Nelson -Infant of Eve
Source: Weekly Argus News May 25, 1895 p 6
Coroner Barcus drove out to the home of George Mason this morning, who lives near Cheery Grove, and there in the garret, a dirty, foul room he found an infant that had been dead since its birth Saturday morning at 1 o'clock. It was the offspring of Mrs. Eva Nelson, a young woman about 21 years of age. When the child was born she immediately choked it to death. Dr. Barcus says the girl is ignorant and depraved and scarcely realizes the enormity of the crime. This is her second child, one having been born 4 years ago. Two years ago she was married but only lived with her husband a short time. She has frequently been here and once while an occupant of a house in the north end was arrested and put in jail. She says she killed the baby because her father had said, that while he would overlook the first offense he would drive her from home if a similar affair again occurred. She kept her secret from him to the last. On his return Dr. Barcus at once swore out a warrant for her arrest and she was placed in jail this evening. She was told that the penalty for such a crime was a penitentiary sentence. She didn't seem to care for that so much as the fact that she would have to leave her little boy to whom she seemed greatly attached. The girl's mother is dead. Her father is a vey respectable man and is greatly cut up over his weak daughter's crime. He is poor but honest. The girl is ignorant and homely and is to be pitied.
The author of the girl's ruin is Robert Lyon, a young farmer living in the neighborhood. It is rumored that if he remains in that locality he is liable to be tarred and feathered.
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Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Argus News June 1, 1895 p 3
The grand jury was called this morning to consider the question of the guilt of Mrs. Eva Mason Nelson who was arrested two weeks ago for strangling her new born child to death. The particulars are too fresh in the minds of the readers of the Argus News to be repeated at length. Mrs. Nelson is an ignorant creature who, to conceal her shame from her aged father, deliberately strangled her child to death. She has been in jail since and the facts in the case were so plain that the grand jury had no trouble in arriving at what it should do. It returned an indictment charging the woman with this awful crime and she will now be tried before Judge Harney. It is likely that she will enter a plea of guilty and throw herself on the mercy of the court. - kbz
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Source: Crawfordsville, Indiana Weekly Argus News, June 15, 1895 p 1
Mr. Lyons, father of the young man whom the Mason woman charged with being responsible for the infant she choked to death, was in town this mroning and said to the Argus News: "You stated lately that there was talk of a mob coming out to tar and father my son. He has been at home three weeks waiting for that mob and we are ready for it. If it's coming we want it to come on as he wants to go to work. We hav some tar and fathers, too. I noticed that nothing was said about the fact that my son was not the only man accused of visiting that woman. Nothing was said about some sewing machine men from this town who used to go there. I wish you would say in the Argus News that we are ready for that mob and want it to come on."
We believe young Lyons can go to work. He's wasting good time. The fellows who talked about tar and fathers at the time the unfortunate affair occurred have probably forgotten all about it by this time. - kbz