A NOTED CRIMINAL TRIAL.

The most noted criminal trial that ever took place in Montgomery County was that of the state against Jonathan S. Owen, who was charged with the murder of his wife. Owen was a respectable farmer living in the southeastern part of the county. He was a man in good standing, a consistent member of the church, and possessed of considerable property. His first wife had died leaving several children. His second wife was childless and the family relations were not all harmonious. The step-mother and step-children had numerous quarrels, but the testimony in the case did not show there had ever been any unusual difficulty between Mr. Owen and his new wife. She had several times threatened to kill herself on account of the annoyances of her step-children. One night late in 1858 she died very suddenly, and was buried the next day. The suddenness of her death, together with symptoms indicating poison, and other circumstances, soon began to arouse the suspicions of some of Mrs. Owen's relations, and they determined to have a resurrection of the body and a post-mortem examination. This greatly agitated Mr. Owen, and when he found it was fully determined on, he secretly sold his farm, disguised himself and fled to Canada. The post-mortem examination showed very conclusively that Mrs. Owen had died from the effects of strychnine. A large reward was offered for Owen's arrest, and he was finally captured by William H. Schoolen and others and lodged in the Crawfordsville jail to await his trial. Hon. D. W. Yorhees, Col. Samuel C. Wilson, Hon. James Willson and Hon. Joseph E. McDonald, an unusual array of distinguished counsel, were employed to defend him. The trial came on at Crawfordsville, at a special term of the circuit court, on July 21, 1859. Hon. John M. Cowan, then in the beginning of his career as a successful and popular circuit judge, presided. The prosecution was conducted by Lew Wallace, R. C. Gregory, and Robert C. Harrison, the prosecuting attorney. This array assured a judicious, able and unrelenting prosecution. The jury selected and sworn to try the case was composed of the following citizens: Joseph Allen, Jonathan Todd, Samuel Davidson, William Royalty, John Blankenship, Jess Vancleave, Joseph Clifton, Emanuel Burk, James Ames, Jacob Bennett, Daniel Vaughn and Silas A. Fardy. The trial occupied several days. The court-room was crowded from day to day, to its utmost capacity. Aside from Owen's conduct subsequent to the death of his wife, the evidence was barely sufficient to raise a suspicion of his guilt. It was shown he had bought strychnine at a drug-store in Ladoga some time before the death of his wife, but this circumstance was fully rebutted by proof of the facts that he had requested the druggist to charge it on his account, and that he took it home and gave it to his wife to put away, telling her to be careful with it, that it was poison to kill rats with. But the secret sale of the farm, the flight to Canada, and the agitation under disclosure of the suspicions, all conspired to fix in the public mind an unalterable belief of his guilt, and to this day it would be folly to suggest to any one, who lived in the county at the time of the trial, the theory that Mrs. Owen committed suicide. Yet, a careful consideration of all the testimony, which was fully reported in the county papers, will leave the impression on the judicial mind that the theory is not an unreasonable one. The law books are full of instances showing that innocent men have acted under accusations based upon circumstances which they feared could not explain, precisely as Mr. Owen did when accused of the murder of his wife. Few men are so constituted as to be able to remain perfectly calm in the face of great danger. These things were dwelt upon by the attorneys for the defense with great ability, and made a profound impression on the minds of the jury. A verdict of acquittal resulted. Great indignation was felt and expressed throughout the county at this unlooked- for outcome of the trial. But it would be impossible for any rational being, who had never heard of the trial, to sit down at this day and read the evidence without feeling a strong doubt of Owen's guilt. After his acquittal he left the state, without money and without friends, and has not been heard of since.