Joseph S. Stiles (1906)

GOWENS, STILES

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler
Date: 4/28/2017 at 08:00:50

The Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Thursday, March 22, 1906
Page 1, Column 1

Joseph H. Stiles, chief of police at Eugene, Oregon, and former resident of this county died by his own hand at Eugene, Oregon, March 10th. He had been accused of selling liquor to miners. Information to this effect had been filed with the district attorney of the county. The word reached the ears of chief Stiles and brooding over the affair caused the chief to take his own life. The parties to whom the liquor was alleged to have been sold subsequently made statements entirely exonerating the chief and his friends believe that he was a victim of malicious prosecution. Concerning him the Eugene Register says:

“Chief of Police Stiles was one of the best officers that the city of Eugene ever had and had a wide reputation throughout the state for being an efficient officer. He was a popular man with the business men and citizens of Eugene and had served on the police force since 1897 in the capacity of an officer and as chief of the force.”

He was born at Winterset, Madison county, Iowa, January 19, 1855. He married Sadie Gowens and came to Eugene in 1894. He has one son, Edward Stiles, of Portland, by his first wife and four children by his second wife, William R. Stiles, of Albany, Mabel, Harold and Lloyd and his wife, all of Eugene, survive him. The deceased was a member of the Christian church and a member of the local lodge of I.O.O.F. He was also a member of the Woodmen of the World and held a policy in that organization.

The deceased was the youngest brother of the late T. W. Stiles, of this county.
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Transcriber’s note: Typed as published in the Winterset Madisonian. Middle initial on gravestone is "S". The word "miners" should be "minors". All of the censuses he appeared in show him to be born in Indiana.

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Madison Obituaries maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
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