History of Grant County, Wisconsin, preceded by a history of Wisconsin, Part 79

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: [Chicago : Western Historical Co.?]
Number of Pages: 1050

USA > Wisconsin > Grant County > History of Grant County, Wisconsin, preceded by a history of Wisconsin > Part 79

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).

JORDAN MURDER.

The most diabolically cold-blooded and brutal murder that ever occurred in Grant County was perpetrated June 15, 1868, by William Kidd, of Glenn Haven, who at that date killed Catharine Jordan, of the same place. Kidd and his victim had been brought up together, being children of farmers in the neighborhood, and for some years he had been paying to Miss Jordan considerable attention, and, to all appearances, was deeply in love with the young lady. This affection, however, was not by any means mutual, and Kidd had threatened to take her life if she did not marry him. Nothing more was heard of it until on the evening of the 15th of June, when Kidd drove over from Cassville with a two-horse carriage to the residence of Mr. Samuel McIvor, where Miss Jordan was stopping. He remained talking with the young lady for an hour and a half, when she was finally induced to get in the carriage and take a ride with him. This was the last that was seen of the girl until the next morning, when her mutilated body was found by a neighbor, looking for his cattle, near the farm of Mr. Mark Scott, of Glen Haven. Her throat was gashed from ear to ear, while the hands and arms were cut and bruised badly, giving evidence of the terrible struggle which must have taken place between the murderer and his victim. It was afterward discovered that Kidd, after committing the dastardly crime, had driven his team to his father's stable, hitched them, saddled a horse of his own and rode to Bos- cobel, where he left his horse and left for parts unknown.

The news of this horrible event fled like wildfire, and public feeling was lashed into the fiercest waves of excitement, which drowned every feeling but the one for vengeance on the mur- derer. The citizens of Bloomington and Glen Haven offered a reward of $550 for his arrest, and to this was added $500 by the county and $500 additional by the State, making $1,550. To this was added $250 offered by the citizens of Fennimore, making $1,800 in all. No traces of the ruffianly fiend were found, until, in October of the same year, he was captured in Nobles

527

HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

County, Minn., by J. T. Deleware, formerly of Glen Haven, but at the time a resident at Omaha, Neb .. and Frank Winship, of Sioux City. During the interval elapsing between the commission of the deed and his capture, Kidd had been rambling around through Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota, where he was engaged with a companion, whose acquaintance he had made, in trapping, when the pursuers closed in on him. He confessed the whole of his crime to one of his captors the first night after his arrest, saying after they left the house he had drove on for some ways, and had stopped his horses near a ravine, and, turning them across the road, had drawn his revolver and asked his companion to shoot him. This she of course refused, at the same time demanding his intentions, saying she was afraid of him. He then took out a knife, and Miss Jordan cried out, " My God! William, are you going to cut my throat?" To this the fiendish wretch replied in the affirmative, and endeavored to accomplish his designs. The girl resisted stoutly, but he finally wrenched the knife from her hand and succeeded in effecting his purpose. This portion of his fiendish story was told with a cold-blooded particu- larity horrible in its coolness. After being satisfied that life was extinct, Kidd alighted from the carriage, intending to throw the body in some sink hole, but the horses started, and he thought some one was coming, so, leaving the remains in the road, he jumped to the seat and drove hastily away. The reason given by the murderer for his hellish act was that he was in misery for fear she might marry some other person-his excuses being as feeble as his crime was dastardly.

The murderer cheated the law by taking a dose of poison while on the cars on his way to Grant County. His body was brought to Lancaster and identified, after which it was buried, and the crime passed into the dim region of remembrances.

HARNEY MURDER.

The southern portion of the county was the scene of an atrocious murder in 1865, which stirred the social strata of that section to its very depths. On Monday, September 25, of that year, Dr. Harney, an old resident of Fair Play, in a fit of passion shot and trampled to death his step-daughter, besides inflicting serious injuries upon his wife, the murdered woman's mother. His victim was the daughter of Mrs. Harney by a former marriage, and had been brought up in the family. Several years previous to the tragedy, she had been married to Joseph Hunsaker, who, at the time of the fatal affair, was in Idaho. Some few months previ- ous, Mrs. Hunsaker had expressed a desire to keep house by herself, and accordingly had moved into a house opposite the Harney residence. This move had been strenuously opposed by Dr. Harney, who upon finding that remonstrances were of no avail, and that the move had been made, forbade any of the family associating or having any communication with Mrs. Hun- saker. This command was not heeded by Mrs. Harney, except to choose such time for visiting her daughter as when the doctor was not about the premises. It was claimed by the friends of Dr. Harney that his naturally choleric temper had been augmented for some time previous to the fatal day by troubles with his head, and that arrangements had been made for his starting on a tour of travel, accompanied by some one of the members of his family. Be this as it may, on the day of the tragedy, while Mrs. Harney was out making calls with a lady boarding at Mrs. Hunsaker's, the doctor acted in a most unaccountable manner in following them from place to place, finally waiting for his wife on her return, and following her into the house, where he instantly knocked the unsuspecting woman down with the butt of a revolver he carried. Mrs. Harney screamed for help, and Ellen Harney, her step-daughter, hurried upon the scene, and seizing the infuriated man compelled him to desist from his work.

Upon the first outcry, Mrs. Hunsaker, who had been sitting on the steps of her house with her friend, started to run over, expressing herself as fearful that the doctor was attacking her mother. She stopped suddenly, afraid that he would kill her if she appeared before him, but her friend thought otherwise, and Mrs. Hunsaker rushed on and into the house where she found her mother lying on the floor. Hardly had she sank by her side before the now doubly- infuriated man threw her to the floor and stamped and trampled on the unresisting woman, frac-

528

HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

turing her skull in several places, and ending his diabolical work by sending a ball through her brain, killing her instantly. During this terrible scene his daughter Ellen had been trying with the terror of despair to prevent the consummation of his murderous intents. As the mur- derer attacked the daughter, Mrs. Harney struggled to her feet and ran into the street crying for help. The doctor tore himself away from his daughter and started in pursuit, and fired two shots at the fleeing woman, happily without effect. He had just caught up with her, and was about to again begin an attack with the butt of his revolver, when it was wrenched from him by his son Harrison, who took his mother to the house. The murderer passed through the room where the lifeless body of his victim lay, making some bitter remark, and, securing a lancet, attempted to cut his own throat. In this, however, he was not successful, and although when afterward confined in jail at Lancaster. he tore the bandages off in order to bleed to death, his wounds finally healed, and he was tried, convicted and sentenced to State Prison for life. Mrs. Harney also recovered from her injuries, leaving only one victim to the insane fury of the murderer. The excitement created in the immediate neighborhood of the place where the crime was committed knew no bounds. During the summer of 1880, a petition was circulated for the pardon of the doctor, but the result of the petition is as yet unknown.

HAGGERTY MURDER.

By far the most horrible crime ever committed in the limits of Grant County was the mur- der of the Haggerty family, near Lancaster, in December, 1868, by Andrew Thompson, a par- amour of the woman. The first acquaintance of the parties dated back to ten years previous to the date of the murder. At that time, John Haggerty kept a saloon at Bull's Head, some six and a half miles west of McGregor. At the breaking-out of the war, Haggerty enlisted, and Thompson continued his visits to the place, finally becoming criminally intimate with the woman. Upon the return of the husband from the war, he was not long in finding out the exact status of affairs, and he soon after left for California, leaving his family to shift for themselves. A child was the result of this intimacy, which was killed by the mother, Thompson being accessory to the murder. The saloon was then sold out, and the woman with her children moved into a little house on Thompson's farm, but did not remain here long before they again were moved to McGregor, where they remained until December, 1868, when, yielding to the importunities of the woman, Thompson took her and the children in a covered sleigh, and started on the journey which was to end in a crime the like of which is hardly surpassed in all the criminal annals of the country. Crossing the river at McGregor, they came down through Grant County, passing down through Bridgeport, Patch Grove, Bloomington, North Andover, Cassville, Beetown and Lancaster. At the latter place, the family, consisting of Mrs. Haggerty, her daughter and two sons, were last seen alive. In a confession made after his conviction and sentence, Thompson referred to the motive of the trip as being a desire to find some place where he and the woman could live together without disturbance, but as he himself acknowledged having previously tried to get rid of her, it is extremely probable that the trip was undertaken with the intention of rid- diny himself once and for all of this encumbrance by fair means or foul. This belief is strengthi- ened by numerous incidents and circumstances observed by persons in the places through which he passed.

After a week's absence, Thompson returned to his family in Clayton County, Iowa, but gave no explanation of his absence or where he had been. May 29, of the following year, trunks and other. articles were discovered by some fishermen in a slough near Prairie du Chien, and a few days later the corpses of Mrs. Haggerty, her daughter and the two boys were discov- ered in the river near Cassville. On the 2d day of June, a warrant was issued for Thompson's arrest, but upon the approach of the Sheriff, his " man " escaped to the woods near his farm- house, and eluded for a short time the officer of the law. But not for long, as the woods were soon alive with infuriated men armed with guns, and who were only too ready to use them. This brought the fiend to a realizing sense of his danger, and he came out of his hiding-place and gave himself up to the Sheriff. After some debate as to jurisdiction, his trial took place in Iowa,

529

HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

resulting in his conviction. He was sentenced to be hung September 9, 1869, but the execution was postponed, pending a settlement of some question of jurisdiction by the Supreme Court, and his sentence was afterward changed to life imprisonment in the Penitentiary. During this interval, Thompson wrote out and published a confession, in which he claimed that the girl Anna had been sick when they started from McGregor, and at Lancaster he wished to remain all night and save the girl from the exposure of camping out, as they had heretofore done since leaving McGregor. To this Mrs. Haggerty objected, charging him with being desirous of delay so that his family might overtake them, and give him an excuse for deserting her and returning home. They accordingly made a start, but had not gone more than about a mile beyond Lan- caster on the road to Platteville, and were just on the brow of the hill south of Pigeon Creek, when the boys cried out that Anna had fainted. Her mother threw snow in her face and chafed her hands, and thus brought her to. Thompson again urged a return to Lancaster, but the woman would hear none of it, and they proceeded on toward Platteville, until they reached the timber, about four miles from Lancaster, when they turned off the road, and drove into the woods, intending to encamp for the night. They had hardly stopped before Mrs. Haggerty informed him that the girl was dead, and upon examination he found it to be so. The woman then insisted that they must dig a grave and bury the body, but to this Thompson objected, say- ing they must go back to Lancaster, as, if the body was found buried there without a coffin they would be arrested for murder. The woman said that if they returned they would be detained, and have to give an account of themselves, when Thompson's people would hear of it and follow him. The discussion ended by the latter announcing his intention of going back, when his par- amour seized a hammer, and saying, "I'll have your life first," struck him on the neck and shoulder. This enraged him, and he snatched the hammer from her, and in turn struck her several blows on the head. Realizing, however, what he had done. he endeavored to apologize for his harshness, but although the woman stopped her cries for the time, she motioned him away. Just then sleighs were heard approaching from the direction of Platteville, and voices of their occupants were heard chatting and laughing. It being a still night, the sleighs were not so near as was at first supposed, but as they approached, the woman re-doubled her cries. which he begged her to stop but to no purpose. The suspicious light in which he would be placed should his position there be discovered, with a dead girl in the sleigh, and the woman and two boys screaming as if in mortal terror, Thompson claims at once crossed his mind, and he picked up a feather bed that lay at his feet, and threw it over them. The woman struggled and threw it off, screaming louder than ever, so that if the sleighing party had not been so boisterous themselves they must have heard them. He then seized the bed and put it over them again, and held it down until the struggles ceased. As soon as the sleighs, which traveled leisurely, had passed, he pulled it off, but no one spoke or made any noise. He lighted the lantern and looked at them, shook them, and then the truthi dawned upon his mind-they were dead. He sat down stupefied by the crime he had committed, and remained uncertain what to do for some time. Then the thought that he must conceal what he had done scized him, and he started for Beetown, near which he had observed some mineral holes, in which he thought he might hide the bodies. He drove back through Lancaster, lost his way, and stopped to procure directions, and having driven for hours with his ghastly freight, came to the mineral holes, but found them too shallow for his purpose. He then determined to go on to Cassville, and hide the evidences of his crime in the river. Again he had some difficulty in finding the road, and it was not until nearly daylight that he passed through Cassville. Making his way to the river, he threw the bodies in, and then, driving a short distance further. he burned his sleigh cover to destroy the identity of his outfit. He then drove rapidly toward Prairie du Chien, and near that place put the baggage of the murdered family into the river, and then made his way home. How much of truth there is in Thompson's narrative is hard to decide. Whether the murders were com- mitted as he relates, or whether, as many believed, they were taken to the river and then mur- dered while under the influence of opiates, will never be known. The terrible experiences of that awful night will remain a sealed book. But justice was not to be thwarted, and Andrew Thompson now undergoes the punishment inflicted for his horrible crime.

530

HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

KILLING OF MILAS K. YOUNG.

One of the most inhuman of the many diabolical crimes that has marked the pages of Grant County history was the murder of the Hon. Milas K. Young, by his son, in May, 1875, near Glen Haven. The causes leading to the commission of the crime dated back some time previous to that date. Albert Young, the murderer, had been engaged in business at Glen Haven, and, through various causes, was unsuccessful. Mr. Young indorsed his notes for some time, but then refused to do so any longer. Albert then resorted to extensive forgeries in order to keep himself above water. These forgeries included the names of friends as well as his father. He also obtained control of the title to the homestead, and was endeavoring to raise $2,500 by a mortgage on the place. In the meantime, he attempted to drive his father off from the farm. In this quarrel the young man had the sympathy of his mother, between whom and her husband there had existed a coolness for years, there being at the time a lawsuit pending between them in regard to the title to the farm. In a collision between father and son, the former was in- jured by an ax in the hands of his offspring, but this wound was claimed by the latter to be ac- cidental, and by many, cognizant of the facts, so accepted. At length, Mr. Young learned of the forgeries and sent word to his attorneys to have the forger arrested. Previous to this he had ex- pressed to some of his neighbors the fear that his life was in danger, but these fears were re- garded as groundless, and Mr. Young continued to remain at the homestead. By some means, Albert Young learned of the danger in which he stood, and Friday, May 14, early in the fore- noon, he came into the yard surrounding the house and sat down on a cart, occupying his time with whittling, evidently waiting for his father to come out. The latter was in his room lying down, with the door locked. After waiting in this manner for some time, the young fiend, it would seem, could no longer control his desire for revenge, and he entered the house and inquired of a servant where his father was. and upon receiving the reply that he was asleep in his room, Albert went to the door and threw himself against it with a view of forcibly entering the room. This he partly succeeded in doing, when the noise awoke his parent, who jumped from the bed and ran out of a door leading from his bedroom on the east side of the house. His pursuer then turned and hastened to the front door and met Mr. Young as he came around the house, draw- ing a revolver as he did so. He commenced firing and discharged four shots, two of which took effect upon his victim. The latter also drew a revolver and fired once at his unnatural son, the bullet grazing his abdomen and inflicting a painful, but no wise dangerous wound. But deter- mined that his victim should not escape, the young ruffian seized a hatchet and rushed upon the fatally-wounded man and dealt him several crushing blows upon the head, breaking the skull in a ghastly manner.

Several neighbors heard the cries of the wounded man, and hastened at once to the spot, but did not arrive until the murderer had finished his work and started to make his escape. He ran west to a grove standing some sixty yards away, and there stopped to examine his own wound. The hasty examination appeared to produce the impression that he was seriously, if not fatally, wounded, and, reloading his revolver, he placed it to his head and sent his blood-stained soul in- to the presence of its Maker.

Mr. Young was picked up by his neighbors and carried into the house and laid on the bed from which he had fled but a few moments before. He lingered in great pain until the Sunday following, when death came to his relief, and he passed through the doors into the great here- after.

The excitement in the community was intense, the murdered man had been universally re- spected wherever known, and his sudden and horrible death aroused all the indignation lying dormant in the breasts of the citizens of that section. Had it not been for a few of the more conservative among them, there is no doubt but the stern rule of a mob would soon have reduced everything about the scene of the tragedy to ruins ; as it was, the body of the murderer was re- fused burial in the village cemetery, and was quietly interred upon the farm. Of the murdered man, the following testimony was borne by the papers of that date :

531

HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

" Milas K. Young had a reputation as wide as his adopted State. His form graced our legislative halls during the years from 1862 to 1865. Intelligent, faithful, earnest, his constit- uents felt that their interests and their welfare were wisely understood and well defended by him. Endowed with a laudable ambition and great mental energy, he early became a leader among his fellow-citizens, capable of molding and guiding public opinion. With wide sympathies and views, he felt a deep interest in all public questions, especially those that concerned the profession that he had chosen. To increase the quantity and quality of the productions of the soil ; to provide for his fellow-farmers competing markets for their productions, were the problems he most studied. It was this devotion that gave him such a strong hold on the esteem of the farming class with whose interests his inclinations and tastes were identified."

532

HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

CHAPTER V.

UNITED STATES LAND DISTRICTS-EARLY HIGHWAYS AND FERRIES-RAILROADS IN GRANT COUNTY -TELEGRAPHI LINE-CENSUS OF GRANT COUNTY-AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION.

UNITED STATES LAND DISTRICTS.

A great amount of the public land in Wisconsin had been surveyed by the latter part of 1833, and this fact being reported by the Surveyor General, two land districts were created by an act of Congress approved June 26, 1834. These districts embraced all the land north of the State of Illinois, west of Lake Michigan, south and southeast of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, included in what was then the Territory of Michigan. This area was divided in twain by a north-and-south line at right angles from the base line to the Wisconsin River, between Ranges 8 and 9, east of the Fourth Principal Meridian. All east of that line was called the Green Bay Land District; all west, the Wisconsin Land District. The land office of the West- ern District was established at Mineral Point, and of the Eastern District at Green Bay. Grant. County, then forming the western portion of Iowa County, was included in the Mineral Point District.

In October, 1834, the first public sale of lands in the present confines of Grant County, was held at Mineral Point, and a second sale took place at the same point in November, 1835. Within the Western or Mineral Point District, lay the great lead region, whose wealth had, for several years, been attracting miners by the hundred from every section. In accordance with the policy outlined by the Government, those lands known to contain mineral were reserved from sale. By an act of Congress of June 15, 1836, the Milwaukee Land District was created out of the southern portion of the Green Bay District. The land office for the new district was located at Milwaukee, where, in the spring of 1839, the first public sale of lands in this district was held. These lands had been surveyed after the lands which had been offered for sale at Mineral Point and Green Bay.

By a provision in the act of Congress creating the Green Bay and Wisconsin Land Dis- tricts, these districts were to embrace the country north of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, when- ever the Indian title to the same should become extinguished. By a treaty made with the Win- nebago Indians November 1, 1837, all lands belonging to that tribe east of the Mississippi River were ceded to the United States. This cession put the General Government in possession of land north of the Wisconsin, and the limits of the land districts were extended to the new ter- ritory which was ordered to be surveyed, the survey being finished in 1845. All of this terri- tory, with the exception of the reserved mineral lands was open to entry at $1.25 per acre. This reservation of the mineral lands from entry was afterward a large-sized bone of contention between miners and the Government, and terminated in these lands being offered for sale in 1847; a history of these troubles will be found in another portion of the work. In 1842, the land office was removed to Muscoda, where it remained a number of months, when it was again returned to Mineral Point. The little log "seven-by-nine" structure which served as Uncle Sam's domicile, while exchanging land for cash at Muscoda, was still standing up to a recent date.

EARLY HIGHWAYS AND FERRIES.

Means of communicating with different parts of the country are early recognized by dwell- ers in any section as something indispensable. The savage denizen of the forests, as yet unini- tiated into the mysteries of wheeled vehicles, depending mainly upon the means of locomotion furnished him by nature, or at the best, employing for long stages of travel that much- abused, much-enduring beast the "Indian pony," needed but a narrow pathway known in:

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.

History of Grant County, Wisconsin, preceded by a history of Wisconsin, Part 79

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: [Chicago : Western Historical Co.?] Number of Pages: 1050

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: [Chicago : Western Historical Co.?]
Number of Pages: 1050