FAITH CURE - 1899
Source: New Ross News 27 Oct 1899 p 3
A peculiar case came up in the Clinton County court last week in which the judge saw no justifiable reason to punish one who believes in faith: Joseph Chenoweth and wife of Clinton County became advocates of the faith cure and when their little son was taken sick they refused to send for a doctor. The child died and the father was prosecuted for manslaughter. Thursday during the trial Judge Kent stopped proceedings and directed the jury too bring in a verdict of acquittal. Among other things he said: “ The evidence clearly shows without any contradiction, that the defendant was perfect honest in his method of treatment; that he treated his child kindly, nursed it tenderly and honestly believed he was doing the best thing possible for him. We may say this method was a hard one; that it does not commend itself to our judgement ; that it is superstition and foolish; yet the fact remains that from his standpoint it was the proper thing to do, and most certainly there was no willful neglect from the standpoint of the law. This ruling is a far-reaching one and will be hailed by the Crawfordsville faith curists with exceedingly great joy – Crawfordsville Journal ---kbz