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Rockport, Oct 15. - In this city this morning Robert Burr shot and instantly killed Arthur Williamson. Burr saluted Williamson on the street, saying that he wanted to speak to him. While conversing, Burr drew a revolver and shot Williamson in the head, the wound causing instant death. Williamson claimed that burr had visited his home during his absence. There is great excitement about the jail where Burr is confined and threats of violence are heard.

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    Rockport, Ind. Dec 16 - Two negros, Jim Henderson and Bud Rowlands, who waylaid. murdered and robbed Hollie Simons. a white barber, early this morning, were lynched today in the jail yard by a mob of 1,500 persons. The negros were arrested soon after the murder occurred, and although Rowland's clothing had blood stains on it, they claimed they were innocent.
    In the meantime Sheriff Clemens of Union county, Kentucky, arrived with a trained bloodhound. When the dog was placed on the trail he followed it to a house where Rowlands lived, six blocks from the scene of the murder, and baying to the bed the negro occupied. this was enough for the excited citizens. within a few minutes a mob of a thousand Rowing, bloodthirsty men, with sledge hammers, ropes and guns, were on the way to the jail.
    Sheriff Anderson and his two deputies made an attempt to protect the prisoners. The officers were sized by the leaders of the mob and disarmed. The sheriff, although locked in a room and placed under guard, stoutly refused to give up the keys or tell where the prisoners were hiding.
The mob made a determined but unsuccessful attempt to break in the jail door. Finally they secured a telegram pole and using it as a battering-ram caved in the side wall of the jail. The door Rowland's cell was then quickly broken in which sledge hammers, and he was dragged from the jail to the east side of the courtyard, where a noose was placed about his neck. He was given time to make a statement in which he implicated Jim Henderson and another negro. Rowlands then begged piteously for mercy, but the mob swiftly swung the confessed murder to a tree and riddled his body with bullets.
    Leaving the dangling body of Rowlands, the mob rushed back to the jail and burst open the cell occupied by Henderson. Before the bars yielded to the blows of the sledge some one in the crowd fired upon the terrified negro as he crouched in the far corner. It took but a few minutes to get at Henderson and the negro, more dead than alive, was dragged at a rope's end to the courthouse yard and swung to the tree beside the body of Rowlands. Firing a parting volley at the swinging bodies, the mob eager for another victim, hurried away to catch the other negro implicated by Rowlands. He was found at a hotel, where he was employed as a porter. The negro escaped to the roof of the building and Manager Debruler succeeded in convincing the mob he had nothing to do with the crime. The mob then dispersed, apparently satisfied with its work of vengeance.
    Simons was murdered in the most brutal manner one square from the main street of the city as he was going home from his barber shop at 2o'clock this morning. He carried the receipts of the days work, a fact of which the negros were aware. They attached him from behind, striking him over the head with a club into which a large nail had been driven. Although terribly beaten, Simons made a desperate fight. His cried attracted two passers by. The negros drove them away, and accomplished their criminal design, securing a bag containing something over $40.00 from their victim and then escaped.
    When an officer arrived Simmons was dead. His skull was crushed in and his head and face beaten to a pulp. The spike on the club had penetrated his brain.
Walter Evans, one of the young men who attempted to rescue Simons and who afterwards witnessed the lynching, had become a raving maniac. The dead man's wife is prostrated and it is believed she will die from the shock.

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Rockport, Ind.. June 11
The widow of General James C  Veatch has been granted a pension of $30 a month, dating from the death of her husband on Dec. 21
Source: Indiana State Journal June 17 1898

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Fort Wayne News January 15, 1896
Rockport, Ind., Jan, 7
The name of Spencer Post, No. 143, of this city, has been changed to James C Veatch Post, in honor of the late Gen. James C Veatch, who was a member of the post, and who served as its first commander. Spencer W. R. C, No. 112 will, also, hereafter be known as James C. Veatch Corps.

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Rockport  Ind.  April 24.—The board of county commissioners has appointed a committee, composed of Flavius Jones, Perry Phillips and W. C. Mason, to investigate the books of Walter Jones. Democrat, ex-trustee of Jackson township. A
petition, signed by seventy leading taxpayers of the township, was filed, charging Jones with busing material from himself at an exorbitant price, paying for a great deal of lumber never used by the township and issuing large numbers of warrants, records of which do not exist.
Indiana Journal April 28 1897

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The annual meeting of the Knights of Pythias of the Twentieth Indiana district was held at Rockport .yesterday and about five hundred knights attended. The parade was abandoned on account of cold weather. Several members of the Grand Lodge were present. Otto Kolb. grand chancellor, responded to the address of welcome, and Grand Instructor J. H. Willard spoke on Pythian knighthood. The meeting closed with a banquet.
Indiana Journal February 3, 1897

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In Kercheval's Home.
Rockport, Ind.. Jan. 27.—The Republicans of Spencer county are  ready for the approaching campaign. C. B. Laird has been re-elected county chairman. James A. Haines vice chairman. John Chewing secretary and E. E. Wessler
treasurer. The election of the Hon. S. E. Kercheval, of this city, for district chairman, is exceedingly encouraging to the party.
Weekly Indiana State Journal January 29, 1896

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A Methodist revival is being conducted in Rockport by Evangelist Harris and wife, assisted by the pastor, the Rev. R. A Kemp. Presiding Elder J. K. Steele has been present a. part of the time.
Weekly Indiana State Journal January 29, 1896

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Throat Cutting Affray.
Rockport, Ind., Feb. 19.—A fight between Jack Spradlin and Bob Daugherty, both young men, at Oak Grove church, southwest of here, resulted In Daugherty's throat being cut almost from ear to ear, and he will probably die. The quarrel began over an old grudge during church services, going out to settle it.
Warren Republican Feb. 21 1895

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Miss Alice Beeler, of Chrisney, a passenger on the Louisville, Evansville & St. Louis line in July last, who was crippled in an accident, is suing the company for $7,000 damages, claiming she is disabled for life.
Indiana General News Items from the Indianapolis News 9 December. 1890

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Miss Bettie Love, of Rockport, met Annie Brown in the postoffice, and assaulted her with a sling-shot, inflicting very dangerous injuries. Jealousy was the inciting cause.
Indiana General News Items from the Indianapolis News 11 December, 1890 Page 6 column 5 and 6

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Loon SAM, a Chinese laundryman of Rockport, has cut off his "pig-tail" and joined the Methodist church.
Indiana General News Items from the Indianapolis News 15 December. 1890 Page 6 Column 5 and 6

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