An Extraordinary Story.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 10, 12 January 1870, Page 2

An Extraordinary Story.

(From the Chicago Poit.) The grand jury of Kane County found an indictment for murder against the Rev. Isaac P. Smith, of Turner Junction (a little town 30 miles west of Chicago) for the murder of his wife in last June. The following are the facts of the case :—Some time in the early part of June last, Mr Smith, with his wife, drove in his buggy to Elgin, to attend a ministers' meeting at the house of a brother clergyman. He came to a Mr Benton's house in considerable excitement, asking if his wife was there, and saying that his buggy had been overturned in crossing a stream about quarter of a mile from Mr Benton's, and as he had not been able to find his wife, ho thought she might have gone on to the house and left him. His account of the accident seems to have been very contradictory. To one person he said he didn't know why he had driven into the stream, for he had just left a stable where there was plenty of water. To another he said that he drove across the bridge, but that the horse, in spite of his efforts to drive on, turned after crossing, and went into the stream to drink. These discrepancies, together with the fact that the horse was found standing still in the water, with the buggy resting on the side on two wheels, just where the accident (or murder) took place, and the body of Mrs Smith only ten or twelve feet from the buggy, led to investigation. It leaked out that there wsis an insurance to the amount of >IOOO on her life. lie denied that there was any other insurance, whereas closer investigation showed a further accident insurance of S6OOO, which, when discovered, he said he had concealed by the advice of his father, lest it should make a tilk. Then one person discovered that Mr Smith had but S4OO sdary at Algonquin, and yet lie kept a and buggy; and paid insurance on $19,000 for himself

and las wife, and. had commenced to build a house shortly after his arrival, which would cost him little short of S6OOO, while he had but a salary of s4oo—all of whicTr would have to be borrowed at ten per cent. This would leave him S2OO a-year to live on, pay insurance and taxes, andj save the principle of his borrowed capital! When asked about the accident poUHVail said that he had token it at his wifeW IP together with SIO,OOO on his own life, sometime last fall, when he had contem" plated a visit to Prescott, Wisconsin, whfth had been given up when he came to Tur nor Junction. Mrs Smith was about 26 years old, the daughter of a farmer near Algonquin, Illinois, where Mr Smi'-h preached a year ago. She was a verV fair-looking woman, of an amiable, retiring disposition, and was much beloved b y the people generally. Mr Smith has been in the ministry about ten years, five of which were spent in New England, where his first wife died. He is said to be an earnest and eloquent preacher; and he came to lurner Junction last November. It remains for the trial to sift the facts in this remarkable and distressing case.