Arrest of Dr. W. S. Lessenger ~ 1912?

GOE, DANIELS, DRUMMOND, HOLLAND, KOPP, LESSENGER, LESSINGER, WAUGH

Posted By: Pat Ryan White (email)
Date: 10/21/2006 at 11:59:06

MT. PLEASANT SENSATION
~~Dr. W. S. Lessenger Holds Police at Bay With Gun.~~
WAS CRAZED WITH DRINK
~~Well Known Physician Cleans Out Drug Store Because Proprietors Refuse to Sell him Whisky.~~

Mt. Pleasant, Ia., Nov. 19. - Last evening the citizens residing on the north side of the square and those having business in that vicinity, were treated to an experience which led one to believe that this was not yet a civilized country. The spectacle of a medical man half crazed with drink, a revolver in one had and a knife in the other holding the police force of the city at bay and driving the proprietors of a drug store out of the store because according to his story they would not sell him “booze” as had been their custom is almost incredible. Yet this is what really happened between the hours of six and seven last evening on the northwest corner of the square. Dr. W. S. Lessinger, a well known physician of this city, who has rooms over the Holland & Waugh drug store, drove the occupants of the store out “Dr. John Holland, who had sold him booze for the last five years, would not sell him any more.”

~Sheriff Is Summoned.~
The police were unable to do anything and not until Sheriff C. B. Goe appeared on the scene was any attempt to arrest the crazed man successful. By this time the doctor had gone to his office rooms and shot off his revolver to see if it would work. “Yes, it will shoot all right,” he said and started down stairs again. And then the large crowd which had gathered scattered in all directions north, east, south and west. Sheriff Goe promptly caught hold of the doctor, who immediately cursed him, and with the help of Deputy Sheriff Daniels bore him to the floor and finally overcame him. He was at once taken to the county jail, where he was confined until this morning. He was charged with intoxication and as his attorney, W. F. Kopp, was out of the city this morning, was given until this afternoon to plead.

THE SEQUEL
As a result of the arrest affidavits were made by Dr. Lessenger and his niece, who keeps house for him and upon the strength of these affidavits two of the local drug stores, the Holland & Waugh store and the Drummond drug store were raided. The officers claim that they discovered a quantity of intoxicating liquor, and this was immediately confiscated and removed to the city hall for safe keeping.

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These unnamed, undated [handwritten 1912] newspaper articles were found in the scrapbooks of Mary [Blaut] Abraham, second wife of Captain Lot Abraham; the scrapbooks are currently owned by their great-granddaughter, Martha [Wright] Allen, Mt. Pleasant, IA. [October 2006]