USA > Minnesota > Stearns County > History of Stearns County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 72
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CHAPTER XXX.
TRAGIC EVENTS.
Unhappy Incidents in the Life of Stearns County-Murder and Suicides- Accidents Which Have Resulted in Death-Rivers and Lakes Prove Fatal To Many Youths-Railroads and Unruly Horses Claim Their Share of Victims-The Tragedies of Nearly Six Decades.
The first murder to stain the annals of Stearns county occurred on the nation's natal day, July 4, 1856. A dance was given at St. Cloud in a hall in a building where the Grand Hotel now stands, which was kept by Anton Edel- brock. The majority of the people then in St. Cloud were Germans, while Sauk Rapids and Watab were settled mostly by Americans. A dispute arose along racial lines, as to which nationality should have control of the dance, and a free-for-all fight followed, all kinds of weapons (except fire arms) as well as fists being used. During the melee Henry Becker was struck on the head, receiving injuries from which he died July 22. . A man named Clemens Mul- man (known as "Clemens, the sailor") was arrested charged with the mur- der. Joseph Edelbrock was sheriff of Stearns county at the time and Mulman was kept as a prisoner in his charge, under guard, there being no jail. He was afterwards taken to St. Anthony Falls to be confined in the jail there for safe keeping, but made his escape and was not afterwards recaptured. A bill rendered by the sheriff of Hennepin county for Mulman's board was presented to the board of county commissioners at the session, January 5, 1857, and rejected, the commissioners evidently believing that if the sheriff could not keep a prisoner until wanted he was not entitled to any compensa- tion.
TRAGEDIES.
1859. On Sunday, February 20, as the Rev. Thomas P. Calhoun and wife were driving in a cutter over the newly-constructed and not wholly com- pleted bridge across the ravine which divided lower and middle St. Cloud (the present Fifth avenue south ravine) the horse staggered and fell against the railing, which gave way and all were precipitated to the bottom, a distance of about twenty-five feet. Mr. Calhoun had leaped out of the sleigh, but went off the bridge while attempting to save his wife. He was so badly injured that he died the following Tuesday night, Mrs. Calhoun, who was a daughter of the Rev. David Lowry, while severely injured recovered. The horse was instantly killed. Mr. Calhoun was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, was highly esteemed in the community, and was about thirty years of age at the time of his death. When the fatal accident occurred he had been assisting at a meeting of the Methodists and was on his way to assist at a Baptist meeting.
1861. Lizzie Goerger, a little girl three years old, whose parents lived about two miles west of St. Cloud, while passing by a tub of hot water which her mother had been using in washing, one day in the early part of January,
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slipped and fell into the tub, being so badly sealded that after lingering for about two weeks death came to her relief.
A young child being left alone by its mother, Mrs. Waggoner, living in the upper part of St. Cloud, October 24, pulled a lighted candle off the table and was so badly burned that it died a few hours afterward.
1862. A large part of the April 17 number of the Democrat was taken up with a report of the trial of Anton Edelbrock for the murder of Michael Rieder ; Judge C. E. Vanderburg was the presiding judge; the prosecution was conducted by Attorney General Gordon E. Cole and County Attorney James M. MeKelvy; the attorneys for the defense being E. O. Hamlin, H. C. Waite and J. C. Shepley. The jurors were R. M. Richardson, J. C. Wilson, Albert Smith, Thomas Dibb, Peter Thielman, M. R. Brown, N. S. Capser, W. A. Gates, S. O. Crawford and Henry Lansing. The trial began April 10, conclud- ing on the fourteenth. A large number of witnesses were examined, the testi- mony being to the effect that Rieder, with several other men, had gone to Edelbrock's house, at St. Joseph, which was also a store where groceries and liquors were sold, on the afternoon of Sunday, May 5, 1861; the door was elosed and shutters were up; Rieder came to the door and attempted to open it; a shot was fired from within and afterwards another, this one being fatal, the gun being charged with buekshot. The jury after an absence of two hours and a half returned a verdict of not guilty. The case had excited wide interest throughout the country, and was the second case of homieide.
Henry Reichert, a lad of seven years, son of Sebastian Reichert, a baker residing in St. Cloud, was drowned May 10 in the Mississippi river. With several other small boys he had gone fishing and while sitting on a roek near the upper levee slipped into the water. After rising once he sank for the last time. The body was recovered Sunday of the following week, at Silver Creek, about twenty miles below St. Cloud, floating in an eddy of the river.
A German named Jacob Diel, engaged in Hunter & Smith's shingle fac- tory at the mouth of the ravine, St. Cloud, was so badly sealded August 1 that he died the second day afterwards. He was steaming shingle bolts, when he slipped and fell backwards into the vat of boiling water.
1863. On May 10 the body of a little girl, about six years of age, named Benoix, was seen by the miller at the Sauk river mill floating out of the Sauk into the Mississippi river. A boat was pushed out and the body secured. It seems that the little girl had been fishing with a younger sister near the mill dam and had by some misehanee fallen in, but the first intimation the parents had of her death was when the dripping corpse was brought to them.
Captain Oscar Taylor, while in front of his residence in upper town, May 12, shot at a dog near by and the ball glancing at an angle of about forty-five degrees struck Mr. Steinbauer, who was a short distance off, in the side, graz- ing the top of the thigh bone and lodging inside. He died two days after- wards, leaving a wife and six children.
1864. While hunting in Benton county, August 24, E. M. Tobey, of St. Cloud, mistook John Mathieson, who was in the brush, for a bear and fired, the ball entering Mathieson's neck below the left ear and coming out of the right shoulder. The wound proved to be fatal.
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1866. A young son of Ferdinand Hartman, living two miles from St. Cloud, was killed August 1, by a fork which had been thrown over a load of hay striking him on the head, one prong entering his eye, causing instant death.
1867. While a young man named Theophilus Brown, living about a mile below St. Cloud, was engaged, February 26, with Louis Mockenhaupt in felling trees the latter cut partly through a tree which suddenly split and swung to one side, crushing Brown to the ground and killing him instantly.
Plumb Stanley, a sixteen-year-old son of T. B. Stanley, of Maine Prairie, was drowned in Pearl lake, April 30, while endeavoring to secure a duck he had shot. The body was not recovered until four weeks afterward, but was even then in a good state of preservation.
August, the three-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Metzroth, of St. Cloud, July 15 fell into a hole filled with water and was drowned.
While John L. Thompson was at Grand lake, November 7, with a party who were occupying a deserted house, he attempted to frighten a young Ger- man boy by playing Indian, when the latter fired his rifle at Thompson, the shot proving fatal.
1868. At New Munich May 1, two little children of Jacob Hayman, while trying to follow their mother across Getchell creek, fell into the stream and were both drowned.
While at work at Tobey's sawmill at St. Cloud, July 22, Zeb Raymond, who was working at the edger, was struck by lightning and instantly killed. Fifteen other men at work in the mill at the time felt the shock.
Jacob Schutter, while loading hay, July 24, near Plumb lake slipped and fell, a sharp stake entering his groin and passing through to the backbone. He died two days afterwards.
1869. While Robert, the seven-year-old son of John Carlisle, of St. Cloud, was in the stable, February 12, he began pulling the tail of one of the horses, when the animal kicked him in the stomach. The lad lingered in great pain until the following day, when he died.
A couple of Chippewa Indians who were just across the river from St. Cloud, May 10, had a misunderstanding, when one shot the other, killing him instantly. The body was found later, wrapped in a blanket and surrounded by empty whiskey bottles. It was taken charge of and buried by C. T. Brown, the Chippewa agent, who happened to be in town at the time. The murderer, going to a camp of teamsters near by, shot off the other barrel of his gun and saying that he had just killed an Indian, disappeared.
A little son of Christian Bebense, of St. Cloud, while on a log, one end of which was in the Mississippi river, fell into the water, April 30, and was carried out by the swift current and drowned before help could reach him. The body was not recovered until four weeks later, when it was found at Bear Island, 20 miles down the river.
A nine-year-old boy, son of Andrew Shearer, of St. Paul, who was attend- ing school at St. John's College, near St. Joseph, was killed June 2 by a pet bear. He struck the animal, which became enraged and sprang on him, kill- ing him almost instantly.
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The body of Charles McManus, a corporal of Company E, Tenth United States Infantry, in camp near St. Cloud, was found in the brush on the old Lowry farm, on the morning of June 18, with a bullet hole in his neck. Sus- picion pointed to three men with whom he had been in a saloon drinking, Harrison Carhart, Fred DeForest and William Trainer. The latter was dis- covered with a government train and arrested. He made a confession, which implicated the other two men, charging that DeForest was the man who had actually fired the shot. The murder had been committed five days before the body was found and the other two had made their escape. Carhart was cap- tured and arrested at Quincy, Ill., July 3, and brought to St. Cloud and con- fined in the jail with Trainer. The trial of the two prisoners took place, be- ginning December 27, and ending January 1, 1870. The prosecution was con- ducted by E. M. Wright, county attorney, while the prisoners were defended by L. W. Collins. After the case had been concluded and the jury retired it was found necessary, after two ballots had been taken without an agreement, to dismiss the jury on account of the serious illness of H. J. Fowler, one of the jurymen. The second trial began January 24, 1870, and occupied a week, resulting in a verdict of not guilty, and the prisoners were discharged. The expense of the two trials to the county was about $4,000.
Hanson Christopherson, a single man, committed suicide in St. Cloud December 23, by swallowing strychnine.
1870. A boy, ten years of age, son of Stephen Rossier, of the town of St. Joseph, fell into Sauk river, near Brink's brewery, September 5, and was drowned. The body was recovered the following day.
1871. At Maine Prairie, January 10, a young man named John Perkins was killed by the accidental discharge of his gun.
Mrs. Axie M. Davis, wife of C. F. Davis, of St. Cloud, committed suicide August 1. The act was due to mental aberration caused by long illness.
Edward Stewart an orphan boy thirteen years of age, was caught in the tumbling rod of a threshing machine in the town of Raymond, September 17, and killed.
1872. On the afternoon of Sunday, January 14, a man named John Beaver, in St. Cloud, attacked his wife with a billet of wood with which he beat her to insensibility and then finished his fiendish work with a hatchet, after which he coolly left the house, and was soon after arrested. Their three children, the eldest nine years of age, were the sole witnesses of the crime. Beaver had frequently ill treated his wife, threatening to kill her. He was tried, found guilty and sentenced to state prison for life. A number of years afterwards he was pardoned on condition that he would return to his home in Germany.
While attempting to cross the new railroad bridge at St. Cloud, June 24, Frank Weary, the seven-year-old son of H. W. Weary, of St. Cloud, fell into the Mississippi river and was drowned. The body was not found until July 21, when it was recovered at Bear Island, twenty-two miles below town, having been washed on shore.
While a construction train was in motion at Spunk lake, September 4, a boy named Napoleon Lord, whose parents lived on the east side of the river
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from St. Cloud, attempted to get on board, but fell on the track and six cars passed over his legs. He was so terribly mangled that he died within an hour.
While playing by the Mississippi, near Bridgman's sawmill at St. Cloud, September 13, a three-year-old son of Mr. Hill fell into the river and was drowned.
George Easty, while hunting near the Little Rock creek bridge, eleven miles from St. Cloud, September 29, was instantly killed by the accidental dis- charge of his gun.
1873. A nine-year old daughter of Hendrick Messman, of St. Augusta, was kicked by a cow and so badly injured that she died February 1.
A boy named Adam Heimentz, whose parents lived about five miles from St. Cloud, broke his back by a fall, March 8, dying soon afterwards.
During a thunder storm July 15, John Schonborn, a merchant at Spring Hill, was struck by lightning and instantly killed, as were his two horses. His son, who was sitting beside him was thrown from the wagon, but was unin- jured.
While a twelve-year-old son of Casper Blattner, of Lake Henry, was swimming July 13, he got into too deep water and was drowned, his com- panions being unable to rescue him.
Peter Feelin committed suicide near Clearwater July 21 by cutting his throat. It was a case of disappointed love.
At St. Cloud in the evening of July 24, Robert Leitch was shot and almost instantly killed by Theodore Steinberg in the latter's saloon. Both men were under the influence of liquor; ugly words had passed between them, when Steinberg took a large revolver from a drawer and shot Leitch, who stood in front of him, on the outside of the bar, only a few feet distant, the ball entering the breast and passing entirely through the body. Steinberg was arrested and was held by the coroner's jury on the charge of murder in the first degree. He was released December 13 on $8,000 bail. The trial came on at the June, 1874, term of court, when Steinberg was acquitted, on the ground that the shooting was accidental and not intentional.
Word was received in St. Cloud that the body of Caleb W. West, for many years a resident of the city, had been found near the "draw" of the railroad bridge at Hastings on the evening of August 3. The injuries showed that death could not have resulted from a fall, and the coroner's jury re- turned a verdict that it was due to violence. The general belief was that he was murdered. The deceased was a brother of Capt. J. E. West and printed the first paper published in St. Cloud, the Minnesota Advertiser. The body was brought here for burial. Mr. West was thirty-eight years of age and left a wife and adopted son.
A five-year-old daughter of Mr. Decker, of the town of Rockville, was so badly burned November 1, by her clothes taking fire from a lighted candle she was carrying, that she lived but half an hour.
While Charles, the eleven-year-old son of George Herberger, was skating on the Mississippi river at St. Cloud, December 10, he went into a large air hole and was drowned.
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1874. Adney Allen, a farmer living near Sauk Centre, went to his barn April 22, finished his work there and then hung himself from a beam. No cause was known for his act. He left a wife and three children.
The body of H. H. Hovden, for nearly three years engaged in the grocery business in St. Cloud, was found floating in the Mississippi river at St. Paul, April 27. A partly-filled bottle of liquor in his pocket told the story, as he had been much addicted to drink.
While Amanda Burd, of the town of Ashley, about three miles from Sauk Centre, was drawing water from a well, May 9, she slipped and fell into the well, breaking her neck, death resulting instantly.
As a result of troubles over a road in the town of Krain, August 15, John Holler's wife was killed and Holler was severely injured by a neighbor named Henry Moonen. Mrs. Holler's body showed three terrible cuts inflicted with a knife, either of which would have been fatal. Holler had seven cuts, only one of which was dangerous. Moonen was arrested and brought to the county jail, and when tried at the December term of court was acquitted.
While engaged in re-curbing a well on the Webb place, at Fair Haven, October 9, Dominick Ott, of St. Cloud, was killed by the caving in of the sides of the well.
N. Zimmerman was found in the woods near Melrose November 24, the top of his head having been literally blown off, as was supposed by the acci- dental discharge of his gun while he was hunting.
On the afternoon of November 28, while Mrs. Ellen McLean was going from St. Cloud to her home near Pleasant lake on a load of lumber with Mr. and Mrs. Michael Undersander, the horses ran away, throwing her to the ground and breaking her neck. Death resulted soon afterwards.
1875. On the night of January 12, Mrs. Joseph Munzhuber, sister of Mrs. Henry Emmel, of Spring Hill, started to return home from a neighbor's about three-quarters of a mile distant, with her infant child. As she did not return her husband supposed she had remained at the neighbor's. Search was made all the next day and part of the day following, when the frozen body of the woman was found only a few yards from her own home, and witliin four feet of her the corpse of the little one.
A young man named Charles J. Swanson, employed at the Minnesota House, Sauk Centre, committed suicide, February 4, by taking strychnine.
While a young man named Joseph Orth, of St. Joseph, was getting water for his horses from the Mississippi river near Bridgman's lower mill, St. Cloud, March 9, he fell into the opening-as was supposed, no one witnessing the accident-and was swept under the ice by the swift current. The body was found July 12 lodged in the first brush dam below the city.
The body of C. C. Howland, a local shoemaker of Paynesville, was found on the morning of March 15 on the road near W. H. Blaisdell's house. He had frozen to death while on his way home from Roseville the night before.
By the capsizing of a sail boat on Sauk lake at Sauk Centre May 2, a man named Beach, of Birchdale, two boys named Burgess, former residents of St. Cloud, and another boy, Frank Winberg, were drowned. The lives of eight
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others were saved through the heroic efforts of a boy named Frank Yarno, who was on the shore of the lake a mile away and hearing the cries of the men secured a small boat and in two trips brought them to shore. The bodies of those drowned were not all recovered until more than two weeks after- wards, that of Mr. Beach being the last. He left a wife and seven children.
Eben Pillsbury, one of Stearns county's earliest settlers and most promi- nent citizens, living near New Munich, was struck by lightning on the morning of May 30 and instantly killed. The feathers of the bed on which he was lying were scattered all over the room-thus disproving an old time theory. The bolt came down the stove pipe, separating into two parts. Mrs. Pillsbury, who had arisen and was in the next room, was knocked sense- less. The house was set on fire but the fiames were extinguished by other members of the family.
John Wright, for a number of years a resident of St. Cloud, the family living at this time at Dayton, Otter Tail county, was murdered September 16 by Indians while herding cattle near Bismarck, D. T., withi George Lewis, of St. Cloud.
During a quarrel between members of Luther Laughton's family living near Clearwater, October 23, Orin Laughton, who had been at one time pro- prietor of the old West House in St. Cloud, was shot and killed by his brother, Nathan C. The latter was arrested and committed to await trial at the next term of the district court, held in March, 1876, at Buffalo, when he was found guilty of murder in the second degree and sentenced to imprisonment in the state penitentiary for life.
While engaged in digging a well on the Traun farm in the town of Zion November 13, a young man named Jacob Spenk was suffocated to death by foul air.
While several residents of Maine Prairie were hunting November 18 one of the party, Albert O. Kline, slipped and fell, accidentally discharging his rifle, the ball from which passed through the head of his uncle, Isaac N. Petty, who was walking behind, killing bim instantly. The deceased was about 35 years of age, and left a wife and six children.
In the town of Zion, November 23, a fifteen-year-old son of John Gilley, while engaged in hauling wood, had his neck broken by one of the horses throwing him against the pole of the wagon and then falling on him. He died almost instantly.
1876. Francis Metzner, a tailor, committed suicide at Melrose, January 1, by taking strychnine.
Maurice Guttermuth, while engaged in chopping wood near Avon, Feb- ruary 23, was instantly killed by a falling tree.
As the result of a quarrel over the contents of a keg of beer, at Two Rivers July 12, Peter Thienes, Sr., a resident of this county, was shot and killed by Michael Butala. The latter escaped but was found in the town of Eden Lake on the 23rd by Sheriff Geissel and arrested. He was tried at Little Falls at the December term of the district court, found guilty of man- slaughter in the second degree and sentenced to five years in state prison.
Nick Heins, of the town of St. Martin, was struck by lightning and killed
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August 5. This occurred very near to where Eben Pillsbury had met a similar fate about a year before.
At Paynesville in the afternoon of September 6 a little son of Antoine Wartenberg was playing around a horse when the animal kicked him in the side, injuring him so severely that he died within the next five minutes.
While working around a threshing machine near Sauk Centre September 15. William Parker slipped and was caught between the drive wheel and circle, being so terribly crushed that he died in less than an hour afterwards.
While an old gentleman named Fuller was coming to St. Cloud from Clearwater, his home, September 24, his horses took fright while near H. J. Fowler's farm and he was thrown out, striking violently against a tree by the roadside, and so severely injured that he died six days afterwards.
Nelson Wakefield, of St. Cloud, about eighteen years of age, while fish- ing in the Mississippi, nearly opposite Sauk Rapids, October 26, fell into the river and was drowned.
While John Meyers and John Mohs were in the woods hunting November 8, the latter saw what he supposed to be a deer about forty feet distant and fired, when on going to the spot found that he had killed a neighbor, John Meyrde.
1877. While a son of M. Miller, of the town of Zion, was coasting with other boys, January 5, the sled struck a stick of wood and was upset, the tongue penetrating his stomach, causing his death after five days of suffering.
An old man, Peter Gupser, living alone in the town of St. Augusta Jan- uary 30 was burned to death when his house caught fire, the flames having made such headway when discovered by the neighbors that nothing could be done.
While a number of men were engaged May 24 in building a barn on G. Niehaus's farm in the town of New Munich a man named Beumar, the worse for liquor, attacked Mr. Niehaus, who struck him on the head with a club, knocking him over. He remained unconscious until midnight, when he died.
1878. A three-year old son of John Little, of Melrose, fell into a bucket of hot water April 2, and was so badly scalded that he died.
A little son of Michael Thomey, aged four years, living in the Maples, strayed from home May 16 and although diligent search was made his body was not found until the twenty-seventh, about a mile and a half away.
Michael Loesch, of Rockville, while at work, May 29, moving grain fell through a trap door and was killed, his neck being broken.
At Winnebago Prairie October 31 the little son of a man named Lules, who had just arrived from Pittsburg and was moving on to J. F. Stevenson's farm, fell into a tub of hot water and was so badly scalded that he died that night.
While Valentine Wolk, of St. Wendel, was rolling a log on a sled, Decem- ber 6, the rope broke and the log came back, crushing him to death. His two little sons who were with him were powerless to render any help.
1879. The frozen body of George Patten, of Maine Prairie, was found near his house January 3. How long it had lain there was not known, as he was a single man and lived alone.
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