Rush - Moses
Source: History of
Waveland by Virginia Banta Sharp p 28
The first murder trial in Montgomery
County was that of the "State of Indiana against Mrs. Moses Rush" in
which Mrs. Rush who lived with her husband in a rude log cabin on the banks of
Sugar Creek near Waveland was charged with the murder of her husband. According
to the pages of the first criminal docket of Montgomery county, she was a poor,
illiterate but well-meaning woman whose husband was a drunken ne'er do well who
made her life miserable by beating and abusing her One night when he returned
home in a drunken condition, he threated to kill her and set his ax by the door
before falling into a drunken stupor. His wife, in the firm belief he meant
what he threatened and fearing for her life, picked up the ax and sank it into
his head. Then, mourning for what she had done, went to the home of a neighbor
and gave herself up. She was arrested and tried before Judge Naylor. The jury,
knowing much of the trials she had suffered at the hands of her besital
husband, deliberated 4 hours and then returned a verdit of acquittal. Later she
remarried and made a good wife. The husband's body was buried near the house
where he had lived and on a tree by the grave was cut the letters, Moses Rush,
1836. For many years the words could be seen and much later, a party of
picknickers unearthed the remains and found the skull with a 3" deep cut
in it.
Source: Beckwith, H.
W. History of Montgomery County, Indiana. Chicago: H.H. Hill, 1881, p. 26.
In
1836, there occurred on Sugar Creek, at a point just below where Deer &
Canine's Mill now stands, a most singular murder. Moses Rush and his wife lived
in a cabin on a high bluff overshadowing the creek. He was an outlaw, and owing
to some difficulty between him and his wife, he threatened to kill her, and
secretly brought the axe into the cabin for the purpose of executing his
threat. Not meeting with an opportunity to do the bloody deed just then, he lay
down on the bed and fell asleep, when his wife took the axe he had brought in
for the purpose of killing her and split his head open at a single blow. She
then went to the neighbors, and told them what she had done. A number of
persons met at the cabin next day and buried the corpse, but no steps were ever
taken toward having the murderess arrested, the neighborhood, perhaps, feeling
inclined to thank her for putting the desperado out of the way. The grave of
the murdered man is yet to be seen near a large beech-tree, with the words and
figures, "Moes Rush, 1836," cut in its bark. This grave is an object
of interest to the many picknickers who every summer visit the wild and
romantic region near the mouth of Indian Creek.
Note: Beckwith
was an amazing historian but in this case, incorrect as to “no steps were ever
taken toward having the murderess arrested.”
Also, my father Fred Bazzani was rural mail carrier in that area during
the 1950’s and said the tree was still there but it was not far from Sugar
Creek and not real near the mouth of Indian.