HAYS family - poisoned
Source: Crawfordsville Daily Journal
Monday 19 March 1894
Waynetown, March 19—Yesterday at Hillsboro Dr. Hays, his daughter, Vonia, Mrs. Rivers, his mother-in-law, Cora Campbell, a young lady studying with the doctor, were all
poisoned yesterday by eating ‘pressed chicken.’ Vonia, the daughter, stayed
home from church and ate some of the chicken about 10 o’clock. By 11 o’clock
she was vomiting and cramping so severely that her father was sent for at
church. He dosed her up till noon and then the above named persons together
with George, the colored man who stays there, all ate heartily of the same kind
of food, which by 2 o’clock worked on all of them alike. Everyone vomited,
cramped, and finally purged. Dr. Hays and his daughter were given up as dead,
or about so, for a time. The colored man and the old lady were in a critical
condition, the hired girl getting off the easiest. Dr. Hurt and Dr. Stout were
hastily summoned and by means of stomach pump, antidotes, etc., succeeded in
saving them. They worked till midnight without ceasing. All were improving this
morning. Still Dr. Hays, his daughter and mother-in-law are in a critical
condition yet.
Known as the "Hillsboro Poisoning"