USA > Missouri > Nodaway County > Past and present of Nodaway County, Missouri Volume I > Part 33
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The second trial commenced March 24. 1875, and then appeared the new prosecuting attorney, Cyrus A. Anthony, assisted by Horace M. Jackson. La- fayette Dawson and John Edwards were retained by the accused. Much ex- citement prevailed at this second trial. New evidence had been discovered. including the prisoner's tracks with those of his horse. In December, 1873. the young German had a quarrel with the murdered man concerning some rows of corn which he accused Leehmer of husking on his land and he then threatened to "shut his wind off." Again later, he had been heard to re- mark that he would "shoot Leehmer's heart out." It was also shown, or tried to be proven, that he was too intimate with Eva Betta, the wife of Leeh- mer. Blood was found on his saddle skirt and his horse upon returning to Maryville was found spattered with mud. The trial closed and mine of the jurymen were for acquittal, while three wanted to bring in a verdict for mur-
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der in the second degree. He had then been in county jail a year or more and his friends advised him to plead guilty of murder in the manslaughter degree, which he did April 2. 1875. He was then. under the existing law, sentenced for five years in the penitentiary, but, by good behavior, was al- lowed pardon by the governor at the end of three-fourths of that period.
THE HOGAN HOMICIDE.
A sad tragedy occurred October 9. 1879, at Burlington Junction, which brought about one of the most interesting trials ever witnessed in Nodaway county. Otto Sharp, on the 8th of the month named, was charged with forgery. Justice Henry F. Baker issued the warrant, which was placed in the hands of John Q. Adams, then constable in Lincoln township. He, with Isaac Weddle, started to arrest Sharp, but soon after starting it was learned that he was a very dangerous man. hence P. P. Fox, Hiram Fox, James George and one William Brown left Lemar Station to join Adams and his companion and assist in making the arrest. A very exciting time was had in chasing and finally capturing the man, who had engaged a liveryman to take him to some distant town, but was overhauled en route by Adams and his companions. He made good his escape, but was again captured in Ball Brothers barn at Burlington Junction. In trying to make the arrest. Martin Edward Hogan. then acting as constable at Burlington Junction, was shot by Sharp through the heart and only survived a short time. Adams disarmed the culprit and effected the arrest of the man.
At the January term of circuit court at Maryville, with Judge H. S. Kelley on the bench. the trial was had. The man was charged with murder in the first degree, and the case lasted ten days. The prosecution was con- ducted by W. W. Ramsay, prosecuting attorney, and his law partner, John Edwards, Esq. They made it clear that the accused was trying to escape from justice. having committed a forgery, and that any officer or good citizen had the right to shoot at him, which the party did, and that in his turning in defiance of the officers and killing Hogan, he had committed murder and should be punished according to the laws of Missouri.
The defense was conducted by Hon. Lafayette Dawson, Scribner R. Beech and L. M. Lane, who claimed self-defense and that Hogan came to his death by the unskillfulness of the physician called to dress. the wound.
The jury found Sharp guilty of murder in the first degree. Motion for a new trial was refused by the court and sentence passed that he be hanged
(23)
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on the 26th day of March, 1880. The case was appealed to the supreme court upon briefs prepared by W. W. Ramsay, with Attorney-General J. L. Smith, for the state, and by Scribner R. Beech and L. M. Lane for the defendant. Only three days before he was to be executed the decision came that the case was reversed and a new trial ordered.
The point of reversal was that the trial judge in his "charge" had used the expression "deliberately." which was defined to mean "intentionally, pur- posely, considerately," therefore if the defendant formed a design to kill, and was conscious of such purpose, it was deliberate, whereas. it should have been defined to mean, "that which was done in a cool state of the blood."
At the next trial, defense took the case before another judge. Cyrus A. Anthony was selected as the special judge in the case. The case was also re- moved to Atchinson county for trial. There, the case resulted in an acquittal of Sharp, who a year before had caused the death of Martin Edward Hogan. . His life was saved by the exact definition of the one single word "deliberation." He was the first person to be sentenced to hang in Nodaway county.
DR. TALBOTT MURDERED BY HIS SONS.
The crime of parricide is one of the most reprehensible known to the an- nals of history. A well known, deserving physician of Nodaway county was killed in his own home, in a thickly settled community, by members of his own household on September 18. 1880. thirty years ago, and the revolting crime still remains vivid in the minds of all now living who had knowledge of the terrible tragedy.
Dr. Perry H. Talbott was shot at his home, about seven miles to the south of Maryville, by his sons, who also had accomplices in the plot. The Doctor was born in Fairfield county. Ohio. in 1827. graduated at Starling Medical College of Columbus, Ohio, in 1849, and the following year came West to seek his fortune. He finally located in this county, having first crossed the plains to California in 1852. He was a typical border doctor, one possessed of much ability and a good education. He was, however, fond of cards and sports. He was frequently seen in this section riding or driving a gray mule. He rose rapidly in his profession and accumulated much prop- erty. He represented this district in the Legislature in 1856-57. and during the Civil war espoused the Union cause and was a surgeon in the Twenty- fifth Missouri Regiment. After the war he took up politics and was several times a candidate before congressional conventions. but without, success. - He
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became a Greenbacker and believed in the labor movement. It may be said that his mind was not on his family as a good father's should be ; he neglected his sons and allowed them to grow up as they pleased, ungoverned and un- cared for. His home became an arsenal of firearms and all of his children were familiar with their use.
On the day previous to his death at the hands of his children (as the evidence brought out) he had been attending the county fair at Maryville. returning home in his buggy about six o'clock in the evening. He was shot by an assassin that night at nine o'clock through the window. Upon his re- turn from Maryville, he found a professional call awaiting him and went at once to visit a sick child. He came back and in his room was showing his son Albert the copyright for a book that he was publishing. The wife had retired in a nearby room and he sat in his shirt sleeves by the bed, while the son was sitting beside a table near by, his arm on the window sill. A shot was fired from the direction of the window and took effect in his breast, the ball passing clear through his body and drew blood on the calf of the wife's leg. then entering the plastering. The ball weighed an ounce and a half and was large enough to have filled the barrel of a shot gun. The Doctor's hand being up to his breast at the time, his fingers were partly shot away. He fell. saying to his wife, "Belle, My God. I am shot." He survived until the next day at about two o'clock and was conscious up to within five minutes of his death.
The sheriff of this county was then Henry Toel and the the prosecuting at- torney was W. W. Ramsay. An inquest was held and the verdict was that Doctor Talbott had come to his death, assassinated by some unknown person. From the very start the family had been suspicioned. The knife marks on the ill-shaped ball were hard to explain away. The seeming coolness of the en- tire family was another point that tended to cause suspicion on the part of the general public. Then came a rumor from the Talbott mansion that the house had been attacked by armed men. an entrance made, a battle fought, revolvers and shotguns had been emptied at short range. But there was no evidence of all this rioting, save the dead man and the single bullet hole in the ceiling.
About this juncture there appeared a man named Jonas V. Brighton, a detective from Kansas City, who soon had the confidence of the two sons of the Doctor. They told him the story and admitted their guilt to him. In the meantime other evidence had been ferreted out and warrants were made out for the boys' arrest. This was performed by Sheriff Toel, Hosea Tor-
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rance and Nicholas Jones ; the hired man. Henry Wyatt, was at the same time arrested. The prisoners were taken to Maryville, where the preliminary hear- ing was held October 27-28, 1880, and resulted in all three being bound over on the charge of murder in the first degree. while the wife of Doctor Talbott was held under a bond of one thousand dollars. The grand jury in Novem- ber failed to find a bill against the wife, but held the other parties for trial. The trial consumed ten days and excited more interest than any case ever held in northern Missouri, representatives of the leading dailies in Chicago, Cin- cinnati and New York being present to report the evidence. The defense was ably conducted by Lafayette Dawson. Thomas J. Johnston and M. G. Moran. while the prosecution was conducted by the prosecuting attorney. assisted by John Edwards and Scribner R. Beech. At request of the defense, the case was tried before Hon. John C. Howell, of another judicial district. The case went to the jury and two hours later it returned its verdict as follows: "We the jury, find the defendant, Charles E. Talbott, and the defendant, Albert P. Talbott, guilty of murder in the first degree."
The Judge in his sentence made use of the following paragraphs: "This is no time for speech making, but rather for solemn thought and melancholy reflection. No doubt the defendants are sufficiently impressed with the gravity of the situation. If they are guilty-and they know whether they are or not-I can only recommend to them that they heartily repent of their crime, and have washed from their souls the foul stain produced by this awful violation of human and divine law."
The Judge then asked the defendants if they had any legal reason why the judgment of the court should not be pronounced on them, to which each responded : "I have ; I am not guilty of the charge." His Honor continued : "The jury says you are guilty, and therefore it is considered and adjudged by the court that you be taken hence to the county jail of Nodaway county, and confined therein till the 25th day of March, 1881, and that on that day you be taken thence by the sheriff to the place of execution, and that you be hanged by the neck till you be dead, and may God have mercy on your souls."
The Judge-manly man that he was-broke down and wept ; strong men cried and women shrieked aloud. The agony of the mother was indeed ter- rible. She chung to her sons and would not be torn from them. Albert's coolness forsook him and he too wept bitterly ; his mother and his affianced both must be bidden a long farewell. Charles was perceptibly moved, but to no great extent.
The end had not yet come. A motion for an appeal to the supreme court was made and granted and the boys were placed in the jail at Savannah. But
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when the decision was rendered which affirmed the lower court, they were placed in the jail at St. Joseph, and within a few weeks a plot was discovered by which they expected to make good their escape. Great efforts were made to gain executive clemency, but all they procured was a respite of sentence to July instead of June, when both suffered the penalty of their crime.
This was a prominent case in crime's record book, for Doctor Talbott was a popular physician, had resided here thirty years, had made a clean record and accumulated wealth.
Henry Wyatt, while jointly indicted with the defendants, had been granted a severance in the trial and was introduced by the state and gave the principal testimony, detailing all the plots and plans preceding the murder.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
MISCELLANEOUS EVENTS OF INTEREST.
In this chapter will appear the record of numerous items which of them- selves are hardly sufficient in importance to form separate chapters, but will be found to be interesting parts of Nodaway county's history :
DESTRUCTIVE TORNADOES.
But few localities in the United States, especially east of the Rocky Mountain range, are free from the terrible ravages of the tornado. How- ever. Nodaway county, owing to its peculiar topographical position,-its alti- tude and numerous natural timber land tracts,-has so far been very fortunate in respect to these "twisters," cyclones and tornadoes. But it will be the province of this article to portray a few of the worst wind storms that have ever swept over the county, in the memory of white men at least. We are in- debted to the files of the Nodaway Democrat for the following account of the storm that swept through the northern portion of the county on May 29. 1879. the same having been originally reported by the St. Joseph Herald :
"The cloud was first noticed at about four o'clock, and resembled a dense volume of smoke arising from a burning building, and such it was at the time thought to be. It did not appear to be over two or three rods in width, having the shape of a funnel, spreading out to larger dimensions at the top. Afterwards, it seemed to spread out until it finally covered a strip of territory half a mile wide.
"Upon arriving at the point where the tornado did its first damage the team was halted and a survey of the land taken. The first damage done was at the farm of Dudley Messick, about nine miles northeast of Fillmore, in Andrew county, where it destroyed an orchard of bearing apple trees and blew down the fences over which it passed.
"From there the whirlwind went to the farm of David Maginnis, about three-quarters of a mile farther on, where it literally tore a lumber wagon to pieces, but not injuring any of the buildings. The next farm in the track
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of the storm was that of James Wade, whose fences were completely wrecked, the pieces being scattered far and wide over the farm. From there the storm passed to the farm of Mr. Lemaster. Here it unroofed his cow-sheds, scattering the splinters in every direction, but, strange to say, leaving the stock unhurt in their stalls. From here the tornado seemed to increase in its fury, its velocity becoming greater, and the whirling motion growing more and more powerful. Sweeping at the rate of nearly sixty miles an hour, it passed a short distance north of the house of Charles Schmidt, on the farm of George R. Montgomery, when it turned suddenly to the southwest and struck Mr. Schmidt's house. This was a small frame building, and it was totally destroyed. The frame work seemed to have been mashed down by some heavy weight, and the roof rested on the top of this pile of ruins. The weatherboarding and shingles were scattered in every direction for several hundred yards. Mr. Schmidt was not in the house at the time the storm struck it, but his wife was, and when her husband made search for her in the ruins, he found her in a perilous position, in a sitting posture with a part of the roof bearing heavily upon her back and neck, hold- ing her to the ground. The fallen timbers surrounded her in such a manner that she could not extricate herself, and it was some little time before her husband could extricate or relieve her. She was then taken to the house of a Mr. Davis, where she was cared for by Dr. B P. Williamson as soon as he could be called and arrive. She was seriously bruised in various parts of the body, and perhaps injured internally.
"A team on the farm, being attached to a plow a few rods from the house, was unhitched by the driver when the storm was seen approaching. They were picked up bodily and carried a distance of three-quarters of a mile, and set down on the ground, uninjured! They soon returned unattended to the farm where they belonged.
"From the Schmidt farm, the storm swept on a little further to the southwest, and then turned to the northwest again, circling around the barn of Thomas E. Smith, of Bolckow, occupied by H. Wilson, striking the house and demolishing it. Mr. Wilson saw the storm approaching and nailed the door shut, but when the house was struck the nails were broken like little splinters and the door blown open and the room filled with the surging ele- ment. One of Mr. Wilson's little boys started to leave the house when the door was forced open, and he was blown against the fence. to which he caught and held onto bravely until the storm was over. In a few seconds the building, a story and a half house, was turned over on its side without
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breaking it, and then torn to splinters and the splinters strewn in every direction. Mr. Wilson had caught hold of a door casing and was thus car- ried a distance of a hundred feet to the north, where he was landed, re- ceiving painful injuries about the head and shoulders. Mrs. Wilson and the children were found in the ruins, the lady being bruised somewhat about the head and arms. A little girl aged eight years was severely burned by the fire from the stove and scalded by the hot water. A small boy was hurt about the face and head.
"Norton Geary, a young man employed by Mr. Wilson, received a few slight bruises.
"From that point the storm seemed to lift itself up and pass two miles and a half before doing any further damage. Then it dipped to the earth again, swooping down with terrific force upon the old Sixteen-Mile House, on the Savannah and Maryville road. The building was owned by Al. Dear- ing, of Barnard, and was occupied by John W. Phelps. It was also com- pletely demolished. It was completely blotted out of existence. On every side might have been seen timbers, boards, stone and other materials, cover- ing fully forty acres of territory. There was not a whole piece of furniture left. Stoves were broken, a sewing machine was torn to pieces, chairs, bed- steads, plates and cups, all shared the same fate. The stable was struck alongsides and turned over, leaving three horses standing completely un- covered, while a mule tied to the running gears of a wagon was blown two hundred feet over a board fence and set down unharmed. The wagon box belonging to these running gears was carried off in a northwesterly direction over a quarter of a mile. The orchard, one of the finest in all Nodaway county, was totally destroyed, trees a foot in diameter being twisted off at the ground and literally torn to pieces.
"The orchard of Mrs. Jackson, opposite, together with her house, was somewhat damaged. John Richardson, her son-in-law, was living in the house with his wife and two children, and Miss Inez Jackson. When they saw the storm coming they ran into the Sixteen-Mile House and Mr. Phelps hurried them off down the road with his own family and hid them under a large hedge, and thus saved them from annihilation.
"The next farm in the track was that of A. J. Turner, upon which was situated a new frame house, a story and a half high ; this was picked up and carried to the east a distance of about fifty feet, where it was let down and literally torn to slivers. Not a whole piece of furniture was left in the house. The storm was seen approaching and the family escaped to an old one-story house, formerly used for a dwelling, and were not injured.
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"Here the destructive monster reached its greater fury, sweeping on from the Turner farm to that of Henry M. Harmon, sixty rods to the northeast. The destruction at this place simply beggars description. Mr. Harmon's barn, a large structure, was first struck and shivered to atoms. The whole place was covered with boards and shingles and timbers. One large sill was carried a distance of half a mile and driven a distance of eleven feet into the ground. The residence. a story and a half building, was also wiped out of existence. Pieces of the house and barn were strewn along the path of the tornado for three miles. Harmon's orchard was destroyed. together with all of his fences. One wagon was carried high into the air across the One Hundred and Two river, over three miles, landing a total wreck. The family retreated into the old part of the house and escaped with their lives. Two of the boys were in the new barn, and one in the barn lot. but managed to escape with but slight injuries.
"At Harmon's farm the width of the track of the storm was about fifty yards. but spread out to the width of about half a mile, and next vented its fury on the farm of Mrs. Goforth, tearing its way through the timber and orchard, and from there a mile east the timber, trees and saplings were blown in every conceivable shape.
"The next farm visited was that of Uncle Frank Conlin. A large story and a half house, worth one thousand dollars, was wrecked. although not blown entirely down. Its walls were left standing at an angle of forty-five degrees. None of the family was injured. The corn crib and outbuildings generally were all demolished. The orchard and timber were badly dam- aged. A few rods from there a tenement house, occupied by William Bow- man, was unroofed and Mrs. Bowman was said to have lost her reason through the fright she received at the time.
"The next scene of disaster was at C. C. Robinson's house, occupied by Guilford Richards. This was a story and a half structure, and it was com- pletely destroyed. nothing being left within twenty yards of the foundation. The family were absent at the time, at a wool-picking. The carpet was left hanging in a tree eighty rods from the site of the house, and fully forty feet from the ground. Five hogs were killed, one being torn in two behind the shoulders. Mr. Richards dog was picked up by the storm and carried over the tops of trees for nearly a mile, where he was let gently down, without material injury.
"From here the storm swept on through the timber, for a distance of two miles, where the damage stopped and the cloud disappeared, having spent its force. This was within about two miles of the town of Guilford."
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THE HOPKINS TORNADO.
Twenty-nine years ago last June ( 12th day of June, 1881) occurred the never-to-be-forgotten tornado of Hopkins, Nodaway county. The author of this history is indebted to the Nodaway Democrat files for the following description of this storm :
"Last Sunday, June 12, 1881, will long be remembered by many on ac- count of the terrible wind-storm which occurred. The day throughout all this part of the country was very warm. the atmosphere being somewhat sultry and oppressive. In fact, it was just such a day as tornadoes might be expected. Along in the afternoon, clouds began to darken the horizon in different directions, the deep mutterings of thunder were distinctly heard, and vivid lightning flashed back and forth from cloud to cloud in such a manner as to portend a much more than usual disturbed condition of the elements.
"At about three or four o'clock in the afternoon, at Maryville, after quite a severe gale of wind, the rain began to fall and we were favored with quite a heavy shower. About the same time, however, in different localities, and not many miles on either side of us, were being enacted quite different scenes. The winds gathered together, and with tremendous power passed through strips of country in regular tornado fashion, carrying death and destruction in their pathway.
"From reporters who visited the course of the storm in the north part of the county on the day subsequent to its occurring, we are enabled to lay before our readers the following sad intelligence of the fearful havoc made by the storm king.
"The tornado occurred between four and five o'clock in the afternoon. It had its origin or starting point near the Lone Elm school house, in Atchi- son township, some six miles due west of Hopkins. Those living in the vicinity, who witnessed the storm, are of the opinion that there were near this point four different branches or wings of the tornado. each acting within a scope of its own and doing some damage before all of them united, being drawn to one immense funnel-shaped current. after which everything within its course was moved with such violence and force as is seldom exhibited, even in these great storms. These currents seemed to unite near the Jeffrey farm, some half mile east of the Lone Elm school house. One of the strands. however, before the union, struck down on the school house, entirely demol- ishing it. Another strand started out southwest of the place where they united. This strand passed just to the north of A. C. Miller's house. the edge just reaching to the house. tearing down the flues and his outbuildings and some of his fencing.
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