NEISE, Mrs. and Child: Died 1893

NEISE, FAULZ

Posted By: Volunteer: Sherri
Date: 8/29/2013 at 01:55:17

WIFE AND CHILD MURDERED IN OTTUMWA
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**Handwritten: The Enterprise 3 Mar 1893
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The House Set on Fire by the Husband, and the Bodies Cremated.

On Wednesday morning about one o'clock the firemen were called to the residence of Adolph Neise. Upon their arrival there they found the house in flames, and also saw Mr. Neise, who informed them that his wife and child were in the burning building. The fire made it impossible to enter the building, and the woman and child were burned to death. It was learned that Neise had his wife's life insured for $5,000, and that a short time before the fire was discovered he had taken his children to the house of a neighbor, near by. The officers suspicioned that there was something wrong, and decided to investigate the matter. Coroner Campbell was notified and held an inquest, Edward Knott, Wm. Kraner and Richard Stevens acting as jurors. They were in session all of Wednesday and until a late hour Wednesday night. An examination of the remains developed the fact that Mrs. Neise's skull had been crushed by a heavy blow, and it is supposed that the villainous husband first killed his wife, threw her on the bed and then set the house on fire.

Three children were rescued from the house, Harry, the oldest child, aged 9 years, testified before the coroner's jury that they knew about the fire before their mother was burned; that they saw her in the room where the fire originated before the flames reached her bed; that their mother was lying on her face across the foot of the bed; that the floor where the fire was burning was saturated with something; that their father came to their bed and covered their faces up.

It appears that when Neise left the burning building with his three children, he took them to the home of Mrs. Pease, a neighbor. The oldest girl informed Mrs. Pease that the father told her that morning that if the house burned and their mother burned up, they would have money to build a new house and to purchase new clothes, and that they would have a new mother.

The evidence before the coroner's jury, resulted in the immediate arrest of Neise. When the facts became known it created intense excitement. Loud threats of lynching was heard on every corner, and the prisoner was hustled on to the midnight train and taken to Burlington.

**Handwritten: Contined next column, Ottumwa murder, The Enterprise 3 Mar 1893

And there appears to be a woman in the case. Miss Faulz, a sister of the dead woman, was also arrested and locked up. It is alleged that she and Neise have been quite intimate, and she will be held as an accomplice.--Ottumwa News.

Being fearful of a mob the officers secretly got Neise out of the city and took him to Fairfield, where he was confined in jail for safe keeping. While the circumstances and testimony of neighbors looks bed for Neise, we talked with Sherriff Crane Friday, and he says he cannot believe him guilty; and that if he is, he is the sharpest criminal ever he met. One firm with whom he has worked for eight years gives him a good reputation, and Neise accounts for the fire by a hanging lamp exploding and throwing the burning oil over the bed, while he and three other children were sleeping in another room. It is a horrible case, and if one-half that is told is true, hanging is too good for him.

Source: Van Buren Co. Genealogical Society Obituary Book C, Page 200, Keosauqua Public Library, Keosauqua, IA