USA > Missouri > Nodaway County > The history of Nodaway county, Missouri, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., biographical sketches of its citizens > Part 41
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HISTORY OF NODAWAV COUNTY.
possessed him that he could murder all of the parties with whom he was traveling and thus get possession of their property. At the time, he, with Daniel Dickerson, was sleeping in the front end of the wagon, while Ormes, with his wife and their two children, were sleeping at the rear end. While thus lying in the wagon beside his companion, Dicker- son, he drew his revolver and shot a ball threw him, killing him instantly; that Ormes then sprang forward and received a ball from his revolver in his breast. A hand to hand scuffle ensued, during which both he and Ormes fell out of the wagon upon the ground ; that he then struck Ormes in the head with the ax and ended his life. About this time Mrs. Ormes became thoroughly aroused and was screaming for help. To stifle her cries he sprang into the wagon, struck her on the head with the ax and then cut her throat from ear to ear. He said he then killed the two little children in the same way ; that he then proceeded to arrange the bodies in the wagon so he could cover them up. He said he tried to lift Ormes into the wagon, but being almost exhausted he could not succeed. He then took the ax and cut his body into two pieces and then put them in. He stated that he alone' was guilty of the crime and felt that he more than deserved death ; that he only wished to see his wife before he died.
It may here be stated that some of the guard, on learning the facts from the prisoner, some time before he made the above statement public, had sent to Mount Ayr, Iowa, for his wife, and that the prisoner was anxiously expecting her to come to him.
It would be useless for the historian to attempt to describe the effect this statement made upon the crowd that listened to its narration. All the doors of the dwelling below had to be closely guarded for some time after the prisoner had disappeared from the portico above. Many wanted to take him from the house by force and hang him to a tree in the yard, but the friends of Mr. Lamme and his family, in unmeasured terms, denounced such action as rash and not to be thought of. Towards even- ing the excitement seemed to abate to some degree, and the officers of Atchison Township took charge of Tansey and removed him to Clear- + mont, en route for Maryville. But the people were so incensed at the atrocity of the crime, which certainly has never been exceeded in the West, except by the Bender tragedies, that they rose en masse and took him from the officers and hanged him to a tree on Clear Creek, just south of the beautiful village of Clearmont.
Thus was expiated one of the foulest murders that ever occurred in the state. The people of Atchison Township and the county at large are as law-abiding a people as can be found in Missouri, but this atro- cious deed seemed to transcend human endurance, and an outraged peo- ple meted out swift justice.
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The bodies of the unfortunate innocent murdered people were sadly buried in a land of strangers to them. A subscription was raised, and a tablet, with an appropriate inscription, was erected over their graves.
After Tansey was dead his head was severed from his body, and was conveyed to Maryville, where it was preserved for some time in alcohol. A negative was taken of his head, from which many photographs were taken, that were said, looked quite natural. Afterwards the head was sent to the city of New York for dissection. His body was buried near the tree where he was hanged.
Some days after his execution Mrs. Tansey came to Clearmont from Mount Ayr, Iowa. She was kindly received by the people, but when she learned the character of the crime committed by her late husband, she stated that she would leave him where a just vengeance had con- signed him, and returned to her home at Mount Ayr, Iowa.
Description of Tansey : Alexander Worth Tansey was about forty years of age ; about five feet four inches in height ; his weight was about one hundred and thirty-five or forty pounds. His head was the most prominent feature of his general make-up-it was quite large for a man of his size, and strange to say, to all appearances, seemed reasonably well balanced. His forehead was of medium height, square, and pre- sented a deep, thoughtful appearance. His mouth was small and lips thin. His eyes were black, keen and restless. His hair and chin whis- kers were black. His complexion was a swarthy brown or Mexican tint. Upon the whole, there was naught in his general appearance which would at once indicate such animal instincts as he surely possessed. His con- versation was fluent, voice low, and his general demeanor evinced much travel and experience. But little is known of his past history. He was a man of great firmness and much nerve.
THE ASSASSINATION OF NICHOLAS LEEHMER.
Few homicides in Nodaway County have been perpetrated from more unaccountable motives or been attended with circumstances of deeper mystery than the murder of Nicholas Leehmer.
He was a German by birth, and, with his wife Eva Betta, and an only child a son, David, removed from Buffalo, New York, to the State of Illinois, in the year 1865. Subsequently, the family went to St. Joseph, Missouri, and, in the latter part of the year 1870, they moved from that city to Maryville, in Nodaway County. In this last place they resided one year, and then changed their residence to the country-first locating near Platte River, in the eastern part of the county, and afterwards set- tling upon an eighty acre tract of land in the Nodaway River valley. This land was the north half of the southwest quarter of section No. 36, in township No. 64, of range No. 37, about one mile southwest of the
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residence of Anderson Cameron, where they still lived at the time of the tragic death of Nicholas Leehmer.
On their removal from Buffalo, they were accompanied by a young man, likewise a German, by the name of Martin Fluegal. Mrs. Leehmer had known him from his early boyhood. He was at the time of his trial, hereinafter detailed, about thirty years of age. He was of com- manding personelle, being nearly six feet erect in stature, of dark com- plexion, regular features and of quiet unobtrusive manner. There was little of the emotional in his disposition. He was a fine type of the stolid German temperament. He seemed to have been greatly attached to the Leehmer family. He first left Illinois and was followed by them to St. Joseph, where he lived with them about a month. During their stay in Maryville, he was a boarder in their house. In 1871, his father and mother, an aged couple, came from Buffalo to Nodaway County and purchased a farm, and Martin went to live with them. Shortly afterwards, Nicholas Leehmer bought the land we have described. It lay contiguous to the Fluegal farm on the west. During the stay of the Leehmers in Nodaway County, John Sweitzer and his wife, Mary, the latter a sister of Mrs. Leehmer, lived in Maryville.
Martin's father died some time in the year 1873. After this event, Martin boarded part of the time with the Leehmers. At the time of the death of Nicholas Leehmer, however, he was living with his mother, near the Sweitzers, in Maryville. The house they occupied contained but one room, and was situated a short distance south of what is now called the Maryville Hotel.
At the time of his death, Nicholas Leehmer lived in a small, one- story frame dwelling, containing only two rooms. The house stood lengthwise east and west, near the north line and northwest corner of the east forty acres of his farm. It was surrounded by an enclosure containing a few acres. From the west room, the only outer door of the house opened toward the south. On the last Thursday preceding the date of his death, Nicholas Leehmer brought his wife to Maryville to visit her sister, Mrs. Mary Sweitzer. He returned home that day, promising to come back again on the Tuesday following, to take his wife home. On Sunday, March 8, 1874. the boy, David Leehmer, left his father at home at 8:30 o'clock a. m., and started to Maryville, where he arrived about noon. John Sweitzer and wife, Martin Fluegal and Mrs. Leehmer and David dined that day at the residence of the Sweitzers. Immediately after dinner Martin went to his mother's. David Leehmer's mother endeavored to induce him to return home Sunday afternoon, but his aunt, Mrs. Sweitzer, prevailed on her to allow him to remain with them Sunday night. Martin Fluegal was sten at two o'clock in the afternoon of that day at the brewery, half a mile south of Maryville, then owned by W'm. Guller. He left there a little while before sundown. He admitted that
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HISTORY OF NODAWAY COUNTY.
he rode out west of Maryville, on the road going to Anderson Camer- on's, but stated that he had been out to Wm. Bosley's, who lived half a mile northeast of Nicholas Leehmer's, on the preceding Saturday to collect some money due him from Mr. Bosley ; that he had stopped on his return about two miles west of Maryville, when he dropped his pocketbook. This pocketbook he first missed on Sunday, at the brewery when he went to pay for his beer, and that he went west two miles Sun- day evening to get it.
On Sunday, March 8, 1874, Nicholas Leehmer was observed at home at different times during the day. He was last seen alive just at sun- down of that day, by his nearest neighbor, Mr. Green Cameron. Sunday night was damp and somewhat cloudy. There was no moonlight. The roads were muddy and freezing slightly. Between 9 and 10 o'clock of that night a single report of some kind of firearms was heard in the direction of the house of Nicholas Leehmer. Five or six parties, coming from the church at Valley school house, a mile and three-quarters south- east from Leehmer's, heard the shot. The neighbors living southwest and north of Mr. Leehmer's house likewise heard it. The concurrent evidence of these witnesses established the fact beyond doubt that the report came from the house of Leehmer. Shortly after this report was heard, a horseman was seen galloping past the residence of Anderson Cameron, who lived on the road leading from Leehmer's house to Mary- ville. The night was dark and the witness could not identify the strange horseman.
On Monday morning, March 9th, a neighbor called at the Leehmer house on business, about 9 o'clock A. M. The door was slightly ajar. The dog jumped at him near the house. A little lamb put its head out through the partly opened door ; the witness thrust it back and closed the door. He supposed the family were absent visiting. Other parties passed near the house on Monday. The cattle were lowing for feed, and all appearances indicated the absence of the proprietors. On Monday at twilight Mrs. Leehmer and her son, David, who was about thirteen years old, returned from Maryville to their home. They found the door closed. They opened it. The lamb jumped out as they entered. The room was dark. Mrs. Leehmer, supposing her husband had retired to sleep, felt for his head upon the pillow of the bed which stood in the northwest corner of the west room. Her hand touched his forehead-it was icy cold. Nicholas Leehmer was dead! She immediately dispatched her son to alarm the neighbors. A large 'number speedily gathered there. They found the deceased lying on his back in the bed. A red coverlet was drawn over him-a pillow lay upon his heart. His arms were straightened down and pressed upon his sides. He had on a shirt and a short woolen jacket. His drawers were rolled up and thrust between his lower limbs as if to gather the blood. His pantaloons and other cloth-
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ing were hanging on the bedpost. A hole appeared in his shirt, near the left side, in front. Around this hole was a distinct appearance of powder- burn.
On removing the shirt, a gunshot wound was discovered three inches below and two inches to the right of the left nipple. It was probed to the depth of twelve inches. The ball had sped downward, passing through the stomach, duodenum and aorta. He could not have survived more than ten minutes after receiving the wound. The blood had flowed freely, saturating the thin undress just beneath the wound, and settling in a large pool on the floor below. A few inches east of the bed, a blood-stain as large as a hat-crown was found, and close to it appeared the print of a human foot in blood stain. It had been made by a bare foot. Near the door, in the middle of the south side of the room, began a train of blood-specks which extended to near the bed. Near the partition door opening from the west room into the east room was found a large spot of blood. Close beside the cupboard in the southwest corner of the east room on the floor were two small spots of blood. No firearm or weapon of any kind except the table-knives was found in the house. Death could not have resulted from any suicidal act.
The deceased had no money before his death. There was no evi- dence of any struggle with a foe. The facts disclosed indicated that some person, actuated by motives of malice only, had approached the house under cover of the night, and called the deceased up from his bed. As he opened the door the assassin, perhaps sitting on his horse, fired the deadly shot. His victim, no doubt, leaving the door unshut, ran into the east room to the cupboard, with the intention either to escape further harm or to procure a knife with which to defend himself. Instantly becoming faint from his wound, he escaped to the bed, standing beside which he must have paused a moment, probably, to insure his chances, and staunch the blood, then lying down upon the bed, he drew over him the coverlet, and in a few minutes was a corpse.
An inquest was held over the body on Monday night. Martin Flue- gal was at once suspected, and on Tuesday evening, the 10th of March, he was arrested in Maryville by Henry Nelson, the marshal of the town. . When taken in charge by the officer, he betrayed no signs of fear. On being asked if he did not think it rather a serious affair, he simply answered "Yes." He was arrested at his mother's house. The house and his person were searched, but no firearms could be found. He made no statements tending to commit himself.
On the 19th of March, 1874, he was indicted for murder in the first degree. Mr. Horace M. Jackson was then prosecuting attorney. At this term of the court a motion was filed by Major B. K. Davis, who defended the prisoner, to quash the indictment. This motion was con- sidered by the court at the July term of that year, and sustained. The
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defect was purely technical. A second indictment for murder in the same degree was prepared against him July 15, 1874, to which he entered a plea of not guilty. The trial commenced in two days afterwards, and lasted till July 21st, when the jury brought in a verdict, after being out a short time, finding the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree. When this verdict was read, the defendant displayed little outward emo- tion-a slight pallor overspread his features. He was a stoic by nature.
A motion for a new trial was filed by Major Davis July 24. This motion the court took under advisement to September 9th, following, at which time an adjourned term was held. His honor, Judge Henry S. Kelley, was then on the bench. After careful deliberation, he sustained the motion. The evidence, though it pointed strongly to the defend- ant as the guilty perpetrator of the crime, was yet not of that indu- bitable and conclusive character which the law required before it declared the life of the defendant forfeited. Public sentiment during his trial had been strongly against him. Many expected, after his con- viction, that he would make confession of the murder before the time for considering the motion for a new trial should arrive. In this they were disappointed. No admission of guilt escaped his lips. On the contrary, he stoutly maintained his innocence with great apparent sin- cerity. During his imprisonment his conduct had been unexception- able, and after his conviction up to the time a new trial was granted him, a period of fifty days, his fortitude was of the most remarkable kind, and created among his friends strong sympathy in his behalf.
His second trial commenced March 24, 1875. A new prosecuting attorney had been elected-Mr. Cyrus A. Anthony. He was assisted, on the part of the state, by Mr. Horace M. Jackson.
Strenuous efforts were now being made by the friends of the accused. Mr. Lafayette Dawson and Mr. John Edwards were retained to assist Major B. K. Davis in the defense. The trial was conducted with great energy and earnestness on both sides. Much interest was mani- fested in its issue by the public.
In addition to the facts already detailed in relation to the murder, it was proved by the state that on Tuesday morning, after the killing, a horse had been hitched near the northeast corner of the fence enclosing the lot around Leehmer's house. The tracks of this horse showed he had been newly shod.
These tracks were followed. They lead in a southeasterly direction from Leehmer's house, then northward and out at a gate belonging to Anderson Cameron. The same kind of tracks appeared in the road leading eastward toward Maryville, next Mr. Cameron's house.
In December, 1873, defendant had a quarrel with deceased about some corn rows, and claimed deceased had stolen part of his corn. He
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then threatened to " shut off the wind " of deceased, but expressed him- self as afraid to do so on account of the law.
In the spring of 1872, he had been heard to say he would shoot Leehmer's heart out. Once he had interfered to prevent Leehmer from beating his wife. It was attempted to be shown that defendant and Mrs. Eva Betta Lechmer were improperly intimate.
A coat was found, in the spring of 1875, a little west of White Cloud Creek, on the road leading from Anderson Cameron's to Maryville. Several witnesses testified their belief that it was defendant's coat. It was a brown woolen coat, much soiled by long exposure, and had blots on it feintly resembling old blood stains.
Defendant had been heard, a short time prior to the commission of the homicide, negotiating the purchase of a pistol. His horse was bespattered with mud as it stood in his stable in Maryville on Monday morning after the murder.
A large blood stain was found on his saddle blanket. It appeared to be the print of a bloody hand. The blanket was examined on the day of his arrest. It was also proved that defendant's sorrel horse, which he usually rode, was accustomed to go in a lope rather than in a trot, and that he had been shod with new shoes March 1, 1874. The state- ment made by defendant that he had been out to John Clark's, near Leehmer's, on Saturday, March 7, was shown to be untrue. He was not at Clark's till Monday, March 9. William Bosley also denied seeing him on Saturday, the 7th of March.
On the other hand the defense offered evidence to show that defend- ant and deceased had been on friendly terms after the happening of the difficulties shown by the state. Mrs. Leehmer, about five months before this last trial, married a man named Hertzberger. She showed no attach- ment for defendant after his arrest. Her intimacy with defendant she positively denied. Another coat, similar to the one produced by the state, was introduced in evidence, and shown never to have been lost by defendant. It was proved that numerous herders, or cow boys, while tending their cattle in the valley of the White Cloud Creek, were accus- tomed to use old coats while camping out, and that they sometimes cast away on the plains. About the month of May, 1874, Judge Samuel Kennedy found an old coat near where the witness for the state said they had picked up this coat, offered in evidence by the state. The coat seen by Judge Kennedy lay about on the prairies for a long time, and was very similar to the coat offered in evidence by the state. Mary Fluegal, the mother of defendant, swore positively that Martin came home at eight o'clock on Sunday night, March 8, 1874, and that he slept all night in the single room occupied by them. A respectable witness in Mary- ville called on Martin about five o'clock on Monday morning, the 8th of March, and conversed with him, asking him for a loan of some hay.
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Witness then went to Martin's stable and found his horses all there in good condition. A skillful tailor measured the old coat offered in evi- dence by the state, and also the person of this defendant, and pronounced the coat entirely too small. Defendant attempted to try on this coat in the presence of the jury, and gave ocular demonstration to them that it was many sizes too small.
Several physicians testified as to the impossibility of determining whether the blotches on the old coat were blood stains ; much less could they say that they were stains made by human blood.
After the close of the evidence the case was argued at length on both sides. After the close of the arguments, the jury, after being out about forty-eight hours, announced to the court that they could not agree, and were therefore discharged. Nine of them were in favor of acquittal, and three were willing to render a verdict of guilty of murder in the second degree.
The defendant had now been imprisoned a year and twenty-three days. The prospect of the further continuance of his incarceration ; the uncertainty of the issue of a third trial ; the anxiety he must endure in the interim, and the earnest persuasion of his friends after the failure of the jury to agree this last time, induced the defendant to consent to to enter a plea of guilty in the case to manslaughter in the second degree, which the law permitted him to do under an indictment for murder in the first degree. This plea was accordingly entered April 2, 1875, and the defendant was sentenced to imprisonment in the peniten- tiary for a term of five years.
He served out three-fourths of his time, as fixed by the sentence, and was then pardoned by the governor for the remainder of the time, the law of this state permitting such pardon in case the defendant deports himself correctly during three-fourths of the period for which he is sentenced.
A REMARKABLE CASE OF INFANTICIDE.
On the evening of the 21st day of April, 1877, during the hour of twilight, Master F. M. Sharp, a lad about the age of twelve years, who resided with his parents in the town of Maryville, Missouri, near the Valley House, while engaged in playing at his home, missed his pet rabbit. After having searched every nook and corner in the house in the vain hunt for his rabbit, he finally concluded that the object of his search might be found under the house. So believing he continued there his explorations. While upon his knees, peering about in quest of the animal. he saw, as he thought, a bundle of rags, but upon taking hold of it and examining it more closely, he found to his great astonishment, that the supposed bundle of rags contained the body of an infant child, which had apparently been dead about four weeks.
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Its lower limbs and body were wrapped with raw cotton and rags, while over all was fastened a portion of bedticking and a flour sack. The face was bare around the nose and mouth. The eyes were open and the mouth closed. Stains of blood were observed upon its right shoulder and right ear, under which and over the jugular vein was a small incised wound. Its neck presented a livid hue, evidencing that strangulation had been produced by the ruthless grasp of a brutal hand. Every appearance indicated that the little waif had been foully murdered by some one who was not humane enough to give it even the semblance of a Christian burial. The tattered and faded habiliments which partially concealed its nudity, bespoke the extreme poverty of its parentage, and its diminutive proportions and delicate form showed that its existence here had been but brief-its lamp of life being scarcely lighted ere it was extinguished forever.
Whence came this atom, this speck of humanity, which had hither- ward drifted and found an accidental lodgment? What cruel hand had done the deed? Who was the mother with heart so adamantine and soul so bereft of motherly instinct, that could thus destroy and abandon her own offspring? These were the questions which propounded them- selves to the horror-stricken persons who had gathered there in the gloaming immediately after the discovery of the child.
About a month previously to the facts above narrated, the house under which the dead body was found had been occupied by a family who had lived there until the 25th of March. With this family resided a woman, whose name was Nancy Cornell. She was handsome, thirty-one years of age and unmarried. Suspicion at once pointed to her as the probable mother of the child and perpetrator of the dark deed. She was arrested and taken before Stephen Morehouse, a justice of the peace, where she had a preliminary examination. At this trial she made a con- fession, acknowledging herself to be the mother of the child, but impli- cating another party as the murderer.
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