Asa Caldwell (1926)

CALDWELL

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler (email)
Date: 11/11/2013 at 08:20:34

Dallas County News
Adel, Iowa
Wednesday, January 6, 1926

BROTHER SHOOTS BROTHER AT BOONEVILLE

Trivial Family Quarrel Ends With One Dead and One Dying

Asa Caldwell, 49, of Booneville, is dead and his brother, Dick, 35, is dying as a result of a petty family quarrel that took place New Year’s day.

The quarrel began Thursday when the brothers had an argument about putting up a stove. The quarrel broke out anew Friday morning when one wanted to keep his car in the garage and force the other to keep his machine in the barn. During his quarrel Asa shot Dick with a shotgun. The shot struck him in the face and breast.

Although seriously wounded Dick kept consciousness and ran a half mile through the fields before another brother, Sam, found him and took him to the home of a neighbor, a Mr. Smith.

A short time after he had shot his brother, Asa Caldwell placed the muzzle of the gun against his own face and shot himself. He died instantly.

Mrs. Rodney Caldwell, mother of the two men, was preparing the New Year’s dinner when the shooting occurred. She said she had heard them arguing but had thought nothing of it.

The Caldwell’s lived just a short distance across the line in Madison County. Coroner L. M. Fetters of Winterset investigated the affair but said it was a clear case of attempted murder and suicide. No inquest will be held.

Both men were single and both had been farming in the neighborhood for several years.

If Dick Caldwell should die his will be the first murder in Iowa in 1926. The shooting took place about 10 o’clock Friday morning.
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Earlham Echo
Earlham, Iowa
Thursday, December 31, 1925

Jefferson Twp. Quarrel Results in Fatal Shooting

One of Caldwell Brothers Critically Injured, the Other a Suicide Over Trifling Difference

Booneville, scene of bank robbery and suicide, was host to another gruesome tragedy New Year’s Day, when Asa Caldwell, farmer residing a mile and a half south of town, attempted the life of his brother Roland “Dick” with a double-barreled shot-gun and then turned the weapon on himself with fatal effect. Dick, the younger Caldwell, is not dead and will probably recover from his terrible wounds, inflicted by a 12-gauge shotgun at five paces.

The quarrel which led to the shooting was over an inconsequential matter, but was the indirect result of a long period of ill feeling between the brothers. Thursday Dick tried to obtain the use of his brother’s stall in a double garage for the purpose of making repairs on his car, this stall being preferable because it contained a work bench and could be fitted with a stove. Asa resented the erection of the stove in his half of the building and a quarrel ensued. However, the matter was dropped for the time and the brothers went to lodge at Booneville that evening apparently on good terms again.

Next morning Dick moved Asa’s car out of the garage, set up the stove, ran his car into the room and began repairs. Asa evidently observed this act and made his plans deliberately. One of his preparations was to cut the wires of the telephone in the house. He then secured the shotgun and appeared at the back door, where he was accosted by his nephew and asked where he was going. He replied he was going out after a rabbit, and refused to allow the young man to travel with him.

Dick had one wheel off the car, and was busily working, his back to the door, when Asa appeared. There was no indecision in the older man’s act, the rifle aimed at Dick’s head and pulled the trigger, failing to allow for the erratic aim of a double barreled gun at close range. The charge of shot struck Dick in the side of the face, carrying away a part of the lower jaw. Stunned by the terrific report and shock he did not know he was hurt. He had just raised his arm to feel of the side of his face when Asa let go with the other barrel, striking the arm. Dick fell prone to the floor and lay still, feigning death, and Asa started back to the house with the smoking weapon. Arriving there he ordered Mrs. Dick Caldwell to “come out and get what was coming to her.” She fled into the house in fear of the apparently demented man.

Caldwell’s mother and another of his brothers, Sam, were first on the scene and Asa told them calmly what he had done and ordered Sam to get a doctor for the injured man. Failing to get a response from the disconnected telephone, Sam started for the home of a neighbor and on the way came upon Dick, who had escaped through a rear door, crossed the field and was trying to reach help. A doctor was summoned and the wounds dressed. The blocking of the severed arteries by shell wads is believed to have been the means of saving Caldwell’s life, as the wound in the arm bled profusely when the wads were withdrawn.

After Sam’s departure, Asa Caldwell went back into the garage, perhaps with the expectation of finding his brother’s dead body. Perhaps remorse came to complicate his mental state, or the realization that his vengeance had been in vain and had recoiled upon himself. At any rate he placed the muzzle of the gun in his mouth and almost blew his head off. Thus terribly and definitely did the chain of violence unloosed by his uncontrolled wrath come to an end.

Dick was an ex-service man and about thirty-five years old. His brother, a bachelor, was much older, nearly fifty. Both men are well know to Fred Spatz, long-time resident in the vicinity, and were of the easy-going unemotional type—the last people one would expect to explode into a destroying passion. Doubtless Asa’s grudge was of long standing, needing only the provocation to flash into action.