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The Michigan Argus, Ann Arbor
Friday, 18 July, 1879

         From the Fremont Indicator
         
         A tragedy was enacted in the township of Greenwood,
       Oceana county, last Sunday morning, that for terribly
       dramatic details eclipses anything we ever heard of,
       and will probably for a long time stand alone in the
       annals of crime. The facts are substantially as fol-
       lows; I. H. COGSWELL, supervisor of Greenwood, was
       administrator of the estate of JOSEPH STEBBENS, and
       interested parties were working to have him removed.
       The settlement was to take place on Monday, and the
       probability is that he was 'not prepared." He had
       told some of his neighbors that he would "show the
       judge of probate a trick with a hole in it;" and no-
       body now doubts his word. About three o'clock on 
       Sunday morning he awoke his wife and explained that
       he was going to kill himself, and wished to kill her
       also. She objected that she was not prepared to die,
       and he let the matter drop for a few minutes. He
       gathered all the papers connected with the STEBBENS
       estate, a package of money which his wife thinks
       contained $2,500, and all the books belonging to the
       town in his possession. These he burned in the stove.
       He then poured kerosene oil on the floor, beds and
       furniture, and started several fires. His wife, see-
       ing he could not be deterred from his horrible pur-
       pose, made her escape from the house. COGSWELL fol-
       lowed her out and urged her to go back and die with
       him, but she again declined the proposition and he
       attempted no violence. By this time the interior of
       the house was a sheet of flame. Flinging her a 
       pocketbook containing money belonging to her, he
       stepped back into the house, closed the door, and
       all was over. His neighbors think he was perfectly
       sane. His bondsmen will have to make good the loss
       and it will fall heavily upon them.
       
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