Clinton for a time, but brought back to Newport, where it has since remained. The proprietors and editors have been Pratt & Adams, James M. Hood, Samuel H. Huston (1855, at Clinton), Mr. Campbell, Mitchell, Vaul (1858), a company, William E. Livengood, George W. English (1862-'63), Colonel H. D. Washburn, S. B. Davis, Joseph B. Cheadle and S. B. Davis again. It is almost impossible now to give all the above names in exact chronological order.
Pratt returned to Ohio. Hood, who was brought up in this county, left here for the West. Vaul moved to La Fayette, continuing in the newspaper business. Washburn died in 1871 (see sketch of him in the history of Clinton). Cheadle, Congressman elect, is now editing the Frankfort Banner.
The number of the Hoosier for January 17, 1863, for an example of the straightness of the times, had only four columns to the page, but was little larger than a sheet of foolscap, and was filled with war news. In the winter and spring of 1875, "Buffalo Bill" wrote for the Hoosier State a history entitled "Three Years in Utah," which was published serially.
SAMUEL BRENTON DAVIS, was born June 3 1842, in Parke County, Indiana, and named after a Methodist minister, a favorite of his parents. The latter are Robert and Melvina (Taylor) Davis, natives of Virginia, who reside in Helt Township, this county, which was also the home of Samuel Brenton from 1856 to 1861.
Mr. Davis was brought up on the farm, educated in the common schools and at Bloomingdale Academy. In July, 1861, he enlisted in Company C, Eighteenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, participated in the battle of Pea Ridge, and the siege of Vicksburg, besides a number of skirmishes, and, after a service of one and a half years, he suffered an attack of the measles, when on a forced march, and he took cold, which settled in his right arm and leg, crippling him for life. He is obliged to use crutches. After his return from the army, he was a clerk for a time in a store at Clinton. In 1866 he was first elected county treasurer, and in 1868 re-elected to the office. While he held the office the treasury was robbed of about $36,000 (see full account elsewhere), by experts who wedged the vault doors open during the night; over $21,000 of the money was recovered from the Wabash River, in which stream the robbers had dropped it when hard chased by citizens. in 1868, Mr. Davis purchased the office of the Hoosier State. On the close of his term as treasurer, October, 1870, he devoted his whole attention to this paper. In 1870, Joe B. Cheadle purchased it, but nine months subsequently Mr. Davis brought it again, and has ever since been the editor and proprietor. He raised the circulation from 216 on the the credit system to 912 on the cash system.
As an editor, Davis is enterprising, fearless and witty. The file of the Hoosier State exhibits to the historian an extraordinary amount of lively local correspondence, and of editorial patience and liberality. While Mr. Davis has ever been a staunch Republican, he can acknowledge a victory gained by the opposite party with better grace than any other editor known to the writer. Besides the office above referred to, Mr. Davis has also been chosen trustee of Vermillion Township, being elected in April, 1886, by ten majority in a Democratic township. Is a member of the order of United Workmen.
The subject of our sketch married Sarah C. Canady, daughter of Lewis and Elizabeth Canady, -- parents now deceased. She is a native of this township. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Davis are -- Bird H., a well edu-
cated young man; Ora DeLos, a lad exhibiting considerable talent as a draftsman and mechanic,; Fred, Ren M., Robert Enoch, who died at the age of one and a half years, and Melvina.
About 1871-'72 an attempt was made to start an opposition paper in Newport, Democratic in politics, under the name of the Vermillion Transcript, by Harrison Jump, who ran it some fifteen months, sinking $1,900, and sold the office to other parties, who took it away. Mr. Jump returned to Ohio, where he entered the grocery business.
But we are not yet done with the Hoosier State. It has been a remarkable paper for local correspondence and terse editorials, and we cannot refrain from giving two or three of the most innocent but amusing specimens:
"We learn through the medium of a pot-bellied gander from the jungles of Browntown that G. W. Rodenbaugh intended to demand our name for charging him with getting drunk and flogging his wife. We never made any such charge, and appeal to the columns of the Hoosier State to prove it. A few meddlers are trying to make a fool of Rodenbaugh by telling him that every personal item in the Hoosier is directed at him. We will make him a present of a pair of heavy boots if he will agree to wear them out in kicking the ---- coat-tail of every meddling sneak who mentions such things to him including Mr. Brown [town], who will merit and receive our sincere thanks by simply minding his own business."
In December, 1874, an amusing incident occurred in Newport, thus wittily reported by the Hoosier State:/p>
"Somnambulism, or One Night in Walter Place's Bar Room. A young trump card from Clinton, named Jaques, came up to attend the big dance at the hotel Place; and after he had exercised nature about all she was able to bear, he concluded to rest his weary bones on a bench in the bar-room. In a short time he was in the arms of Morpheus, and soon afterward he arose, as usual in his somnambulistic fits, walked around the room, then took a seat on the bench, and, in the presence of several persons divested himself of most of the clothing, preparatory to lying down again, supposing the bench was a bed. At this juncture he was aroused from his sleep by the deafening roars of laughter by those present. On coming to, he looked worse than a defeated candidate, and proposed to 'set up' the cigars if the boys would keep 'mum.' Of course the boys accepted of the treat, 'pledging their sacred honor' never to hint it to Bren Davis of the Hoosier State, or to any one else!"
Another extract is given in the history of Helt Township, on a preceding page.
The three following accounts are also from the famous Hoosier State:
On Monday night, April 18, 1870, over $35,000 was stolen from the county treasury vault, which had been faithfully closed and locked. The treasurer was S. B. Davis, then and now the editor of the Hoosier State. The doors were forced open by steel wedges, which were driven by a sledge. Neighbors heard the noise but not distincly enough to have their suspicions aroused.
The next day Orville White, who had just learned of the burglary, saw two men carrying a sachel across the farms about three miles north of Clinton. Calling two railroad hands to his assistance, they gave chase, calling upon the suspected figitives to halt. They struck for the river, and leaving a portion of their clothing upon the bank, began to swim across. Mr. White and his companions arriving, saw a farmer on the op-
posite bank whom they knew, and halloed to him to kill the rascals as they came out. The man approached, but the rascals, getting into shallow water, drew their revolvers and fired at him. Mr. White then requested his assistant to watch the thieves until he could raise a posse to take them. Discovering a wallet in the river, Mr. White waded in and obtained it, and found it contained $16,354.
He then went home, mounted a horse and started for Clinton to raise a posse; but in the meantime the scoundrels reached the opposite shore, about a mile below where they entered the stream, soon found two railroad hands, and drew their revolvers upon them, commanding them to give up their clothing in great haste, as they "had got into a row and had to swim the river to save their lives." Returning to the river they got into a skiff and floated down past Clinton under the cover of the night, and thus succeeded in getting away.
The event created a great sensation throughout the country. It seems that, from the elaborate and systematic execution of the burglary, very skillful operators were engaged in it.
It turned out the very next day after Mr. White's discovery of the fugitive criminals, that one of the assistants, whom he hastily picked out from a company of railroad hands near by, was the receiver of a large amount of money at that time, in a mysterious manner, but was not present at the robbery.
May 13, $5,210 more of the money was found in a sachel lodged on the roots of a cottonwood a mile and a half below, where the thieves commenced to swim the river; $15,320 were never recovered.
During the latter part of the night of October 12, 1883, a most brutal outrage was committed by a band of robbers upon Elias Lamb and his family at their residence near Newport. In the house were Mr. Lamb and wife and a married daughter from Wayne County visiting them. Between three and four o'clock the dog made considerable noise. Mrs. Lamb went to the window to see what was the matter, and hist the dog, which would only plunge out into the darkness and then retreat. Not discovering anything, she returned to bed. But the dog kept up a howling, and acted as if some one was encroaching upon the premises. In a few minutes Mr. Lamb went out to see whether he could discover anything wrong. Returning to his room he had scarcely lain down when the door to an adjoining room, against which stood a large bureau, was burst open, and the bureau fell to the floor with a terrible crash, breaking everything that was upon it. Before the two could get out of bed they were seized by two burglars and a demand made for their money. Mr. Lamb gave them all he had, $25. The demand being repeated to his wife she said she had $1.75 up stairs. The villiains made her get it without lighting a lamp, at the point of her life. They then declared that there was more money in the house, and that they would kill them if they did not give it up. Mr. Lamb answered that they might kill them, but could not get any more money, for there was no more in the house. Then they assaulted him and threatened to kill them both if they did not pay over more money. They first pommeled him awhile and then fired two shots, one of them grazing Mrs. Lamb's head, splitting open her ear. Mr. Lamb, although badly bruised and one eye closed, managed to get out of doors, where he pulled the bell-rope, which frightened the burglars away.
The daughter referred to, who was sleeping in another room, crawled under the feather bed and thus escaped discovery. Their son John, who was sleeping in a house a hundred