SATURDAY'S TESTIMONY

After court convened this morning, J. J. Gruber was called to the stand, and testified to having had a conversation with Baker, during which he (Baker) had told him that he was in the McWha house on the afternoon of the 9th of May, at the time that the kitchen door was opened from without, and that it was Mrs. McWha who pushed the door shut. He said that he (Baker) and Mrs. Baker were in the front part of the house at the time. Mrs. H. H. Wilcoxen tesitified that she lived on the pike, below the bluff on which the McWha house stood, on the 9th of May saw Mrs. Baker washing in the kitchen, before noon; saw her in the orchard afterwards, between 10 and 11; there is a hill between our house and the kitchen in the McWha house; When Mrs. Baker was in the orchard she had an old faded wrapper. She had a green cassimere dress which she was in the habit of wearing in the afternoon. Mrs. Baker attended to the outdoor work generally; there are no windows in the end of the kitchen toward our house; saw Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Swearingen between 3 and 4; saw Baker going up the road in the morning; again going toward the station, between three and four in the afternoon; I was at my front window when he passed. It was after I saw Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Swearingen go past in the buggy, he was on the road going toward the station; he was carrying a small black satchel; I could see the old railway up Harmon’s creek from my window. That was the last I saw of Baker that day; I was at home all day Tuesday; I saw the prisoner coming down the road between 8 and 9 o’clock that morning; he was walking down the road, past my house; I had not heard of the murder before he passed my house; in about twenty eight minutes, I judge according to the work I did, after I saw Baker pass, the alarm of “murder” was raised; I think it would not take anybody more than five minutes at the rate Baker was walking, to reach the McWha house; I went up to the house after the alarm was raised, and returned immediately.

Re-direct—The alarm I heard was Mr. Baker calling “murder.” I could identify the dress which Mrs. Baker wore as an afternoon dress; (dress shown and identified:) Mrs. B. wore this dress; she never wore it in the mornings when about her work.

Silas McConnell, a civil engineer, employed on the P. C.& St. L. R. R. testified as to the distance from the junction of the new road of the Cove station on the old road; also as to the topography of the land intervening.

H. H. Wilcoxen testified that he was hauling brush out of Lee’s orchard, on the 8th of May, a short distance from the McWha residence; saw Baker in the forenoon in the orchard where we were working. Between three and four o’clock I saw the prisoner crossing the field between the pike and the creek. I was working near the pike in the orchard; he passed within a few rods of me. He asked me if he had time for the four o’clock train. I told him he had twenty minutes. It was then twenty minutes of four by my time, which was about an hour faster than the Panhandle R. R. time; he kept on going toward the railroad.

Daniel McCloud, a farmer from Clay district, about nine miles form the Cove, had been acquainted with defendant for about a year and a half; got acquainted with him at Mrs. Wha’s, where my wife was sewing; I met him frequently since then; it was before we were married that I visited Miss Campbell (now my wife) at Mrs. McWha’s; I was at Mrs. McWha’s the day Baker was arrested, the 11th; Mrs. McWha was a full cousin of my mother; I talked with prisoner before he was arrested; we conversed about three-quarters of an hour, just after dinner on the 11th, before Baker was arrested, he told the Sheriff, who was present, that he had been seen a terrible report in the morning papers, charging him with the murder, and that there was talk of lynching; he said he was not afraid, but was ready to be arrested and the sooner the better; he could prove himself innocent, and then they could get on to the guilty parties; the Sheriff left us standing there; I said, “Baker, how did this come about?” He said, “Sit down and I’ll tell you.” We sat down up on the ground, at the east end of the porch. Baker spoke of three men who come to rent the stable; a fourth man came to rent the stable on Monday morning; he had told him the stable was already rented, that there was an article about a foot long, then he spoke of three older men coming to rent a lot to put up an eating house on. That they had gone out with Mrs. Baker to look a the lot, the rent was discussed, and his wife wanted $10 a month for the lot; the men thought the rent too steep, but agreed to pay it; they then went back to the house, and one of the men pulled out a roll of money from his pocket and took out a fifty dollar bill, presenting the bill to baker, and asked if he could change it. Baker said he believed he could, and felt in his pocket, When Mrs. Baker said “Hold on, I think mother can change that bill.” He said he handed the bill to his wife; she asked Baker is it was good; He said he would be willing to take as many such bills as he could get; she took the bill and went away and got change, and gave the men $40; those men knew there were $90 in the house; he said he believed those three men had murdered the women for that money; he said he had $850 stolen out of his trunk; he spoke of the thieves and murderers going through the bureau or trunk and who didn’t get his wife’s gold watch;’ that was not taken. He then said that he and his wife were in the front room when somebody shoved the kitchen door. He said Mrs. Mc Wha was in the kitchen and had shoved the door to. Mrs. McWha had then come into the room where they were, and told them that somebody had been at the door, and that she had pushed it shut. He said he and his wife scolded Mrs. McWha for closing the door, as it might have been some of the neighbors. Mrs. McWha said it was none of the neighbors — it was some of the “paddies” of the railroad, and she didn’t want to be bothered with them. He then told me that he and his wife had arranged his satchel for him to go away. Then he had left the house, crossed the bottom to the new bridge and over to the old railroad, walked up to the station, was there for a few minutes till the train came, which he took, and went to Collier’s station, got off and walked six miles to Cross Creek village to his father’s where he remained all night. He returned home the next morning, and went to the McWha place. When he came near the front gate, he said a lady in a buggy halted and asked him how all the folks were. He said they were all well when he left the day before. She told him to tell Mrs. Baker that she had called the day before and had got no answer. This was Mrs. Dan Swearingen. Then he said he went to the house, opened the front door and went in. A few steps brought him to the door leading into Mrs. McWha’s room. Just in front, lying on the floor, were the two bodies, his wife lying across Mrs. McWha. He said he was horrified, shrank out, and raised the alarm, and after that he said he didn’t know what he did do for awhile. He asked me if my wife had not helped dress the bodies. I said she had. He asked if there were any marks on Eliza’s body. I told him my wife said there was a mark on one leg below the knee. He said “She had a hard struggle.” He asked if there were any scars or marks on Eliza’s face. I said, “Why my god, Baker, have you not seen them?” ”No more,” he said, “I told you this morning.” I asked him how the tub of water came to be in the kitchen; he said he had pumped the water and put it there before he had gone away. His wife had intended to mop up the floor but had concluded to put it off until the next day. We then brought our conversation to a close. At this point court adjourned until nine o’clock Monday morning. The jury in the meantime going to the cove to view the premises.

(Abstracted from the July 30, 1887, "The Saturday Review", Vol, 8, No. 42, Page 7 newspaper,East Liverpool & Wellsville, Ohio)