Renzehausen, Minnie 186? - 1933

RENZIEHAUSEN, RENZEHAUSEN

Posted By: Reid R. Johnson (email)
Date: 3/6/2014 at 13:43:14

Elgin Echo, Elgin, Iowa, Thur., 26 October 1933. From the Elkader Register, undated.

Grand Jury Investigates Murder Case.

The present members of the grand jury have spent parts of three days investigating the death of Minnie Renzehausen, 66, of Monona, in the belief that she was murdered and her sister, Martha, age about 68, is being held in the county jail at Elkader, pending action of the grand jury.

Peculiar circumstances surrounding the death of the younger sister, whose body was found several days after the death, have caused county officials to take this course.

When a neighbor suspected that something was wrong in the Renzehausen home last Friday, authorities went to the place and found Minnie dead on a mattress on the floor of the living room. She had been dead, apparently since the Sunday before. Death, it is believed, was caused by a blow over the right temple, according to the verdict of the coroner's jury at an inquest conducted by coroner Leslie Oelke of Elkader.

The jury recommended that Martha Renzehausen be examined as they as well as coroner Oelke, believed she was mentally unbalanced. It was impossible at the coroner's inquest to get much information from the elder sister but she claimed that her sister's death was caused by a fall. Martha had nothing to do with her neighbors the last week and in answer to inquiries said her sister had been ill but was improving.

Coroner Oelke was unable to find the instrument which he believes was used in the attack on the aged woman. He found bloodstains about the house indicating that the dead woman had been struck while in bed and that her body had been moved after that. Neighbors reported hearing the women quarreling 10 days to two weeks ago.

The county insane commission met at Elkader Monday morning for an informal hearing of the case but decided to defer action until after the grand jury had disposed of the case. – Elkader Register.

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Notes:

WPA records and gravestone photographs on the IGPP and on FindAGrave.com indicate the surname is Renziehausen. Minnie and Martha Renziehausen are buried in Council Hill cemetery, Giard Township, Clayton County, Iowa, along with numerous other Renziehausen burials.

Mary, Minnie and Martha Renziehausen are shown in one household on the 1900 Federal Census of Monona, Clayton County, Iowa.

William, Minnie and Martha Renziehausen are shown in one household on the 1920 Federal Census of Monona, Clayton County, Iowa.

Minnie and Martha Renziehausen are shown in one household on the 1930 Federal Census of Monona, Clayton County, Iowa.

Martha Renziehausen is shown as a patient at the State Mental Health Institute, Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa, on the 1940 Federal Census. That census indicates she was at that place in 1935 also.

Submitter is not related.

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