USA > Missouri > Buchanan County > St Joseph > History of Buchanan County and St. Joseph, Mo. : from the time of the Platte purchase to the end of the year 1915 biographical sketches of noted citizens, living and dead > Part 24
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The hanging took place at noon a few rods southeast of the Patee House, now McDonald's factory. The hills adjacent were covered by many witnesses of the sad scene.
The cortege left the jail, preceded by two companies of the Ninth cavalry, followed by Captain Dolman's company, guarding the prisoner. The condemned youth rode in a light double-seated carriage, seated between the Rev. Dr. Dulin, his spiritual adviser, and Barnes, the jailer, with Deputy Sheriff Matney in the same con- veyance. He was followed by Sheriff Enos Craig and his assistants, and an express wagon, wherein was an empty coffin.
The young man was calm and self-possessed to a remarkable degree. Being granted permission to speak, he said :
"The witnesses who swore against me swore to the wrong man. You hang an innocent man. You take the life of the wrong person. I left the Confederate army on the 20th of May, last, and since then have never fired a gun or pistol at any human being. The witnesses who swore that I killed that man were mistaken. I did no crime, but it can't be helped now. Remember, all of you, I die innocent. I am perfectly willing and ready to die, for I expect to find rest in another world. I die an innocent man."
When the time approached for the execution, a prayer was offered, after which, with unfaltering step, Linville approached the drop in the platform and stood unmoved while the sheriff, assisted by the physician, adjusted the fatal noose. A glove was placed in his fingers, which was to be dropped by him to indicate his readi- ness, the black cap was drawn over his face, the minister and all on the platform bade him goodby. At a few minutes before 12 o'clock
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he dropped the glove, the cord was cut and all was over. In four minutes life was extinct.
The corpse was taken to the H. & St. J. depot, delivered to his mother, and taken to Chillicothe for burial.
Joseph Lanier, who was tried by a military commission in this . city, was executed at Savannah, June 10, 1864. The crimes for which he was convicted, under three charges and specifica- tions, were: "Encouraging and aiding rebellion against the United States," "violating allegiance to same," and "violating laws and customs of war." It was charged that he, with other marauders, burned a mill belonging to a Mr. Caldwell at Rochester, Andrew County.
Lanier was a native of Tennessee, and became an orphan at an early age. In the fall of 1861 the Confederates under Colonels Boyd and Patton formed a camp near Rochester, which Joseph and his two brothers joined. Tiring of life in camp, he returned and be- came a member of the celebrated Hart gang. He was subsequently arrested by Major Bassett and Captain Davenport of this city, tried by military commission and sentenced to be shot. He was sent to the Alton penitentiary, where he remained nearly two years, await- ing a final decision in his case. The verdict was affirmed and he was sent back to be executed.
A military escort accompanied the condemned man to Savan- nah from the H. & St. J. depot in this city. The details were all arranged and carried out under the directions of Captain Theodore Griswold. At noon the prisoner walked between two ministers of the gospel to the place of execution, a few rods northeast of the depot. A coffin was placed before him, and facing the coffin and his executioners, Lanier uncovered his head while Rev. A. H. Powell uttered a prayer. He was unmoved and unconcerned when the death warrant was read, and when he was asked if he desired to be blindfolded, he replied, "Just as you please." He was requested to kneel by his coffin, which he did. Six bullets pierced his body. Upon the breast of the corpse, suspended by a black string around the neck, was a picture of the Virgin Mary, and in his pocket a crucifix, given him by a Catholic priest who had visited him in jail.
In the case of A. J. Bowzer of Linn County, charged with being a robber and guerilla, a member of Holtsclaw's band, the work of the military commission was quick. The evidence, in their minds, was conclusive of guilt. If it is true, as is said, that the testimony of one side only was taken, a decision was not difficult to arrive at. Bowzer was tried on September 8, 1864, and his execution was ordered to take place on the 9th-the next day.
The gallows was erected a short distance below where the Bur- lington roundhouse is now located. When the prisoner mounted the platform his step was firm and not a gleam of fear was depicted on
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his countenance. Lieutenant Harding, provost marshal, officiated, and at a signal from him the trap was sprung.
On the 23d day of the same month, in accord with the finding of the same tribunal, Henry A. Griffith, said to have been a member of the same company of soldiers as Bowzer, was executed on the same scaffold.
On August 27, 1864, while drinking in a saloon in the southern part of the city, known as the "Cottage Home," a soldier by the name of Jackson Jefferson became enraged at a fellow soldier and struck him over the heart with a stick of cordwood, death resulting at once.
Jefferson was sentenced by the court-martial to be executed on October 22, the place of execution being arranged for in the vicinity of the Patee House. When the guards arrived at the jail to take him, they found the door barricaded by the prisoner. He threat- ened death to the first one who entered. After some time, however, he yielded peacefully. He was placed in an ambulance, and, sitting on his coffin, was conveyed to the fatal spot. At 4:30 o'clock p. m. the prisoner marched to the center of the square, where his coffin had been arranged. When all preparations had been made, the man having given up all hope, a message was hurriedly delivered, giving him one week's respite.
At 2 o'clock on Friday, October 29, the time of the respite expired, and he was again escorted to the execution grounds. At the provost marshal's office he entrusted to a friend a number of letters, among which was one to his mother. Some difficulty was experienced by the officials in adjusting the handcuffs, when the prisoner, with composure, assisted in placing them in position. Having been blindfolded, he knelt beside his coffin. A platoon of soldiers leveled their muskets. Four bullets penetrated the con- demned man's frame-two almost severing his head, one passing through his breast, and one through the left shoulder.
November 9, 1865, Jacob T. Kuhn, a tenant of J. C. Roberts, about four miles east of the city, on the One-Hundred and Two River road, was killed while en route home from the city, his body being discovered a few rods from his house. It was found that Kuhn had been murdered and robbed, an axe which he had taken to town being near him, covered with blood and hair. No clue was discovered as to the guilty party until December 20, 1865, when Green Willis and Charles Clark, negroes, were arrested, charged with the murder of John Lohr, on the Brierly farm in Marion Township, a short time previous. Upon being examined before Justice J. C. Robidoux, Clark, the younger of the two, made a con- fession, which cleared up both the murder of Kuhn and Lohr, fast- ening the guilt upon Green Willis. The testimony was to the effect that Clark and Willis overtook John Lohr on the public highway, and Green Willis made a proposition to kill him, saying he had
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money. Clark assented, whereupon Willis struck Lohr upon the head with a stone, after which both dragged the body to a slough in Brierly's field. Clark had heard of the killing of Kuhn, and at that time Willis told him that he (Willis) had committed the act with an axe, and that he had thereby secured the sum of $25.
A special session of the circuit court was convened on Monday, January 22, when the jury, within five minutes after the evidence was closed, returned a verdict of guilty against Green Willis, con- victing him of both the murder of Jacob Kuhn and John Lohr and fixing the punishment at death.
The date of execution was set for March 1, 1866. On that day a large number of people came to the city. The scaffold, which was located on the bottom land in the southern part of the city, was surrounded by at least 5,000 people. The prisoner was attended by Rev. J. M. Wilkerson and Rev. Adam Dimitt, both ministers of negro churches in this city. Sheriff Ransom Ridge was the execu- tioner. The prisoner was informed that he had but a few minutes to live and was urged to make a full confession, which he did. He requested that his body be given to his wife for burial.
Charles Clark, the young negro associated with Willis, was convicted as an accessory and imprisoned for life, but it is said that he was later pardoned.
August 22, 1870, John Grable was executed for the murder of Joel Drake, Sheriff Irving Fish being the executioner. Although neither the evidence nor the confession established the exact local- ity in which the murder was committed, the defendant was indicted, tried and convicted in Buchanan County, Judge I. C. Parker being upon the bench.
On January 6, 1870, John Grable went to Parkville, Mo., for the purpose of securing a coffin in which to bury Joel Drake, first making arrangements with neighbors for the grave, etc. State- ments made by him as to the manner in which deceased came to his death caused suspicion in the minds of some, and on January 9 an affidavit was filed before Justice Saltzman in this city by one Daniel Bender, in which he stated that he believed that on or before Jan- uary 2d John Grable had murdered Joel Drake.
Grable and Drake were brothers-in-law, both residents of Platte County, and the former had accompanied the latter to Gentry County in a wagon to secure money due Drake for property sold by him in that county, he having formerly resided there. The evidence tended to show that the deceased secured a check for $475 on a St. Joseph bank; that the parties were seen together at several points between Albany, Gentry County, and St. Joseph ; that the check was cashed by Grable on the 3d day of January; that Drake was not seen alive in St. Joseph ; that Grable put his team in a feed lot in the city, at the same time warning the owner thereof that it would be dangerous to venture near the wagon, as a vicious dog was kept therein; that he drove the team to Halls Station, at which place Mary Nolan, a sister of Grable's wife, got into the wagon, the dead
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man meanwhile lying in the rear portion of the vehicle; that they then drove to their home near Parkville, where the body was buried.
John Grable made a statement to his brother, sister-in-law and others that he and Drake arrived in St. Joseph on Saturday, Janu- ary 1; that Drake cashed the check, giving him $120 to hand t Drake's wife; that they stopped at a boarding house not far fror the Blacksnake; that he saw nothing of Drake until Sunday after- noon, when he found him dead in a questionable house in the vicin· ity ; that the body was rolled into a blanket and placed in the wagon by three women, who threatened, in case he divulged anything, to swear the crime of murder against him.
Acting upon the statement in the affidavit, a coroner's inques rendered a verdict that the deceased came to his death at the hand of unknown parties, and on the Sunday following, armed with ‹ warrant sworn out before Justice Saltzman, Sheriff Fish went to Platte County after Grable, and brought him to St. Joseph.
A preliminary examination was held and the accused bound over to await the action of the grand jury, which found a true bil against him. The trial was set for Wednesday, May 25, 1870. change of venue was asked, but denied by Judge Parker, and tł case went to trial. Circumstantial evidence proved Grable's gui and a verdict of murder in the first degree was rendered June 1. F was sentenced to be executed on Friday, August 20, 1870, but Judge Henry S. Tutt, his lawyer, petitioned Governor J. W. McClurg for a respite, which was granted until September 9. Before the day of execution arrived the condemned man made a confession of guilt, in which he admitted the killing, detailing every fact in connection therewith, and when on the scaffold he reiterated the substance o his previous statement.
When the hour for leaving the jail arrived, at noon, Grable accompanied by Sheriff Fish, with his deputies, Charles Springe- and Captain Lund, marched out of the jail yard and entered an oper wagon in waiting to convey him to the place of doom. At this juncture the sheriff remarked that it was about the noon hour, and asked Grable if he did not desire his dinner. The prisoner readil: accepted the invitation, remarking, "I always eat when I can ge it." He ate a hearty meal. The repast completed, he again entered the wagon, seated himself upon his coffin, and was conveyed to the place of execution, located in the southern part of the city.
The cortege was accompanied by mounted guards, under com- mand of Captain Saltzman, who, upon arrival at the grounds formed a cordon around the scaffold.
Grable asked for whisky, which was furnished him, and als. asked permission to make a statement, as untruthful reports ha been published about him. He openly confessed the murder, an gave a warning to those within his hearing to avoid the use of intox icants, as by that means he was brought to his present position During the preparations for the final act he gave instructions as t
German-American Bank Building
View at Lake Contrary
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the placing of the rope around his neck. Soon the body shot down, the drop being about eight feet, and within a few second life was extinct.
The first private execution in the county occurred on June 30, 1888. On April 16, 1887, Peter Hronek, a Bohemian, who lived with his wife and one little child at 1705 Olive street, cruelly mur- dered the woman by shooting her with a pistol. Hronek was drunk when he committed this crime.
He was convicted and sentenced to be hanged, August 19, 1887, being fixed as the day of execution; but the case was taken to the supreme court. The lower court was sustained, and the condemned man was legally put to death on the scaffold in the jail yard on June 30, 1888, at 1:30 o'clock p. m. Sheriff Joseph Andriano was the officer in charge. Hronek was attended by Father Kryzwonos of the Polish Catholic Church.
On Sunday afternoon, March 8, 1888, a tragedy occurred at the Herbert House, corner of Fourth and Charles streets, this city. Louis Bulling, a young man born and reared in this city, who had. been separated from his wife, called at the hotel, where she was employed, and asked to see her. After a short conversation he shot her while she was kneeling by a trunk in search of a picture of their child, which Bulling had requested.
Bulling was tried, found guilty of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to be hanged. The case was appealed and remanded. A change of venue was then taken to Andrew County, and in March, 1889, the case came up for trial. The jury stood six for acquittal and six for conviction. In the following May the case was again tried and Bulling was convicted. The case was again ap- pealed to the supreme court, which sustained the decision. The date of the execution was set for March 6, 1891, to take place at Savan- nah. Sheriff Berry of Andrew County secured the gallows upon which Peter Hronek had been hanged and made other preparations. However, a respite was granted to April 17, 1891. On the night of April 10, Bulling sawed the jail bars and escaped. He was captured at Chicago in the latter part of June and returned to Savannah on July 3, 1891. On the night of July 4, 1891, he made an unsuccess- ful attempt to suicide with morphine.
Bulling was again sentenced, and September 4 set for the date of execution. The governor's clemency was invoked, but was re- fused. On the night before the execution the condemned man was much disturbed in mind, although he had a slim hope that his friends would be able to secure a commutation of his sentence to life imprisonment. It was expected that the execution would take place early on the morning of September 4, but it was delayed by the sheriff. The condemned man begged for a few hours' lease of life, and the hour was set for 2 o'clock. In the meantime the militia company was called out.
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Shortly before the fatal hour, Bulling, together with his spirit- ual adviser, went into his cell. Scarcely had the door closed before two shots were heard. Upon entering, the officers found Bulling weltering in his own blood. Both bullets had taken effect. For fear that the law would be cheated out of a victim, four stalwart men took hold of Bulling, who fought like a demon, and conveyed him to the scaffold, placing him in a chair. At 3:18 the drop fell.
Joseph Burries, known as "Dusty," a young negro, was hanged by Sheriff Andriano and his deputies at the jail on May 12, 1895. He had been convicted of criminally assaulting a little white girl on July 30, 1894. The sentence was pronounced by Judge Silas Wood- son. Though a strong petition was sent to Governor Stone, the executive refused to commute the sentence, but granted a stay of execution. On the night of December 31, 1894, Burries escaped from jail, in company with Pat Crowe and three others, but instead of leaving the country, as had been planned, he could not resist the temptation of again seeing his wife, and was captured the next night while in company with her in a room on Francis street.
The last night before the execution was an eventful one within the gloomy walls of the old bastile. A number of negro ministers called, and Burries joined in the religious services with much earn- estness. The colored quartette, all prisoners, sang religious songs, the singing being joined in by Burries. Between 1 and 2 o'clock the next morning, the fatal day, the condemned man awoke, sang a hymn and uttered an earnest prayer. Religious services were held that morning, and then Burries started a religious negro song en- titled "I Don't Want You to Grieve After Me," in which the negroes present joined wiwth fervor. It was a weird performance. The condemned man then knelt in prayer, at the conclusion of which he marched in his stocking feet to the center of the platform where hung the fatal noose. He died without a struggle.
On Friday, June 25, 1897, James Pollard, a negro youth, was executed by James Hull, sheriff, on a scaffold erected in the jail yard. July 30, 1895, Pollard, who was born and reared in the vicin- ity of DeKalb, returned to that neighborhood, after an absence of some time, went to the residence of Dave Irwin, another negro, with whom he had previously had trouble, and made an attempt to kill him. In shooting at Dave Irwin he shot Joseph Irwin instead, death resulting a short time afterward.
Pollard made his escape, being at large for some time, but was finally captured at Gallatin, Mo. He was tried twice for the crime, a conviction following both times. The case was appealed to the supreme court, and a strong effort was also made for a commuta- tion of sentence. The supreme court sustained the lower court, the governor refused to interfere, and Pollard was hanged. He was very pious during his last hours.
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Charles May was hanged in the jail yard April 17, 1903, for the murder of John Robert Martin at a dance near DeKalb, on the night of December 27, 1900. He was found guilty of murder in the first degree in March, 1901, appealed to the supreme court and ob- tained a new trial, but was again convicted. He died protesting that he had killed Martin in self-defense.
Mark Dunn was hanged March 11, 1904, for murdering Alfred Fenton at Rushville on the night of July 20, 1902. He was con- victed and sentenced to be hanged. The supreme court sustained the verdict, and after several respites by the governor the date of execution was set for March 11. On the morning of March 7, Dunn escaped from the county jail in a sensational manner. Having se- cured possession of two revolvers which were smuggled into the jail in a coal oil can with false bottom, Dunn overpowered William Henley, the death watch, and John and Walter Thomas, deputy sheriffs, and disappeared after locking the guard and deputies in the cell house. He was captured three days later at Rosendale, where he had sought refuge, being sick and exhausted, but escaped his captors in a few hours and got as far as Guilford, where his strength gave way. He was brought back to St. Joseph and exe- cuted on the day set by the governor.
CHAPTER XXIV.
SOME OF THE CASUALTIES THAT HAVE OCCURRED IN BUCHANAN COUNTY AND ST. JOSEPH- THE PLATTE RIVER BRIDGE DISASTERS-COLLAPSE OF NAVE & McCORD'S BUILDING AND DEATH OF NINE PERSONS -THE DROWNING OF FIVE GIRLS AT LAKE CON- TRARY-EXPLOSION OF DANFORTH'S FLUID AND THE KILLING OF THREE NEGROES-THE EARTH- QUAKE OF 1867 AND SEVERAL DESTRUCTIVE STORMS SINCE THEN-LIST OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FIRES.
A complete list of casualties that have occurred since the settle- ment of Buchanan County would alone make a book of considerable size. In this chapter only a few of the more notable mishaps will be briefly mentioned.
The Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad bridge over Platte River, east of the city, was the scene of several disasters. On September 21, 1859, the bridge went down under the weight of a train. Sev- eral were killed. On September 3, 1861, occurred what is generally known as the Platte River bridge disaster. The bridge had been burned, presumably by bushwhackers, who were expecting a regi- ment of soldiers whom they hoped to destroy by wrecking the train. Instead, however, a passenger train dashed at full speed into the chasm. Stephen Cutler, the conductor; Frank Clark, the engineer ; Charles W. Moore, the fireman, two brakemen and twelve passen- gers were killed. Early in the following November, while a regi- ment was crossing the swollen stream on a pontoon bridge, a heavy log dashed against the structure, causing destruction and loss of life. Seven were drowned, among them the wives of two soldiers.
Another notable accident of the early days was the collapse of Nave & McCord's store building and the loss of life. This building, a three-story brick, stood upon the site of the building on the west side of Third street, north of Felix, occupied by C. D. Smith's whole- sale grocery, and afterward by McCord & Collins' wholesale gro- cery. Directly north, and below the grade of the street, was a frame double-tenement, one side of which was occupied by the fam- ily of Samuel Harburger, a merchant, related to the Binswanger family of this city, and the other side by a family whose names could not be learned. On the morning of July 5, 1860, fire broke out in the upper floor of the Nave & McCord building, then occupied by that firm. There was no fire department in those days, nor were there many police, and the walls collapsed before the general alarm was given. The debris completely covered the tenement and Mr.
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Harburger, his wife, two children and servant girl perished, as did also four members of the other family. Two of Nave & McCord's clerks-William Hudnut and Henry Mitchem-who slept in the second story, had a narrow escape. In the collapse the timbers had so fallen as to protect these men instead of crushing them, and they were rescued from their perilous position by volunteers. The insur- ance companies refused to pay the loss on the building upon the ground that the collapse had occurred before the fire. The case was tried at St. Louis, and after eight years of litigation resulted favorably to Nave & McCord. It was proved by a traveling man, representing a flour mill at Beloit, Wis., that the building was on fire for some time before the collapse. He was a guest at the Patee House, and had been unable to sleep owing to the hot weather. Seated at his window, he noticed the flames and watched the prog- ress of the fire for some time before he heard the crash.
About 3 o'clock on the evening of May 13, 1864, a powder mag- azine, situated on the northern extremity of Prospect Hill, exploded. Near a hole in the ground, where the magazine had stood, the bleed- ing, bruised and burning body of a boy was found. Another body was found some distance away. The bodies were those of James McEnery and James Morrison. There had been several other boys in the crowd, who were more or less seriously injured. The boys had lighted a match and thrown it into a crevice in the magazine.
St. Joseph was violently shaken by an earthquake on April 24, 1867. The shock occurred at 2:35 o'clock in the afternoon. At first there was an ominous rumbling sound, then a rocking movement from east to west and west to east, which continued for twenty seconds. The alarmed populace sought the streets and there was intense excitement. The public school buildings shook, the plaster- ing cracked, huge seams being observed in the walls; the children screamed and the teachers, being bewildered and perplexed, dis- missed the frightened pupils and hastened to their homes. Never before was there such consternation in the city. In a few seconds the air was as calm, the earth as tranquil, the face of nature as placid and everything as harmonious as though nothing unusual had occurred. No damage was done to property. A second shock was felt in September of 1871, when there were fears that the old court house would collapse. A third shock was felt in the autumn of 1896.
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