Harrison - Frances - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Crawfordsville, Ind Aug 21 – The Montgomery County grand jury at its first session which will be early next month will make a thorough investigation of the death of Mrs. Frances Harrison. This investigation will be made regardless of the verdict that Coroner Howard may return and the understanding is that he will call it a case of suicide.  Mrs. Harrison was 73 years old and was a member of a long respected family.  Her body was found on a pile of brush in a creek at a spot more than a mile from her home Wednesday night, August 12.  

Chief of Police Wishes investigation. “It is possible that it was a suicide, it is possible that it was an accident and it is also possible that it was a murder,” declared Chief of Police Dan Offutt, “and there is so much mystery about the affair and so many reports prevailing that an investigation will do no harm and will bring out the true facts in the case. I shall place the matter before the grand jury as soon as it meets.” Leslie A. Lyons, the detective assigned to the case by Chief Offut has worked industriously and believes there are good grounds for a grand jury investigation.  He does not make a charge against any person but is satisfied that foul play was used.  The story of the woman’s death as shown by the investigations made by detective Lyons, reveals many peculiar circumstances.  Mrs. Harrison lived with her sister, Mrs. Simpson also an aged invalid at the old Jennison home. With the two old women lived Mrs. Harrison’s unmarried daughter Helen age about 40.  Mrs. Harrison had been a sufferer for years and to ease her pain and give her sleep used a drug. She had frequently threatened her life but never made any attempt. On the morning of the day she was last alive Mrs. Harrison complained of feeling badly. After breakfast she said she would go to her room and rest as she had frequently done. About 10 o’clock that morning she went to her room and Helen wrapped her up as she requested tucked her into bed as detective Lyons explained it. About 11 o’clock Helen went to a neighbor’s house and was there for more than an hour. Mrs. Simpson was sitting in her invalid chair in another part of the house, quite removed from the room where Mrs. Harrison was asleep and in such a position that she could not see the door of that room nor the door out of the back steps.  William Souders, 57 years old who did odd work about the house was in the back yard hauling bricks for a sistern.  About 1:30 o’clock Helen went to her mother’s room and found it empty. A search was made about the place but the woman was not found. After the police were notified a search was made of the entire neighborhood.  A creek runs past the house down a little hill, perhaps 100’ from the back door.  This creek was out of its banks because of a heavy rain and one of the searching parties, headed by detective Lyons followed this creek which is full of sharp turns and narrow bends. A short distance below the house is a barbed wire fence and below that a great pile of brush had almost dammed the stream.  Still further down is another barbed wire fence and a short distance away still another pile of brush caught about the trunk of a tree that reached almost across the creek.  

The body was found lying on its face on top of a pile of brush out of the water. A long coat that enveloped the body was thrown over the head and shoulders, covering it from the waist up. On the head was a deep cut and above the eye was a bruise that seemed to cause a depression in the skull, but did not produce a fracture. One person who viewed the body says there were finger marks on the throatbut of that the police are not certain.  Detective Lyons arrested Souders, but the man was released after a few hours in jail.  “I am not making any charges against any one,” said detective Lyons, “nor am I saying that murder has been done, but it looks very suspicious to me.  Here is the way it could have been done.  Mrs. Harrison when she went to her room no doubt took a dose of her favorite medicine to relieve pain and produce sleep. She could have been taken from her bed sleeping and carried down a road to the place where the body was found. Her daughter was at a neighbor’s home.  Her sister was in another part of the house.  At noon it was raining and none of the neighbors was out. The house is in an out of the way place and no one from the street could see what was going on.  “Mrs. Harrison was very feeble. She could hardly walk across the floor without falling and that morning she had fallen several times. To reach the creek she would have to pass out the back door, walk down a hill about 100’ to a little platform built out into the creek. The ground was broken away from the platform and Mrs. Harrison in her feeble condition could not have reached the platform without falling and she was too weak to step across the space between the platform and the bank in order to throw herself into the stream.  If she had thrown herself forward she would have lodged between the bank and the platform.  “Besides this, no matter how swift the current, the body could not have passed under either of the barbed wire fences nor around the piles of brush.  It would have been impossible for the body to be whirled around the trunk of the tree that almost spanned the stream and the torrent would not have thrown the body high and dry on the pile of brush where it was found more than a mile from the house. In my opinion the body was carried to the place where it was found – the torrent did not take it there.”  But the motive for the murder if murder it was?  “That is a matter that I will explain to the grand jury,” answered the detective.

Saturday evening William Souders appeared at the county clerk’s office with Helen Harrison and asked for a marriage license – this was a few hours after he mother’s death. Walter Hulet, manager of the Crawfordsville Trust Company, Dr. WH Ristine the Harrison family physician and MW Bruner who is the attorney for the trust company and who transacted a great deal of business for the Harrison family notified County Clerk Thomas B. Matthews that Helen Harrison was mentally unfit to be married and on this information the clerk refused to issue the license. Theodore Harrison of Indianapolis, an uncle of the woman came here and took her to his home where she now is. On orders of Chief Offutt, a special guard was placed about the Harrison home and Souders was warned to stay away from there. The guard was instructed to shoot Souders if he persisted in coming to the house.  Souders has been married several times and the police say they will show that he was anxious to marry Helen when he first met her but was told that Helen would never marry while her mother lived and until the mother’s death it was supposed the daughter would come into a large estate. The fact that Soulders tried to obtain the marriage license for himself and Helen a few hours after the mother’s death is one of the circumstances that the police lay much stress on.  Souders used to live at Linden. One night his father-in-law was found dead, fully dressed in the cellar of his house. An officer served a writ on Souders and Mrs. Souders, thinking it was a warrant, fell dead from heart disease. The coroner found that Souder’s father-in-law had fallen downstairs and killed himself.

Mrs. Frances Harrison, the dead woman was a member of one of the best known families in Montgomery County.  Her father was Osgood (sic) P. Jennison, one of the early settlers and was county surveyor for a number of years. He died about 30 years ago and left five children – three daughters and two sons. One of these daughters married WH Simpson.  Another married John M. Butler at one time one of the greatest lawyers in Indiana. And third married Temple C. Harrison of Indianapolis whose brother, Theodore still lives in that city. Albert Jennison one of the sons died following a surgical operation and about one year later his wife also died as the result of an operation. The other son was Henry Jennison.  Albert C. Jennison, Jr. a nephew of Mrs. Harrison was drowned in British Columbia in 1911. He and a young man named Adams from Columbia City were thrown out of a boat. Albert Jennison, Jr had $7,000 life insurance owned stock and held bonds in the Standard Brick Company of this city and he had interests in several pieces of real estate.  

By the provisions of his will the Crawfordsville Trust Company was trustee and after paying all debts and expenses the remainder was to be used in the maintenance of Mrs. Simpson and Mrs. Harrison who were his aunts and at their death Helen was to become the beneficiary of her mother’s share.  

John M. Butler’s daughter married Alpheus Snow who was well known to the people of Indianapolis. Mrs. Snow made an allowance of $500 a year to each of her aunts, Mrs. Simpson and Mrs. Harrison and Helen would be the beneficiary of this allowance on her mother’s death.  The Jennison property, willed by Mrs. Simpson and Mrs. Harrison is valued at about $10,000 and on the death of Mrs. Harrison her daughter Helen was to come in for her mother’s share. So, although Helen would have had an estate of between $12,000 and $15,000.  However, Mrs. Snow learned that Mrs. Simpson and Mrs. Harrison were signing notes for friends and in other ways involving the estate in debts and the friends of the two old women were afraid they would be left homeless and penniless. The matter was placed in the hands of MW Bruner, a lawyer of this city and through him Mrs. Harrison and Mrs. Simpson conveyed all their interests to the Union Hospital of this city the Crawfordsville Trust Company being made trustee and manager of the estate and income. The trust company was to protect the two old women, see that they had all they needed – in fact take care of them as long as they lived and then if anything was left from the estate it was to go to the hospital. That is the way the matter stands as far as Mrs. Simpson is concerned.  

Under the deed of conveyance Helen was to receive all that was coming to her mother when the mother died but the same arrangement that prevailed with Mrs. Harrison prevailed with Helen Harrison – she is practically the ward of the trust company and at her death any estate she may have goes to the hospital.  So even though Helen married, she could not handle her property and a marriage to obtain her property would be a failure. The fact that Helen is not really an heiress is known to a few people only and the police say that Souders did not know it when he tried to obtain a marriage license. The citizens of Crawfordsville are very much wroght up over this affair particularly since Richard Souders tried to marry the girl who is not regarded as of strong mind. The police assert that Souders had a great deal of influence over the woman and Mrs. Simpson said that her sister, Mrs. Harrison, often grieved because of the friendship that seemed to exist between Souders and Helen.