The history of Mower County, Minnesota : illustrated, Part 11

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago : H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co.
Number of Pages: 1246

USA > Minnesota > Mower County > The history of Mower County, Minnesota : illustrated > Part 11

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In January, 1874, was tried the case of the State of Minnesota vs. W. D. Jaynes. The defendant was indicted on the charge of rape. The immediate parties stood high in social circles and the arrest of Jaynes created a great sensation in this county. The state was represented by LaFayette French, the county attorney, and Colonel Kerr, of St. Paul, and the defendant by E. O. Wheeler and Gordon E. Cole, of Faribault. Judge Page was presiding judge. The first trial resulted in the conviction of Jaynes, but a new trial was granted on the ground that the prisoner was not present in court but was confined in the county jail at the time the jury returned the verdict. The case was afterwards tried twice. The second time the jury disagreed and the third time Jaynes was acquitted. In the last two trials the state was repre- sented by Lafayette French and M. J. Severance, of Mankato, and the defendant by Wheeler and Cole. During the trial there was an immense crowd, and only about half of the curious ones could get into the court house. M. J. Severance closed for the state and Gordon E. Cole for the defendant. They were both able lawyers and had a state wide reputation.

In June, 1898, the case of the State of Minnesota vs. Milt

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY .

Williams was tried. Williams was charged with the murder of one Flynn. Williams' mother kept a hotel in the city of Austin. Flynn and Williams had been drinking one evening, and while engaged in conversation with two girls who worked for Mrs. Williams, Milt shot Flynn. Williams was a young man, twenty- six years of age, who had been petted and humored by his mother. He was mixed up in several fights before this one. The state was represented by S. D. Catherwood, who was then county attorney, and Lafayette French. Greenman & Dowdall represented the defendant. Judge Whitock was the presiding judge. The trial lasted for several days. There was a good deal of excitement during the trial. The jury found the defendant guilty as charged in the indictment. Afterwards W. W. Erwin was called into the case and a motion made for a new trial and argued and the same denied by the court. An application to the pardoning board was made in behalf of Williams and Erwin succeeded in getting Wil- liams' sentenee commuted from murder in the first degree to murder in the second degree, and he was sentenced to the peni- tentiary for life. He and his counsel stipulated that no further pardon or commutation of his sentenee would be asked for. Too mnuch credit cannot be given to Mr. Catherwood, the then county attorney, in his management of the case. Flynn's body had been shipped to Buffalo within a day or two after the shooting and without Mr. Catherwood's knowledge. There were several things in the prosecution that would have prevented the conviction had it not been for the skill and industry displayed by the county at- torney. The conviction of Williams, who had an unsavory repu- tation, was due to the efforts of Mr. Catherwood.

In 1900 John B. Anderson was indicted, charged with the crime of murder. Anderson was a farmer living in the town of Marshall, and had a wife and several small children. He killed his wife by beating her brains out with a flat-iron. When the neighbors discovered her she was lying on the floor in a pool of blood. A nursing child who had attempted to reach its mother's breast to nurse had crawled through this blood. Anderson was found concealed in a straw stack. It was a horrible crime and the community was very much wrought up. On his arraign- ment he entered a plea of not guilty. The state was repre- sented by R. E. Sheperd, the then county attorney of this county, and the defendant by Lafayette French, who had consented to ap- pear for Anderson through the entreaties of his friends. After a thorough investigation of the matter, the defendant's counsel became convinced that Anderson was insane at the time he com- mitted the crime. He had fallen from a mast of a ship years before, receiving an injury to his head, from which he suffered thereafter. This injury to the brain, his counsel believed, had

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

affected his mind to such an extent that he was not responsible for the act, but that he was a man that ought not to be turned loose, and for the protection of society ought to be confined in some safe place. After mature deliberation and a conference with the attorney general, it was deemed advisable to have him with- draw his plea of not guilty and to enter a plea of guilty of mur- der in the second degree. The action of the court and the counsel in the disposition of this case was generally commended through- out the county.

In January, 1903, Frank W. Bell was indicted and charged with murder in the first degree. The state was represented by Col. A. W. Wright, the then county attorney, and S. D. Cather- wood, and the defendant was represented by Lafayette French. Judge Kingsley was presiding judge. Bell was the station agent of the Chicago Great Western Railway Company at Elkton, in this county. A man by the name of Cole had shipped a car of lumber to Elkton to be unloaded and to be hauled by team near the village of Grand Meadow. Cole employed Nelson S. Green, with his team, to draw the lumber. The car had been at Elktor. for several days and there was some demurrage charges against it. Green came after the lumber in the morning but Bell refused to break the seal and open the car until the demurrage charges were paid. Green was a large, muscular man, while Bell was a diminutive, frail man. Green attempted to break the seal of the car and Bell tried to prevent him. Cole telephoned Green to break the seal and, if necessary, break Bell's head. Green picked up a piece of board for the purpose, it was claimed by the state, to break the car seal, but defendant claimed that it was for the purpose of striking Bell. Bell drew a revolver and shot Green twice. Either shot would have proved fatal in time. Green died within a few hours afterwards. There was a great deal of feeling, Green being a prominent farmer, a Mason and a Grand Army man. It was almost impossible at the first trial to secure an impartial verdict. The jury rendered a verdict of guilty within a few moments after retiring. The defendant moved for a new trial, which was granted, and a special term held in March. 1903. On a second trial the defendant was acquitted. The trial of this case illustrates how easily public sentiment can be changed by a knowledge of the facts. At the beginning of the first trial the people clamored for the defendant's conviction, but at the second trial public sentiment had changed and he was ae- quitted. Bell was a weak man physically and mentally. He was unbalanced, and shortly after the last trial he became insane and was sent to an asylum in Michigan.

In 1871 the board of county commissioners of Mower county commenced an action against Sylvester Smith. Smith had been

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

county treasurer of the county for eight years. The system of bookkeeping in vogue in the several county offices was very lax and erude. Smith was considered an honest man by people who knew him, but an accountant hired by the county to examine the books found that he was short about $42,000. Suit was brought by the county against Smith to recover this sum. Page & Wheeler and Bachelor & Buckham were attorneys for the county and Cameron & Johnson, Gordon E. Cole and R. A. Jones appeared as attorneys for Smith. The case was referred to three referees, whom the court appointed to hear and try the case and report judgment. After a somewhat lengthy trial the referees so appointed found a judgment of about $20,000 against Smith. Smith appealed the ease to the Supreme Court and the ease was sent back for another hearing. Mr. Page in the meantime had been elected judge of the District Court, and having been of the counsel was ineligible to sit and try the ease. The parties agreed and the court appointed three other referees. The case came on for second trial, and Lafayette Freneh, the then county attor- ney, E. O. Wheeler and Bachelor & Buckham appeared for the county, and Cameron & Johnson, Gordon E. Cole and R. A. Jones appeared for Mr. Smith. After a lengthy trial the referees re- ported judgment in favor of Mr. Smith. The county records were kept so imperfectly that it was impossible to tell whether Smith should be charged with the shortage or not. Smith was believed to be honest, and that the diserepaney of the books and shortage in his accounts were due to the loose manner of keeping the books and accounts.

In 1870 a complaint was sworn out against Sherman Page for tearing up a sidewalk. A warrant was issued and placed in the hands of Allan Mollison, the then sheriff, for service. He went to the office of Page & Wheeler to make the arrest late one afternoon. After a seuffle and words with the defendant, who refused to go, the curtains were pulled down and Page lit his lamps. The sheriff then stepped to the window and called his deputy, Colos Fenton, to assist him. He found the door leading to the office locked, and after calling to Page to unlock the door and a refusal on his part to do so, he knocked the door down and went in and arrested him. Mollison was sued by Page for false imprisonment, holding that as the charge was a mere mis- demeanor he could not legally be arrested after dark. Fenton was sued for breaking the door and entering the office in an action of trespass. The case against Fenton came on for trial at the September term in 1871. Page & Wheeler were their own attor- neys and G. M. Cameron and R. A. Jones, of Rochester, were attorneys for Fenton. The case eame on for trial before Judge Donaldson and a jury. The ease hinged largely upon the point

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

whether the arrest was in the night time. Mr. Page summed up for the plaintiff and R. A. Jones for the defendant. It is a comment on the crude manner in which the courts were conducted in those days to note that all the counsel did in the summing up of the case was to abuse each other. The jury after being charged returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $600. Judgment was entered and later paid in full.

In 1884 a fire occurred at Brownsdale in the saloon and cloth- ing store of George E. Rolph. The insurance companies, three in number, under a pretext that they were investigating the facts, required that Rolph submit to an examination, before a justice of the peace at Grand Meadow. The examination disclosed noth- ing but what the loss was a legitimate one and ought to be paid by the insurance companies, but they refused to pay it. Proofs of loss had not been made or submitted to the companies. Later proofs of loss were made and served upon the companies. They were returned and rejected on the ground that they were not made within the time required by the policies. Suit was then commenced against the companies to recover the insurance. The companies answered and claimed that Rolph had set fire and destroyed the property; that he had sworn falsely in his state- ment in regard to the amount of property he had; that proofs of loss were not furnished in time as provided in the policies, and that the policies were void because he had no license to sell in- toxicating liquors at the time. The case against the insurance companies came on for trial before Judge Farmer and a jury. Lafayette French appeared for the plaintiff and Laing & Moly- neaux appeared for the defendants. The plaintiff had to rely for the most part upon a waiver. The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff in the three cases. One of the insurance companies, the Concordia, of Milwaukee, after the trial, paid up the amount recovered against that company. The other two companies, the Milwaukee Mechanics' Mutual and The German. of Freeport, made a motion for a new trial, which was denied, and the cases were taken to the supreme court on appeal. While the two civil suits against the companies were pending in the supreme court Rolph was arrested, charged with the crimes of arson and perjury. He had testified in the civil suits as to what property was in the build- ing at the time of the fire and that he did not know how the fire took place. In the criminal cases of the state vs. Rolph, J. M. Greenman, the then county attorney, and J. W. Lusk, of St. Paul, appeared for the state and John A. Lovely and Lafayette French appeared for the defendant. The state claimed that Rolph fired the building. and that some of the property, a large amount of liquor, was removed by Rolph and buried upon the farm of one Warren. The insurance companies had hired Pinkerton de-

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

tectives and they had found the liquor concealed on Warren's farm. Warren and his wife had made the confession to the detectives that they had assisted Rolph in concealing the liquor. Rolph was tried on the indictment charging him with perjury. Counsel for the state and for the defendant agreed to submit the case upon the evidence and the judge's charge, without argu- ment, although it was well known that J. W. Lusk, who appeared for the state, was one of the most able and skillful jury advocates while John A. Lovely had a reputation for being a most eloquent and able advocate. The jury retired and returned a verdict of "Not guilty." The state dismissed the other indictments. The appeal cases of the insurance companies were likewise dis- missed. The liquor, which had been found on Warren's farm by the detectives, was turned over to the county attor- ney to be used upon the trial of the case against Rolph. After the termination of the criminal cases the court entered an order for the county attorney to turn over the liquor to his counsel, who had taken a bill of sale of the liquor from Rolph. After the arrest the liquor was safely kept in the cellar of the county attorney. When the liquor was opened and counsel were ready to dispose of it, they found that the liquor had been drawn out of the casks and water substituted in its place. While consider- able fun was had at the expense of the county attorney, no one thought seriously that he was responsible for disposing of the liquor.

Probably the most important civil case that was ever tried in this county was the suit brought by Louis Rex Clay, by his guardian ad litem, Ida B. Clay vs. the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company and Thomas II. Bennett, to recover damages, which the plaintiff sustained at the village of Lyle, Minnesota, on December 7, 1905. The case came on for trial at the January term, 1907. On the first trial the jury disagreed and the second trial of the case came on a few weeks later. At both trials the plaintiff, Louis Rex Clay, was unable to be present in court. On the suggestion of his counsel, the jury and the lawyers, clerk of eourt and the sheriff, as well as Judge Kingsley, who presided at the trial, adjourned to his father's residence and his testimony was given while lying in bed. He was paralyzed from his shoulders down. He was a mere skeleton and unable to use any part of his body from below his head. but his mind and intellect was as clear as it ever was. He entered the employment of the company in the fall of 1905 as a freight brakeman. He was struck by an elevated platform at the station of Lyle and was thereby swept from the west side of a coal car on which he was hanging and thereby injured. The plaintiff was a young man about eighteen years old, bright and intelligent.

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

His father was an old conductor in the employ of the company. The negligence charged in the complaint was that the company constructed and maintained the elevated platform in question in too close proximity to passing cars; that without any advice or instruction or information as to the dangerous character of the platform, he was directed and ordered to ride upon a gondola car of unusual width by this platform. The second trial lasted several days, and when the case was submitted to them the jury returned a verdict for $35,000 against the company. Eighteen days after the verdict the plaintiff died from his injuries. The company made a motion for a judgment, notwithstanding the verdict, and in ease that was denied, for a new trial. Both motions were denied and the case was taken on appeal to the supreme court. Owing to the importance of the case the rule was sus- pended and counsel were allowed as much time as they wished for argument, and were unlimited as to the number of counsel who were to argue the case. The case was ably argued by counsel for the railroad company, but after due consideration by the court the case was affirmed. In the trial the plaintiff was represented by Lovely & Dunn and Lafayette French, and the defendant by S. D. Catherwood and M. B. Webber, of Winona. On May 4, 1908, the company paid this verdict, which amounted to $37,857.93, the largest verdict in a personal injury case that the supreme court of this state has ever affirmed.

CHAPTER XI.

COMING OF THE RAILROADS.

Old Land Grant Roads With Extensive Concessions-Roadbed Graded Through Mower County-Engine Reaches Le Roy- Freight Car Passes Through Mower County from New York to St. Paul-Later Growth and Development of the Railroad System in the County-Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul- Chicago Great Western-Illinois Central.

Mower county is crossed by the lines of three great railways : The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Chicago Great Western and the Dubnque & Sioux City, operated by the Illinois Central. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul has two lines and five divisions in the county. The Iowa & Minnesota line has stations in this county at Lansing. Ramsey, Austin, Rose Creek, Adams, Taopi and Le Roy. The Mason City to Austin line has stations in this

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

county at Lansing, Ramsey, Varco and Lyle. These two lines embrace the following divisions : Iowa and Minnesota ; Mason City to Austin ; St. Paul, Minneapolis and Des Moines ; and the Minne- apolis, St. Paul & Kansas City. The Southern Minnesota division has stations in this county at Ramsey, Brownsdale, Dexter and Grand Meadow. The Chicago Great Western has also three lines in this county. The Minneapolis & St. Paul-Council Bluffs & Omaha Short line has stations in this county at Waltham, May- ville, Austin, Varco and Lyle. The Minneapolis & St. Paul- Chicago & Dubuque line, which in this county is identical with the Minneapolis & St. Paul-Des Moines, St. Joseph, Leavenworth & Kansas City short line, has stations in this county at Sargeant, Renova, Elkton and Taopi. The Minneapolis, St. Paul, Red Wing, Rochester and Osage line, leased from the Wisconsin, Minnesota & Pacific Railway Company, has stations at Racine and Le Roy in this county. The Dubuque & Sioux City, operated by the Illi- nois Central, has one branch, the Cedar Falls & Minnesota in this county, and one station, Lyle.

These roads have been built at various times, and under vary- ing circumstances. The proposition for a railroad in Mower county was made in 1854, when the Minnesota & Northwestern Railroad Company was incorporated by the legislature to con- struct a line from Lake Superior by way of St. Paul, by the most practicable route to the Iowa line. This company was given a grant of alternate sections, six sections wide, on either side of the road it should build from the Iowa line northward, anywhere between ranges 9 and 17. This would have made it possible for the company to have secured control of considerable land in Mower county. In 1858 the grant to this company was made still more definite, and including the building of a line road that should leave the Iowa line west of seetion thirteen and pass through Austin. The provisions of the grant were not complied with by the road, and the company never came into possession of the grant. In 1858 the grade for the Minneapolis & Cedar Valley road was made in this county. Then came nine years of waiting, during which time various propositions and wildcat plans were afloat. After this, on September 9, 1867, the first railroad engine ever operated in Mower county reached Le Roy.

The Minnesota & Northwestern. On June 29, 1854, the United States congress passed an act to aid the territory of Minnesota in the construction of a railroad from the southern line of the territory, commencing at a point between ranges 9 and 17; thence by way of St. Paul, by the most practicable route to the eastern line of the territory of Lake Superior. The act granted every alternate section of land, six sections in width, designated by odd numbers on both sides of road as it should be built. In the terri-

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

torial legislature of 1854, Joseph R. Brown introduced a bill to incorporate the Minnesota & Northwestern Railroad Company. It was passed at midnight, on the last day of the session, and, contrary to expectation, Governor Gorman signed it. The route designated was from some point on Lake Superior by way of St. Paul to the Iowa line in the direction of Dubuque. As will be seen, the proposed route of the Minnesota & Northwestern Rail- road Company was identical with that mentioned in the land grant. After alterations and amendments, and charges of fraud both in the territorial legislature and in Congress, the land grant act was repealed by congress. The company, however, contended that congress had no right to appeal the act. The higher courts also upheld the congressional repeal. The matter caused much discussion in succeeding sessions of the legislature, but in 1855 the legislature passed an act to amend the incorporation of the Minnesota & Northwestern Railroad Company over the governor's veto. In 1856 the time for the building of the road was extended. and the extension approved by the governor. The road was chartered May 23, 1857, to build a line from the Iowa state line, somewhere west of section thirteen, via Austin, Mankato, etc., to New Ulm, Minn. In 1858, in a joint session, the legislature confirmed the territorial land grant of 1854, congress in the mean- time having made liberal provision for the giving of land grants to such railroads as should build in Minnesota. It was as the Minnesota & Northwestern that the Chicago Great Western line from Hayfield to Omaha was first laid in this county.

THE LAND GRANT ROADS.

An act was approved by the Minnesota territorial legislature May 22, 1857, creating four railroad corporations, and granting them alternate sections, designated by odd numbers, six miles in width on each side of the roads and their branches, this being in accord with the liberal railroad land grant by congress. These four railroad corporations, viz., the Minnesota & Pacific Railroad Company (changed to St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company ) : the Minneapolis & Cedar Valley Railroad Company ; the Transit Rail- road Company (changed to Winona & St. Peter Railroad Com- pany) ; and the Root River Valley & Southern Minnesota Railroad Company. The first named was created originally by this act. The latter three had already been organized. The companies were to pay three per cent of their gross earnings in lieu of taxes and assessments, and the lands granted by congress were to be. exempt from all taxation until sold and conveyanced by the com- panies. The corporations were generally given ten years to con-

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

struct their respective roads. The financial embarrassments of 1857 ·retarded the progress of railroad building; and it also be- came evident that the parties who had obtained the railway char- ters mentioned had neither the money or credit to complete these great highways of internal improvements.

The territory of Minnesota was admitted to statehood May 11, 1858. The constitution ratified and adopted October 13, 1857, provided in article 10, section 2, that "no corporations shall be formed under special acts except for municipal purposes"; and it still further provided that "the credit of the state shall never be given nor loaned, in the aid of any individual, association or corporation." Notwithstanding the strong feeling worked up over the talk of getting bonds in the aid of railroads so badly needed in the state, the first act of the legislature, which was approved March 9, 1858, before the state was admitted, was to submit an amendment to the constitution, providing for loaning the state's credit to the four land grant roads to the extent of $1,250,000 each, or $5,000,000 in all, provided $100,000 for every ten miles to be graded, and $100,000 for every ten miles when the cars were running regularly. In return it required the roads to pledge the net income to pay the interest on the bonds, and to convey the first 240 sections of land from the government grant to the state, and to deposit in first mortgage bonds an amount equal to the loan from the state for security. This proposal occasioned much uneasiness among the most prudent of the citizens in the state; and though public meetings were held denouneing the measure, it was, however, upon being submitted to the people, on the ap- pointed day of a special election, April 15, 1858, carried by a large majority, there being 25,023 in favor to 6,733 against the amendment. The measure afterward became known as the Five Million Loan Bill. The state bonds were of $1,000 denomination, had twenty-five years to run with interest at seven per eent, the railroad companies to pay the interest, and were to be delivered to the incorporators of the companies when ten miles of the road was graded and ready for the superstructure. Owing to techni- ealities it was extremely difficult to market these bonds. Times were hard and the companies were unable to pay the required interest.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

The history of Mower County, Minnesota : illustrated, Part 11

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago : H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co. Number of Pages: 1246

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago : H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co.
Number of Pages: 1246