Iowa
Old Press
Progress Review
La Porte City, Black Hawk co., Iowa
January 19, 1895
IOWA NEWS ITEMS
Walt H. Butler has arrived at his home at West Union. It is said
he looks bright and happy.
George, the 6-year-old son of B.F. Ibach, living near Whitten,
fell from a wind mill, a distance of fifty feet, sustaining
internal injuries that may prove fatal.
A dispatch says that Alfred Gray, under sentence of death in
Wellington, Kansas, for hyptonizing [sic] a man to murder one of
his neighbors, is a son of A. Gray, who lives near Batavia.
By an explosion of gas in a Japan bake oven at Dubuque the
foreman of the department was killed and his body burned to a
crisp. The building was also destroyed at a loss of $3,000.
While fishing in the South Fork, William Elerding, a farmer
living near Lawn Hill, Hardin county, carelessly picked up and
opened a clam. In it he discovered a pearl of remarkable size and
purity, and it is reported that he has been offered a large price
for it. Iowa soil will produce almost anything.
The boiler room of the Fordville Coal company's mine at Ford
caught fire and the boiler was blown about 200 yards. All of the
frame work, and
elevators burned. Engineer Baily was bruised, but not seriously
injured. The loss is estimated at about $4,000. It throws about
fifty men out of employment.
Andrew Jackson Wilkinson, head of the wholesale drug house of
Wilkinson & Co., of Keokuk, since 1876 died aged 61. He had
been a member of the board of education for seventeen years and
was founder of the public library of which he has been a director
since 1863 and was president at the time of his death. He also
served a term as mayor and alderman.
Lewis Smith, a bachelor and highly respected citizen of Harlan,
is lying at the point of death, the result of falling from a
train while trying to jump off with his gun. He struck on his
head and fractured the frontal bone. The doctor who attended him
extracted seventeen pieces of bone. It seems the covering of the
brain was not injured and the victim will likely recover. He
retains all his faculties and feels quite comfortable.
Clinton dispatch: County Clerk D. R. Markham has fled from this
city, leaving his bondsmen to make good a shortage of his
accounts. The amount will not be known until the expert now
engaged on the books completes his work. As Markham has been in
office four years, it is believed that the entire accounts are
crooked and the amount of the shortage will probably reach
$5,000. His disappearance came to light when the newly elected
officers took charge. Markham's downfall is due to fast living
and dissipation, which habits he contracted shortly after he was
elected to office in 1890. He leaves a wife and one child.
A. Anderson, of Odebolt, was fined $10 in justice court for
selling unwholesome meat in Sioux City. He purchased a number of
turkeys some time ago and kept them in a small room, where a
number of them smothered to death. He bled them, dressed them and
sent them to Sioux City where they were sold by a commission
house to the butchers. Some one at Odebolt having a personal
spite against Anderson gave the people in Sioux City information
of the fact and he was arrested. It has been discovered that a
large number of unwholesome turkeys were disposed of in the city
during the holidays, chiefly to the cheap hotels and restaurants.
Ex-Congressman Walt Butler, who disappeared last November and was
recently found in Indianapolis, has arrived at Vinton, where he
met his wife.
The Jasper county grand jury brought two indictments against
County Attorney E.J. Salmon, one for keeping a gambling house and
one for oppression in office, and also proceedings were
instituted for contempt. The court made an order suspending Mr.
Salmon from office and ordered that the board of supervisors
appoint another county attorney and that such attorney proceed to
remove Mr. Salmon from office permanently. This was quite a
surprise to most of the people of the county, but it is said the
cause of Mr. Salmon's trouble had been an open secret for some
time to those on the inside.
At Audubon Judge Thornell overruled the motions of the
defendants, Case and Mushrush, for a new trial and sentenced
Walter Case and Mushrush, giving Case twelve years and Mushrush
five years. The charges against Charles Jones and William
Mushrush were dismissed by the county attorney for lack of
evidence to convict. This winds up, so far as the district court
is concerned, the widely known Lieb murder case. Of the five
defendants indicted for murder in the first degree, William
McLaughlin the principal in the affair, is now serving a
twenty-two year sentence in the penitentiary at Fort Madison.
Walter Case was found guilty of murder in the second degree and
Robert Mushrush guilty of manslaughter.
John More, a prominent carpenter and builder of Cedar Rapids,
committed suicide a few days ago. Shortly after dinner he retired
to his
room saying he wished to lie down a few minutes, and to call him
in an hour. When the time arrived it was found he had fastened
his suspenders around his neck, tied them to a bed post and
rolled off the bed. His death was instantaneous as the family in
the adjoining room did not hear him struggle. He has been
fighting the liquor habit for several years and succeeded until
within the last few weeks. He told a friend a few days ago that
liquor was killing him, but for the sake of his family he would
never be a drunkard. He was perfectly sober when he committed the
deed.
J.L. Lewis was arrested at Sioux City with a number of copies of
the Kansas City Sunday Sun in his pockets and having in
his possession a large block of subscription receipts of the
paper. The arrest was made in accordance with instructions from
Sheriff Davenport to take into custody the first man found to be
taking any part in the circulation of the Sun in Sioux
City. It is intended to hold Lewis under the old indictments
returned against him two years ago of extortion in connection
with the Sun and to compel him to stand trial on some of
them. Lewis was convicted and has already served time on one
indictment and the others have been permitted to stand against
him, so that he could be arrested and tried on one of them at any
time the county officials saw fit to renew the prosecutions. He
recently made an attempt at suicide and failed and has since
taken up his connection
with the Sun.
[transcribed by C.J.L., January 2007]