Iowa
Old Press
Kellogg Enterprise
Kellogg, Jasper, Iowa
December 14, 1888
IOWA CONDENSED ITEMS
- There was quite a sensation in court in Dubuque when Lawyer
McNulty addressed the courts in a strong plea for his client,
Elliott, who, while consulting him at his house, stole his
daughter's sealskin saque. The lawyer was true to his client,
despite his base ingratitude. The judge, after this second theft,
had no patience with the prisoner, but sentenced him to a year in
the penitentiary.
- The citizens of Floyd county are in high excitement over the
disappearance of August Neinstatt, a merchant of Rudd. For the
past three months Neinstatt has been almost continuously under
the influence of liquor. He was treasurer of the district school
fund, and an investigation of the books shows a shortage of
$7,000. He was also treasurer of the Rudd Creamery association,
and he is short $1,500 in their accounts. As postmaster, his
books are in very bad shape, and it is said that registered
letters are not yet accounted
for. His father is computed to be worth $50,000, but whether he
will settle his son's account or not, he has not yet stated.
- Four dwelling houses were burned in Ottumwa a few days ago. One
belonged to Wm. Tackaberry, occupied by Daniel Levank and family,
who barely had time to escape with their lives, and lost all
their household goods, amounting to $500. The other three were
owned by J.J. Gardner, and were valued at $2,500, insured for
$1,500. The families in the three last houses burned saved all of
their household goods. The fire caught in the roof from a
defective flue.
- James Harvey, a coal miner, was found dead under the Milwaukee
railroad trestle, near Ottumwa. He had been drinking, as a bottle
was found on his person, and it is supposed that he fell from the
trestle and being unable to rise died from chill and exposure.
Such was the coroner's jury's verdict.
- George Hanson, a car repairer in the employ of the
Northwestern, at Council Bluffs, was called upon to examine a
sleeping coach, and while doing so the detached cars were backed
down on him and he was caught between the draw heads of two
coaches and so badly crushed that he died within fifteen minutes.
Hanson was aged about 24 years and resided with his sister.
- Parmenus Tuttle, of Monroe county, committed suicide a few days
ago by hanging himself. He was a member of the jury engaged in
the trial of the case of the State of Iowa vs. Roayl A. Adams,
charged with the murder of Sidney Darling at a charivari in Aug.
last. It is thought that the fact of his being on a jury in which
the life of a man was at stake may possibly have had something to
do in causing him to take the dreadful leap into eternity.
- Al Peterson, at Davenport, while under the influence of whisky,
fell into an ash-pit of a stove in such a way that he was he'd
there died of strangulation. His paramour was found ten hours
after in the room where
Peterson had been, still in a drunken stupor. Peterson was
supported by remittances from his father's estate in Sweden, the
sum of $1,400 having been forwarded this month.
- May Gilfoy, a noted woman of the town, at Sioux City, having
quarreled with George Robbins, the son of a leading contractor,
who had been supporting her, gulped down an ounce of laudanum in
his presence. He secured a physician, but it was too late. She
died.
- George P. Rose of Dubuque, has invented an electrical dial by
which all the clocks in the different parts of any large
establishment may keep exactly the same time, at a small expense.
- The Eastern Iowa Horticultural society held its eighteenth
annual session in Cedar Rapids. A fine collection of Iowa apples
were displayed, and many interesting questions were discussed.
The officers chosen are: President A. G. Williams, Chester
Center; vice president, A. Branson, West Branch; secretary, C.W.
Burton, Cedar Rapids; treasurer, H. Strom, Iowa City; directors,
Willard Clement, Bomgardner, Porterfield and Gregg. The next
place of meeting is West Liberty.
- Wm. Miers, a German farmer near Spring Hill, Warren county,
committed suicide by cutting his throat. He had been despondent
and seemed to fear that he might come to want. The high water in
June had damaged his crops a great deal, although he was fairly
well-to-do, having 140 acres of land, stock and other
possessions.
- Near Storm Lake a few nights ago, on the Illinois Central
railroad, brakeman Ed. Wright, while sitting in the cupola of
Conductor Walker's freight caboose, noticed some parties in a
buggy who fired with a rifle, the ball striking Wright square
between the eyes, glancing on the skull, and coming out the back
of the neck. The curious part of the affair is that a few days
ago while Conductor Walker was sitting in the same place on his
train, passing the same spot, persons in a buggy fired on him,
but fortunately without effect. The supposition is that somebody
is laying for Walker, and mistook Wright for the Conductor.
- Robert Gill, a young man who came to Sioux City a few months
ago from Storm Lake to take a position with the Fidelity Loan and
Trust Company, has been missing since Thanksgiving day. His books
are all right, and it is feared that he has suicided, as he has
been melancholy for some time. His roommate awoke one night just
previous to his disappearance to find him sitting on the edge of
the bed snapping a revolver at his head, evidently trying to get
up courage to shoot himself. His father is a wealthy physician of
New York city.
- Christopher Hanley, who was sent to the Independence asylum
from Greene county eighteen months ago, escaped from the asylum
two months ago, and has been working for farmers in Black Hawk
county. Hanley claims that he was sent to the hospital on a
trumped up charge to get his property away from him.
- John Moffitt of Le Mars, while skating, went through the ice
into five feet of water and remained there for an hour before he
was rescued.
- The bill to quiet the title of settlers to the Des Moines river
lands in Iowa, passed the House.
- Miss Emma Bernard, a 16-year-old girl living near Clinton, has
been assisting in gathering corn this fall, husking on an average
sixty-seven bushels per day.
- A distressing accident is reported from Shueyville, Johnson
county, at the home of J.H. Kephart. A servant in the employ of
the family was using concentrated lye and left the can containing
the same on the chair, where
twin children, eighteen months old, obtained it and drank of it.
Both died within two days from the effect.
- Lizzie Bell, the colored girl who attempted to poison Mrs. C.W.
Newton, of Keokuk, not long ago, so that she might marry her
husband, C.W. Newton, has been arrested. She is in jail in
default of $100 bail.
- At Arcadia, Carroll county, William Hunter was shot by a
constable from West Side, Crawford county. The ball entered the
left side of the head just back of the ear, passing into the base
of the brain, where it lodged. The victim of the assassin's ball
fell lifeless to the ground. he was not over ten feet from the
officer when he fell. The constable, James Matsced, was arrested
and is now in jail. The constable was about to arrest Hunter, who
had been engaged in the saloon business at Vail. The county
attorney is reported as saying that the action of the constable
was hasty. At last reports Hunter was still alive, but cannot
recover.
- Joseph Sesterhen and his wife are now serving sentence in the
Johnson county jail of five and three months respectively. They
were tried before Judge S.H. Fairall for contempt of court for
selling intoxicating liquors
contrary to an injunction issued by the District Court under the
prohibitory law. They are residents of Oxford and this is the
second time that action has been brought against them relative to
the prohibitory statute.
- A distressing accident occurred at Strawberry Point on
Thanksgiving Day by which Mr. Erastus Tompkins lost his life. He
and his son with one or two others were about to start hunting
when the boy accidentally exploded the shell in his gun, shooting
his father just above the right temple, killing him instantly.
- Fred Buss, of Polo, was kicked by a horse and died in a short
time.
- E. Barber, an evicted Des Moines river land settler, whose wife
had deserted him a few weeks before the ejectment, died of a
broken heart, the physicians giving his excessive grief at the
two misfortunes as the direct cause of his death.
- James Buckwater of the soldiers home at Marshalltown, died of
softening of the brain. He was fifty years old and served in
Company B, Second Iowa Infantry.
[transcribed by C.J.L., December 2005]