Iowa Old Press
-The Hawk-Eye
Burlington, Des Moines, Iowa
Thursday Morning,
March 5 1874
One Thousand Dollars Reward.
Governor Carpenter has issued a
proclamation offering a reward of one thousand dollars for the apprehension of
the person or persons who committed the murder at Long Grove. In addition to
this, Mr. James Brownlie has personally offered a reward of five hundred dollars
for the arrest of the murderer. This in addition to the one thousand dollars
offered by the farmers of Long Grove, and the one thousand dollars by the Scott
county Board of Supervisors, makes a total reward offered of three thousand five
hundred dollars. Here is a chance for detectives and police officers.
No murder that was ever committed in Iowa created a
greater or more profound feeling of sorrow and indignation, or more excitement
than has the Brownlie murder. We are told that all through Scott county the
feeling is still intense, and should the murderer be captured and should there
be no doubt as to his guilt, there is not the slightest doubt that a piece of
rope would be turned into a necklace for him or them. Even at this distance the
first inquiry made of any one from Davenport, is in regard to this tragedy. All
trails for the murderer having now failed, the authorities are actively
searching for something more to develop.
The gun with which Mrs. Brownlie was shot was found
Thursday, and Lewis Johnson - a colored man who lived at Brownlie's - was
arrested. There are strong suspicious circumstances against him, although he
protests his innocence and shows not the slightest agitation.
Burlington Hawkeye
Burlington, Des Moines, Iowa
Thursday Morning, March 12, 1874
Prohibition in the Senate
The following is the vote by which the prohibitory liquor bill was defeated in
the State Senate. We have not the bill before us but, as we understand, it was
simply to include wine and beer with the stronger intoxicating drinks whosesale
is now prohibited by law. A similar bill has already passed the House and will
come up in the Senate hereafter. Whether there is any material difference in the
two bills, or whether the Senate is likely to treat the house bill differently
from what it did its own, we have no data upon which to found an opinion. The
Senate bill was lost by the following vote:
Yeas: Senators, Bailey, Bemis, Boomer, Campbell, Chambers, Conoway, Converse,
Dague, Dashiell, Fitch, Howland, Jessup, Kephart, Maxwell, McCoid, Miles,
Miller, Mitchell, Selby, Smith, Thornburg, West, Wood and Young of Cass-24.
Nays: Senators, Cooley, Crary, Fairall, Gault, Kinne, Larrabee, Lovell,
McCormack, McIntyre, Merrell of Clinton, Merrill of Wapello, Murphy, Newton,
Pease, Perkins, Rothert, Rumple, Russell, Shane, Stewart, Taylor, Willett,
Williams, Wonn, and Young of Mahaska-25.
THE BROWNLIE MURDER
Why the Coroner's Jury Brought in a Verdict Against Lewis Johnson
The Davenport Gazette says that the
verdict of the coroner's jury in the Brownlie murder investigation, charging
Johnson with the crime, has the effect of enhancing public interest in the case,
and of renewing inquiries as to the evidence which ruled the minds or the
jurymen. And a statement of the testimony that produced the verdict will not be
unacceptable.
1st. The entering wedge of the suspicion against Lewis
Johnson was the length of time he, on his own statement, took on the night of
the murder, to walk on the Davenport & St. Paul railroad track to the Long
Grove Church, being over three hours, when he ought to have made it in an hour
and forty minutes.
2d. The jury did not believe he followed the railroad,
but crossed to the Dubuque road, and rode thereon some distance with a farmer,
crossing from it to Brownlie's house where the murder was committed.
3d. The jury believed that for two Wednesday nights
successively, prior to the night of the murder, Johnson lay in wait watching for
Brownlie to go to prayer meeting, he (Johnson) having walked out from Davenport
on these occasions just as it is alleged he did on the fatal night - and that
circumstances, or fear, prevented him from carrying out his plan.
4th. The jury believed that Johnson stole the missing
gun from James Brownlie's and secreted it in a place in A.W. Brownlie's barn
that no one, beside himself, except Mr. B., could have well known. The finding
of the missing piece of the gun strap exposed the hiding place.
5th. Johnson's statement that he had bought no shot or
other amunition [sic] at any place besides Richardson's at Long Grove, this
winter, when he did, in fact, purchase shot at Boothe's grocery and at Berg's
gun shop in this city, was, in the minds of the jury, another important link in
the chain of testimony.
6th. The finding of shot in Brownlie's barn of exactly
the size of those bought at Berg's, with the paper in which it was believed Berg
wrapped them.
7th. The weight and size of the shot taken from the
body corresponding with the Berg shot.
8th. The demeanor of Johnson at prayer meeting the
night of the murder, and elsewhere after it, and whenever the murder was
mentioned in his presence.
9th. The anxiety of Mrs. Brownlie to have her husband
discharge Johnson when he desired to remain, having a home where he was treated
as an equal, Mr. Brownlie desiring that he should remain. And the jury believe
that as Mrs. Brownlie alone prevented him from staying on the place as long as
he chose, he determined to remove this obstacle, especially as she disliked him
very much, and expressed her opinions freely to her husband and sometimes to her
children.
10th. The straight aim with which the shots were fired,
the height of the window above the ground requiring a tall man to make it.
11th. To the last idea, the one that the murderer, from
all circumstances, must have been somebody familiar with the premises.
12th. The finding of a piece of paper gun-wadding, the
letters on both sides of which correspond exactly with the letters on both sides
of pieces of torn paper found in the top of Johnson's
trunk.
- The startling theory is now propounded that Lewis Johnson, accused of the murder of Mrs. Brownlie, near Davenport, also committed the Alger murder, in the same vicinity, several years ago. Mrs. Alger had about eleven thousand dollars in gold, which the assassin obtained, and it is reported that Lewis Johnson loaned out that amount of gold to a Scott county farmer.
Burlington Hawkeye
Burlington, Des Moines, Iowa
March 19, 1874
TAKEN IN.
By a Nice Young Man from Indianapolis.
Two weeks ago, a nice young man, representing himself as being in an impecunious state, stopped at the farm house of Jacob Leffler, about two miles west of the city. He said that he was from Indianapolis, Ind., and was on his way to visit an insane relative confined in the asylum at Mt. Pleasant, would Mr. Leffler take him in? Mr. L. would and did, and in return for his kindness got taken in, himself. The young man delayed his departure on various pretenses, until Tuesday last. On that day he came to town with Mr. L. on a load of hay and helped him to unload the same. Mr. L. gave him two dollars with which to pay his passage to Mt. Pleasant and get his supper. The Hoosier thanking him heartily, departed. Wednesday morning Mr. L.'s family made the unpleasant discovery that the stranger had gone but not alone. He took with him a costly gold watch and chain the property of Mr. L.; three pure gold rings made in California, belonging to the children and containing their names on the inside; and a lot of gold and silver coin, valued as an assorted collection by Mrs. L. Beyond the mere pecuniary loss of the property, one of the rings was very highly prized as a memento of one of the children but lately deceased. An effort to ascertain the whereabouts of the thief was being made, yesterday, with but little hope of the ultimate recovery of the property.
The Police Court.
William Kilfoyan stood first at the bar of justice. "An
if your worship pleases," quotha," I am a rogue, an I did aught but
drink a moiety of sack; villainous sack too i' faith. 'I have very poor and
unhappy brains for drinking; I well wish courtesy would invent some other custom
of entertainment. I have drank but one cup and that was craftily qualified too,
and behold what an innovation it makes here. I am unfortunate in the
infirmity.'"
So excellent did Mr. Killfoyn perform his part that the
Court, being an admirer of the Bard of Avon let the penitent reveller off on
payment of costs.
John Worth was the next victim. "Drunk?" said he,
"and speak parrot? and squabble? swagger? swear? and discourse fustian with
one's own shadow? O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be
known by let us call thee-devil!! I remember a mass of things but nothing
distinctly; a quarrel, but nothing wherefore. O, that men should put an enemy in
their mouths to steal away their brains! That we should with joy, revel,
pleasure, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts! To be a sensible man,
by and by a fool, and presently a beast! O strange, every insubordinate cup is
unblessed and the ingredient is a devil."
But the court, unimpressed by Cassio's remorse and logic,
simply fined him, with costs, $18.35. and the unhappy Shylock was led away to
the stone pile.
Jesse Hill and Samuel Stephenson appeared before the august
tribunal charged with being gentlemen of leisure without the means of supporting
that leisure; that they were therefore vagrants. But on motion of the
Prosecuting attorney they were dismissed, to wander up and down the green earth
in "maiden meditation, fancy free."
J.P. Smith came forth, "Our life is a vapor," he
said. "Spring with its opening buds is here-"
"Yes, " said the Court, "and you are here,
that make a pair of you. Spring comes in its turn in the revolving year, you
come because a policeman necked you when you were drunk. Spring, etherial
mildness, we cannot keep with us always, but you we will keep till you enrich
our coffers with $17.85.
The descendant of the Smiths was a financial wreck, but a
friend went on his bond and J.P. strode forth into the free air.
"William Goldsberry, havest thou saved from thy drunken
expenditures the sum of $18.35?"
"Me lord, I havedent."
"It were better for thee than thou havedest hade. Take
him away, and chain him in the deepest dungeon beneath the castle moat!"
The rustle of a woman's dress, and lo, feminine loveliness,
in a mild form, irradiates the court room. Mary Whalen and Mary McLaughlin, two
women who got outside of more whisky the other day than a two gallon pail would
attempt. And when they were comfortably drunk these ladies grew disorderly and
kicked up a row, tore each other's redingotes and pulled each other's back hair
down, and threw hair pins and whale-bones and steel springs all around the room.
Sad spectacle of fallen woman! Justice was pitiful. "Had they any
money?" Not a money. Justice was indignant. "Take them away." And
they are boarding at the jail accordingly.
D. Bokenkemp straggled in at the end of the list. He was
familiar with the surroundings of the temple of Justice, for he had been under
its sacred eaves before. The temperance fever had seized D.B. and he had tried
to drink all the whisky in Burlington, to keep other people from getting drunk
on it. The result was inevitable, and outraged Justice held forth his itching
palm for sordid dross. "Has thou $28.25 worth of lucre." "Not a
luke." "Luke around for it then, for by these unerring scales thy
largess shall our scantly pile requite, or nineteen times the space that
measures day night for mortal men, thou poundest adamantine and primeval
rock." Mr. Bokenkemp at last accounts is still searching for the coupons.
The Murder of Mrs. Alger.
A Wheatland correspondent of the Davenport Gazette,
noticing the report which has been broadly published that Lewis Johnson, accused
of the murder of Mrs. Brownlie and her son, was suspected also of the murder of
Mrs. Alger, in Clinton county, in 1872, says that "ever since the murder of
Mrs. A., efforts have been made to fasten the crime upon some innocent party or
parties whom no one at all acquainted with the case would for a moment
suspect." And he adds that there had been a coroner in Mrs. Alger's case to
do duty as thoroughly as Coroner Grant did in the case of Mrs. Brownlie, the
murderer of Mrs. Alger would long since have been brought to punishment."
And the correspondent is anxious to know the origin of the theory that Johnson
is guilty of the murder of Mrs. Alger, and that the had loaned sums equivalent
to the amount stolen from Alger's house when the wife was killed.
There is no accounting for the origin of the story. It got
into the Rock Island newspapers somehow and was copied extensively-and the
$11,00 [as written in newspaper] taken from the Alger mansion was magnified ten
fold and made $11,000 in gold, when the amount loaned by Johnson among his
acquaintances in Long Grove the past three years does not exceed $400, while he
had but $200 in the bank when arrested. These sums do not exceed the amounts he
could have saved during his years of service with Messrs. Fearing and Brownlie,
at the Grove.
Death of John Curts.
Thursday evening, John Curts, Esq., was found lying in an
insensible condition at the foot of the stone steps leading into his cellar. He
had fallen, evidently, from the top to the bottom, and probably backwards, as he
was bleeding profusely from a cut in the back of his head. Medical aid was
summoned immediately, but to no avail. He died at nine o'clock.
Mr. Curts was a Pennsylvanian by birth. In the Keystone State
he was unfortunate in the iron business and came West in 1838 to better his
fortunes. He settled on a farm near Shokokon, Henderson county ,Illinois, and
through hard work, good management and close economy, accumulated a considerable
portion of this world's goods. The father was materially aided by his three sons
who were as skillful in the art of making money as himself. One of them,
Horatio, was of an enterprising nature. In the territorial days he had at
Shokokon the largest lumber yard on the Upper Mississippi. He also owned large
pineries in Wisconsin and mills at Black River Falls. Horatio Curts died several
years ago-by his own hand-an old bachelor, and leaving his father heir to his
fortune.
Mr. Curts bought the old Marine Hospital on Vinegar Hill,
five or six years ago, had it repaired, removed it from Henderson county, and
has resided quietly in Burlington ever since. His fortune - left, without a
will, to his wife and six children- will probably amount to three hundred
thousand dollars. Much of his wealth was amassed by judicious purchases of real
estate in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri.
He was a tall, heavy man with a powerful constitution, and up
to the time of his death scarcely knew what it was to be sick.
Mr. Curts was eighty-seven years of age, his wife is
eighty-four, and they were married sixty-five years ago.
-James Wanser, who lives out on Seventeenth street, doesn't keep ashes in a dray goods box anymore. The last lot emptied into that recepticle, on Thursday morning, contained enough live coals to get away with the box and threaten the shed kitchen. As a rule, pine boxes and hot ashes do not get along well together.
THE STATE
- Scarlet fever is raging in
Garner, Hancock county.
- Coal has been discovered in Linn county near
-
The hearing of the case of Lewis M. Johnson, accused of the murder of
Mrs. Brownlie and her son, is set for Monday the 23d instant, at
- Mrs. Mierker and her family were very nearly suffocated by gas one night last week, having left a lid partially out of its place on the coal stove in one of the sleeping apartments.
- Colcord, the man arrested on the charge of embezzlement of money in the Shelden post office, has been released. The story of the embezzlement was without any foundation.
- Mrs. William H. Clausen of
- The roof and ceiling of a
school house near Council Bluffs caught fire last Monday and Mills Boucher went
aloft and fought the fire with snow which the scholars passed up to her, until
the progress of the devouring element was checked. The
- Gunn, the detective, who tried
to work up the Egglesht gang in