News: Neillsville (16 May 1886)

Contact: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Wright, Allen

---------Source: Badger State Banner (Black River Falls, Wis.) 05/21/1886

Clark County, Wis. Is one of the most notorious counties in the state for murders. When she cannot furnish from one to three murder cases a year, time may truly be said to be dull in that line in that county. We give below her case for the spring of 1886:

Neillsville, Wis., May 16, 1886 -- Near the village of Greenwood, last week, Henry Wright, a poor farmer with a wife and four children, was the victim of poisoning. Mr. Wright died Sunday night, May 9 under circumstances which led physicians to believe he had died from arsenic poisoning. A post mortem was held and the stomach was sent to Rush Medical College, Chicago for analysis of its contents. In the meantime, it was reported that Mrs. Wright was preparing to leave the country, and Thursday she was arrested and brought to this city. Friday morning she was brought before Justice Jacques for examination. The District Attorney asked for a postponement for ten days. On being returned to the jail she broke down and confessed to the sheriff. The District Attorney was sent for and the confession taken down in the presence of two witnesses, and is to the following effect: Daniel Allen, a wealth farmer living near the Wrights, whose wife is an invalid, Mrs. Wright alleges, had seduced her and then told her to poison her husband' that he would poison his wife and after a suitable time had elapsed they would be married. Some time ago, he (Allen) went to Milwaukee, Mrs. Wright says, and procured the arsenic. About two weeks later, before her husband died, she made some cookies, in two of which she put the arsenic and her husband ate them. In five minutes he was taken very sick, went out of the house and vomited the cookies up. He asked his wife to make him a dose of peppermint to settle his stomach. She says that Allen was prsent and told her she had given him too large a dose; that she ought to put a little in the peppermint and that would fix him. She refused, adn said she had done all she would in that way. She alleges that Allen commenced giving her husband little doses which, in time, killed. Allen was arrested immediately, but waived examination and is in jail. He denies the story. He has been a prominent church member