USA > Iowa > Harrison County > History of Harrison County, Iowa, including a condensed history of the state, the early settlement of the county together with sketches of its pioneers > Part 23
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James Ervin, Elijah Hedgecock, Lysander Crane, A. N. War- ren, C. S. Way, Wm. N. Fouts, James S. McElroy, W. L. Jones, Joseph Deal, Isaac Skelton, J. T. Roberts and Sol. J. Imlay. The trial lasted until the fifth day, when the District Attorney on the morning of that day filed a motion to discharge the jury and order a new panel, based on the gound that several of the jury, without authority of the court and unaccompanied by the attorney for the State or other person, visited the cell where the defendant was confined and had secretly held divers communica-
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tions with the defendant, and that one juror especially, who, on his voir dire, had sworn that he neither had formed or expressed any opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant, had, in fact, on numerous occasions, expressed unqualified opinions as to the innocence of the prisoner at the bar, and these facts being shown to the court to a satisfactory conclusion, the court sustained the aforesaid motion and discharged the jury, at the same time giving the offending jurors a terrible reprimand.
A venire was issued and on the 18th of July, 1864, the trial began de novo, with the following jurors, viz .:
N. B. Smothers, O. P. Reel, Wm. Tucker, J. W. Henderson, E. T. McKenney, Thomas Hunter, R. N. Day, J. P. Rowe, Wm. Evans, Thos. McKenney, Isaac Childs and Ephraim Strauss.
The following witnesses were examined on part of the State, viz .:
Dr. J. H. Rice, G. F. Waterman, G. G. Downs, Isaac Bedsaul, Mrs. S. E. Hillas, Lizzie Mahoney, Margaret Snyder, Mr. and Mrs. L. S. Snyder and Harriet Scoville. These proved to any reasonable mind that the deceased, Phebe Triplett, came to her death by strychnia, administered to her by the defendant.
In connection with the above named witnesses, the chemist from Omaha, in company with others, at and during the retrial, repaired to the cemetery and again exhumed the body of the deceased, and from or upon parts of the viscera, in open court, and as part of his evidence, made chemical analysis thereof, and showed to the jury and bystanders portions of strychnia, which he then and there collected and separated therefrom.
Notwithstanding this pyramid of testimony, viz .: that the deceased had died of poison; that the defendant at and prior to the time of the death of decedent had been guilty of adultery and had very strong reasons to believe that he would be prose- cuted therefor, and that his paramour was then enciente; that he wished to marry the unfortunate girl because of her father's wealth, the jury, after deliberating for nearly one day, returned
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witb a verdict of "not guilty," stating that there might be a possibility that the deceased had been given the strychnia through mistake.
I will further add that the defendant having been refused the hand of his victim, soon remarried, and she who was his wife at and during the trial last named, in one decade after the happen- ing of the above, died as died the former wife, and that the de- fendant living a half score more years, from the death of the latter, in misery, died a terrible death, uncared for and deserted by all.
The courts were not again burdened by a murder trial until in July, 1868, at which time a case was brought from Shelby county to this place on change of venue, the same being the somewhat notorious case of The State of Iowa vs. James M. Long. The defendant in this case was charged in the indict- ment with the murder of Adam Cuppy, at the town of Harlan, in said county, about six months previous to the time the case was brought here on change of venue as aforesaid. At or on the day prior to the time of the killing of Cuppy, a young man had been having a preliminary hearing before a county justice on the charge of horse stealing, and Cuppy having gone on the bail bond of the criminal, and the bond of very meager amount, and Cuppy having paid the bond when the prisoner had skipped the county, so incensed the people of the community that on the fol- lowing night, as before stated, Cuppy was taken out into a by part of the town and on the next morning was found with the smallest spark of life in him, having been riddled with bullets. The defendant Long, though the father-in-law of Bill Cuppy, son of the murdered man, was charged with the shooting of the old man Cuppy, and on the application of the defendant, the case was sent by the court to this county for trial. The case being called on the 16th of July, 1868, a jury was soon obtained, and consisted of the following named persons, viz .: W. B. Cope- land, Geo. G. Downs, Samuel Moore, Isaac Bedsaul, Sr., Orrin
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Simons, I. V. Stewart, James Boies, O. M. Bedsaul, Charles Wheelock, - and - The case occupied the attention of the court until the 28th day of July, of the same year, when the jury retired to their room and in less than one hour returned into court with a verdict of not guilty. The case might have been adorned with a somewhat different finding by the jury had it not been from the fact that Cuppy was shown to have been connected with some agency in the " horse business," and had on repeated cases, for a long time prior to the case which brought about his death, shielded numerous horse thieves in the same manner as he did in this, and there could be no con- victions because of this interference by Cuppy, and who was at the same time a very lawless person and set at defiance all law. No one could from the evidence say that Long, the defendant, fired the fatal shot or any shot which penetrated the body of the deceased, but that he was in the company which uuquestionably did shoot Cuppy none had any doubt. The defendant was one of the most influential men in the county and a man of excel- lent reputation; the jury could not find him guilty unless on the most positive testimony.
The State of Iowa vs. John W. Mecham was the next case which came before the court for trial, the facts being as follows: From the time of the earliest settlement to the date of the killing of Geo. W. Mefford, the man killed by defendant, there was a custom of the country which had been indulged in so long that it had had become lex non scripta of every locality, and was this: At the beginning of haying time any person wishing to cut the grass growing on speculators' land (the three-fourths of the land being such) would take a mowing machine or scythe and cut around the parcel selected, and this was notice to the world that such grass was taken and claimed by another, and the deceased having cut around a certain tract in the near proximity to the residence of Mecham, he would not recognize the aforesaid right, and when he got ready for haying, took his scythe and
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went upon this claim of Mefford's and cut a considerable quantity of this grass unbeknown to the Meffords, and they, when dis- covering what had been done by Mecham, went in force and began tossing the grass cut by the prisoner and placing the same in cocks. This was witnessed by Mecham, who was watching the doings of the Meffords, and while he was lone-handed and there were three of the Meffords, he, the defendant, went to his house, took his No. 2 Colt's navy, deliberately cleaned and oiled the same, and discharged one round so as to feel sure that there would be no failure when firing, then reloading the same, went deliberately to the hay field where the Meffords were putting up the grass which he had cut, forbade them of taking his hay, and soon the altercation ripened into a fight, and Geo. W. Mefford was shot by Mecham directly through the heart. It consumed two days in selecting a jury, and when accepted the following named persons constituted the same: W. S. Meech, Seth Palmer, Silas Cook, Lowry Wilson, Stephen Mahoney, E. R. Wills, F. T. Hill, E. H. Morton, Alex. Johnson, Curtis Baxter, John R. Clark, and John G. Downs. It took ten days to try this case, at the end of which time the evidence is all heard, arguments made and the jury properly instructed and placed in their room for delibera- tion, where remaining for the period of twelve hours, return into court with the stereotyped verdict of not guilty. This man Mecham was not an angel by any means, and without doubt went to the hay field with the full purpose and intent of clear- ing the premises, if at the cost of taking the lives of all whom he thought were invading his rights.
. Mr. Geo. W. Mefford was a promising young man, at the age of twenty-three, when murdered, and this unfortunate circum- stance fell like a crushing weight upon his parents.
Mecham was a daredevil; had enlisted in company C of the 29th Iowa, had gone with the company to Sioux City at the time this . company was ordered to that place, and on the return of the company and the same having gone into barracks at Council
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Bluffs, and upon the regiment being ordered South, three days were given each man to go home and set his business in order. Mecham accepted this furlough, and while on his way to or at his home, having tired of the military, deliberately shot off the first two fingers of his right hand in order to be discharged, but the reported accident was really too transparent, and he was ordered to accompany the regiment when it would start for the South. During all the time of his service (six months) he was of such a disposition that he set at defiance all orders he did not feel like obeying, and was constantly in trouble because of his wayward disposition, and finally was transferred to the invalid corps.
The first person convicted in this county for the crime of bigamy was one Henry Ackerman, who in 1871 came to Mag- nolia and resided with wife No. 2 for nearly a year, when to the surprise of the good people of that vicinage, wife No. 1 put in an appearance, had the unfaithful muchly married hus- band brought up on charge as before stated and convicted. The sentence of the court only had him forfeit for the benefit of the state and society, one year, which had he stolen a horse or had he driven away a cow of the value of twenty-one dollars, the sentence would have been lengthened out to three years and con- sidered a very mild one. This trial was had in the month of March, 1872.
The bloodiest page in the entire record of crime in this county, is that wherein mention is made of the murder of Stephen Ide by Louis W. Weirich, which took place in the town of Logan at the noon of day, and about the middle of the year 1872. Stephen Ide was a large, rough, overbearing, lawless, desperate man; had made a record of such character as entitled him to the position of an outlaw, and Weirich had already killed his man and on many occasions previous to the murder of Ide, had shown a dis- position to glory in the act of taking the life of his fellow. Weirich was at the time of the murder running a butcher shop in Logan, and on the day on which the murder took place, Ide
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came into town and the two adjourned to some neighboring hay- loft and engaged in a game of poker, at which sitting Ide won a dollar's worth of beef from Weirich. When they had arrived at the butcher shop of the latter, a quarrel was had over the weight and hot words ensued, when Ide, being a large, muscular man, took hold of Weirich and gave him quite a severe choking, whereat the parties were separated. During this armistice some of the bystanders knowing the disposition of Weirich, hid, as was supposed, all the butcher knives in the shop, and again Ide returning into the butcher shop, proceeded to chastise Weirich the second time, and while in the act of carrying his purpose into execution Weirich grasped a large butcher knife which he had previously secreted, and thrust the same directly into the heart of Ide.
Ide at the time of the stroke by Weirich with the knife as aforesaid, had Weirich by the throat, and when thus struck by Weirich, thrust the latter to the floor and fell immediately upon Weirich, and while the life-blood was dashing from the very heart of Ide into the face and nostrils of Weirich, the dying man never relinquished his hold until the arm was palsied by death.
On March 7th, 1873, a jury was selected and accepted by both the State and the defendant, and in the short space of one day the entire evidence in the case was heard, the witnesses for the State being the following: George Musgrave, George M. Kerns, W. J. Rudd, B. F. La Porte and Thomas J. Acrea. These all testified to the killing; and that when they came to the place where the murder was committed, they found Mr. Ide still astride of Weirich, the nostrils and mouth of Weirich so filled with the blood of Mr. Ide that he was nearly strangled from the current that flowed directly from the heart of Ide. The jury were only absent deliberating for about one hour, when they returned into court with a verdict of: "We, the jury, find the defendant, Louis W. Weirich, guilty of murder as charged in the indict-
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ment." At the expiration of three days the court sentenced the defendant to the Penitentiary at Ft. Madison for life.
Unquestionably, no criminal cause in the county, from the time of the organization of the county up to and until the pres- ent, has occasioned more comment than the one last named, from the fact that within ten years from the time the jury found the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree, efforts were made for the pardon of the defendant; and more especially from the fact that one of the attorneys who prosecuted the case, and the principal in having the defendant convicted, swung around the circle, so that when, being a member of the popular branch of the Legislature, he threw his whole soul into the effort of procuring a pardon for the man he had strained every effort to convict, and had taken a good round fee from the relatives of the murdered man to prosecute the case.
Whatever may have changed the mind of the attorney so that he became the mouth-piece for the pardon of the man he had convicted, I will not attempt to say, but unquestionably there were many circumstances, which if urged, would in a great measure palliate the crime (if there could be palliation for mur- der). Ide was a bully, robust, lawless, vengeful, and, so far as physical strength was concerned, greatly the superior of Wei- rich; the latter wicked, stealthy, loved and lived to kill.
About the middle of the year 1873, a perambulating show came to Magnolia and gave what was called a day and evening entertainment, the whole crew being made up of the worst and most desperate characters possible. After the evening entertain- ment was over the different persons attending the same started for their homes, among whom was Jerome B. Hardy, then a young man just blooming into manhood. He brought a young lady from the country to see the sights, and these, while on their way home, were set upon by one James A. Bonnell, alias "Big Jim," at the grave yard just west of the town. This fellow was the wagon master for the outfit and was a man of great muscu-
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lar powers, and withal a very desperate character. He having noticed this young couple during the entertainment had spotted the girl as his victim and therefore followed them, as before stated, to the place last mentioned, where he attacked the young man and by reason of his size and bullying so effectually fright- ened Hardy that he, like a very coward, fled and left the young lady he was escorting to the cruel mercies of this most dastardly ruffian, but while the altercation was in being between this brute and Hardy, the young lady jumped over the grave yard fence and sought safety in flight. No sooner had Hardy fled when this demon followed his victim, caught up with her in the grave yard and from every indication of the surface of the soil and especially at and about a fresh grave, there was a most desperate struggle between the parties, the one struggling for that which is most highly prized by woman, the other for the gratification of a beastly and sensual lust. The escort of the young lady fled without having a bruise on his person or a hair ruffled and reported what had taken place. No sooner was the news of this dastardly act known, than an information was filed and a warrant issued for the arrest of the criminal, who was recognized by Hardy, and the warrant being at once placed in the hands of the Sheriff, he immediately set out for the town of Little Sioux, where the show was to exhibit on the following day. "Big Jim," as soon as he had accomplished his purpose, fled, leaving all his train behind, and supposing that he was not recognized, went directly to Little Sioux, where he, by the break- ing of daylight next morning, was arrested, and was at once brought to Magnolia for preliminary examination. Court con- vened at 2 o'clock, P. M., and continued in session until 9, when an adjournment was had until next morning. While the prisoner was being taken from the old court house to the Bates Hotel, where he was guarded, a crowd of forty or more persons forcibly took him from the custody of the Deputy Sheriff, threw a rope over his neck and ran for the nearest tree, intending to admin-
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ister justice then and there, but the lynchers being unorganized, and not acting in concert, the fellow, as aforesaid, being a very muscular man, freed his neck from the rope and gave tongue to the most inhuman cries possible. When the excited company who were dealing out justice in this speedy way returned they were compelled to knock the fiend down in order to readjust the rope, during which time the criminal gave such unearthly cries that it brought the citizens to his rescue and therefore saved a very worthless life.
Never were such inhuman cries uttered or heard, and scarce did ever human arm put forth such energies for self-protection as did this brute on this occasion. Despair lent him a power equal to a score of men, and he fought with the desperation worthy of a much better cause. Being rescued by the citizens, he was at once taken to the room in the hotel where he was being guarded, and on arriving there presented a spectacle the most horrible, as well as the most filthy, that the imagination of man could possibly conjecture, for a new suit of clothes had to be furnished him at once, so that the guards could, with any com- fort, remain within protecting and restraining distance of his vile and filthy person. The court on the following day ordered that he appear before the District Court on the first day of the next session; and the prisoner, in default of bail, was sent to Boone jail for safe keeping, where he remained until in Febru- ary, 1874, when he was brought back, indicted, tried and con- victed of the offense of rape, and by the court sentenced to the penitentiary for the period of ten years. The most unreasonable and unexplained part of this case was in the sequel which fol- lowed; for scarcely had the defendant been incarcerated in the penitentiary five years when the person outraged, as well as her parents, signed a petition addressed to the Governor of this State praying for the pardon of this miserable brute, who would have sacrificed life for the purpose of gratifying a hellish and damna- ble lust.
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Charity may cover a multitude of sins, but mercy for a villain who is unfit to run at large, and whose incarceration is demanded for the protection of society, is, to say the least, far fetched. The penitentiary or the rope should furnish protection in such cases, else the daughters of the land are not highly prized, and virtue without protection.
In the summer of the year 1873, one Charley C. Clifford be- coming somewhat provoked at some conduct of a certain gen- tleman by the name of Edmondson, respecting the wife and sister-in-law of the former, took upon himself the enforcement of the law, and in manner as follows: loaded his double-barrelled shotgun with duck shot and went directly to the house of Ed- mondson, and when coming within sight of his supposed foe, he discharged one barrel of his gun, which took effect in the hip of the person last named. This brought about his arrest, indict- ment and conviction for assault with intent to inflict great bodily injury, and he was sentenced to the penitentiary at Ft. Madison for the term of two years. Tried and sentenced in February, 1874.
The State of Iowa vs. Artemus Baker was the last murder case tried in the courts of this county, and was based on the killing of a young Mr. Crow, son of Stephen Crow, an old resident of the vicinity of Woodbine. The killing was accomplished by the use of a pistol fired by the defendant, and death was instanta- neous. The altercation took place in the barn of Mr. Stephen Crow, and to the present day but one side of the affair has been told, from the fact that there was no person present except the two engaged in the quarrel. The death of the young man forever sealed his lips, and the murderer put the fairest coating possible to his statements.
This unfortunate and unhappy ending of the promising life of the murdered man took place some time in the latter part of the year 1875. The defendant being indicted, was tried at the January term of the District Court of this county in 1876, the
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trial being had in the M. E. Church building at Logan, the pres- ent court house at that time not being built.
The jury in this case was composed of the following persons: Stephen Mahoney, B. E. Vaughn, Albert Massingal, Lloyd Jen- kins, B. Parker, James Mitchell, "James Ervin, Matthew Hall, George Blackman, J. Nichols, O. W. Locklin and Peter Hender- son. In this case the defense was that the defendant acted in self-defense; and so thoroughly was this fact impressed on the minds of the jury, that though the case was only four days in being tried, the jury very promptly returned into court a verdict of not guilty.
Many have passed the opinion that had Mr. Crow killed the defendant, and had he been permitted to have told his story, the verdict of the jury would have been "not guilty," even though submitted to the same jury for consideration and finding.
The State of Iowa vs. William Sloan was a case wherein the defendant was charged with the crime of bigamy, committed as follows: That at some time during the early part of the sixties, the defendant had married a lady by the name of Coonrod, in Williams county, in the State of Ohio; that from the time of the inter-marriage of the defendant with the said Miss Coonrod, there were horn to these parties three children; that at and about the year 1868, this wife of the defendant had become blind, and that at and about the year 1870 the defendant had gone to Chicago, and from that city to Nebraska, and had after leaving Nebraska settled in the vicinity of Magnolia, in this county. That at and about the month of June, 1872, the defendant at his own instance, aided by his father, had procured a "patent divorce," through the guiles and wiles of one Goodrich, an expert divorce attorney of Chicago and in the courts of the place last named, and as stated by the wife of defendant, without her knowledge or consent. That the defendant at and during the former part of the year 1872 had married a very estimable lady in the vicinity
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of Magnolia, with whom he had lived quite happily until his arrest in 1879.
In the August term of the District Court of 1879, the defend- ant was indicted and trial was demanded immediately, he being ably defended by learned counsel from Ohio, as well as securing the foremost members of the local board at the place where in- dicted. The Ohio wife was promptly on hand, and told to the jury the story of her desertion and wrongs, and this, together with the fact that she was totally blind and had the charge, maintenance and support of two of the children, which she had borne to the defendant, and that during the entire time of her desertion the defendant had failed to furnish her any support whatever, and that she had, until within a few months prior to the date of trial, supposed that the defendant, her husband, was still unmarried. To this statement the defendant, both by him- self and father, attempted to show that wife No. 1 was fully cognizant of the procurement of the Chicago divorce; that she had even acknowledged service of the notice of the commence- ment of the action, as well as being party to an agreement of separation, and had in fact taken part of the consideration on which the agreement of separation was based, and that she well knew of the pendency of the divorce proceedings and had signed and acknowledged a power of attorney by which she empowered the said Goodrich to appear for her and thereby permit the de- fendant to have ordered in court at Chicago a decree granting the divorce. This power of attorney was produced and intro- duced in evidence, when the prosecutrix in the way of rebuttal, stated that at the time the said paper was executed, if executed at all, she was entirely blind, and that the defendant's father had procured her signature thereto by fraud and misrepresentation, by having her believe that she was signing something else.
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