Linegar's swine time in court

 Connersville Evening News, Nov. 1, 1911

J.M. LINEGAR IS

 CLEARED BY JURY

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SUIT FOR DAMAGES

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Which the Walters Brothers Might

Have Filed in Case of Conviction

is Probably Forestalled by Acquittal

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The case of the State vs. Dr. John M. Linegar of Fairfield was decided by the jury about 9 o'clock last night. The evidence was closed before four o'clock before Judge Gray.

The case, it will be remembered, was the result of a Grand Jury indictment returned in Franklin County against Linegar, charging him with hauling diseased hogs on the highways. Specifically he was accused of selling a number of cholera-smitten shoats to the Walters brothers in Brookville and it was the aim of the state to prove that the disease conveyed by these swine to the Walters herd precipitated an epidemic there.

The acquittal of the defendant, it is supposed, will preclude a damage suit, which it was thought probable the Walters brothers would file in the event of Dr. Linegar's conviction.

*

This case had been venued to Fayette County in December, 1910. There are no news accounts of the trial or what evidence was presented or considered. One assumes the charge would have been marginally difficult to prove.

Walter brothers ran a sale barn and livery stable in Franklin County. Not sure on the years.

It is worth noting that hog cholera was a common nuisance for farmers in the 19th century but was considered largely preventable by 1910. A sick herd couldn't be sold. A serum had been produced by 1910 and state legislation had been approved to control the epidemic -- with spotty efficiency.