This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Hurt, Anderson, Stamper, Ray, Simpson, Long, Newby, Tudor Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/xAB.2ACI/2159 Message Board Post: This is an account of murder and insanity that happened circa 1825 and written in the Lancaster newspaper 100 years later. I'll have to post in several parts: Murder of Fannie Brown Recalled Which Occurred 100 Years Ago and for Which Two Innocent Negro Slaves Were Hung Early history of Kentucky was written in blood. The Red Men, treacherous and defiant, felled scores of the white invaders. Lurid stories of hairbreadth escapes and ghastly murders told by surviving explorers gave rise to Kentucky's opprobrious nom de plume," the Dark and Bloody Ground" and succeeding tragedies in which the settlers themselves played the leading roles lent force in giving it perpetuity. During the early settlement of the state communication was difficult, newspapers west of the Alleghanies were few and far between and those that were established were poorly equipped to gather and handle the news and for those and other reasons, some of the most noted tragedies in the history of United States were never known outside of the locality in which they were committed and mainly by tradition. One was committed in what is now Garrard county, which in detail puts to shame the best efforts of the most imaginative and sanguinary novelist of this generation. In the second decade of the nineteenth century there came to Garrard county, Kentucky, a man named Thomas Brown. He belonged to a fine old Maryland family and brought an active spirit of enterprise and progress into the young settlement. It is said that he introduced the first timothy seed in the region and planted the first meadow land. He brought the first mule to the county. He established a hemp mill and blacksmith shop. He used a stone brake to separate hemp and procure flax for spinning. His log house was first owned by General William Jennings and was in later years the property of Josiah ____drnside (newspaper torn). Brown's family consisted of his wife, his son Burrel and two daughters, Polly and Fanny. The girls were strikingly handsome. Polly was 20 years old, tall and straight, with black eyes, black hair and brunette complexion. Fanny was a blonde of 18, with fair hair and lustrous brown eyes. She was a sweet, gentle maiden, whereas her sister was all ire and vim, dominating the household as the mood seized her. It was in the year 1826 that there immigrated to those parts a yound dry goods merchant named Harry Geiss. He had a manner and address superior to the unpretending youths thereabouts and Polly soon fell victim to his attentions. It was said that the two had pledged their troth and were soon to be married. Whether true or not, it is certain that the lover grew restive under the exactions of his imperious sweetheart and transferred his affections to the more amiable Fanny. This aroused all the jealousy and revenge of Polly's nature.