Tuesday morning a girl between 14 and 15 years of age came to Justice Lamb’s office, and made a complaint against Mr. Christopher Pocklington charging him with being the father of her unborn child. If the story that is told by this girl is true, this is one of the most in-human cases that we have had to record for some time.
The girls name is Phoebe Eastlick, and she is an orphan, her father having been dead some years. For about three years she has lived in the family of Pocklington, in the northeast corner of the town of Raisin. The girl is uneducated, not being able to write her own name, and is not perhaps up to the ordinary standard of intelligence at the best. She claims that Pocklington has been having illicit intercourse with her for some time, accomplishing his designs in the first instance partly by threats, partly by persuasion, and partly by force. Justice Lamb issued the warrant, and detailed constable Davis to make the arrest. He went to Pocklingtons residence and found that he had left for Monroe county. He was followed and finally captured and lodged in here jail last Tuesday evening. He will probably be arraigned this afternoon. The girl was entirely friendless, and was taken charge of by Superintendent Russel, who, for the present, has her cared for at the orphan asylum, but she will probably soon have to be taken to the county house.
Published in The Adrian Weekly Times 1874