USA > Iowa > Poweshiek County > The History of Poweshiek County, Iowa : containing a history of the County, its cities, towns, &c.,. > Part 51
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In 1845, when the whole region of country west of this was Indian ter- ritory, and Des Moines was still a military post, Jonas Carsner plied his trade in various parts of the country. The Indians in and around the Fort at times had some money and very good horses, and Jonas operated with very good success among these savages. The Indians complained to Capt. Allen, who dispatched a squadron of dragoons in quest of the offender. The dragoons, who seldom went anywhere without accomplishing their purpose, returned, bearing with them the offender. He was tried by military court, and, the evidence not being conclusive, Captain Allen let him off with a flagellation, which was administered by the Indians.
A few days after Jonas was released, a teamster who was conveying sup- plies from Keokuk to the garrison at Fort Des Moines, encamped some dis- tance east of the Fort, and during the night one of his horses was stolen. Not being able to proceed without the horse, he visited a band of Indians near by and from them borrowed a horse to ride while searching for his- missing animal. After following the trail for quite a distance, he came to a dense thicket, and just as he was about to enter the thicket Jonas Carsner came riding up to him, mounted on the stolen horse. The teamster, whose name was Fish, was for an instant completely dumfounded and did not know what to do, but he was soon released from any doubts, as Jonas rode right up to him and coming along-side, drew a huge knife with which he cut the girth of the saddle upon which Fish was mounted, and giving the latter a quick wrench, threw him to the ground, and grasping the reins of the now disencumbered steed, galloped away, taking both horses with him. Poor Fish was now like a fish out of water, and was compelled to return to the Indians and relate the result of his sad adventure.
Carsner was again arrested and placed under five hundred dollar bonds to await his trial. A friend appeared with the money which was placed on the justice's table; while the justice was preparing some papers, Jonas
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walked out of the building and his friend grasping the money leaped from a window; both disappeared, leaving the magistrate without prisoner, money, or bondsınan.
Jonas Carsner has the honor of occupying with his name the first two pages of the Poweshiek county court record. What finally became of him no one knows, but certain it is he was not convicted in any legally consti- tuted court of this county.
THE CUMQUICK CASE.
During the summer of 1856, Andrew J. Casteel and his brother, who resided near Lafayette, Indiana, determined to emigrate to Iowa. Andrew, who had but recently been married, started in advance intending to stop for a short time with some of his wife's relatives near Bloomington, Illinois. The brother started about one week after, and from some reason not finding Andrew at the appointed place of meeting, crossed the Mississippi River at Muscatine, and proceeded to Boone county where he located. Andrew crossed the river at Burlington, and his brother in Boone county heard nothing further of him until he was summoned to Poweshiek county, to identify the dead and half decomposed remains of him and his wife, which were found hidden away in some corn fodder, a few miles west of Monte- zuma. It was evident that Casteel and his wife had been murdered, and the bodies were hidden away in order to give the perpetrators of the deed an opportunity to escape. Nothing farther could be learned of the matter, and although special effort was made to solve the ghastly mystery no facts were developed. Thus matters stood till the early part of 1857, when a man by the name of Morgan, residing in Des Moines, accidentally received an intimation which led him to believe that the crime had been committed by a man residing in Polk county.
A man by the name of Wm. B. Thomas, but commonly called Cumquick, residing in Polk county, not far from Des Moines, came home one evening very much intoxicated and shamefully maltreated his wife. Morgan hap- pened along the road at the time, and overheard the woman remonstrating with her husband, and among other things understood her tell Cumquick if he didn't do better she would tell about the Poweshiek county affair. Morgan, upon hearing this, suspected that Cumquick was the perpetrator of the murder. It will be well to state here that the murder of Casteel and his wife created intense and wide spread excitement, and there were persons in all parts of the State constantly on the lookout, for some evidence which would solve the mystery. This fact will account for Morgan, upon over- hearing the quarrel between Cumquick and his wife, immediately conclud- ing that there was the guilty man and determining upon his arrest.
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Upon arriving at Des Moines, Morgan went before the proper officer and made affidavit to the effect that he believed Cumquick was the perpetrator of the murder. The latter was immediately arrested and taken to Powe- shiek county, where he had a preliminary examination. At this examina- tion Cumquick had a host of witnesses, all of a bad character, who testified that the prisoner had been in Polk county at the time the murder was sup- posed to have been committed. There were other witnesses, however, who testified most positively to the effect that they had seen Cumquick on the road between Oskaloosa and Montezuma, in company with two other men and a woman, about the time the murder was committed. A certain land- lord, who kept a country tavern on the road leading from Oskaloosa to Pella, testified that Casteel and his wife had halted at his house, and that Cumquick and another man were in their company when they left. Persons testified that on the same day the Casteels left the aforesaid tavern they saw Cumquick and his companion driving a four-horse team toward Mon- tezuma, which team corresponded with the one the landlord said was in Casteel's possession in the morning. About six miles west of Montezuma the team was seen to turn south, and, after proceeding to Miller's saw-mill, to return to the main road, and go along it to a point about four miles west of Montezuma, where they stopped to water the team. Here they acted very strangely. Among other things it was noted that while Cumquick was at the well drawing water the owner of the cabin approached the wagon and bantered the man in the wagon for a horse trade. When he came near the wagon the driver whipped up his horses and drove off at a rapid rate, followed by Cumquick, who dropped the bucket and left without watering the horses. It also appeared in evidence that when they came to Joseph Hall's place they turned south on a by-way and encamped for the night, and it was about a half mile from this camping place, on the farm of Thomas Beason, that the dead bodies were found a short time afterward.
Cumquick was a peculiar looking man, and could be readily identified by any one who had ever seen him, and at the preliminary examination there were persons who testified to having seen him pass through Montezuma early the next morning, after encamping west of town; also persons who saw him driving along the road between Montezuna and Iowa City, and at the latter place two of Casteel's horses were found in possession of the stage company. A saddle and some harness, found in Cumquick's posses- sion at his home in Polk county, were also identified by James Casteel as being the property of his murdered brother. The evidence seemed to be sufficient to warrant the holding of Cumquick, and the magistrate ordered him to be held to await the action of the grand jury. He was in the meantime committed to the Scott county jail.
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The District Court for Poweshiek county did not convene till May, and in the meantime every citizen of this. and adjoining counties constituted himself a special detective to procure evidence against the prisoner. Thus it was that by the time court convened much additional evidence was accu- mulated, and the people, especially of Mahaska and Poweshiek counties ,
were in a fever of excitement. By this time it was generally conceded by all that Casteel and his wife had been murdered by Cumquick and his com- panion, in Mahaska county, shortly after leaving the country tavern before alluded to; that after killing them they placed them in the wagon, and, having covered them over, proceeded northwest a distance, and then turned abruptly east to avoid suspicion; that they turned south past Miller's saw- mill, which had been idle for years, with the intention of burying the bodies in the sawdust, but, seeing some persons near the mill, turned back, and proceeded to the place where they camped, and during the night placed the bodies in the fodder shocks where they were found.
On the 7th of May, 1857, Cumquick, having been indicted by the grand jury, was arraigned for trial. He plead not guilty, and upon plea of his attorneys was allowed a continuance till the next term of court. He was remanded back to the Scott county jail, where he remained till July, when court again convened at Montezuma. The people in Montezuma, and the whole surrounding country had in the meantime become thoroughly con- vinced of Cumquick's guilt, and were greatly enraged at the delays occa- sioned by technicalities and legal quibbles. Thus it was that when Cum- quick was brought back from the Scott county jail in July, there was a large and excited crowd in Montezuma. The excitement was intensified by one Dr. Moser, a brother of Mrs. Casteel. He resided in Indiana, and had been subpoenaed as a witness when the case first came up in May. When the case was continued it was necessary for him to return home. He had to come back in July, and in sundry speeches which he made to the crowd remarked that if Cumquick should be tried and acquitted he would regard the verdict as final and satisfactory, but that he would submit to no further continuances and delays. Such was the feeling of the people, who had fully determined upon lynching if the trial was not immediately proceeded with. The session of court begun on the morning of July 14, 1857, Hon. Wm. M. Stone presiding. The case of the State v. Wm. B. Thomas was the first one called, and Cumquick's attorneys filed an affidavit to the effect that the people of Poweshiek county were so much prejudiced against the prisoner that he could not have an impartial trial, and they therefore moved for a change of venue. The court had assembled in the old court-house, workmen being at that time engaged in the erection of the present court-
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house. The weather was intensely warm, and the crowd was so large that it was decided to adjourn to the school-house to hear the argument of coun- sel on the motion for a change of venue. It was about eleven o'clock when the arguments were concluded, and Judge Stone decided to grant the motion. The news soon spread through town that a change of venue had been granted to Mahaska county, and that the case would not be tried for some months. A mob immediately proceeded to the school-house, and by violence took the prisoner from the officers, and proceeded with him through town and west along Main street to a tree located on the north side of the street, on what is now part of the Cheshire estate in West Montezuma. A rope was placed around the neck of the prisoner, and he was suspended for a time; he was then let down and asked to confess; refusing to make any confession he was again drawn up and hanged by the neck until life was extinct. He was cut down later in the day and buried. Thus ended the case of Iowa against Wm. B. Thomas, alias Cumquick, who undoubtedly was one of the murderers of the Casteels, and thus in this summary manner was avenged one of the most frightful murders ever committed in the State.
A grand jury subsequently investigated the lynching, but no persons were indicted. Although this summary manner of punishing crime is to be deplored, it is probably well enough that no one was indicted, as it would have been impossible to convict anyone. At this late day the people of Montezuma have no hesitancy in giving the names of certain ones most prominent in the lynching, and a certain individual boasts that he carried the rope from the store where it was purchased to the place of execution.
Cumquick had now paid the penalty of his crime, but justice was but half satisfied. All the evidence against Cumquick was to the effect that he had an accomplice, and no effort was spared to find out who this accomplice was. Rewards were offered and every effort made to trace out the identity and location of the partner in crime. The great obstacle in the way of suc- cess consisted in the fact that the man who was with Cumquick in the wagon did not suffer himself to be seen; he never left the wagon and when he met anyone always gazed in another direction, consequently it would have been impossible to have identified the man even had he been discov- ered. Through the stimulus of rewards many persons were arrested and brought to Montezuma but the evidence against none was sufficient to war- rant an indictment. At the previous home of Cumquick in Polk county there was a special effort made to ferret out the guilty man. There was a man living at Des Moines at the time by the name of William H. Meachem who had previously been very active and successful in his efforts to suppress horse thieves; it was through his efforts in this direction that Jonas Carsner
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had frequently been arraigned for trial. This man Meacham determined to find Cumquick's accomplice. Accompanied by several persons he made a descent upon some suspected parties, and by dint of curses and threats, and .
brandishing of deadly weapons succeeded in capturing a man by the name of Van Schoick, whom he fastened with a chain and forcibly took to Powe- shiek county. In Poweshiek county Van Schoick was pronounced not to be the man whom circumstances had identified as the murderer. Mr. Meacham had, therefore, kidnapped an innocent man and after he had been detained in illegal custody for nearly a week he was released and told to go home.
But other evidence, or at least what was supposed to be evidence, hav- ing been obtained, again this bevy of men, who were officers ad libitum, burst upon the unsuspecting Van Schoick, and captured him with his father-in-law, Mr. Ridgway, and, barely allowing them time to get their coats, they were put into a sleigh and threatened with death if they attempted to resist, and borne away to Montezuma. But from the intense cold, and the difficulty of reaching Montezuma on account of the state of the roads, after reaching Jasper county, Mr. Meacham brought his prisoners to Des Moines, where he surrendered them to the Sheriff and filed informa- tion against them for murder. A trial followed, but the proof against them was of the most trifling nature, and they were speedily acquitted.
Fear of again falling into the hands of the merciless Meacham induced Ridgway and Van Schoick to commence an action against their late illegal custodian for kidnapping, but it appearing to the court that Mr. Meacham was a monomaniac on the subject of taking horse thieves, and various other felonious characters, he was on this and similar facts acquitted.
THE MURDER OF CLAIBORNE SHOWERS.
This tragedy created a most profound sensation throughout the entire State, and owing to the long and exciting trial of the supposed murderer, was more generally commented upon than any other criminal prosecution . which has yet occurred in the State. We deem this case of sufficient local interest, to devote some considerable space to a statement of facts of the murder as elicited during the trial and, also, some extracts from the argu- ments of counsel. The counsel employed in trying the case was the most able which could be obtained from the States of Illinois and Iowa, and it would be well if a full synopsis could be herewith given; such, however, would take up more space than can well be devoted to the matter.
About the 6th or 7th of May, 1863, the town of Brooklyn, in Poweshiek county, was thrown into great excitement resulting from the finding of the
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dead body of a young man, a short distance east of that place. The head was severed from the body, and was subsequently found a few rods away covered with leaves and bark. This head was recognized by John and Sampson Manatt, as being that of one of two boys who had stayed at their house a few nights previous, and who were as they said then on their way to the gold mines. The boys left Manatt's together on Saturday morning, May 2d, with a dun colored team and covered wagon, in the direction of Brooklyn. It was remembered by the citizens of Brooklyn that, on the morning of the 2d of May, a team answering to the description of the one that had stayed at Manatt's came to town accompanied by one young man, who left his team in Brooklyn and hired a livery horse for the purpose, as he said, of going to a grove where he had encamped the night previous and get a hatchet which he had forgotten. He was gone about two hours, · came back, took his team and drove out of town toward the west.
Public opinion immediately fastened upon this young man as being the murderer of his companion. He was described as being a tall, well built and well dressed young man, about twenty-two years old, good looking, a keen eye, and of sharp shrewd appearance. Diligent search was made by the officers of the law, but as some time had elapsed no trace of the supposed murderer could be found further than a few miles west of Brooklyn. The head of the murdered boy was taken in charge by Dr. Conway and preserved.
Three years and more had passed by when one morning in the latter part of May, 1866, a stranger took passage on the stage coach from Newton to Monroe, and took a seat on the outside beside the driver, Gaines Fisher. In their conversation on the way, the subject of crime came up and Mr. Fisher related the circumstances of the murder at Brooklyn. The stranger became interested, inquired the description of the boys, their team, etc., and instead of continuing his journey south, returned to Newton, and thence to Brooklyn, where he procured all the information possible in regard to the tragedy. The result of this was that Kirk G. Vincent was arrested a few · days subsequently at Cambridge, Illinois, on the charge of committing this murder in Poweshiek county. An examination was had before Judge Hinman, which resulted in defendant being held to answer a requisition from the Governor of Iowa. In July he was brought to Brooklyn on the requisition of Gov. Stone. A preliminary examination was had before Jus- tice Walter. The prisoner was bound over to appear before the grand jury, who found an indictment against him at the December term, 1866.
The case came up for trial on the 15th of April, 1867, and the following jury was impaneled to try the case:
C. W. Fenner, Homer R. Page, Thomas Heaton, James G. Mullikin, S.
HAR Leurs
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B. McLean, M. A. Malone, Alex. McCoy, E. R. McKee, C. L. Roberts, John Minscer, John Wood, and A. F. Page.
After the jury had been impaneled, Hon. M. E. Cutts, special prosecutor, proceeded to read the indictment. The indictment is somewhat lengthy and is not reproduced here. Mr. Cutts' associate counsel for the prosecution was Maj. H. W. Wells; the counsel for the defense was J. S. Buckles, H. M. Martin and Judge Howe, of Illinois. The first witness placed upon the stand was Mrs. Lucy M. Showers, mother of Claiborne Showers, the boy who was murdered. She testified as to the time when her son left for the west, that Kirk G. Vincent returned about the last of June, and of his peculiar conduct when she met him and inquired about her son. She fur- ther testified to the indentity of the head in the possession of Dr. Conway. She stated that her son and Vincent were cousins, and so far as she knew had always been good friends.
John D. Randall, a farmer living in Illinois, near Cambridge, testified that he had loaned his wagon to Vincent and Showers when they started on their journey.
Several other witnesses from Cambridge were sworn, who testified with regard to the departure from that place of Vincent and Showers.
George Haine, of Monticello, Iowa, was then sworn, who testified to having seen Vincent in that city in April, 1863, of a boy answering to the descip- tion of Showers, who was with him, of the team which they drove, and other facts going to show that Vincent had been in Monticello with Show- ers during an entire week in the latter part of April, 1863. A. J. Yarvel, of Monticello, also testified to his having seen the two boys together in Mon- ticello during the spring of 1863. C. H. Pierce, of Monticello, also testi- fied to having seen the boys together at that place in the spring of 1863. The same fact was testified to by James Middaugh, who saw the boys in Marengo in April, 1863. Mrs. Arabella Tinker, of Bear Creek township, Poweshiek county, testified that during the first week in May, 1863, she was out looking for the cows when she found the body of the murdered boy.
The next witness introduced by the prosecution, and probably one of the most important ones, was Sampson Manatt, of Bear Creek township, Poweshiek county. We give his testimony in full:
" About May, 1863, resided about four miles east of Brooklyn; still reside there; had resided there about fourteen years then. About the first of May, 1863, there were a couple of young men stopped at my mother's to stay over night, and camped in the barn-yard. They cooked their own victuals and slept there over night. I have seen the head of one of those boys since; I have seen the other. The first time I saw one of them after 29
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they left there was in Cambridge, Henry county, Illinois. Saw the body of the one that was killed, and the head that was found. I do recognize this defendant as one of them; I am positive. They had what I would call a dun team, medium sized and well matched. Cannot describe the wagon very well; do not think it was new; it was a very good two horse wagon, with a white canvas cover. They got there sometime before sundown, per- haps an hour before. Do not recollect the color of the manes and tails of the horses. Was with them in the evening till ten o'clock or after, and some time the next morning. Spent the evening with them; had conver- sation with them. They stated they were from Wisconsin; they gave no name that I heard. We had a kind of a jovial time in the evening; a little cutting up, dancing, fiddling, etc. The oldest of the two fiddled some, a few tunes; this defendant was the larger one of the two, and did the fiddling. The smaller one danced some; he was quite an active jig dancer; he danced considerable; could not say that he tried to mimic any one. Think they left between the hours of seven and eight next morning; was not at the house when they left. Don't know which one claimed to own the team. They said they were going to the gold mines; cannot say whether to Pike's Peak, or where. Think they came there Friday; am not positive. Think they left on Saturday morning. I first saw that body a half mile west of where we lived. Could not tell what day of the week it was. It was some- time during the next week after the boys left, perhaps six or eight days after. The body was lying just at the edge of some small hazel brush, not concealed, and I think lying on the back. The head was found a rod or a rod and a half from the body, covered up with leaves, bark and dirt. I rec- ognized the head at first sight as being the smaller of the two boys that were at our house, that is, as soon as I saw the face. Recognized the pants, which was all the clothing I recognized. He had on a pair of pants, pair of socks, and three shirts, no coat, vest or hat. I took the younger one to be from seventeen to nineteen years of age. Could not give the color of his eyes and hair, only that he had dark hair. He had no whiskers, but a very light moustache, if any. The larger one had no mustache, or if he had any it was light; could not say in fact. He had on light colored pants and vest, a dark cloth cap and dark coat. Did not notice where the wagon was made. I next saw defendant in Cambridge; did not recognize him at first, but the second day was satisfied in my own mind after I saw him about more, from his general appearance, that he was the man. At first he did not seem tall enough. The first time I saw him he was sitting in the court-room. When I saw him at my mother's place he was moving about most of the time. I found the dead body in Poweshiek county, Iowa. (The head of the mur-
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dered boy having been produced.) I am satisfied it is the same head I found in the woods covered up; recognized it then and do now as being the younger of the two boys that were at our house; don't know whether that scar on the forehead was there at the time or made since; could not say whether the scar was new when I found it. The nose was flattened a little; it seemed to have rested against the log. Did not notice the teeth of the younger one."
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