Henry Chester's OTHER Bad Day

Remember that incident of 1887 that somehow involved Henry and Charles Chester — and trespass, a dangerous weapon, assault and battery? I've come across another incident that might shed some oblique light on that mysterious mêlée.

It happened in March of 1905. Henry Chester was then about 70 years old. A year earlier, the Reverend Timothy H. Ball had profiled him, in the Encyclopedia of Genealogy and Biography of Lake County, Indiana, as "one of the well known old settlers and prominent agriculturalists of Lake county." Henry was married to his third wife, had fathered nine children, and owned about a thousand acres of farmland.

So Henry had considerable dignity to fling aside when Jacob E. Portmess came to his door on one day in mid-March.

Jacob was a Hobart resident, about Henry's age, and a house-painter by trade. Charles Chester had contracted with him to do some painting. Now the job was finished, but Jacob hadn't been paid yet — in spite of six previous visits to the Chester home to ask for his money.

On this seventh visit, Henry met him at the door with an attitude. The visit ended abruptly when Henry grabbed a broom and hit Jacob with it.

Indignant, Jacob complained to the authorities. Henry was arrested and brought before Justice of the Peace John Mathews, who allowed him until March 25 to prepare his case. But on the day of trial, Henry did not contest the charge. He pleaded guilty and paid $17.50 in fines and costs.

Before his trial, however, he had filed a complaint against Jacob for trespass. This case was tried on April 1 at Crown Point, with two Hobart attorneys appearing — Asa Bullock for the plaintiff and J.H. Conroy for the defendant. Jacob contested the charge, but he was found guilty and ordered to pay fines and costs amounting to about $35. His attorney immediately filed an appeal bond.

The Gazette remarked:

The two cases have caused no little comment among our citizens who think Mr. Portmess has not been guilty of any intentional wrong doing and that the trouble and the expense he has been put to are unreasonable and unwarrantable. We understand Mr. Portmess was paid last Saturday the balance due him.

It would seem that in spite of his standing in the community, Henry Chester could be a cantankerous fellow, not above swatting someone with a broom and then bringing retaliatory legal claims if the swattee complained. In light of these facts, and giving rein to my well known tendency to speculate, I'm beginning to formulate a theory about who did what in 1887. But I don't know what the 1887 "dangerous weapon" was; would anyone say that about a broom?

Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ Ball, T.H. Encyclopedia of Genealogy and Biography of Lake County, Indiana. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1904.
♦ "Fined For Trespass." Hobart Gazette 7 April 1905.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 24 March 1905.
♦ "Mr. Chester Pleads Guilty." Hobart Gazette 31 March 1905.