The Lamoni Chronicle
September 29, 1904

SAMUEL EGLEY SHOT DEAD.

By J. W. KLING - At School Board Meeting - Dispute Over Work - KLING Bound Over To Grand Jury.

Samuel EGLEY was shot and instantly killed by J. W. KLING at a school meeting seven miles southwest of Kellerton, at about 2:30, Monday afternoon, a dispute having arisen over some work done by Samuel and David EGLEY. Immediately after the shooting KLING went to Mt. Ayr and gave himself up, and was bound over to the Grand Jury.

The two EGLEYs were members of the school board, and had engaged themselves to do some repairing on the school building and grounds. It seems that when the meeting was called to order, only the EGLEYs, KLING, and his son Ralph, and his son-in-law Frank TWAY, and Cash WHEELER, being present, a dispute arose over the legality of the affair - that of members of the board engaging themselves to do the work and wetting the price on the same. The disputants grew angry, KLING and Samuel EGLEY evidently being the principal participants, and finally EGLEY left the schoolhouse and stepping outside picked up an ax lying on the partly finished walk and reentered the building making directly for KLING. KLING warned him, commanding him to stop; but EGLEY made for him the faster, and when within six or eight feet of his intended victim KLING drew a revolver and shot him directly through the heart, the ball passing through his body and piercing the skin of his back. EGLEY sank to the floor and without a word or struggle expired.

Samuel EGLEY was a young man, four and twenty, perhaps, and leaves a young widow and two babes. J. W. KLING is a man past middle age, having a son and daughter married. He now awaits the action of the Grand Jury, having given a bond in the sum of $3,000.

Copied by Stacey McDowell Dietiker
June 11, 2003