Stein -Jacob
Source: Crawfordsville Review November 12, 1898
Filled a Pauper's Grave. The man found dead in a car on the Monon road last week was buried on Saturday evening in the cemetery attached to the poor asylum, no word having been received from relatives or friends—if he had any. From word received from Chicago it was learned that the deceased had followed the occupation of a peddler, had been in poor health and was about 28 years of age. --
Source: Crawfordsville Review November 1898
Body Disinterred. The body of Jacob Stein, the tramp who committed suicide here last week by banging himself in a Monon box car, has been disinterred and shipped to Chicago. The disinterment was at the instance of the United Hebrew Charities of Chicago who having heard of the suicide and thinking the victim might be a member of their race, sent a representative here Wednesday to investigate. When the body was taken up it was proven to belong to that nationality and was consequently taken to Chicago for re-burial. While Stein was unknown to this society it is a part of their religion to see that no Hebrew is buried in a pauper's grave! - oh, wow, how crazy - thanks to Kim H for sharing these
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 18 November, 1898
Last Saturday’s Chicago Record says: “Chicago’s ghetto cast its eyes yesterday upon the body of a Jew lying in a rude coffin in a shed at the rear of a little church at Maxwell and Clinton Streets, seeking to establish the identity of the man. Hundreds of men and women bent over the casket, but no one recognized the features. The body was brought to Chicago yesterday morning from Crawfordsville, Ind., where it had once been buried in a pauper’s grave. The man was a peddler, and over a week ago his body was found swinging from an iron beam of a box car. The chief of police of Crawfordsville asserts that the man committed suicide, but it is the opinion of most of the Jews that the peddler was murdered and then hanged.
When the body was cut down, two empty pocket books were found and several pockets in his clothes were torn. A peddler’s license with the name Jacob Stein, 522 Canal Street, was also found, but the Chicago police learned that no such man of that name lived at that number. Last Saturday in all the synagogues the rabbis announced the name of Jacob Stein to their congregations in an endeavor to establish the man’s identify, but no one seemed to know him. Since then, too, all efforts at identification have failed, although even the merchants in the ‘Yeddish Medena’ along Jefferson Street, closed up and joined the unending throng to view the remains. The body will lie in the shed until tomorrow, and if the dead man is not identified by that time he will be buried under the Jewish rites in Waldheim Cemetery.”
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 11 November 1898
Lazarus Cooper, representing the United Hebrew Charities of Chicago, arrived in the city Tuesday in pursuance to a message sent him by Joseph Goldberg, of this city, in regard to the death of Jacob Stein in this city by suicide on last Friday. This society allows no body of a Hebrew to be buried in a pauper’s grave, and Mr. Cooper was here to see whether the body was that of a Jew or not. The body was disinterred on Wednesday and proven to have belonged to his nationality and was taken to the undertaking establishment of Mr. Barnhill and was taken to Chicago on Wednesday night by Mr. Cooper, who is an undertaker in Chicago. He said the society that he represented did not know Stein, but the fact that he was a Jew was all that was necessary for them to know in order to give him a burial in one of their cemeteries, and though the expense was considerable in this case, the society would pay it cheerfully.
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 11 November, 1898
Last Friday Mr. Spore, who resides near the plant of the pressed brick company, north of town, passed along by a Monon box car, which had been standing on the siding for two months, and chancing to glance in saw a gentleman hanging by the neck from the rod which runs along the ceiling of the car. This unusual and pleasing sight naturally caused Mr. Spore to pause. He even went so far as to examine the man and learn that he was dead. Then he telephoned for the coroner and for the police.
Dr. Hutchings and officers Flynn and McCoy went out at once with Barnhill’s undertaking wagon and the suspended gentleman was cut down. He had been dead for many hours, possibly for over a day, and was stiff and rigid. He had tied a flashy red niecktie to the small iron bar mentioned and then after climbing up and tying about his own neck had swung off and strangled to death. The man was perhaps five feet and six inches tall, heavy set, dark complexion, and apparently about fifty years of age. He had a number of articles in his pockets but the only thing pointing to his identification was a peddlers’ license issue to Jacob Stein. Two empty pocketbooks, a small flag, a cob pipe, and a paper of coffee were the other effects upon his person. His clothes were ragged and the poor fellow was evidently in hard lines when he concluded to leave the world.
The license of the dead man was issued in Chicago and read to the effect that he be permitted to peddle farm produce and matter of a like character. It gave his residence as 522 Canal Street. The license was first taken out last November and was renewed in May of this year. -s
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 11 November 1898
On Saturday evening, no further word having been received from Chicago, undertaker Barnhill buried Jacob Stein, the tramp suicide, in the pauper’s graveyard. There it is likely the body will permanently remain, for it is not likely that the man’s relatives will call for it. The Chicago Tribune Sunday in speaking of the case says: “The police learned yesterday that Jacob Stein, the peddler who committed suicide by hanging himself in a box car at Crawfordsville, Ind., Friday, and whose address was given as 522 Canal Street, had moved from that place two months ago to 486 Jefferson Street. Stein was 28 years old and in poor health and circumstances. He left the city five weeks ago to go on the road.” -s