The Marietta Register, June 17, 1864
On Friday, 10th inst., about noon, William A. Dutton, a little son of John B. Dutton, nine years old last February, was shot through the heart and instantly killed at the upper end of the "Capitolium" square on Fifth Street, above Washington.
It appears that an abandoned family named Steed, two or three weeks ago, moved from the top of the hill north of town, into a small barn in the locality of the murder. Rude boys often threw stones at the barn in which they were staying and probably used impudent language to the inmates. Mrs. Steed became enraged and, it is said, threatened to shoot the boys.
Just before the shooting, some boys stoned the barn; who they were, we are not advised. The little Dutton boy and two or three others of his age were playing upon the commons near the barn. Perhaps some of them had thrown stones, influenced by larger boys, and perhaps not. At any rate, a gun was fired from the barn, killing the little Dutton boy.
Mrs. Mary Steed, her son William J. Steed, some 15 years of age, and two daughters were arrested and had an examination before John Test, Esq. The daughters were discharged. Mrs. Steed and her son were committed to jail on the charge of murder. Four of Mrs. Steed's younger children, one about a year old, have been sent to the County Infirmary.
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