USA > Iowa > Buchanan County > History of Buchanan County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 68
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77
Hammond went on to Coffin's Grove and there waited several hours for Covey to eome, but having waited in vain he at last gave him up and started on to Dubuque alone. He was in Dubuque several days and every day looked and
549
HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY
inquired For Covey but he did not come. Two weeks passed and he did not return, nor were any tidings heard of him.
Rock Jewell was absent, no one knew where, and suspicions of foul play began to be aroused. A search was made. About the first of July, 1856, Charles H. JJakway, then a resident of Buffalo Grove, now of Aurora, and a member of the advisory board, happening in Dubuque on business, came across Rock Jewell sitting behind a pile of wood on the levee, with his hat drawn over his face, as if not wishing to be recognized. Jakway had some conversation with him, but Jewell, in a great rage and many oaths, protested he had never seen Jakway before. No time was lost in sending back word that JJewell was in Dubuque and having him arrested by the officers on a charge of murder.
It was afterwards found that Jewell sold the team, wagon, and harness and had tried to sell two watches which Covey had with him when he left and also that he had on many of Covey's clothes when seen in Dubuque. It was to get these watches prived by a jeweler that he came to Dubuque under an assumed name, along with the man who was going to purchase them.
The whole neighborhood about the Grove was aroused when they learned that Jewell had been arrested and was wearing Covey's possessions. Telegrams were sent to Covey's relatives in Vermont and answer returned that he had not been there. A large searching party went up and down through the timber and out on the prairie and examined every place it was thought a body could be concealed, but no trace of it was found. Other parties spent days in search- ing. but to no avail. Mr. Jed Lake of Independence, who with two other men owned a sawmill situated near the Covey's, and boarded with them, went to Petosi where the horses, wagons and harness had been sokl, to recover the prop; erty. The wagon, as found, had a stain on the bottom of the box which looked very much like blood, but so long a time had elapsed it could not be definitely proven.
Jewell had a preliminary examination at Independence and when all the facts were brought out in the evidence, before the magistrate, he was committed to jail to await the action of the grand jury. That body at its next meeting, in the fall of 1856, indicted him for murder in the first degree. He was kept in jail at Delhi, then the county seat of Delaware County. At that time, a man by the name of Manchamer was confined in the jail with him and he being released from jail declared that Jewell had admitted to him the killing of Covey, and told him where the body was buried, but when he was taken into the grove he was unable to recognize the place. JJewell was kept in jail about a year, when as it appeared to the court that the body had not been found, that there was no prospect of finding it, he was released from jail, and the case stricken from the docket. So that if the body should ever be found, he could be re-arrested and tried.
That a conspiracy was formed For the murder of Covey was almost certain from the fact that the two JJewells and their brother-in-law, S. Starkey, were believed to have been together till a late hour of the night previous to the murder and another fact in connection with this is that when Jewell was arrested, he had in his possession a revolving rifle which Covey had brought
550
HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY
with him from Vermont and which he had loaned to Jewell a day or two before his disappearance.
SUSPECTED POISONING
In the year 1868 Daniel Thomas purchased a farm in the Town of Hazleton and moved onto it. About the same time, a Mrs. Fay, a widow with a large family, moved onto a farm that she had purchased of Mr. Thomas. The neigh- bors were not long in coming to the conclusion that there was undue intimacy between Mr. Thomas and the widow, but as Mrs. Thomas made no complaint and none of the old residents of the neighborhood had any previous knowledge of either party, nothing was said or done by them, except to avoid them as far as possible. Things went on this way for about two years.
Mr. Thomas had received considerable money due him from Wisconsin and Mrs. Fay built a new house, a fence, and ont buildings on her place and often when they came to Independence together she purchased goods to a considerable extent for which Mr. Thomas paid.
In February. 1871, Mrs. Thomas was taken seriously sick with cramping in the stomach and severe spasms. A physician was sent for but discovered no alarming symptoms and thought she would get better in a few days. In a day or two after this, however, Mrs. Thomas died. On the day of the funeral it was reported that Mr. Thomas took the widow Fay out for a ride, whereupon the neighbors became aroused and sent for the county coroner, Dr. II H. Hunt, filed before him an information alleging in substance that they believed Mrs. Thomas had been poisoned. Doctor Hunt had Thomas arrested and his house searched and found in it a bottle containing sulphate of strychnia. He then had the body exhumed and a post mortem examination was made by a chemist and poison was found in the stomach. A coroner's jury brought in the verdiet that Mrs. Thomas was killed by poison administered by her husband.
Messrs. Lake, Harmon & Jamison were employed as counsel for the defense and after careful examination eame to the conclusion that delay was a good defense. The evidence for the prosecution being mostly circumstantial, left his case in some doubt so that the prosecuting attorney was not anxious to urge the case to trial.
At the time when Mr. Thomas was confined in the county jail there was a large number of very tough criminals confined there also. They had conceived a plan to break jail, but did not deem it advisable to make a confidant of Mr. Thomas so contrived in some way to stupify him in his eell. They sue- ceeded in getting out of jail but their plan was frustrated by some other means and all were re-captured in a short time. After that Mr. Thomas at another time put the sheriff on the watch for tools that had been prepared by a noted burglar then confined in jail to get out. This so enraged the other prisoners that it was deemed unsafe for him to be with them and he was removed to bet- ter quarters in the jailer's house. Ilis case in the mean time was not called for trial but was continued by consent of counsel.
Mr. Thomas was confined in the county jail but being an old and feeble man, in the spring of 1872 he was taken siek and in a short time died. Thus the faets that might have been found by a jury on a trial will never be known.
.
551
HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY
DEADLY ASSAULT, MURDER AND SUICIDE
On Sunday evening, February 17th, 1878, Mr. Sidney Toman and Miss Matie Sherwood were returning to Independence from Fairbank Township where the latter had been stopping two or three days visiting friends. They were in a covered buggy. It had become dark before they reached town. Near the southwest corner of the Catholic cemetery Mr. Toman stopped the horses to adjust the buffalo robe when some unknown person leaped upon the back of the buggy, thrust his hand through the cover and discharged a pistol. The discharge not taking effect, Toman attempted to whip up the horses but could not make them move. The suspicion was that an accomplice of the ruffian was holding them but subsequent developments lead people to suppose that the young lady was the accomplice keeping the horses from going.
Toman, determined to sell his life as dearly as possible, jumped into the buggy and seized the man who had fired the pistol. A souffle ensued during which several more shots were fired. Two of them taking effect on the left side of Toman's head and face. Neither of them proved serious. One bullet lodged in the muscles of the face where it remained until it was removed by a physician. The would-be assassin having emptied all the chambers of the revolver succeeded in releasing himself from his intended victim who, though weak from his struggle and the loss of blood, managed to get into the buggy and drive into town. Strange to say, the assailant as the buggy started leaped again upon the back part of it and remained there until it arrived near the Illi- nois Central depot, when he jumped down and disappeared. Whether or not he tried to reload and finish his work will never be known.
The first suspicion, so far as the public knows, concerning the perpetrator of this diabolical outrage, fell upon a rough and dissipated character named Jim Strohl, who, with an unknown companion, was seen near the Central Rail- road depot on the afternoon before the occurrence. He had recently been in the penitentiary and was harboring a grudge against Toman for some things that had been said about him in the Independence Bulletin, of which paper Mr. Toman was local editor.
One of the suspicious circumstances implicating Stroll and his companion was the finding of some wet handkerchiefs, one of them stained with blood, in the pockets of their overcoats which had been discarded under the plank-way at the Independence Mill. Considering all the circumstances, it was thought best to have them arrested on a charge of vagrancy that the authorities might have time for future investigation. This was accordingly done. They were sent to jail for ten days. Before the ten days were up, it was thought that sufficient facts had been discovered to implicate them in the attempted murder; being arrested on this charge, they waived examination and were re-committed to await the action of the grand jury. That body met about the middle of March and after a three days' hearing the accused boys, for Strohl had hardly reached his majority, and the other, Rourke, alias Henderson, was only seventeen, were held in the sum of $3,000 each, to appear at the next term of the District Court. Circumstances surrounding the affair made a bad looking case for the boys, still, many puzzling questions which could not be answered were brought up in the trial.
552
HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY
Two things were evident: first, that the motive of the assault was a grudge of some sort: and. second. that the person or persons who planned and per- petrated it knew that Toman was to pass that way about that time. If, there- fore, Stroll and his companion knew, arriving in town late, as they did Sunday evening, they must have been informed by some third party, but no such party was ever found. The case was called for trial at the next session of the Dis- triet Court on the 7th of May.
Rourke had been bailed out by his friends and was not to be tried at this session. The case was managed on the part of the state by District Attorney Powers, assisted by Mr. nohnan of Independence, on the part of the defense by Charles Ransier and an attorney by the name of Gannon. of Davenport. The trial lasted four days when the case was given to the jury. After being in consultation over it all night. they brought in the verdict of guilty. Strohl remained in jail until the June session of the court, when on Saturday, the 22d of that month, application for a new trial having been overruled, he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment in the penitentiary at Anamosa.
The opinion was held by some people that the reason that Stroll could not prove an alibi was that at the time of the shooting he was engaged in robbing a store in Independence.
The sequel of the preceding attempted murder is a fitting closing to what was considered by many people an injustice.
Miss Matie Sherwood. the young lady who was with Sidney Toman at the time of the assault related before, and who was commonly understood to be engaged to him in marriage, had another lover. Clarence Shaw, who seemed to be completely infatuated by her many attractions, and who on the other hand seemed to exert over her a strange sort of spell. It was not known that the rivalry of the two young men, in regard to the young lady, had ever produced an open rupture between them, but there certainly must have existed a strong feeling of jealousy.
During the trial, and after it. the feeling was general. even among those who believed Strohl to be guilty, that there was a third party still not discovered more guilty than he. This feeling was so much intensified after Strohl's con- vietion that a detective was employed to ferret the matter out. Suspicions began to point to young Shaw as the third party and hearing of these sus- picions he was greatly annoyed and agitated. ITis conduct became more and more strange and many of his actions and words on the day of the fatal deed partook strongly of the character of insanity. But whether or not he was guilty of the shooting of Toman, it is not probable that remorse or the fear of appre- hension alone impelled him to the terrible act which he finally committed.
The frank confession that he had assaulted him in a moment of frenzied jealousy, accompanied by an openly avowed resolution to atone for his crime by a future course of virtuous living, would undoubtedly have saved him from the penitentiary and regained for him, at length, the good opinion of the com- mumity, whereas the double crime with which he left the world was looked upon by many as a confession of the smaller crime of which he was suspected. Undoubtedly it was the infatuation of a misplaced and hopeless love which was probably the principal cause that goaded poor Shaw to the commission of the murder and suicide.
553
HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY
On Saturday night, July 6, 1878, Clarence Shaw, aged nineteen years, an employee of the Conservative office, shot Matie Sherwood, twenty years old, daughter of Thomas Sherwood, and then shot himself. The shooting was done at the residence of W. S. Van Orsdol, sheriff of the county. They had gone there after supper, by appointment, to meet Miss Minnie Van Orsdol and Mr. John Evers. After conversing for a while the four started out for a walk. They had not gone far when the two couples separated-Clarence and Matie proceeding to the river for a boat ride. During the walk, the strange actions of both had excited the apprehensions of Mr. Evers and Miss Van Orsdol, and, after the former had gone to the river against their expostulations, the two latter hastened to the store, where Charlie Sherwood, a brother of Matie, was employed, and informed him of their fears concerning his sister and Clarence.
Charlie hastened to the river and got there just as Clarence was pushing the boat off. Charlie rushed into the water and pulled the boat to shore. He then told his sister to go home, and she started. Clarence accompanying her and Charlie following behind. They passed directly along Genesee Street until they arrived on the corner at Doctor Hunt's. Clarence then said that they must go to Mr. Van Orsdol's and get their things.
The narrative does not say whether anything had really been left there, or whether this was merely a ruse for the sake of carrying out the fatal pro- gram. However this may be. the three returned to Mr. Van Orsdol's. Clar- ence and Matie went in and Charlie remained at the door. After being admitted Clarence asked Miss Van Orsdol for some water to wash his hands. "as the rope on the boat had dirtied them." He was shown to a bedroom, which he entered, Miss Sherwood following. Miss Van Orsdol, after pouring some water into a bowl, stepped out for a moment, but scarcely had she gone six steps when she heard the report of a revolver twice. Charlie Sherwood rushed in and found them both lying across the bed, shot through the head. Matie lived about twenty minutes and Clarence about an hour after. Physi- cians were summoned, but nothing could be done.
Messengers were sent to inform the parents of the unfortunate young per- sons. We forbear to dwell on the sorrowful scenes witnessed when tidings of the terrible tragedy were imparted to the parents. The bodies, after being cared for, remained at Van Orsdol's until Sunday morning, when they were taken home.
The funeral of Shaw took place Sunday afternoon at 5 o'clock; that of Miss Sherwood on Monday afternoon at 2 o'clock.
How the thoughts crowded in upon our minds. Two days before who would have thought of such an event ? Saturday evening on earth ; Monday, the souls in eternity and the bodies in the coll grave. Sad the thoughts, sadder the scenes, saddest the stern reality.
Miss Matie Sherwood was a pleasant, interesting and engaging young lady- romantie, sympathetic. She moved in the best society. and had many warm friends. Her death, and the terrible tragedy connected with it, will long be felt in this community.
Of Clarence Shaw we wish to say a few words. Having been in our employ for four years, we believe our opportunity for knowing his character was better than that of any other person, excepting his parents. He came to us a boy, in
554
IIISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY
September, 1874. An almost daily intercourse with him from that time forward has led us to regard him only with the kindest feelings. Ile was strictly honest and temperate, and withal intellectual ; and had he not become enmeshed in the toils of an infatuated love, we believe he would have made more than an ordinary man : but a morbid sentimentalism got the better of him, and one thing led to another until he struck down himself and the girl he worshipped. It was in this that he showed a weakness that surprises us.
Here we close onr extraets from the Conservative, and let the curtain drop upon the awful tragedy. Whether it was Shaw who made the deadly assault upon Toman ; whether Matie Sherwood was consenting to the sacrifice of her own life with his; whether he was of sound mind when the dreadful act was committed ; and what amount of guilt rests upon the souls of both for its com- mission-are solemn questions upon which the grave has set its seal till the great day of final account. We shall not attempt to forestall the decisions of that day.
Mainly on account of the evidence adduced from the coroner's jury, Strohl was released from prison on his own recognizance, pending an appeal which had been taken to the Supreme Court. That court reversed the decision of the court below, and sent the ease back for a new trial. But the District Court dis- missed the case without a hearing. Rourke, of course, was never brought to trial.
One of the most brutal and appalling crimes in the history of Buchanan County -- and perhaps none of greater horror ever ocenrred in the state-was discovered at 2 o'clock on Friday afternoon, November 24, 1905, on the farm of William S. Me Williams, located six miles southwest of Independence, in Sumner Township. The driver on the Jesup milk route stopped at the place to leave the monthly check, and knocking at the door received no response and the place seemed deserted. Thinking this strange, he peeped in at the kitchen window and discovered that the floor was literally covered with dead bodies, which he recognized as those of the mother and five children. He ran to the neighbors and telephoned to R. G. Swan, the coroner. The details of this grim tragedy are too grewsome to record. Suffice to say that all six victims had been struck on the head and their skulls crushed with an ordinary carpenter's elaw- banner and that each body had, in addition, been stabbed numerous times with a butcher knife.
As there seemed to be no motive for an outsider to have committed the horrible butchery, suspicion at onee strongly centered toward the husband and father. William S. MeWilliams, and search was at onee instituted for him. He had been seen to leave the place about 3 o'clock Friday afternoon and ride northward. Sheriff Corlis telephoned to Marshal Mason to go to the home of NeWilliams' father in the third ward and ascertain if he was there. Upon doing so he found him putting his horse in the barn and placed him under arrest. MeWilliams took it coolly, saying that he had left the farm Wednesday and come to Independence to visit his father, and on Friday afternoon rode down to the farm on his horse and then discovered the bodies, and at once returned to Independence to give the alarm. Ile steadily denied all knowledge of the crime, ate and slept well and maintained a stoical indifference and showed no emotion, even when he viewed all the bodies of his murdered family, with the exception of the baby, when he manifested some feeling. Me Williams' shoes and old clothes were found in the house covered with blood and evidences that
.
555
HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY
an effort had been made to clean them. MeWilliams's father at first expressed incredulity at the idea of his son having committed such a heinous erime, but after contemplation of his son's actions subsequent to the crime he came to the conclusion that he did commit the deed, as did also his other relatives, and they attributed the cause of his fiendish act to a sunstroke he had had when a young man, believing it to have unbalanced his mind.
After the examination of numerous witnesses, the grand jury returned an indictment against him ; this was as the general consensus of opinion warranted, but the real sensation of the case was when Coroner Swan presented a signed confession from Mc Williams, acknowledging his guilt and describing the manner of the crime. On the night before he had been subjected to a cross examina- tion of the severest kind by the coroner's jury but without result, and persistently professed his innocence and ignorance of the crime, but after a night alone with his conscience, he had concluded that to confess would insure him some con- sideration by the court, so in the morning, after ten minutes interview, Mr. Swan extracted his confession. M. A. Smith, county attorney, prosecuted the case, and as the prisoner had employed no attorney to represent him Judge Blair appointed H. C. Chappell the unenviable and distasteful task of counsel for the prisoner. After MeWilliams' confession, he became possessed of an abject fear that he would lose his own life and showed himself to be one of the most cowardly, suspicions and degenerate specimens of humanity that could be imagined.
Never in the annals of lawdom, in Buchanan County, was consummated a swifter meting of justice, for on Friday P. M., exactly two weeks after the crime was discovered, he was sentenced to be hanged at the earliest possible moment the laws of Iowa will allow.
Crowds of people packed the courthouse to its utmost capacity on the after- noon of the trial when sentence was to be imposed.
Attorney Chappell had had MeWilliams examined by five physicians, four from Independence and one, Doctor Ingbert, of the "Iowa Insane Hospital," a specialist on mental diseases, and with only one exception they agreed that Mc Williams was a paranoaic degenerate.
Doctor MeGready maintained that he was a moral degenerate but entirely responsible for his crime. This testimony was submitted and Mr. Chappell then gave a powerful plea in his behalf with the only possible defense, that of morbid insanity, and strove to ameliorate his sentence (in accordance with the discharge of his duty to the court and to the prisoner).
Judge Blair then pronounced sentence and in his speech favored the opinion that, although MeWilliams was a moral degenerate of the worst type, he was responsible for his atrocious crime, and therefore the death penalty was imposed.
MeWilliams stood calm and benignant through the whole proceeding, be- traying no emotion or by the slightest expression denoting that he was more than an attentive spectator of the tragical scene being enacted, while not a soul in that crowded court room but was intense and excited. Once, while he sat listening to the arraignment of evidence against him, he dropped his hat, which he was holding, on the floor and calmly and deliberately he reached down and picked it up; then when the judge ordered him to stand he calmly and
556
HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY
deliberately turned and laid it on his chair. Within one hour from the time he received sentence he was on board the Illinois Central train going East in custody of Sheriff Corlis and City Marshal Mason, and crowds of people thronged the depots at every station to get a glimpse of so fiendish a criminal, and all the way to Anamosa the prisoner was cheerful and disposed to be loquacious. but was discouraged in his efforts at conversation. He was put through the usual treatment accorded prisoners-measured, shaved and photographed and entered as Conviet No. 5491, a second grade prisoner (with no particular distinction for his exceptionally brutal crime).
After a few works of incarceration, Me Williams became violently insane and suffered the tortures of the damned; sleeping or waking he was haunted with horrible hallucinations, and by the time for the execution of the sentence, he was a raving maniac and escaped the penalty of the law, having been adjudged insane by the Insane Commission of JJones County.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.