Hubbards, Schoonovers, Weathers and Smiths of Indiana:Information about Daniel Weathers
Daniel Weathers (b. Abt. 1777, d. 1852)
Notes for Daniel Weathers:
From Gentry File: "Daniel was the second son of William and came to Indiana with his brother Richard and wife Sa lly Oliphant about 1812. It is believed he married Polly Demoss in Morgan county Indiana in 1 833. After that he left Indiana and moved to Jasper county Missouri where he married Ruth Bry ant in 1849. He died in Jasper county soon after 1850.
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OULEY CASE
When Crawford County was cut off from Harrison County, it was put into the New Albany district for court purposes. Our first circuit judge was Davis Floyd. This Floyd had been a conspicuous character in the early history of Indiana territory. He joined Aaron Burr's conspiracy and was his agent to collect boats and men at Jeffersonville. He left Jeffersonville December 16, 1806. Burr's company was broken up. Davis Floyd was caught, tried for treason, convicted, and sentenced to serve three hours in the Government prison at Jeffersonville. Later he was judge of the circuit. Floyd County was named after him.
He made the circuit of the district holding court at each county seat. The first session was held at Mount Sterling in Crawford County August 1, 1818. Judge Floyd was assisted by Judge Henry Green and James Glenn, both of whom were honorable men. The new court house and jail had not yet been built. James Brasher let the judges use his new cabin house. This house was too little to accommodate all the jurors, so they sat around on logs in the yard.
Sheriff Daniel Weathers, who was commissioned sheriff by the Governor was present and handed into the court the following men's names for a grand jury: Cornelius Hall, Lazarus Stewart, Alex King, William Osborn, James Lewis, Elias Davis, Elisha Potter, Alex Barnett, William Potter, Robert Yates, Peter Peckinpaugh, William Scott, Reuben Laswell, Abraham Wiseman, George Tutter, Martin Scott, John Sturgeon, Robert Sands, Isaac Lamp, Ed. Gobin, and Malachi Monk. Just how the men were selected the records do not explain. They were certainly good men.
These men elected Cornelius Hall foreman. After due consideration the jury returned a bill against James Ouley for murder in the first degree. The evidence showed that Ouley had followed Briley through the woods for some distance and had shot him in the back, about where his suspenders crossed.
The ball came out in his neck, making a wound about eight inches deep. Briley died almost instantly and Ouley escaped. Just what motive Ouley had for shooting Briley one can hardly tell now. References and information are so meager. Probably he took what money the man had and his horse and escaped. No one knows.
Briley lived on Patoka Creek, in what is probably now part of Orange County, not far from the present town of English. He left home with a sack of wool and was on his way to Condon to get the wool carded. He was traveling on the governor's old trail which ran from Vincennes to Corydon. The exact spot where the shooting occurred the writer is not able to locate. It happened near the top of white oak hill about one-half mile south of where the old Bushow school house used to stand, on the farm owned some time ago by Billie Troman. The location is just east of the Marengo and Leavenworth road. It served that Ouley and Briley were angry about some trouble they had had.
This horrible murder occurred on July 1, 1818. Ouley dragged the body a few feet from the Old Trail and put it behind a log near the road. He then escaped with the horse.
Several hours later one of Lazarus Stewart’s sons was returning from a mill on Big Blue River with a grist of corn. Darkness came on in the heavy forest. Still he moved on his way. As the horse neared the spot where the fatal shooting occurred the animal began to snort and show signs of fear. The boy, who was about fourteen years old, for some reason was not afraid at all. He kept urging the horse up gently toward the big log near the road from which the foul odor appeared to come. Nearing the log he saw some dark object behind it. On careful examination, when pieces of bark were removed, the form of a man was discovered. Hastening on to the town of Big Springs he told the men what he had found. A crowd of men with lights took the boy back with them, so that he could show them the exact spot where the corpse was. When they arrived there and examined the body, it was found to be Briley. Who lived away out on Patoka Creek somewhere. Some say he lived out on Dog Creek, but the fact of the matter is that the northwest part of the county was so thinly settled then, that one cannot well locate the exact home of Briley or Ouley. It might have been the second day too, before his body was found. Ouley took his horse and traveled east on the Old Trail.
The men after finding the body took up the trail of the horse by its tracks in the soft earth. Over near the Big Blue River the men found a saddle hanging in a tree. This encouraged them very much. Pursuing the trail through the woods farther, suddenly they found a horse tied to a dogwood. Evidently the horse had been there some time, because bark was gnawed off of the bush, and the ground was torn up considerable where the horse had been standing.
Going on, the men came to the bottom land near the river. Here they were greatly surprised to see James Ouley in a pawpaw patch. He seemed to have been there for some time just walking around devoid of reason. Sheriff Weathers arrested him and brought him back to Mount Sterling. Later he was put into the famous olb block house at Marengo. As far as known, Weathers had no writ for Ouley, but captured him. Ouley did not seem to talk and was in a stupor of some kind.
The bill returned by the grand jury read: James Ouley, late of Crawford County, a yeoman, not having the fear of God before his eyes, but moved and seduced by the spirit of the Devil on July 1, 1818, with force and arms in Whisky Run Township in and upon William Briley in the peace of God, then and there, being wilful and of malice a fore thought did make and against James Ouley with a certain rifle gun of the value of $10, loaded with gun-powder and a certain leaden bullet, with which gun the said Ouley did shoot William Briley in the back, and the ball came out in his neck, making a wound about 8 inches deep, from which wound Briley died almost instantly."
The trial began immediately. Ouley plead not guilty, and demanded that the County furnish him an attorney. The court appointed Henry Stephens and Harbin Moore to defend him, while William Thompson ,vas appointed prosecuting attorney for that session of the court.
Daniel Weathers, the sheriff, had a large number of men present from whom these men were selected for a petit jury: Elisha Lane, Constance Williams, Marcus Troelock, Joseph Beals, Andrew Troelock, David Beals, John Goldman, James Richie, William May, George Peckinpaugh, Thomas W. Cummins, and Robert Grimes. Constable Williams, who had been in the Revolutionary War, was selected as foreman of the jury.
The trial was conducted out-of-doors in the wood yard.
The jury sat around on logs. There was no doubt but they were the best men in the county. From them have come the Lanes, Williams, Deals, Goldmans, Richies, Peckinpaughs, Grimes, and Cumminses. They were sworn to hear the evidence and decide the case. After all the witnesses were examined, the pleading done, and the judge had instructed the jury, the men retired to consider the evidence. After some time the jury returned a verdict of guilty and placed his sentence at death.
The counsel for the defense asked for a new trial on these grounds: 1. That the verdict was contrary to the state law; 2. that the evidence was not sufficient; 3. the conduct of the jurors was not proper; 4. that outsiders talked to the jurors during the trial; 5. that Elisha Lane had expressed his opinion before the trial began; 6. that one juror was too much indisposed to pay the proper amount of attention that such a case demanded. That juror in question was said to have been asleep.
The court not being fully advised adjourned until the next day, when it refused the defendant a new trial, and asked him if he had any reason why sentence of death should not be passed upon him. He asked the court to arrest the judgment of the jurors on these grounds: 1. That he was a wheelwright made the evidence uncertain; 2. that the bill did not have the name of the state or county in it. The court over-ruled the argument and passed this sentence upon him: That he should be kept in the old block house in custody of the sheriff till October 1, 1818, when he should be taken out on the same road 01' on whatever new road might be laid out by that time in one-half mile of Old Mount Sterling, between the hours of 10 a. m. and 2 p. m. and hanged by the neck till dead.
Sheriff Weathers took the prisoner back to the old block house, where he was kept till the day of execution. Farmers of the neighborhood volunteered to help guard the jail. Men say that Ouley became desperate as the time grew near. He tried to gnaw through the logs. Long years afterwards, when the block house was torn down, one could see where he had gnawed through the white of the oak logs probably an inch deep.
Cornelius Hall, who lived near where Marengo now stands, was a cabinet maker. He made the coffin for Ouley. When the day came, Richard Weathers, who was a brother of Sheriff Daniel Weathers, hauled Ouley out to the scene of execution in his ox cart. Ouley sat on his coffin in the wagon while guards well armed were on all sides. When they came to the trees a rope was fastened to the limb of a tree and Ouley was put on a barrel in the wagon with the noose over his head just right. When everything was ready Daniel Weathers gave his brother a nod. He hit the oxen a tap and they started forward, leaving Ouley swinging from the branch. He was buried in a grave near the tree.
Many years later, in 1900, Henry Batman cleaned up the old field and planted it to corn. He found near the road a large oval spot of clay dirt, while all the rest was dark loam. This must have been the clay which was dug up and thrown out from the grave. The details of the above story were furnished by M. E. Stewart, grandson of Richard Weathers.
History of Crawford County Indiana
by Hazen Hayes Pleasant, A. M.
Wm. Mitchell Printing Co., Greenfield, IN 1926
Early History of Crawford County
More About Daniel Weathers:
Date born 2: 1777, Virginia, USA.1305
Died 2: 1852, Jasper, Missouri, USA.1305
Residence 1: 1820, Crawford, Indiana.1306
Residence 2: 1810, Bolin Green, Warren, Kentucky.1307
More About Daniel Weathers and Sally Oliphant:
Marriage: 21 Jun 1800, Warren, KY.
More About Daniel Weathers and Polly Russell:
Marriage 1: 05 Aug 1823, Orange, Indiana.1308
Marriage 2: 05 Aug 1823, Martinsville, Ind.
More About Daniel Weathers and Polly Demoss:
Marriage: 25 Mar 1833, Morgan, Indiana.1308
More About Daniel Weathers and Ruth A. Bryant:
Marriage: 22 Sep 1849, Barry, Missouri.