Ref: Town and Country Newspaper Pennsburg, Montgomery County, PA Saturday - April 29, 1905 WOMAN WAS ARRESTED AS BEING A FIREBUG Charged with jealously setting fire to the barn of Dr. T.S. LIPPINCOTT, in Lower Pottsgrove, near Limerick Square, on Tuesday evening, April 18th, which resulted in the burning of 16 cows, four horses and other live stock, Mrs. B.F. NOURSE, of Altoona, was arrested on Friday at Harrisburg by Detective John J. O'CONNOR, of Pottstown, and Chief of Police HUTCHINSON, of Harrisburg. At a hearing before Magistrate M.M. MISSIMER, conducted by ex District Attorney A.H. HENDRICKS, such a strong chain of evidence was woven against her by Detective O'CONNOR and Dr. LIPPINCOTT that she was committed to Norristown prison. Henry REITNAUER, the neighbor of Dr. LIPPINCOTT, who was awakened at 11 o'clock on the night of the fire by a woman's voice inquiring where Dr. LIPPINCOTT lived, told his story. He said that, supposing that it was a burglar, he fired several shots out of the window. Mrs. REITNAUER testified that the hat and clothes worn by Mrs. NOURSE at the hearing closely resembled those of the woman who asked to be directed to Dr. LIPPINCOTT's place before the fire. Detective O'CONNOR testified that a woman of Mrs. NOURSE's description reached Sanatoga, near the LIPPINCOTT place, at 10:18 on the night of the fire. Mrs. Henry REITNAUER related how her family was called up on Tuesday night by a woman seeking directions to Doctor LIPPINCOTT's place. The stranger resembled the accused woman. On the way from Harrisburg to Pottstown Detective O'CONNOR testified Mrs. NOURSE declared that she was innocent but would plead guilty to save her friends, as she had been traced to the scene of the fire. Mr. NOURSE is about 42 years old, is rather comely and was attired in a neat tailor-made suit. Jealousy is suggested by Dr. LIPPINCOTT as the motive for her act, as a short correspondence had passed between them following his advertisement for a housekeeper. She had visited his home on one occasion, only to learn that he was about to be married to another woman. EMPLOYEES ASSIST POOR MAN A travelling cigarmaker by the name of Lee REEVE, whose real home at one time was Austin, Texas, left this week for that State, after his fellow employees at the Otto EISENLOHR & Bros. cigar factory at East Greenville, gave him a contribution of $33.15. Mr. REEVE has been in ill health for some time and as his sickness has developed into consumption, he expressed a desire to return to his home to spend his remaining days. His fellow employees took pity on him and held a collection, which amounted to the above sum. COST 57 CENTS TO CALL MAN WORTHLESS For saying that Samuel FRYE stole his turkeys, and that he wasn't worth the powder, or he would have shot him, Franklin STERNER will have to pay 57 cents damages to FRYE, a jury in court having rendered a verdict for that amount against him. Both men reside near Allentown. WOMAN DANCED A JIG AT 89 Mrs. Hannah BERGER of Reading celebrated her 89th birthday anniversary in lively fashion on Monday entertaining three generations of her family at her home. She danced a lively jig and entertained the company with reminiscences of her school days. She never was sick a day in her life, and reads without the aid of spectacles. CAT TAKES CARE OF YOUNG RABBITS The oddest happy family in Lock Haven is one possessed by Grocer Jacob SMITH. It consists of an old mother cat, with several kittens and a like number of motherless rabbits, which she has adopted. Cats usually like to eat rabbits, not feed them. CHAMPION SNAKE KILLER The champion snake killer in the Perkiomen Valley for this season is Oswin WENTLING, of near East Greenville, who with a stable fork succeeded in killing fourteen snakes, which he discovered in a den. They measured from fifteen to thirty-six inches in length. ARRESTED FOR FAST DRIVING Oswin WENTLING, of near East Greenville, and Harry (KRULL?), of East Greenville, were on Friday evening arrested for fast driving in that borough. Burgess Henry KEELY fined each $5 and the cost of prosecution, which amounted to about $1.50. WOMAN'S DEAD BODY FOUND IN RAVINE The body of a woman, much decomposed, and who had apparently been dead for about three months, was found last Friday morning by Jacob WAGNER and his farm hand, Albert WEISER, in a ravine on his farm, about a half mile north of Fagleysville. They had been working in the field and WEISER, noticing an object laying among a lot of trees about twenty yards from the road, asked WAGNER if he had left his coat there. On receiving a negative reply they made an investigation and found it to be the body of a woman. She was apparently about 35 years of age and about 5 feet 1 inch in height. She wore a black skirt, brown waist and there was a brown hat lying to one side of the body. She appeared to have been well dressed and had a very high-set forehead. She was laying flat on her back when found. To one side was an uncorked bottle labelled "Laudanum," and bearing the label of Stine's drug store, Eighth and Penn streets, Reading. A pocketbook was found containing 65 cents in money and the return coupon of a trolley ticket from Reading to Boyertown, dated December 24, 1904. It is supposed that the body had been lying in the field for at least three months from the marks of decomposition and that it had been concealed from view by the snow. Word was immediately sent to the coroner. Coroner KING told Mr. WAGNER to send it to Undertaker SHALKOP, at Trappe. The body showed no external signs of violence. The laudanum bottle gives evidence to the belief that it is a case of suicide. The woman evidently was not from the neighborhood as there have been no disappearances reported, and no one could identify the body. The general belief is that she was from Reading, and the trolley ticket from Reading to Boyertown seems to give color to this theory. A young man who teaches school in the neighborhood, while walking along the road near where the body was discovered about the first of the year, saw a woman going in the same direction whom he thought was an acquaintance, and quickening his steps, he overtook her and spoke to her. He discovered that he had made a mistake and that she was a stranger to him, but as near as he can remember the clothes she wore correspond to those on the body of the dead woman. The mystery surrounding the death of the woman was solved on Sunday when the corpse was identified by Clinton HEIST of Intercourse, Lancaster County, as that of his wife, Katie. HEIST recognized his wife by four rings she had on her fingers. Mrs. HEIST disappeared from Philadelphia last Christmas eve. She and her husband had gone to that city to visit Mrs. HEIST's mother, who is confined in a Philadelphia hospital. They had dinner and then HEIST went to a barber shop, after telling his wife to await his return at the hotel. When he returned his wife was gone, and a thorough search of the city by the police was fruitless. He went back to Intercourse and did not see his wife again until he viewed her corpse in Undertaker SHALKOP's morgue, at Trappe, Sunday afternoon. The husband said his wife had been ill and that she had a fear that she would be placed in the asylum with her mother. He believed she wandered away and committed suicide by taking laudanum, a bottle which had contained the poison being found by her side. How the unfortunate woman came to Fagelysville on her wanderings after she left her husband in Philadelphia will probably never be known. It is supposed that she went to the Reading Terminal instead of Broad Street Station and purchased a ticket for Reading. The bottle of laudanum was evidently bought at Stine's drug store and then the unfortunate woman took an Oley Valley trolley car to Boyertown. Mrs. HEIST was 36 years of age. Her husband is well-to-do and has given his wife every comfort. The body was shipped to Intercourse Monday by Undertaker SHALKOP. SCHWENKSVILLE MAN DIED AFTER SHORT ILLNESS Michael ALLEBACH, of Schwenksville, died Friday after a short illness. He was taken ill at Collegeville the Tuesday before with stomach trouble, which developed into peritonitis. Deceased was a prominent resident of the Perkiomen Valley.