TERRE HAUTE —
Among the many unsolved local history mysteries is the fate of master machinist and inventor John B. Deeds.
A locomotive engineer, Deeds resided during the 1880s with his wife and family at 812 Poplar St. and 1216 Wabash Ave. in Terre Haute.
He was married to Mary Agnes Maguire. They had at least five children but two of them did not survive infancy.
Deeds first earned notoriety for ingenuity on April 24, 1883 when he, with the assistance of Terre Haute attorney William Mack, secured a patent for a wick raiser for a lantern or miners lamp. Three months later (July 23, 1883), Deeds and Mack obtained a patent for a miners lamp with an “oil tight” lid.
On Oct. 23, 1883, the pair collaborated to procure Letters Patent for a slate and window cleaner.
On March 23, 1886, Deeds invited a Terre Haute Gazette reporter to examine an operating model of the metallic packing box for engines and pumps made of lead and Babbitt metal.
According to the inventor, Deeds Acme Metallic Metal Packing Co. had been in business on Walnut Street for approximately seven months. The first packing box was installed at Jacob A. Parker’s Eagle Iron Works.
Other packing boxes were being used at the Terre Haute Water Works, Indianapolis Waterworks, Big Four Railroad, William Clift & Co., several coal mine shafts, the hydraulic elevator at Beauchamp’s livery stable and at Rose Polytechnic. All customers reported they were pleased with the performance of the device.
In April 1886, Deeds and Terre Haute grocer Lewis S. Calder introduced the Deeds-Calder Hydro-Carbon burner, an apparatus that converted coal oil and water into gas for heating and cooking.
The burner was small enough to fit into any stove without requiring modification.
The State of Kansas offered Deeds $5,000 to move his manufacturing facility to that state. Deeds insisted on a clause permitting him to manufacture the burner in Terre Haute also.
In 1886, Deeds was working on an agreement with Edward J. King’s stove foundry at 660 Eagle St. to use King’s facility to manufacture the burner.
On Oct. 3, 1887, Deeds and fellow Terre Haute machinist Edward Dawson applied for a patent for a piston or valve rod packing, which offered a simplified method of anti-friction packing. Letters Patent were issued Oct. 4, 1887.
Deeds died at age 52 and was interred Feb. 19, 1894, at Woodlawn Cemetery in Terre Haute, where two daughters already were buried. Inexplicably, no obituary appeared in extant Terre Haute newspapers. At the time, widow Mary resided at 1430 Poplar St., with youngest son Mack.
Before his death Deeds apparently sold Deeds Metallic Packing Co. to an entrepreneur in Chicago or relocated the business there.
On Dec. 15, 1895 — when company headquarters were situated in the Marquette Building in Chicago — a Deeds Metallic Packing Co. employee named S.A. Owen allegedly shipped deadly packages of explosives to the homes of tycoons George M. Pullman and Philip D. Armour. Owen was indicted on Jan. 2, 1896.
When widow Mary A. Deeds was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery on Nov. 2, 1921. Oldest son Clyde, who worked for many years at Terre Haute Car & Manufacturing Co., his widow LaVerne Alice and two of their children also are interred at Woodlawn.
III
On March 18, 1886, an unmasked highwayman assaulted Hattie Sleight, wife of Harry C. Sleight, and Dr. Angeline L. Wilson-Moore, a physician married to Thaddeus Moore, founder and president of Moore-Langen Co.
Mrs. Sleight and Dr. Wilson-Moore were operating a carriage on Spring Hill Road, then four miles south of the city.
Brandishing a club, the rogue chased the carriage for a considerable distance. When asked what he wanted, the man grabbed Hattie Sleight’s watch chain and exclaimed, “This is what I want.”
Dr. Moore responded by striking the man in the face with her horse whip. As the villain attempted to retaliate by hitting the women with his club, the horse sprang forward and the carriage made its escape.
No sooner had the carriage disappeared when Mollie Campbell, an attractive young woman on horseback, confronted the man. She avoided his clutches by forcing her way through a barbed wire fence.
When word got out about the assaults, a posse searched the neighborhood for two days. At first law enforcement officials suspected the Emrich brothers, who matched the general description of the brute and recently had been released from jail.
Early the next week, former Vigo County Sheriff Joshua Hull realized he had passed the suspect on Spring Hill Road only minutes before the first assault. Sheriff Hull provided a better description, compelling police to suspect William G. Murray, a loafer who had served one term in the Jeffersonville Penitentiary, as the molester.
Murray was released in November 1884 after serving one year for burglary.
Sgt. William Dwyer, who handled the earlier case against Murray, secured a warrant from Justice-of-the-Peace David Goldman. Superintendent of Police Michael Lawlor and Capt. Charles E. Vandever found Murray loafing around First and Ohio streets and placed him under arrest.
On the way to the Sleight residence, Vandever told Murray he wanted to see if “Mr. Sleight” could identify him.
“It was Mrs. Sleight, not Mr. Sleight,” Murray said. With that statement, Vandever locked him up.
Hattie Sleight, Dr. Wilson-Moore, Mollie Campbell and Sheriff Hull subsequently identified him. On July 16, 1886, Murray was convicted of assault and battery with intent to commit robbery and sentenced to 14 years at Jeffersonville.
History
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: Inventor John B. Deeds and highwayman William G. Murray
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