USA > Indiana > Madison County > Historical Sketches and Reminiscences of Madison County, Indiana: A Detailed History of the. > Part 15
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After informing the whites of what had occurred, and the reason therefor, the two survivors mounted their ponies, leaving the dead unburied, and soon disappeared in the forest. The white settlers dug a grave near the tree where he was killed and buried him. Old timers living here then have frequently asserted that the moss on the north side of this tree assumed the exact face and head of an Indian. So strongly was this affirmed, and just as strongly ridiculed for many years that finally a man of the name of Harris, well known in Anderson at the time. quietly proceeded to the spot and cut down the tree, and thus stopped further discussion.
A few years subsequent to this event, one Dr. Roe started a phrenological publication in Anderson, and would occasion- ally deliver lectures on phrenology. To illustrate his points it was necessary to have a skull, and he proceeded quietly to the grave of the forgotten Pottawattamie, and unceremoni- ously took thereform the skull which had once belonged to the noble red man. This he used in his lectures as long as he re- mained here. and when he left. it is said, took it with him.
A WAR REMINISCENCE.
It was on the first Saturday evening after the firing on Fort Sumter, in April, 1861, that there was a voluntary
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mass-meeting of citizens in the old rectangular court house, which then occupied our public square. It was in all regards the most potential meeting ever held in that edifice. ()Id and young of all shades of political faith were present and took an eager and an active part in its deliberations, if such they may be called.
Dr. Townsend Ryan. Colonel Milton S. Robinson, Robert D. Traster, and Joseph Buckles, of Muncie, (the latter being then Circuit Judge) and many less conspicuous persons spoke. It is needless to say there were no two opinions-(it would not have been healthy)-expressed by any one on the subject then uppermost in the minds of old and young of both sexes. Nearly every man and youth present who was eligible for
DAVID SHAFER IN 1861.
military service. and many who were not eligible. volunteered in less than sixty minutes.
There were 186 volunteers and a company was at once organized, and W. R. Myers was elected captain but declined and suggested the name of Hiram T. Vandevender, assigning as a reason that Vandevender was two inches taller than any man in the company. It is needless to say that the spirit which then actuated the volunteers, was not the same that prevailed a year later. The question then was not who should be officers, but on the contrary it was who could most promptly respond to the call for troops for the suppression of the re- beilion, which Secretary of State Seward assured the country
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would be done in ninety days. The result was that I. T. Vandevender was, over his protest, elected captain, W. R. Myers, first lieutenant, I .. D. McCallister, second lieutenant, and Hampton II. Dula, third lieutenant.
Colonel N. Berry and Judge Starkey were conspicuous in giving assistance in the organization of the company ; Col- onel Berry having served in the Mexican war as a quarter- master, and Judge Starkey having served a five years' enlist- ment as a Seurgent Major in the regular army. It was soon learned that the office of Third Lieutenant had long been dis- pensed with, and Mr. Dula found himself an enlisted man, which not in the least embarrassed him.
After the business for which this memorable meeting had been called was disposed of, Mr. S. B. Mattox (then county recorder) made a speech in which he called the attention of the meeting to the fact that one Henry V. Clinton, who after- ward achieved a wide reputation of an unsavory character, was living with Mr. Berryman Shafer ( who then owned and lived on what is now the county poor farm), and had been there for several months. Mr. Clinton was from the State of Louisiana and though his deportment in the community up to that time had been that of a thorough gentleman, it was an easy task, owing to the fevered condition of the public mind, to rouse the imagination of the audience to believe that Mr. Clinton was an emissary from the South, with secret powers for evil against the government. Mattox's speech was fol- lowed by Samuel Waldon, then sixty years old, who posed as an " old Californian," and knew exactly how to tie a hang- man's noose, claiming to have had experience in that gentle pastime, as a member of the " Regulators " of the Pacific slope in the early fifties. Other speakers followed, all urging the necessity of immediately ridding the county and State of Mr. Clinton's presence. Mattox offered a resolution, authorizing a committee to wait on Mr. Clinton that night and give him twenty-four hours in which to absent himself from the State.
This resolution was adopted with much enthusiasm and in less than an hour anywhere from fifty to one hundred men and boys were on the road to Mr. Shafer's home. The old " bus" was engaged, and buggies and carriages were brought into requisition, while many were on horseback ; saddle horses and equipments were much more numerous then than now. The night was clear and beautifully star-lit. With wild whoops and hurrahs, the excited body of insane human-
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ity made its way to Mr. Shafer's home, via Chesterfield. It was probably twelve o'clock in the night when they brought up in front of the quiet, dignified home of Mr. Shafer, who was vociferously called out ; he promptly responded and stand- ing in the door in his night clothes, calmly inquired the oc- casion of this nocturnal visit. Mattox. Traster and Waldon were a self-constituted committee to wait upon Mr. Clinton. Others of the more rabid members of the party insisted on going in, but Mr. Shafer firmly protested against a crowd entering his house at so unseasonable an hour, but readily con- sented to admitting the above named gentlemen. He protested that he was a law abiding citizen, and that Mr. Clinton was the same, and was in his room in bed, where he intimated all the party ought to be. This very natural and just remark caused threats against Mr. Shafer, who immediately admitted the committee and conducted them to Mr. Clinton's room, which was on the second floor. It is needless to say that Mr. Shafer felt himself greatly outraged, which in fact he was, and Mr. Clinton was very much alarmed, though he was cool and self possessed. He sat up in bed while Mattox read the resolution to him, and excitedly and in language far from polite, demanded that Mr. Clinton should leave the county instanter. More moderate counsel prevailed, however, and it was agreed that Clinton could remain until morning, at which time he assured them he would take his departure. Ile pro- tested that he had left Louisiana, his native State, to avoid taking part in the threatened rebellion, and had hoped to find a kindlier hospitality than he was then receiving, but promised to go to Canada on the first train east the next day. This satisfied the committee, and also the crowd, a majority of whom had no sympathy with the self-constituted committee, many of whom had given their presence to the transaction for the sole purpose of seeing that no gross or brutal wrongs were perpetrated.
It was not until all this had transpired that the name of David Shafer was mentioned or thought of. Shafer had been absent for some months, or possibly longer, in Missouri, and had returned only a short time before that evening. He had, in the meantime, given vent to some very radical expres- sions, indicating a strong sympathy with the South. No sooner was his name mentioned than, by common consent, the entire crowd headed for his home, which was north of Chesterfield. On arriving near his home, which was a one-story log house,
..
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but little removed from a cabin, the party halted and con- sulted as to the best mode of making their nearer approach. It was soon arranged that a delegation of half a dozen should go to the house and call him up and interview him as to the condition of his mind on the then all-important question of his loyalty to the government. Will Mays, who will be re- membered by the older citizens of Anderson as a jolly, good-natured fellow and a great wag, was the spokesman of the party. They knocked and Shafer responded promptly * in his night-clothes with a good-sized revolver in his hand. The party represented themselves as fugitives from one of the border States, and that they had been directed to him by some prominent man in Indianapolis, as a person in sympathy with their cause, and, further, that he was quietly recruiting a company for the Southern army. This flattered his inordinate vanity, and he assured them, with great gravity, that such was a fact. He hospitably offered them such shel- ter and accommodations as he had, and assured them their services would be accepted. In the meantime he had donned his clothes, as the parley lasted some fifteen or twenty min- utes. One of the party stole away from him in the darkness and reported to the crowd the substance of his conversation. The house was promptly surrounded and " Dave " and his party of supposed rebel visitors were captured without resist- ance. the capturing party alleging that they had been follow- ing the visitors all night. Mays pretended to be very much scared, and begged most piteously for clemency.
The capturing crowd insisted that they all had to be hung before morning. Shafer argued his constitutional rights and declared he had come home for the sole purpose of en- tering the Union army, as he knew when he left Missouri there was going to be war. This resulted in an agree- ment to take the prisoners to town and give them a trial. They were all hustled in the " 'bus " and headed for town,- Dave soon braced up and became very defiant. Finally when the party reached what was then known as the " Billy Spark's farm," just north of Anderson, the crowd agreed that if Dave and his fellow prisoners would take the oath of allegiance they would let them go; to this all con- sented but Dave, who held out firmly and swore that he was in sight of the court house, the temple of justice, and he would not be forced to take the oath as he was always loyal to the constitution, and to take such an oath would be an ad-
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mission that he was not loyal. Mattox, Traster, Waldon and Joseph Mckinnon were the men that had the hanging in hand, and they placed the rope round Shafer's neck and threw one end over the limb of a locust tree and pulled until " Dave " be- gan to choke ; the crowd then protested, and when they gave him another talk on the subject of taking the oath and he re- fused, they pulled again, when Jacob Hubbard, who was then a splendid specimen of physical manhood and quite an expert boxer, interposed and soon persuaded them to unloose Shafer and let him go. By this time day was dawning and the party dispersed to their homes. This is the story of the hanging of Dave Shafer as recalled by an eye witness.
In many respects David Shafer was one of the most unique and eccentric characters Madison county ever produced. Hle was such a character as Dickens never had met, else he would certainly have given him a place in his immortal galaxy.
Ile was a Hercules in stature and physical strength. . \g- gressive and domineering, his virulent tongue frequently got him into personal altercations. Ile was for many years con- stantly in litigation over some trivial matter, and was a terror to lawyers, with whom he soon disagreed, and it is safe to say that he was at some time the undesirable client of every attor- ney in the county. After the death of his father. who was an honest, exemplary man, he laid claims to the whole of his father's real estate, and for years he was in court, during all of which time he lost no opportunity of denouncing his broth- ers, who were all very respectable, hard-working men.
Ile was illiterate. yet he had most of the New Testament and much of the old Bible committed to memory, and could repeat it by the hour. He was an ardent Democrat and never wearied in talking politics. He knew the Declaration of In- dependence by heart and also the Constitution of the United States, and his application of both his biblical and political learning was frequently amusing and grotesque.
He was naturally a mechanic, and without the aid of any one he built a very respectable two-story frame house on the farm he recovered from his father's estate. He laid the foun. dation, built the chimneys, did all the carpenter work and painted and plastered it : he was over two years in performing the task. Much of his time was spent in tramping through the country repairing clocks and such other tinkering jobs as he could get. The least bit of hospitality shown him was sure to be abused, and many of the older citizens remember his
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visits, not as pleasant ones, dotting the misty past, but as hor- rid nightmares; and when he took his leave the host, and especially the hostess, could truthfully say, " There is nothing I will more willingly part withal." He died in 1885, in his lonely home unattended, on a bed of straw on the floor, and his remains were buried in a neighboring cemetery. Peace to his ashes, and may his turbulent spirit have reached a haven of rest.
NOTE .- Berryman Shafer whose name is mentioned in this sketch, was in no way related to David Shafer.
CHAPTER XXIII.
A FAMOUS MURDER CASE-THE ARREST OF THE MURDER- ER-HIS TRIAL AND EXECUTION. .
THE MURDER OF DANIEL HOPPES BY MILTON WHITE.
On the 8th of April, 1867, one of the most horrible mur- ders in the history of Indiana occurred in Madison county about two miles southeast of Anderson, in which Milton White was the murderer and Daniel Hoppes the victim. The crime took place in a little ravine running through a strip of woods near where the residence of Daniel Rhodes now stands, on what is known as the " east line " Columbus Turnpike road. White was arrested the next day and taken before the Hon. Edwin P. Schlater, who was at that time a Justice of the Peace of Anderson township, where a preliminary examination was held, and the defendant bound over to the Circuit Court. At the following session of the grand jury, an indictment was re- turned against White and he was placed on trial. The Hon. Henry A. Brouse was then judge of the circuit, and the Hon. Nicolas Van Horn, now a resident of Pecos City, Texas, was the prosecuting attorney, who conducted the case on behalf of the state. The IIons. James W. Sansberry and Howell D). Thompson, with Calvin D. Thompson, Esq , appeared for the defence. These gentlemen were then in the prime of life, and their efforts in behalf of the criminal will be remembered by the older citizens of Anderson as long as they survive. Mr. Sansberry's speech before the jury was a masterpiece of oratory. Calvin D. Thompson is dead, but Mr. Sansberry and Mr. Howell D. Thompson yet live in Anderson.
A full and complete account of all the circumstances sur- rounding this affair from beginning to end was written by George C. Harding, of the Indianapolis Herald, now the Sentinel, the day succeeding the execution of the murderer. from which we make the following extract : "On the Sth of April, Daniel Hoppes, who resided about three miles from Anderson. had some meat stolen from him, and upon examina-
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tion, tracks leading from his smoke-house evidently pointed very strongly to Milton White as the person who committed the theft, the tracks leading almost directly to his house. Hoppes, with a neighbor, Mr. Swearingen, left his house on the morning of the tragedy and started toward Anderson for the supposed purpose of having a search warrant issued. At the junction, near Anderson, they met White. Hoppes re- quested Swearingen to go and see White about the meat,
MILTON WHITE.
which he did. After a short talk, White came up to Hoppes and agreed with him that they should at once return home, and that Hoppes might search White's house. They pro- ceeded down the Chicago & Cincinnati railroad track, in the direction of going home in the usual way, but were seen by a Mr. Hughes passing the water tank at about 10 o'clock in the morning. They were walking side by side, but the witness heard no talk between them. They were next seen by Rebecca Pittsford, who resided a quarter of a mile south of
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, INDIANA.
the railroad, on the pike. This was between 10 and 11 o'clock in the morning ; they were walking one on each side of the pike. The next time they were seen together was by Sallie Stevenson, who resided still farther south. Hoppes was walking about eight feet in advance. She heard no words spoken between them. A short distance south was a gate and bars leading through a piece of clearing or woods pasture, where Hoppes and White were last seen together by Patrick Allen, as they were going in the direction of the bars leading to the pasture. Here the dead body of Daniel Hoppes was found the next morning, lying upon his face with the skull fractured entirely across and around the right side. His head and face were crushed and indented into the ground, evidently by the force of the murderous blows. The weapon of death was but a short distance away, and was a sassafras club, about four feet in length, which bore upon its face some clots of deep dyed blood, with hair adhering to it. Hoppes not returning to his home for his dinner or supper, his wife became alarmed, and at once informed the neighbors of his continued absence. The fact of the meat having been stolen being known in the neighborhood, and that suspicion rested on White as the guilty party, and the fact of their having been seen together, led a number of citizens to repair to his house that night in order to keep him in charge until daylight should return, when they would search for the missing man.
White was asleep when the parties called at his house, and upon their entering a newly whetted butcher knife with its point still upon the whet stone was observed lying upon the table near the door. White was informed that Hoppes was missing, that they had been seen together, and it was thought that he had killed him, but White stoutly denied any such imputation. He was then asked where he had left the de- ceased. He answered upon the railroad. In answer to the inquiry, " whereabouts on the railroad ?" he answered " the other side," that he was standing there talking with a stranger. The searching party remained at White's house until morning. and at that time search was made for the man, and his body was found on the edge of a hollow basin in the woods pasture, not far from the path leading in the direction of their homes, and about thirty rods from the pike, and seventy rods from where Allen testified he had seen Hoppes and White together. White was then taken in sight of the body, but did not ap- proach it, remarking, " Yes, there he is." IIe was then taken 12
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to Anderson where a preliminary examination was held. The evidence further showed by the sister-in-law of the defendant that upon his return home on the fatal day, he was much excited ; that he came home about 11 o'clock, and said to her and his wife that Hoppes would not search any other house as long as he lived. He also said that he had an altercation with a man in the depot, and had struck him and in doing so had hurt his hand.
Upon the evidence adduced before 'Squire Schlater, . White was sent to the Circuit Court and tried as before stated. The evidence was entirely circumstantial in every part as no man saw the deed committed, but it was deemed entirely con- clusive by the jury. and the prisoner was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged on the 20th of September, 1867. Owing to the fact that there was no positive evidence, no eye- witnesses to the occurrence, efforts were made by some of the leading citizens of Anderson, prominent among whom was Dr. John W. Westerfield, to have the sentence commuted by Gov- ernor Baker. His excellency was at the time busy in canvass- ing the state of Ohio in a heated political campaign, and not having the leisure time to examine the case, ordered a post- ponement of the execution until the first day of November. It not having been known generally that the execution had been postponed, a large crowd assembled in Anderson on the 20th of September to witness the execution, and fears were enter- tained that the prisoner would be taken out of jail and hanged by the excited populace, but better counsels prevailed, and the crowd dispersed with the threat on the part of all that if the prisoner's sentence was commuted they would hang him any- way, and there is but little doubt that this threat would have been carried out.
Governor Baker at his first leisure repaired to Anderson and had a personal interview with White in the Madison county jail. The Governor was a very kind-hearted man, and would gladly have commuted the sentence, but after a thorough investigation he did not feel that he could do otherwise than let the law take its course, and White accordingly paid the penalty of his crime on the scaffold on the first of November, 1867.
THE VICTIM.
Daniel Hoppes, the victim, was a native of Madison county. He was a man of very small stature, and one of the kindest and most inoffensive of men. Though not remarkable
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, INDIANA.
for intelligence, he was richly endowed with that most god- like of virtues, charity. He spoke and thought well of all ; he was industrious and temperate, and was never known to drink liquor of any kind. He did not have an enemy in the world. Whenever he came to town on business, he did it as quickly as possible ; no matter what was transpiring, he immediately left for home. When election time came around, he quietly went to the polls, voted, and returned home as soon as he could. His whole life was wrapped up in his family. Though a poor man, weak and sickly, he supported his family by the honest labor of his hands. Such was the well known kind- heartedness of the man that it is absolutely certain that if White had returned to him the meat which he had stolen, he would have taken his property home with him, and said noth- ing about it.
THE EXECUTION AND THE PREPARATION THEREFOR.
Milton White's last night upon earth was restless. Up to the last day he had been buoyed up with a hope of execu- tive clemency, but as the sun went down on Thursday even- ing, hope departed and dark despair took possession of his soul. With dignified obstinacy, however, he refused to make any public confession of his guilt, and resolved to die game. At night he was visited in his cell by members of the press, in company with Hon. E. P. Schlater, before whom he had been tried in his preliminary examination. He was stolid and uncom- municative, and answered in monosyllables such questions as were propounded. He appeared to make a terrible effort to appear calm, and with the exception of the restless and glaring expression of his eye, succeeded in doing so. When he was asked a question which he did not like, his eyes flamed with an expression of tigerish ferocity which was calculated to make one's blood run cold. But little information could be gleaned from his conversation, and his manner seemed to be insincere. He was attended by the Rev. John B. Crawley, who was unremitting in his attentions and who labored earn- estly to turn the thoughts of the poor wretch to his God.
On the morning of the execution, White was again visited. He was walking to and fro in his cell with his hands crossed in front. On being asked by Mr. Schlater how he felt, he replied, " pretty well, thank you."
On being asked if he had been in the army, he replied that he had served in the 59th Indiana regiment. On being
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questioned if he knew a man by the name of Prellaman, he answered that he knew him well, and knew some things about him that he would not tell just at that time.
Friday morning, the day of the execution, dawned bright and beautiful. The hazy blue of the lingering Indian summer was radiated by a glorious sunshine, and a gentle breeze toyed with the falling leaves and sported with the fleeing thistle- down. The neighboring forests were radiant in the golden gleam ; the green, the crimson and the orange of the dying foliage presented a picture of surpassing beauty. A man with any poetry in his soul would have been more than ordinarily loth to leave so beautiful a world on so beautiful a day, but it mattered little to the stolid wretch about to take his last look of earth from the scaffold floor. The crowd began to gather from all parts of the compass, on foot, on horseback, in bug- gies, wagons and ox carts, the old, the young, the hale, the lame and the blind, male and female, dusty and sweat-be- grimed. The buggies came loaded with people; in many in- stances the whole family were present, from the old grandma, with wrinkled parchment skin, yellowed by time as the maple leaf, down to the infant in its mother's arms. Young girls with rosy cheeks came in troops smiling, chattering and co- quetting as if it were but a gala day. Young gentlemen mounted on sleek, well-fed horses, sitting on brand new pig skins, with hats gorgeously decorated with red, white and blue streamers, rode proudly into town with faces all aglow with the inspiration of the hanging festival. Lank and ague-shaken back woodsmen, dressed in linsey woolsey wammuses, types of an almost extinct race, trudged wearily through the woods followed by gaunt and half-starved dogs for the pitiful sake of being in the neighborhood of a poor, fellow human being who was about to be choked to death for his sin.
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