Bastardy Case News Excerpts, Fort Wayne, Indiana

1877

Allen County, Indiana, Bastardy cases as found in the Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, 1877

• 29 Jan 1877 George Thime has applied for a divorce from Elizabeth Thieme, he is a minor, and was induced to marry Elizabeth by a threat of prosecution for seduction and bastardy but it appears that there is a discrepancy in dates which makes it impossible for him to be the father of twins, of whom she is the mother.

• 3 Feb 1877 Yesterday afternoon Roxella Kintz filed an affidavit against Augustus Carto charging him with bastardy. He has been boarding at her mother's and then it was there he succeeded in ruining her. The case comes up before Esquire Ryan this morning.
• 6 Feb 1877 The Billman-Omo bastardy case was yesterday stricken from the docket.
• 7 Feb 1877 Kintz-Carto bastardy case tried today.
• 8 Feb 1877 The Kintz-Carto bastardy case was settled yesterday afternoon by marriage, Esquire Ryan did the deed.
• 22 Feb 1877 William Miller arrested for bastardy, charged by Mary Rabel.
• 27 Feb 1877 The Miller-Raber bastardy case was yesterday settled by payment of $50 to the woman for the deed and $25 costs.

• 20 Mar 1877 Alden M. Jocker, charged with bastardy, is in jail.
• 30 Mar 1877 The Reker, Jr.-Yonkers bastardy case will be tried before Esquire Graham, Saturday.
• 31 Mar 1877 Judge Morris was called to hear the Zant-Jokers bastardy case.

• 26 May 1877 Anthony Fisher has been arrested on a charge of bastardy preferred by Emma Horstman. Anthony gave $500 security for his appearance before Justice Wilkinson next Tuesday when the case will be tried.

• 7 Jul 1877 Mary Catherine Bender has commenced suit against Isiah Rodenbaugh for bastardy. Esquire Ryan heard the case yesterday and bound Rodenbaugh over in bonds of $500.
• 10 Jul 1877 Adaline Reed has commenced suit against George Washington Henderson for bastardy. They are residents of Lafayette Township, Allen County, and the deed was done on the 1st of March 1877.

• 5 Sep 1877 Margaret Wall has filed an affidavit against Michael Shester for bastardy.
• 17 Sep 1877 Mary Dowell has filed her "happy david" against Milo Miller charging bastardy. Both are Monroevilleains.
• 29 Sep 1877 An affidavit was filed against John Holtzworth by Rosa Sontchi for bastardy. Both parties are of Maysville.

• 9 Oct 1877 The Monroeville Sleonmer bastardy case has been settled by payment of $500.

• 5 Nov 1877 The Isaiah Bowers bastardy suit was settled by marriage.
• 7 Nov 1877 The bastardy case to have been tried in Esquire Hoagland's court yesterday morning was settled before it came to trial.
• 21 Nov 1877 On Monday the News contained an article headed "Another Blasted Soul", reciting the horrors of a rape and seduction case which occurred in Lake township, but no names were mentioned at the time, but as the party who had committed the deed was arrested yesterday, all reticence which has characterized the affair, as far as names are concerned, can be dropped. The girl who has been ruined is named Emma Rogers, and resides on the Spice farm in Lake township. The name of the man who has singed his soul with hell's own heat, is Levi Bear, and resides in Eel River township. The age of his victim is only 13 years and in less than five months will become a mother! She tells a most pitiful story of her criminal intercourse with Bear, and says that the beginning of it was last summer. Her story is filled with woe and suffering, and too disgusting to be published in full. It seems that the crime had been committed sometime before she dare tell her parents of it. In this she did wrong, but it does not lessen the damnable crime of the man. And who is Bear? He is an innocent-looking sort of a chap, a married man and is the father of two interesting children. A man who must have a soul harder that iron to have perpetrated such a dastardly deed as we have recorded above. When arrested by Constable David Campbell, he was taken before Squire Kelley, of Lake township, who bound him over in the sum of $5,000, in default of which he was brought to this city and jailed. The charges preferred against him are bastardy and criminal seduction.
• 22 Nov 1877 Levi Bair who was jailed Thursday evening on charges of bastardy, secured bail yesterday and was bailed out.

• 12 Dec 1877 John B. Tytus married Miss Minnesota Ewing of this city (1874). Now Miss Nancy A. Dickey has had Tytus arrested on a charge of bastardy.