Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2022 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Angola Herald Wednesday, May 22, 1878 MURDER FRANCIS HOULTON, AN OLD AND HIGHLY RESPECTED FARMER, IS KILLED BY A MIDNIGHT ASSASSIN. His Aged Wife and Daughter are Forced to Flee for Their Lives. The Verdict of the Coroner's Jury Implicates LOUIS ABBOTT as the Murderer. FULL PARTICULARS OF THE FRIGHTFUL TRAGEDY On Friday morning, 18th inst., the exciting news that Mr. FRANCIS HOULTON, an old and highly respected farmer living some two and a half miles south-west of Hamilton, in Franklin township, DeKalb county, (just across the line from Steuben) had been foully murdered in his residence at the hands of a midnight assassin, and that circumstantial evidence pointed strongly to one LOUIS ABBOTT, a tramp who was quite well known and who had for some time been a terror to that commun- ity. The particulars in the case are, so far as we have been able to learn them, substantially as follows. FRANCIS HOULTON was a well-to-do farmer, comfortably situated and at peace with everybody, enjoying the confidence and esteem of all who knew him. His family consisted of his wife, a widowed daughter (Mrs. MARY BRATTON) and her son - a weak minded invalid of some 16 years. During the night Mrs. BRATTON awoke and was startled at finding a man in the apartment adjoining her bed room. She cried out, "Father, there is a man in the house!" This, with the horrible oaths of the villain, who, with curses, threatened her life if she did not keep still, aroused her father, who, with his wife, occupied a bed in the adjoining room. He got up and went to the door opening into the kitchen, and as he opened the door THE VILLIAN SHOT HIM, the fatal ball taking effect in his left breast, in the region of the heart. He turned and exclaiming "I am shot!" fell upon the bed and expired. Mrs. HOULTON fled for her life. She got out and was about to leave the house, then she turned and went around the house to the window of her daughter's room, climbing in at the window. The terrified women managed to push the bed against the door and thus remained in seclusion and terrible suspense until morning. Meanwhile the villian proceeded to ransack the house from top to bottom, as it is supposed IN SEARCH OF MONEY but nothing of value was missing. It is thought nearly an hour had elapsed when the clock struck one, and the murderer continued his search for nearly an hour longer, when he left. In a very short time the entire neighbor- hood was aroused and turned out en masse, armed with guns and such weapons as they could get, to SEARCH FOR THE MURDERER. About dark on the evening preceding, LOUIS ABBOTT, who has been twice in the penitentiary and was known as a desperate fellow, and who frequently stopped at Mr. HOULTON'S, was seen about a mile west of the scene of the tragedy going in that direction, and again at four in the morning returning in the opposite direction. A track was taken at the residence of the murdered man and followed in the same direction by JOHN GREENAMYRE to the little village of Steubenville, four or five miles from the place where the dark deed was committed. On arriving there he found LOUIS ABBOTT in charge of Capt. GEO. COSPER and Mr. STOREY, at the residence of one HUFFMAN, a cigar maker, of Steubenville. Mrs. HUFFMAN had seen ABBOTT TAKE A REVOLVER FROM HIS POCKET, wipe it off with a pocket handkerchief and slip it un- der the cover of a couch upon which he sat. He was taken back to the residence of the murdered man and kept there until in the evening when Coroner LATSON arrived and a jury was impanneled to inquire into the mysteries of the case. The jury was composed of JOSEPH SEWELL, JOHN MUSSER, ADAM HAMMON, EZRA LAUTZENHEISER, CYRUS JACKMAN, and J. D. BEARD. THE CORONER'S INQUEST was held in a barn, and the evidence elicted in the case substantiate the facts that are heretofore stated and was so conclusive that the jury found that FRANCIS HOULTON'S death was caused by a gun-shot wound and impli- cated LOUIS ABBOTT as the Murderer, whereupon the Coroner immediately issued a warrant for the arrest of LOUIS ABBOTT, to appear before Justice J. D. BEARD and answer to the charge of felony. The indignation ran so hight that during the investigation the lights were extinguished, a rope got in readiness and the excited crowd made an EFFORT TO LYNCH THE PRISONER, and it was with difficulty that the officers prevented impending violence. On the trial ABBOTT testified that he had slept in BARKER'S barn, describing the barn and stating that he had lain upon the hay in the corner of a certain mow. It was then proven that there was no hay in said mow. The inference from this CONTRADICTORY EVIDENCE was that he had not been in the barn at all. In regard to concealing the revolver, he explained that he did it because he knew it was against the law to carry con- cealed weapons. And here it may be in order to state that the revolver contained one empty chamber and the ball found in the person of the victim corresponded to that carried by the prisoner's revolver. As a result of the trial before the Justice ABBOTT WAS BOUND OVER to court and committed to jail, without bail. The prison- er was then taken to Auburn and lodged in the County Jail to await his trial in court. Rumor has it that he has con- fessed the crime, but we have no assurance that the report is not without grounds. As a matter of course, the most intense excitement pre- vails throughout the entire community and the wildest rumors are afloat in redard(sic) to the tragic event, but we have taken especial pains to collect the actual facts in the case and believe that the account here given is strictly reliable. THE FUNERAL, On Sunday, was an immense gathering, the circumstances connected with the case being of a nature to call out everybody for miles around, and many found it impossible for (sic) get within hearing distance of the speaker. The funeral was held at the M. E. Church at Hamilton, under the auspices of the Masonic fraternity, and was preached by Rev. Mr. Rush, pastor of the church at that place. JAS. N. CARPENTER and other citizens of this vicinity, visited the place on Sunday. ==========================================================================