The Shelbyville Democrat
Shelbyville, Ind., Friday, February 14, 1913.
Page 1
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Mrs. Margaret Edwards and daughter, Miss Betsy, were shopping in Indianapolis today.
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming
The Indianapolis Star
Marion County, Indiana
May 29, 1910
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WOMAN JUSTIFIES SHOOTING OF MEN
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May Edward, Held for Wounding Huls and Hedrick
Near Washington, Asserts Innocence.
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APPEARS LITTLE CONCERNED
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Interviewed in Cell, Prisoner Recites Tale of
Indignities Previously Suffered by Her.
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WASHINGTON, Ind., May 28. --- (Special) ---
Seated in her cell of the woman's ward of the Daviess County Jail this evening,
Mrs. May Edwards, charged with attempt to commit murder, in shooting Turner
Huls and William Hedrick from ambush yesterday
evening, seems unconcerned, as if she were employed in her usual household
duties upon the farm. Huls, one of the pair whom the woman admits she
shot, saying she was justified ten times over, lies in a critical condition at
his home, with more than a hundred No. 8 shots in his head and shoulders, and
the physicians say he will probably dies. William Hedrick has so far
recovered from his injuries, as to able to come to the city today and swear out
a warrant against Mrs. Edwards.
Woman Tells Her Story.
Immediately after
being placed in jail at 5 o'clock this morning, Mrs. Edwards retained Odgon
and Inman, after a conference she was arraigned, pleaded not guilty and was
placed under a $1,000 bond, which had not been furnished late this evening.
When first arrested the
woman talked freely, and in answer to a question as to why she fired the shot
said: "Huls and Hedrick, both apparently intoxicated, came up to the
porch at our little cabin and splke to John Edwards my
husband, who were seated on the porch. They responded, When I saw
who the men were I ordered Huls from the place and in reply he pulled a pistol
from his pocket and uttering an oath declared he 'didn't have to.' I told
him he did, and in the meantime I reached back by the porch door and secured a
shotgun. My husband wrenched the weapon from my hand. I again
ordered Huls to leave the premises and for the second time he drew his revolver
and declared he 'didn't have to.'
Describes Firing Shot.
"I seized the
shotgun from my husband and with his act of drawing his pistol for the second
time I raised the gun to my shoulder, and just as he wheeled to leave fired, the
shot taking effect in his back and head. He was then about fifteen feet
from me on the south side of the house.
"Had you and Huls
had trouble at any time before?" was asked.
"Yes. On the night of May
11, 1909, Huls and a man named Harry Smith, who then lived at
French Lick, approached me about dusk in our yard, where I had gone to secure a
bucket of water, and forcibly dragged me to where twenty-five young men were
drinking. Since this occurrence, which I have kept secret from my husband
and all, I have forbidden anybody from trespassing on our premises."
Hedrick, who swore to the
affidavit, says that when the woman ordered them off the place, they immediately
started to obey but that she fired before they could leave the premises.
Huls is in such a condition that no statement could be secured.
Contributed by Marsha Ensminger
The Shelbyville Democrat
Saturday, October 5, 1907
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PERSONALS.
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The Reverend C. C. Edwards, of
Moore's Hill, arrived there today to remain over Sunday when the Harvest Home
celebration at the First M. E. chruch[sic] takes place. While here he is
the guest of Mr. and Mrs. ... [my copy ends here].
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming
The Shelby Democrat
Thursday, November 16, 1905
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Miss Maude Watts
spent Sunday with her grand-father, Eli Edwards, of Brandywine township.
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming
The Shelby Democrat
Thursday, July 2, 1885
page 2, column 2
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A STRANGE RELIC
Indicating a Murder of Sixty Years Ago
A Gun of Peculiar Make Found in a Tree
Where It Was Hid in 1826
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The first clew toward the solution of a mystery which has
remained unsolved for sixty years was discovered a short time ago by the finding of an old gun in
a hollow tree some eighteen miles south of this city by a boy who had chased a rabbit in a hole
at the root of the tree, and was trying to reach him with his hand, the other day. The gun
was identified by Rev. J. H. Edwards, pastor of the First Christian church in this city, as
belonging to his grandfather, Jacob Edwards, who disappeared one Sunday in the fall of 1826,
and was never seen or heard of since that time. The gun corresponded to the description
which has been kept by the family, and was identified by the Mr. William Records, aged
eighty-four years, who was a near neighbor of the man who disappeared, and from whose lips the
Rev. Edwards verified the story handed down to him by his father. The facts are briefly as
follows:
In the spring of 1826, Mr. Jacob Edwards, then a man about
fifty-five years of age, removed with his wife, four sturdy sons and three buxom daughters, from
near Bargetown, Kentucky, to New Hope, just across the line of this and in the adjoining county of
Bartholomew. There he purchased a small farm, on a portion of which he at once put in a crop.
He had but little money, but had a number of horses which he expected to trade for land and
sell when necessary, and if he had any enemies they were left behind him in Kentucky. One
Sunday morning, in the fall of 1826, after he had been out feeding his stock, he came in, and told
his wife that the squirrels, which were so numerous in those days as to prove perfect pests, were
eating up his corn crop, and taking up his gun, and telling her that he would go out and shoot
some of them and would be back in a little while, stepped out the door, and was never seen again
by his wife or family, the former dying in 1848, believing to the day of her death that her
husband had been murdered. For days, after his absence had created alarm, the country was
scoured by parties of men for many miles around, but had the earth opened and swallowed him up,
there could not have been less clews to the mystery of his disapperance, though it was the
general belief at the time that he had been murdered and his body concealed, and the finding of
the gun as above mentioned is the only trace of him ever discovered.
The gun was found, as above stated, in a hollow tree on Jackson
Pruitt's farm, and readily identified on account of his peculiar make. It was a
percussion lock gun, a style very rare sixty years ago, with the hammer on the underside, and the
ramrod was fixed on one side. When found it was badly rusted, the stock loose, though still
retaining its shape, but the ramrod had become so soft that it crumbled when touched. It has
been suggested since the finding that the old gentleman was murdered by some one who envied him
the possession of the gun, and after obtaining the weapon the murderer became fearful that it
would be identified, being an uncommon weapon in those days, and hid it where it was found, some
two and a half miles from where its lawful owner lived.
Contributed by Barb Huff
The Shelby Republican
Shelbyville, Indiana
December 19, 1878
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Mrs. Missouri Edwards, of Moral tp., a former inmate of the Insane Asylum, has been declared again insane by her physician, Dr. P. C. Leavitt.
Copied by Phyllis Miller Fleming
The Shelbyville Republican
Thursday, December 12, 1872
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Dissolution of Copartnership.
Notice is hereby given, that the copartnership heretofore
existing under the firm name of Brinson
& Edwards has this day been dissolved
by mutual consent, L. B. Brinson continuing in the business at the old stand. All persons
knowing themselves indebted to the old firm are requested to call upon Mr. Brinson, and settle the same immediately.
L.B. BRINSON.
J.C. EDWARDS.
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming
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