Washington County Tidbits 1850-59

Tidbits are newspaper articles, etc. which mention names, places, and other information possibly useful to the researcher.


E-mail your Washington County, MO Tidbit to Larry Flesher,


A Venerable Matron


Madame Roussin, of Washington County, Missouri, is 97 years of age, and in good health. She has seen her fourth generation, amounting to three hundred and thirty. She was married in 1775, and, as may readily be supposed, there were but few Americans resident in that State within the remotest period of her recollection. She has been a widow for thirty-nine years. By her marriage, she was the mother of five sons and five daughters
Submitted by Thomas Fea

Glasgow Weekly Times, August 26, 1852.

Cholera at Potosi, Mo. - The cholera has been prevailing very fatally at Potosi, Washington county. Thirty deaths had taken place in the town and immediate vicinity, up to the 16th inst. The disease was then abating, and hopes were entertained that the worst was over.
Submitted by Christine Lembeck

Sacramento Daily Union, November 2, 1852

MARRIED - In Santa Clara Valley, Oct. 14th, Elias F. Springer to Miss Kate E. Shore, both formerly of Washington County, Missouri
Submitted by Christine Lembeck

Sacramento Daily Union, May 30, 1853

In Auburn, May 19th, Alice Cornelia Roussin, daughter of S.C. and Catherine Roussin, formerly of Washington County, Missouri, after lingering illness of five months, aged 8 years.
Rockford Herald, January 2, 1857

Atrocious Murder in Washington County, Mo.


A correspondent, apparently engaged in the construction of the Iron Mountain Railroad, writes us from Washington county, the particulars of an outrage, amounting, according to the statement, to a cold blooded and ferocious murder. We are informed that a night or two previous to Saturday, the 20th of November, a railroad foreman, described as a "north of Ireland Orangeman," and named Kussack, came to the house of John Kelley, an Irishman, and producing a bottle of whiskey, engaged Kelley in a drinking bout, with the design, as charged, of proceeding to impropriety towards Kelley's wife, who is represented as a somewhat loose character. Kussack, however succumbed to the influence of liquor, and on recovering his senses, found that his watch and twenty dollars were missing.

On the Saturday following, Kussack, with Justice Hayes and a constable, accompanied by Mr. Woods, John Healy and others, arrested Kelley, "dragged him out of his place and cut off all communication between him and his wife". Woods and two or three others are said to have then stripped the woman entirely naked. The watch was found on Kelley's premises, by one of his own little children, "in what she calls her play house." Woods, who is a railroad "boss", is said to have next tied a handkerchief about Kelley's mouth, and hanged him by the heels over a bridge near his house, "then drew him up and otherwise abused him" until the unfortunate victim perished under the blows.

The writer proceeds: "I was personally speaking to Squire Hayes and asked him to secure the murderer" - "he could not issue a warrant to apprehend this Woods and many others concerned in this direful outrage, until it would go through the head Sheriff's hands." No inquest was held but the Justice pressed men to bury the corpse, which was done with indecent haste, without religious rites. - St. Louis Leader

Submitted by Christine Lembeck

Keowee Courier, November 27, 1858

SENTENCED


William L. Hall, who, in 1857, killed a man named Bullock, in Washington County, Mo., has just been convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary for 15 years.

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Larry Flesher, Washington County, MO

Larry Flesher