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CHAPTER XI
Judge Lynch and Criminal Matters
Notwithstanding the oft repeated assertions
of sentimentalists that there was less crime committed in the good old pioneer
days, it remains hard, unrefuted fact that there was actually more lawlessness
in pioneer days, in proportion to the population, than now.
Education, which goes a long way towards subduing the ranker,
unrestrained human passions, had not so wide a spread as now, and while there
were really not many flagrant criminals in the community, guilty of the higher
crimes, the dockets of justices of the peace were crowded with records of
neighborhood broils, assault and battery, hog stealing, burglary, and now and
then an attempt to commit murder.
The first murder in the county was committed by James Gordon,
on the 19th of September, 1854. On the morning of that date Gordon used some
offensive language to his sister. Gordon's step father, Thos. Arnold, ordered
the former to leave the house. Gordon delayed, and Arnold seized his gun and
attempted to drive him out, when Gordon stabbed him twice, once in the side and
once in the abdomen. Arnold died in a few hours, and Gordon fled. He was
overtaken and captured by Sheriff Porter and posse, and brought back to Monroe
County for trial. He stood his trial for commitment, under Squire Teas, on the
charge of attempting to commit murder. He was released on $800 bail for his
appearance in court, and later was acquitted on sustaining a plea of self
defense. The crime was committed about five miles southeast of Albia, on a
farm now owned by John Haller.
The following is a sample of the criminal dockets of those
days, and was the docket of State cases in the May term of the District Court of
1866.
State of Iowa vs. A. M. Myers, charged with murder
in the second degree; change of venue from Mahaska County.
State of Iowa vs. Thos. Barker, attempt to commit
rape; continued, the defendant not having been arrested.
State of Iowa vs. D. P. Clay and Jacob Hull,
larceny; continued.
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State of Iowa vs. Moses Cousins,
Jr., and W. B. Cousins, keeping intoxicating liquors with intent to sell in
violation of law.
State of Iowa vs. Chas. Ross, assault with intent to
commit murder.
State of Iowa vs. Darcus Billings, abandoning a
human child; continued as above.
Sate of Iowa vs. Samuel Rhinehart, perjury;
acquitted.
State of Iowa vs. Jas. A. B. Sims and Geo. Edwards,
larceny; continued.
State of Iowa vs. Jas. Atkinson, assault with intent
to commit murder; acquitted.
State of Iowa vs. Jas. Austin, nuisance, keeping
intoxicating liquors; indictment.
State of Iowa vs. Martin Cone, petit juror, fined
$10 for contempt of court, for disrespectful language; fine remitted.
Not long afterwards, Clay, who is mentioned in the foregoing
docket, stole a horse from Thomas Forster, residing a few miles west of
Blakesburg. Mr. Forster and Mr. Thayer, now of Avery, and a member of the Monroe
County Vigilance Committee, tracked the thief into Missouri and captured him at
Gallatin. Thayer started home with him and Forester remained at Gallatin in
search of his horse. Thayer placed his prisoner on the horse which Forster had
ridden to Gallatin, and had his feet tied together underneath his horse. When
approaching Albia near the Coal Creek bridge, three miles southwest of town, two
men sprang out of the bushes and handed Clay a revolver. Clay struck Thayer a
murderous blow on the side of the face, which knocked him from his horse. Thayer
still wears the scar. Clay then made his escape. Clay was a chum of Jake Hull,
the Gibsons, Garrett Thompson, and others.
In September, 1866, James Austin, who ran a grocery and
saloon in Albia, on the south side of the Square, shot and killed Thos. Davis in
the former's saloon in a quarrel over two glasses of beer. Austin was finally
acquitted on establishing a plea of self defense. His case was tried at
Centerville on an indictment for murder in the second degree.
In November, 1866, two young men by the name of Wiley, who
lived on Cedar Creek, and who had been indicted by the District Court for
stealing cattle, made their escape from the custody of J. L. Duncan, who was
guarding them at his residence. They were handcuffed and chained together,
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when they escaped, and, making their way to Cedar Creek during
the night, in some way succeeded in breaking their shackles. They secreted
themselves in a coal bank near their father's premises. The latter, discovering
them, brought them to Albia and delivered them over to the authorities. They
were sentenced for six months.
On the night of September 21, 1868, Chas. Brandon, of Mahaska
county, was taken to the woods and hanged b a crowd of Vigilantes from Monroe
County. Brandon was accused of horse stealing. An action was instituted in court
for $10,000 against the lynchers, and $800 damages awarded. The defendants were
Reuben Way, Daniel C. Gladson, Matthew Maddox, B. F. Deats, Lewis Maddox, Wm.
Martin, Jas. Hoagland, Geo. Neal, and Wesley May.
On August 5, 1869, Thos. S. Hulligen, proprietor of the
Gilmore mill at the hamlet of Urbana, in Urbana Township, was fatally stabbed by
Geo. W. Wallace. Wallace and Jeff Hawk, the latter the engineer attending the
mill machinery, got into an altercation, and in the quarrel the former kicked
Hawk in the face. Hawk armed himself with a carpenter's mallet, when Hulligen
interposed and ordered Wallace to leave the mill. Wallace refused, and Hulligen
seized him and attempted to eject him, and while in the act of thrusting him
through the door, Wallace stabbed Hulligen in the breast. Hulligen then released
his hold, and, seizing a club struck Wallace a blow on the head. Wallace again
stabbed his victim, and was again struck by the club in the hands of the wounded
man. Hulligen died a in a few hours, and the murderer escaped, but was soon
captured. He was tried on a charge of murder in the first degree, and was
sentenced to seven years in the penitentiary, where he served out his term.
In 1866 Ross and Mann, two notorious horse thieves, were
sentenced to the penitentiary at Ft. Madison. Ross was sent up for five years
and Mann for two years.
The most noted chapter, however, of this reign of terror, when
Monroe County and adjoining counties were overrun by a gang of horse thieves,
was the lynching of Garrett Thompson by Monroe County Vigilantes in June, 1866.
During that year, and for three or four years previous, the settlers lived in a
constant dread of an organized band of outlaws, whose operations extended over
Illinois, southern Iowa, and Missouri. The most notorious of these criminals
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was Garrett Thompson. He and several others of the gang had
drifted into Iowa at the close of the war, and had been active in the guerrilla
movement on the Missouri border, where they had full opportunity to ply their
lawless calling while under the disguise of auxiliaries of the Confederate army
of Missouri. So thoroughly organized was this gang that the civil authorities
were unable to capture them, or to bring them to justice whenever the Vigilantes
succeeded in making an arrest. The committee finally concluded to mete out
summary justice to the next thief that fell into their hands.
On the night of June 13, 1866, James McFadden had a fine span
of horses stolen; and on the night of the 16th Mr. Woodruff was robbed of $90 in
money; and on the next night E. M. Bill had a horse stolen, together with one
belonging to Benjamin Ashbury. Not long previous, Henry Wilson had a horse
stolen and never recovered; also a horse was stolen from Mrs. Taylor, a neighbor
of Wilson and the widow of Jas. Taylor, of the Thirty Sixth Iowa Infantry, who
was captured at Mark's Mills and who died in prison at Tyler, Texas. On the same
night that Ashbury's horse was stolen, saddles and bridles were stolen from
Robert Buchanan. A short time previous, a wagon was stolen from Mr. Joseph Bone.
At this juncture the Vigilance Committee began a systematic
hunt for the outlaws. They started out in every direction of the compass,
determined to ride for two days, and if in that length of time any trace of the
thieves could be found, they resolved to follow in pursuit until a capture was
made. One squad of the pursuers struck the trail between Albia and Blakesburg,
and followed the fugitives into Van Buren County, where they lost the trail.
Suspicion finally rested on Garrett Thompson, who lived about
four miles west of Blakesburg, where the Christian church now stands, close by
the Center school house in Urbana Township. Thompson was absent when the horses
were stolen, and returned with a new wagon a week later. He told several
conflicting stories concerning how he came in possession of the wagon. It was
also discovered that Thompson's daughter, Mrs. Ellen Ellis, stole the bone
wagon, assisted by Harrison Gibson. The wagon was tracked to the residence of
Mr. McWilliams, in Missouri.
As the Vigilance Committee had come into possession
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of sufficient evidence to hold Thompson in custody, they
arrested him, together with Thomas Smith, Harrison Gibson, John Hull, Hiram
Hull, and the two Hill brothers, of Wapello County. Thompson was arrested near
Blakesburg while attempting to make his way to Missouri. Smith was arrested the
same night, in Albia.
Thompson was brought to Albia and guarded by Sheriff McDonald
in a building where the Union office now stands. His arrest attracted a
large crowd. The Sheriff had his prisoner in the front room, and while Colonel
Anderson was cross questioning him, the room began to fill with spectators.
Finally, the Sheriff, seeming to realize that there was something significant in
the movement of the crowd, placed his man farther in the rear, and seeing Mart
Giltner and a few others making a stealthy forward movement, McDonald sprang to
his feet, and, drawing a large revolver, ordered the crowd to stand back. At the
same time Thompson began shouting to the crowd that if they hanged him, they
would be hanging an innocent man.
The crowd then seized Thompson and started out of town with
him. When near the fair grounds, where Dr. Gutch's residence now stands, they
had wagons in waiting to carry all to the timber. While the mob was en route
on foot to the wagons, the Sheriff stepped into the street and commanded the
bystanders to "fall in." Some obeyed the order, and a small posse was
organized to pursue and rescue the prisoner from the mob.
Geo. Cromer, a harness dealer and a pugnacious spirit, who
was with the mob, seeing the Sheriff rallying his posse in the rear, ran back
and charged upon the posse. Captain John Porter, who had been conscripted into
the posse, squared off for a fight with Cromer. The warlike motions of the two
belligerents attracted the attention of the rescuing party, and the prisoner was
forgotten. In the meantime the mob had loaded the prisoner into a wagon and were
on their way to Avery Creek.
They pitched tent at a point about six miles southeast of
Albia, in the woods, close to where Samuel Miller lived for many years. Messengers were sent out in every direction to summon the populace.
The other
prisoners were brought on the grounds and closely guarded.
About 500 people had assembled by noon of the next day.
A
sort of court was improvised on the grounds, under
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an elm tree. A chairman was appointed, and the sense of the
meeting was taken, which was that a jury of twelve good men be impaneled to try
the prisoners. A marshal was chosen, who excluded all boys from the grounds, and
persons of suspicious character. He was also instructed to preserve order and
prohibit profane or boisterous language.
The jury was then called, and the witnesses and the prisoner
brought forward. After a through examination, the jury retired, and, after
careful deliberation, returned a verdict of "Horse stealing and other
outrages - viz., house burning and murder."
Then the forman arose and in a loud voice, which reechoed
throughout the still forest, announced to the vast throng the verdict. A motion
was then made that "Garrett Thompson be hanged by the neck until
dead." Some one than made a motion to amend, so that the prisoner be simply
tarred and feathered. This latter motion was finally withdrawn, and the original
motion carried with but one dissenting voice.
A committee of ten was then appointed to notify the prisoner
of his sentence. He was given twenty minutes to confess or to make any
statements. He refused to divulge anything, and the time was extended to forty
minutes; he still refused to confess, seeming to be under the impression that
the people were trying simply to frighten him.
They they began to attach a rope to a branch of the tree, and
a wagon was wheeled under it. The prisoner was ordered to get into the wagon; he
did not comply, and was lifted in by the crowd. He still believed their
movements were but a ruse to frighten him into a confession. A goods box was
placed upon the wagon, and he was told to mount it, after the wagon had been
wheeled directly under the tree. He refused to mount, and Andy Stamm stepped
brusquely forward, and, addressing him, exclaimed: "G - - d d - n you! get up
and die like a man." He was placed upon the box, and a member of the
Vigilantes adjusted the noose. Even then the prisoner exhibited no anxiety,
still hoping to be released at the last moment. D. H. Scott then offered a
fervent prayer for the salvation of the soul about to be launched into eternity.
When Mr. Scott began the prayer, Thompson then realized for
the first time the seriousness of the situation.
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He said that if they would grant him a little time, he would try
to divulge something. Time was given, but at the expiration of forty minutes he
divulged nothing. The other prisoners were then brought forward, and placed in a
row in front of the gallows. To them it was a moment of terrible suspense.
They
did not know but what they, too, would be executed next. The wagon was then
pushed from under the tree, and while it was in motion, and the doomed man was
clinging on it with but the tips of his toes touching, he muttered that he had
killed one man. The next instant the wagon passed from under him, and the huge
body of the Missourian dropped with a thud. At the same time a swarm of
caterpillars, or "measuring worms," dropped from the overhanging
branches, suspended by their webs, as if in mimicry of the horrible tragedy.
The other prisoners were withdrawn, and the crowd dispersed,
save a few who remained to assist the son and wife of the outlaw to lift the
body into their wagon. When this was done, the wife and son drove off with the
body, vowing vengeance on the citizens. They went towards Eddyville, and told
the settlers along the way that their relative had fallen out of the wagon and
that a wheel of the wagon had run over his neck and broke it. All the other
prisoners were released, except Tom Smith, who turned State's evidence and thus
save his neck. Smith was a Monroe County soldier, and had some friends among the
soldiers, who had known him as an inoffensive man. It was probably largely due
to their influence that he escaped the doom of Thompson.
He afterwards admitted his complicity in horse stealing, but
stated that for two years he did not know he was hauling stolen horses. He spent
the remainder of his life in Albia, and regained the respect and confidence of
the community.
At a later meeting of the Vigilance Committee, in June, 1866,
a note was presented and read incriminating David Marvey and John Foster, two
suspicious characters living near Orleans, a small village in Appanoose County,
near the State line. A committee of three was detailed to go and arrest these
two men, and in obedience to their instructions they went to the vicinity of
Orleans, and learned that two men had been seen near Drakeville riding
suspicious looking horses. The parties were arrested, and twenty or more
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of the citizens of Davis County volunteered to escort the men
with their captives to Monroe County. The prisoners were placed on horseback,
and the same evening the troop arrived at the residence of Wm. Stoops. As it
threatened rain, the prisoners were taken to private residences and guarded
until the next morning. In the morning, the populace were notified of the
arrests, and hundreds gathered on the grounds.
A motion was made that a committee of three be appointed to
wait on the prisoners separately, and to receive any confessions which they
might be induced to make. They were to assure the men that if they made a clear,
plausible confession of all their thefts which would implicate others engaged
with them, and also lead to the recovery of stolen property, they would be
turned over to the civil authorities to stand trial by due course of law,
instead of being lynched on the spot. The prisoners confessed to the stealing of
twenty or thirty horses and several hundred sheep. The prisoners were then
delivered to the sheriff of Davis County, together with a copy of their
confession.
At this meeting of the committee R. B. Arnold suggested that
John Hull, who had been arrested with Thompson, but who had been acquitted
through lack of sufficient evidence against him, be brought before the committee
to explain for what purpose he and Harrison Gibson had purchased a quantity of
nitric acid. It was confessed that they had given the acid to Garrett Thompson,
who had used it in burning the foreheads of a couple of horses which had been
taken up by Mr. Selby, of Urbana Township, and which were supposed to have been
stolen and turned loose by Thompson. By applying the acid, white spots could be
produced in the face of a dark colored animal, thus concealing its identity.
The
horses were produced on the grounds as evidence. Hull was then released from
custody.
When Tom Smith was arrested and confined in the Ottumwa jail,
Isaac Watson, E. M. Bill, and A. M. Giltner visited him and obtained a full
confession. He stated that the Hulls were the most active and desperate
horse thieves of the band. He also stated that Thomas Forster's stolen team was
down in Missouri, near where D. P. Clay and Jake Hull were living. Forster then
went to Missouri and recovered his team, which he had not seen for nearly two
years. Smith also made other important disclosures which satisfied the
Vigilantes that his statements were true.
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The two Hulls were arrested and placed under
$1,600 bonds to appear in court. Their case was continued to the November term,
1867, and their trial was conducted at Ottumwa on a change of venue. Hiram was
acquitted through some intricacy of the law, but John was convicted and
sentenced to the penitentiary for five years. He took an appeal to the Supreme
Court, and, pending its decision, was released on $1,000 bonds. He fled the
country, and left his bondsmen to forfeit the amount. Clay was also arrested, as
already stated herein.
To the prompt and summary action of the Vigilance Committee
is due the credit of exterminating one of the most daring hordes of outlaws that
ever terrorized a civilized community. The members comprised the very best
element in society, and in view of the tardiness and uncertainty of the civil
power in punishing criminals, the action of the Vigilance Committee has always
been approved by the public.
Some years prior to the episodes narrated in this chapter,
Monroe and other southern border counties were over run by a band of horse
thieves whose organization was more extensive than that of subsequent
date. A chain of operations extended from Indiana to Nebraska, and a complete
record of their lawlessness is given in a little volume found in nearly every
pioneer library, entitled "Bandits of the Prairie."
A detective named Bonny finally came in their midst, in the
disguise of a counterfeiter. He gained their confidence, learned their secrets,
and, like a sleuth hound, tracked them one by one to their hiding places and
arrested them. But few of the band escaped the gallows. Monroe County was
scarcely organized at the time, and none of the gang were lynched on Monroe
County soil. The Hodge brothers were hung in Van Buren County.
Shack Phillips was another member of the gang, and was a
relative of the Long men. Phipps returned, and settled on a farm in the western
part of Iowa. There is at least one other member of this notorious gang residing
at present in Monroe County. He was a boy at the time, but was accused of being
an accomplice. Whatever may have been his relation to those bandits at one time,
he has since lived down the stigma by a most exemplary life. He has since then
held responsible office of public trust, and ever since the writer first knew
him, many years ago, he has been held in universal esteem.
The murder of Chris McAlister, a farmer who lived near
Blakesburg, in Wapello County, on the night of November 6, 1883, led to one of
the most sensational lynchings ever recorded in the history of the State. For
some months after the tragic event no clue could be discovered towards the
apprehension of the murderer.
At length suspicion began to attach itself to Pleas Anderson,
a married man of about forty years of age, who lived on a farm in Urbana
Township.
Since the date of the murder, Anderson had made occasional
remarks which appeared suspicious to his neighbors, and his strange actions on
several occasions tended to strengthen the suspicions. Anderson already had an
unenviable reputation as a pugilist, bully, and a ruffian in a general way.
He
had, at different times, been mixed up in several shooting scrapes, and was
known throughout all the southern tier of counties of Iowa as a hard citizen.
He
and his brother William were finally arrested June 8, 1883, on a charge of
complicity in the murder of McAlister, on an information sworn out by L. T.
Stewart, of Blakesburg, based on circumstantial evidence.
They were lodged in the Ottumwa jail, and on examination
William was released, no evidence being shown to implicate him.
Pleas was examined before Justice Orr, of Ottumwa, and enough
circumstantial evidence was drawn out in the examination to warrant the holding
of the prisoner to await the action of grand jury. He was indicted for murder in
the first degree, at the next term of the District Court, and his attorneys
secured for him a change of venue to Mahaska County.
Anderson was arraigned in court in Oskaloosa, December 13,
1883, and indicted on the charge of murder in the first degree; and, after a
long and tedious trial, lasting over a week, he was acquitted. There seemed to
be a state of general disapprobation in consequence of the acquittal of
Anderson, yet he returned to his home in Urbana Township. About this time his
residence was consumed by fire, and he moved in with his father in law, Mr.
Fielding Barnes, whose residence is about two miles southwest of Blakesburg.
Anderson, on his return, conducted himself rather insolently,
especially towards the witnesses who had testified against him in his late
trial. On the night preceding the
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murder of McAlister, he shot into the house of S. G. Finney, a
neighbor. For this he was indicted by the grand jury of Monroe County at its
fall term of 1883, but, after a long delay, he was tried and acquitted.
On Monday evening, December 29, 1884, five men residing in
Monroe County went to the residence of Fielding Barnes, who lives near
Blakesburg, and where Pleas Anderson and family were residing, Anderson being
the son in law of Barnes. The men secreted themselves near the barn, and when
Mr. Barnes and Anderson came to the barn to feed the stock for he evening, the
men covered them with revolvers. Anderson was seized and driven to Blakesburg in
a sled. From Blakesburg he was taken to the Prairie school house, two miles east
of Blakesburg, and while en route, the mob informed everybody that
Anderson would be tried for the murder of McAlister.
About 9 o'clock p. m. the crowd, which had increased to one
hundred or more people, was called to order by the leader of the Vigilance
Committee, and a jury of eight persons was appointed to determine what
punishment should be meted out to the prisoner. A short time after a verdict had
been rendered convicting the prisoner of killing McAlister, eight masked men
suddenly filed into the room, disguised in old quilts and blankets. They marched
in and surrounded Anderson, and one of them, picking up a rope which lay on the
floor, and which contained a noose, placed it around his neck, and the prisoner
was thus led out and loaded into a sled and driven to the locality where the
murder was committed.
On arriving at McAlister's place, a sled was driven under a
large cottonwood tree and the rope passed up over a limb. Anderson was then
lifted upon a spring seat, which was placed on the sled. He was placed with his
face towards the door in which McAlister was murdered, and given a few moments
to talk. He protested his innocence, and requested a person in the crowd to draw
off his boots, which was complied with. He also requested some one to tell his
wife to keep the children together and try and do the best they could. The sled
was then driven from under him, and he was hung. The mail carrier from Ottumwa,
passing early next morning, saw the body hanging and reported the fact. The body
was frozen stiff when cut down.
Several, if not all, of the lynching party were afterwards
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apprehended and brought before the grand jury, but they were
released without punishment. It was generally supposed that the murder of
McAllister was perpetrated by two persons, but no second party was ever
apprehended.
On the 22d of March, 1893, Lewis Frazier, a German living
between Carbonado and Oskaloosa, called at the house of Mrs. W. H. Smith, in
Hiteman, to see his wife, who was a sister of Mrs. Smith. He wanted his wife to
either return home with him, or else give him custody of their two children.
She
refused, and a quarrel ensued. Mrs. Smith took up the quarrel, and Frazier
stabbed her fatally. She died in about twenty minutes. Frazier fled, and was
pursued and captured by Deputy Sheriff Joe Lewis and an assistant deputy, about
four miles from Hiteman, on the same day. The officers started to return to
Hiteman with their prisoner, but were overwhelmed by a mob of about a hundred
men from the mines. They seized Frazier and hung him on a tree in Hiteman in the
evening of the same day of the murder. At the inquest held over the remains none
of the witnesses seemed to recognize any of the lynchers.