Iowa
Old Press
Maquoketa Sentinel
Maquoketa, Jackson County, Iowa
February 1, 1855
On Friday at 2 o’clock P.M., John I. Taylor was hung at the
county hospital, near Galena, for the murder of his wife. At 1
P.M., in charge of an armed posse, he was conducted to the place
of execution, followed by a large crowd of all classes and ages,
maintaining a sad composure during the funeral march. He was an
old man of sixty years of age. We copy the execution from the Galena
Jeffersonian.
Upon reaching the ground ten thousand persons there stood in one
solid mass. Taylor ascended the scaffold perfectly self-possessed
and with a firm and steady tread-clothed in a white gown and cap
he addressed with a firm voice the crowd for more than thirty
minutes. His dying declarations were in substance the same as
those uttered by him when sentence was passed upon him. He
reiterated his innocence of the crime of willful murder-declared
that he knew not how his wife was killed-expressed the hope that
as Christ was crucified for all, he was crucified for him, and
the belief that he was forgiven by his God.
After the cap was drawn over his eyes, and he knew not what
instant he would be ushered into eternity, he again for ten
minutes addressed the crowd in a firm and distinct voice, and
admonished them to beware of intoxication, the cause of his
misfortune and the curse of his life. Weighing some 180 lbs., and
having been given a fall of six feet upon the removal of the trap
door, he died almost without a struggle-his neck seeming to have
been stretched near four inches. Thus died John I. Taylor, who
had rendered the state some service in the Seminole War
-performed in this city last summer, during the cholera season,
offered of kindness and humanity from which others shrank from as
dangerous, but who unfortunately was addicted to drunkenness, and
slew his wife in a fit of inebriation.
[transcribed by K.W., April 2009]
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Maquoketa Sentinel
Maquoketa, Jackson County, Iowa
February 8, 1855
DENTISTRY
Dr. J. G. Dearborn has taken a room at the Goodenow Hotel and
will be ready to perform any operating necessary to preserve or
beautify the teeth. Inserting on plate or pivot, filling,
regulating or extracting done in a scientific manner with as
little pain as possible.--Maquoketa, February 1, 1855.
[transcribed by K.W., April 2009]