
from Alexander Wednesday af-
ternoon by Rev W. M. Green
announced the death of two
babies there that day. One was
the seventeen months old child
of Jim Moss, and the other the
three months old babe of John
Inabnet. Rev. Green and Rev.
W. H. Davis went to Alexander
yesterday to conduct the two
funerals. The Empire extends
condolence to the bereaved par-
ents of these little ones, and we
are sure that many other friends
are in full sympathy with them.
The Banner Tax Month.
Bud Oates says that January
was a marvelously big taxpaying
month this year, perhaps heavier
receipts than in any one month
of the history of the office of
collector. His receipts amounted
to sixty thousand dollars, which
for the working days of January
would make an average of more
than—$2,000 daily.—It did not
Early Morning Blaze.
The residence of Will Leahey
on Belknap street was discover-
ed on fire about 4 oclock Sunday
morning. The fire company suc-
ceeded in extinguishing the
flames before the building was
entirely consumed, and also kept
it from reaching any other house
but the home is so badly dam-
aged as to be rendered almost
worthless. The origin of the fire
remains a mystery. Mrs. Leahy
had returned from Hico only a
few days before and was the only
occupant of the house at the
time, as Mr. Leahey was still in
Fort Worth working in a market
there.
The furniture was not all burn-
ed but very badly damaged. In-
surance on building $700; on
piano and furniture etc, $800.
It pays to Saue:
The Bailey Case Set.
The trial of J. K. Bailey has |
been set for Monday Feb. 21 and
a special venire of forty talesmen
are summoned from which to
select a jury. If this case is
tried and a verdict reached it will
be a quick piece of work, as the
poisoning of Mr. Alexander at
Cow Creek, with which Bailey is
charged, occurred on Jan. 16,
less than a month ago.
Considerable of a legal contest
will no doubt take piace in the
trial of this case, as strong coun-
sel has been retained on each
side. The defendant will be re-
presented by ((handler and Pan-
nell, while District Attorney
Palmer will be assisted in the
prosecution by Martin, George
and Johnson.
The Saving Habit
Makes you careful in the things
you do. It teaches the useful-
ness of money, and the relation-
ship of principal and interest.
But at the same time you are
forming an exceptionally good
habit, you are accumulating a
fund for future use. Life is
worth living when you have mon-
ey in the bank—it gets monoto-
nous when you are broke.
START A SAVINGS ACCOUNT TODAY
First National Bank
STEPHENVILLE, TEXAS
Marriage Licenses.
C. T. Me Adams and Miss Ora
Lee Cupp, Stephenville.
Marshall Garrett and Miss An-
nie May Gillilan, Stephenville.
Births Reported.
Boys to Mr. and Mrs.
W. 0. Reid. Thurber.
Jim Duncan, Pony Creek.
W. L. Tate, Duffau.
Will Cox,
J. B. Nunn, Morgan Mill.
Burglars Stole Safe They
Couldn’t Open.
TheTarleton College Coach.
For the coming baseball season.
Tarleton will have at her disposal
one of the best baseball coaches
in the South. The services of
Mr. Luther Burleson have been
secured; and we know that if
there is any baseball material to
be found at Tarleton, this man
will find it. We know that Tar-
leton has some of the best base-
ball material to be found in the
West Texas College League, con-
The noise startled them and they sequently we are feeling confi-
determined to take the deposit dent that our baseball team this
to a more convenient place. Over season will be one of the E>est we
Weatherford, Tex.. Feb. 8—If
at first you dont succeed, try, try
again, was evidently the maxium
under which thieves forced an
entrance to the store of W. N.
Herring at Adell, Monday night
were working.
Forcing an entrance, they cart-
ed up a lot of merchandise and
then started to work on the safe.
and over they rolled it until they
had taken it a hundred yards
from the house. Here they tried
to force it with the aid of a chisel
and hammer. The safe with-
stood the onslaught, and as day
was breaking, the thieves fled,
leaving their chisel and hammer
on the safe, and a badly wreck-
ed safe, from which 'the combi-
nation knob had been knocked,
but In which the contents were
safely enveloped. One of the
burglars left a cap and a pair of
shoes.
Word has been received in this
city of the tragic death of the
little five months old daughter of
Lon Deatherage, which occurred
recently at his home in Rush
Springs, Okla. His wife had
stepped across the street to call
her husband from his work, leav-
ing the baby asleep in its crib,
and when they returned they
found the room in flames, while
the child was so badly burned
that it expired in a few minutes.
It is supposed that the fire orig-
inted from the explosion of an
oil stove. Mr. Deatherage and
wife are former residents of
Dublin, and have the sympathy
of many friends in their shock-
ing bereavement.— Dublin Tele-
phone.
J. H. Boyd informs us that
the committee to look into the
school money matters, will not
be prepared to report until it has
conferred with the commission-
have ever had on the field.
No one should fail to take ad-
vantage of the opportunity to re-
ceive some of Mr. Burleson’s
coaching. You will not only
learn baseball but you will also
be taught how to conduct your-
self in a gentlemanly way when
on the athletic field.
Mr. Burleson is a perfect gen-
tleman, sober, intelligent and
V
come to him so prorated however
as the last ten days of the month
amounted to much more than the
first twenty. The two closing
days Saturday and Monday were
especially busy ones, and it is a
credit to the office force that they
succeeded in waiting on all in
he vast throngs assembled there.
place of the killing.'
The defense of Grant is an alibi,
it being shown by his mother and interest by the i
other members of the family that entire section of T<
The Gaines Case, v
It will not be a great while
now until the Court of Criminal
Appeals will make some dispo-
sition of the E. C. Gaines case,
as it was submitted to them
Wednesday on oral argument and
brief. Judge G. H. Goodson of
Comanche and T. H. McGregor
of Austin appeared for Gaines,
and Judge Poindexter of Cle-
burne and Hon. Oscar Calloway
of Comanche, represented the
state. The result is awaited with
interest by the people of this
Terrell Biggs
Girls to Mr. and Mrs.
Ernest Mulloy, Greens Creek.
D. A. Morton, Dublin.
T. G. Roach, Duffau.
Lowery Williams, Morgan Mill.
Deaths Reported
Infant of D. A. Morton near
Dublin.
Rev. D. R. Hardison, who has
served so well and acceptably as
pastor of the First Christian
church of this city the past year,
has tendered his resignation to
accept a call at Brady. Brother
Hardison preached his farewell
sermon last Sunday to a congre-
gation that taxed the capacity of
the church to accomodate. He
and his family have made a host
of friends during their stay in
Dublin, who. while greatly re-
gretting their departure, have
only the best and sincere wishes
for their success and happiness
in their new location.—Dublin
Telephoh*
honest and is a man whom any-
one should be proud to call his
friend. And in your association
with him on the field you will
learn to honor and respect him,
for no man has a higher ideal in
athletics than Mr. Burleson.—
Tarleton Magazine.
Mr. Oscar Haley and Miss Lola
Reed were united in marriage at
the Methodist parsonage at 6:30
last Sunday evening, Rev. Ernest
L. Lloyd officiating. The bride
is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Dick Reed of this city, and has
become popular with the trading
public through her connection
the past year as saleslady for the
dry goods establishment of F. S.
Coffin & Son. The groom is a
prosperous young farmer resid-
ing near the city. The Telephone
joins the many friends of the
happy young couple in extending
congratulations.— Dublin Tele-
phone.
Just going into the post card
business; newest and latest de-
signs of Valentines at Baxleys
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Hawkins, W. H. The Stephenville Empire. (Stephenville, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 23, Ed. 1 Friday, February 11, 1910, newspaper, February 11, 1910; Stephenville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth877803/m1/1/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Stephenville Public Library.