ALLEN, James S.
Source: Greencastle Star Press 30 June 1894 p 1
26 Jan 1851 - 27 June 1894 (Brick Chapel Cemetery)
On Wednesday evening between 5 o’clock and half-past a terrible tragedy took place about 7 ½ miles north of town. Mr. James S. Allen, a farmer, and his wife, residing in that neighborhood, were found in the yard near their house, he dead and she in a dying condition. She had been shot twice, one in the neck and again in the right side of the head just back of the ear. She died in about an hour after she was found. Mr. Allen was shot in the left side just in front of the ear. As Mr. Allen had been seen alive about 5 o’clock and was found dead about a half hour later the shooting must have occurred in the interval. On Mr. Allen’s body in an inside pocket was found a penciled letter which proclaimed him the author of his own and his wife’s death and which explained his motive for the deed, but which was so full of black guardism as to render it unfit to be read. The letter was addressed to Mr. Chas. Martin whom he requested to publish it. It read as if he had also murdered his father-in-law, Mr. Chas. Newgent and such had doubtless been his intention. It accused his wife, whom he had married 18 years before, of infidelity. His father-in-law, he claimed, had tried to separate him and his wife and had tried to make him retract statements he (Allen) had made impreaching his own wife’s character, rather than do which he ”would die in his tracks.” He said also that Mr. Newgent had caused trouble about church matters, threatening to leave the Baptist Church if Mr. Allen was received as he had desired to be, on which account the father-in-law was to be put “where he could not keep any one else out or make any more trouble.” The letter said he wished the younger boy to live with his uncle, a brother of the father, and that the older boy was old enough to choose for himself. He told the boys to do right and live honestly and not to do as their father had done. He admitted that he had done much that was wrong and desired people to forgive him. God, he said, had already done so. The bodies were found some 75 or 80 feet from the house, the body of the wife about 15-20 feet from that of the husband. The shooting was done with a six-chamber, 32 calibre revolver, which when found contained three empty and three loaded cartridges. On the bed in the house was found also a heavily loaded shot gun. The two boys had been sent over to Bainbridge, probably to facilitate the commission of the crime. The wife had been away that day with her father and it is thought that James Allen expected them to return together and murder them when they did so. When the bodies were found by the nearest neighbor the husband was dead and wife was unconscious and remained so until her death. Coroner McNeff was called and examined the bodies and surrounding circumstances and turned the bodies over to the undertaker. The dead man was about 40 years of age (26 Jan 1851 – 27 June 1894 – they are buried at Brick Chapel Cemetery) and his wife (Martha 20 Feb 1848 – 27 June 1894) about five years his junior. They had two sons living, the oldest near 17 years of age. About 12 years ago Sam Allen, a brother of James Allen, committed suicide by shooting himself with a revolver. Three years previous to that another brother, John, had also committed suicide by shooting himself with a rifle. A great uncle on the paternal side also died by his own hand. A few months ago the murdered wife consulted a lawyer of this city, the Hon JJ Smiley in regard to obtaining a divorce. When Mr. Smiley had learned the circumstances and the manner in which the husband had been conducting himself he told Mrs. Allen he thought her husband was of unsound mind and advised her to live with him, if possible and to be careful about arousing the insane nature. - kbz