Criminology of Jackson County
WILFORD, DAVIS, GROFF, BROWN, MONTGOMERY, CONKLIN, REATING, HEIDMAN, INGLES, GRIFFORD, EAGAN, CRONK, WATKINS, KEITHLY, TOWN, HOOVER, WESTON, PICKETT, TEEPLE, ELY, JACKSON, PERKINS
Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 2/14/2009 at 20:44:02
Maquoketa Excelsior-Record, September 3, 1918
Review of Criminology of Jackson County(excerpt from a news story on the murder of Edith Wilford by Guy Wilford)
…it might be interesting to review the criminology of Jackson county since the early day, nearly all of the tragedies of this nature having taken place when a rough element infested the county.
In 1839 occurred the first murder in Jackson county of which we have any record, when Thomas Davis was shot and killed by Samuel Groff, which tragedy occurred in South Fork township near what is known as the Fitch place. After a sort of mock trial the defendant was acquitted. In 1852 Andrew M. Brown was shot and killed by Absalom Montgomery, a dispute over some land being the cause leading up to the affair. The killing of William Conklin by Esther Conklin in 1856 was the next on record, this family having the name of being continually in escapades of like nature. In the same year near Lamotte, Michael Reating murdered a boy named Chris Heidman in a fit of anger over some work which they were doing while threshing grain.
About the same time in the vicinity of Iron Hill, John Ingles was murdered by Alexander Grifford, an old grudge being the motive involved. At Bellevue in 1859, Calvin Egan the second mate on the river steamer “Pombino,” killed a work hand named Reating, who was not carrying wood in just the manner the former desired, Egan striking him with a heavy cudgel. The famous Cottonville tragedy which occurred in 1867 will be recalled by some of our older residents and this was a crime equally brutal as the one which is now before us(Wilford). Samuel Cronk was foully murdered near Cottonville by Samuel Watkins while going home from a dance. Watkins was tried and sentenced to be hung, but was later acquitted on some technicality in law.
In Bellevue on March 23, 1881, Thos. Keithly was killed by one Charles Town while the latter was defending his sister’s honor. The case attracted county-wide attention and was bitterly fought. The defendant was found guilty but sentence was deferred from time to time until the case was finally thrown out of court. In the same city in 1896 Hiram Hoover was shot and killed by Henry Weston while the latter, who was city marshal, was endeavoring to arrest him for making a disturbance in a dance hall. On the 4th of July the same year, Mina Keil was brutally murdered by Chris Eckerlebe, he being infatuated with the girl, who spurned his attentions. The feeling ran very high and lynching was threatened, but better judgment prevailed and the murderer was tried and sentenced to the penitentiary for life.
The last homicide prior to the one of last Wednesday(Wilford), which occurred in Jackson county took place at the Gollibith Hall in Baldwin in 1914 when Gus Pickett was shot and fatally wounded by Floyd Teeple. County attorney Ely handled the State’s interests in this case and secured a conviction, an altercation being the cause of the last named trouble.
It is expected that a speedy trial will follow the regular course of arraignment and that justice will be duly awarded the perpetrator of the awful crime. While the death penalty can, according to the statute, be imposed in Iowa, but one legal execution has ever been performed in Jackson county, when Joseph Jackson was hung at Andrew on July 15, 1842, for the murder of Xenphon Perkins in Monmouth township. We have no comment to make upon what penalty should be meted out to Guy Wilford, but there is no doubt that after an impartial trial that the just dues will be imposed.
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