Nashua Reporter Nashua, Chickasaw, Iowa January 24, 1918 HAPPENINGS OF THE STATE Clinton - Failure to verify through court records that which developed to be a false report cost Roe S. Cherry, 29 years old, his liberty, as he was sentenced in the Clinton county district court under the intermediate sentence law to the state reformatory at Anamosa on a bigamy charge. The young man came to Clinton about two years ago and during august 1916 married a Clinton girl. Recently it developed that he had a former wife living at Galesburg, Ill., as she got in touch with county officials here and secured the information that Cherry had been married again. She then came to Clinton and pushed the bigamy charge against him. Cherry claims that he and his first wife separated several years ago, being unable to get along together. He left their home town and finally came to Clinton. Later he was told by somebody from Galesburg, so he says, that his wife had secured a divorce. Taking the information for granted, as being true, he married a second time in Clinton with the result that he was caught by the criminal law. His second wife stands by him and during his confinement in the county jail here has visited him daily. Iowa Officers for Special Work Camp Dodge - Three lieutenants from Iowa's artillery regiment, the Three Hundred and Thirty-ninth field artillery have been selected for a special course of instruction in the motorization of the big guns which are to be used by the artillerymen on the firing line in France. They are P.J. O'Brien, D.H. Mills and E.W. Paulson. Three officers of similar rank have been selected from the Three Hundred and Thirty-seventh artillery regiment to attend the same school of instruction, which is located in the east. They are J.R. McManus, Harold Metcalf, and Ely Salyaids. At the concluding of the course the officers will report to Camp Dodge where they will instruct other officers and enlisted men in the operation of the motors which will carry the guns of these two regiments. Pastor Threatened. Yorktown - Rev. W. Horn, pastor and manager of the German church and school located here, is in receipt of an anonymous letter threatening him with death and with the burning of the church and school buildings if the teaching of the German language and German ways is continued after the holiday recess. The writer declared he could not permit it any longer. Bluffs Man Loses Life. Council Bluffs - While turning an engine on the turntable at the Union Pacific roundhouse here, Peter Tomicick, aged 40, was killed by an engine which, without engineer or fireman, left its stall in the roundhouse and ran out, catching Tomicick and crushing him between the two engines. He did not see the phantom engine or hear it, apparently. I.W.W. Under Arrest Waterloo - Fred Thomas, an I.W.W. member, who claims German parentage, with Mexico City, Mex as his home residence, is under arrest here. A friend told the police that he was about to hold up and rob a street car. This, the police claim, he has since admitted. He had a large quantity of I.W.W. literature at his room and on his person. Draws a Life Term Ida Grove - Ernest Rathbun, aged 18, who was convicted of a statutory offense upon Elsie Hargens, aged 17, was sentenced to a life term in the state reformatory at Anamosa and his bond was fixed at $15,000 pending special appeal to the supreme court. Judge Hutchison overruled the defendant's motion for a new trial. The trial of Ray O'Meara, alleged to have been implicated with Rathbun in the attack upon Miss Hargens and Ida Knudsen, has been set for February 18. Attempt To Burn Elevator Akron - Night Watchman Jess Mewers foiled an attempt to set fire to the J.W. Hedges elevator. It was at about 2:30 in the morning that he saw a man lurking near the elevator. Seeing he was discovered, the prowler ran and did not stop when halted nor even when shots were sent in his direction. An investigation was immediately made and resulted in the finding of a bottle of kerosene and a quantity of oily waste which had been taken from the boxing of a freight car. These inflammable materials were close to the woodwork, in a position that if a blaze had been touched to them the elevator would soon have been in flames. The elevator is a large one and has a capacity of about 30,000 bushels. It is believed the attempt to burn the building was made by an I.W.W. or some other German sympathizer. Draws 15-Year Term. Des Moines - Private Harold Bruber, member of Company F Three Hundred Fifty-second infantry, has been sentenced to fifteen years in the federal penitentiary at East Leavenworth by the general court martial at Camp Dodge. Bruber who maintained he was a member of the International Bible Students' association, was first charged with desertion because he had refused to report to his local board. He was arrested and brought to Camp Dodge where he refused to don a uniform, obey orders or taken any part in the military duties to which he was assigned. Paint Him Yellow. Waterloo - Frank Bruner, a machinist at the Illinois Central railroad shops here, expressed an opinion that "85 per cent of the American soldiers are bumbs." The shopmen painted him yellow from head to feet and the company approved the job by discharging him. The United States commissioner told him he got off easily. Bruner is a German-Russian, 12 years in the United States, and 40 years old. In the back of his watch case he carried a picture of the Kaiser. Farmer Asphyxiated. Hawarden - George Rembe, a prominent farmer living eleven miles southeast of here, was asphyxiated by fumes from his automobile engine. He had thawed the radiator out with water from the kitchen and returned to the garage. His long absentee caused his wife to send one of the children to investigate and Mr. Rembe was found dead. He is survived by his wife and several children. Schoolboy Ends Life. Waterloo - Harry Howard, a schoolboy, aged 1?, committed suicide by hanging himself. Despondency over ill health was the cause. War Cross For Ottumwa Boy. Ottumwa - The first American officer to lead a raid on German trenches was Lieut. Walter Shafer, of Ottumwa. The raid was a "fizzle" the lieutenant wrote to his parents, because the section was deserted. But the work was there and for it the Ottumwan will receive the French war cross, the croix la guerre. Cathy Joynt Labath Iowa Old Press http://www.IowaOldPress.com/