Van Buren Argus Crawford County, Arkansas DEAD IN A TENT About 1 o’clock Sunday afternoon Mr. Dick Hennessey, living on Lee’s Creek, reached Van Buren in search of Sheriff Moore, to whom he reported the finding of a dead body of a man in a tent about a quarter of a mile below the Water Company’s pump station on Lee’s Creek. Justice J H Miller summoned a jury of 12 men, and loading them in covered vehicles drove out there, accompanied by Hunt & Ayers’ Undertaking wagon. Arriving at the tent they proceeded to investigate and quickly found that the dead man was David C Clark, aged 65 years, and that his death was due to natural causes, although it was developed that the dead man was addicted to the morphine habit and this it is thought was largely the cause of his death. It appears that the deceased with a married son and another family were occupying the small tent in which Clark died. The entire party were insufficiently clad, the smaller children, 3 or 4 in number, being barefooted and stood about an open fire shivering with cold, and those composing of the coroner’s jury stated that it was the worst case of destitution they had ever witnessed. The body was brought to Van Buren and take to Hunt and Ayers’s Undertaking rooms and later will be buried in the cemetery. Fran Alverson Warren e-mail: alverson@valuelinx.net 479-369-2703 http://www.crawfordcountyarkansas.net/