Daniel - Lowell - adopted by John Dodd - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Crawfordsville, Ind July 16 – Darlington and vicinity had been greatly excited for about 30 hours over the disappearance of a boy 9 years old.  John A. Dodd and wife two years ago adopted a boy and girl who had been brought to this city with several others from the New England Orphans Home at Boston. The boys name was Lowell Daniel and on Wednesday he was in the cornfield pulling weeds.  Mr. Dodd said that the lad had started to the house but never made his appearance.  The next day Mr. Dodd made diligent inquiries in Darlington, remarking that he guessed he had “run away.”  As the boy did not turn up Friday, the fact was widely circulated.  Dodd had some enemies who started a rumor that he had made away with the boy. The foster father himself had no explanation so that yesterday the entire neighborhood turned out and searched the country.  Creeks were dragged, the woods scoured, haystacks overturned which served only to deepen the mystery of the disappearance for Lowell Daniel was not to be found. Edward Murphy, Charles Petro and Thomas Irons being excited came to this city yesterday morning to consult a notorious fortune-teller here. She described the Dodd family perfectly and finally said that in a spell of madness Dodd had struck the lad, killing him.  With this exciting and untrustworthy tale the men returned bearing the news. The fortune-0teller absolutely declared that the body of the boy would be found in a deserted cabin on the farm of John Booker who was a neighbor of Dodd.  A watch was placed over the house of Dodd and this morning the spies reported that Dodd and Harry Dodd, a nephew had hitched up to a buggy and placing a bundle under the seat, drove off toward the Booker farm. This aroused the people to such a pitch that David Irons appeared before Squire Armstrong and took out a warrant against John A. Dodd and his wife, Sarah, and August Rice, a stepson and Harry Dodd, charging them all with the murder of the missing boy.  A number of persons were loud in their claims that Dodd had disposed of the boy and should be lynched. The marshal, armed with the warrant went out to the farm to make “the wholesale arrest,” and found Mr. Dodd just driving away from his farm. The marshall asked where he was going and he answered that the missing boy had been found on the farm of Alfred Harmeson 3 miles away and that he was going to see about it.  The marshall climbed in the buggy with Dodd and sure enough the lad was found alive and well on their arrival at Harmeson’s.  He had been there all the time and the people being very busy harvesting had not send word to Mr. Dodd.  They knew nothing of the scandalous stories over the disappearance of the boy until at 10 o’clock last night when they notified Mr. Dodd at once. The gossips who instigated the cruel story on farmer Dodd are quite crestfallen.

Source: Indianapolis News Mon 18 July 1892 p 6

Superstition came within a hair’s breadth of causing a lynching in Montgomery County.  Lowell Daniels, aged nine, an orphan, adopted by John A. Dodd and wife in the Potato Creek neighborhood suddenly disappeared. Mr. Dodd is a fiery-tempered man and it was soon whispered that he had killed the lad. This was confirmed by Mrs. Crow, a fortune teller of Crawfordsville who threw herself into a trance and claimed that she saw the boy with his skull crushed, lying under a pile of brush near an unused cabin which she was unable to locate.  Thereupon the population turned out en masse searching the woods and dragging the streams and finally warrants were issued for the arrest of Dodd and wife, Harry Dodd a nephew and Augustus Rice, a farm hand. There were also strong threats of lynching, but while excitement was at its height Alfred Harmeson, a farmer three miles distant sent word that the lad lost his way in going to Dodd’s house and was sheltered by his family. The word came timely as Dodd if not others of his family was in danger of violence. – kbz