Iowa Old Press

LeMars Semi-Weekly Sentinel
November 4, 1924

MRS. KNECHT IS DEAD
Was Resident of Merrill Vicinity Past Few Years.

Merrill Record: Mrs. Ernest Knecht, living six miles southwest of Merrill
passed away Sunday morning, November 2.

Mrs. Ernest Knecht was born in Shelby county, near Harlan, March 18, 1899,
and passed away after a brief illness of two weeks. She was taken to the
hospital at LeMars October 19, and November 2, she answered the call of
death.

Mrs. Knecht was married five years ago to Ernest Knecht, and to this union
were born two children, Lloyd Arthur and Bernice Velma, both of them
surviving her. Besides her sorrow stricken husband, she leaves her parents,
Mr. and Mrs. Jim Petersen, six sisters, who are Mrs. John Knecht, Mrs.
Luverne Schultz, Hazel, Myrtle, Mildred and Gladys. Two brothers and two
sisters preceded her in death.

She was a faithful wife, a kind mother and had a large circle of friends.
She will be missed by not only her loved ones, but by all who knew her.

The Funeral services were held in the Perry Creek church Wednesday afternoon
of last week and interment was made in the Merrill cemetery. Rev. Roths, the
pastor, had charge of the services.

SENEY: (Special Correspondence)

A large number from here attended the funeral of J. E. Emery at Maurice.

Ed Sordrager marketed hogs in Sioux City Friday.

Will Conner had the misfortune to lose one of his black horses.

Mr. and Mrs. H. Schwiesow, of LeMars, were visiting Mrs. A. Jeffers, Sunday.

Robert Chapman is on the sick list.

The W. H. M. S. will meet November 19 with Mrs. Iona Clark.

Mrs. Sam McSperren spent a few days in Sioux City last week with relatives.

Peter Okkinga, of Baldwin, Wis., shipped in a car load of farm machinery and
horses Wednesday.

Rev. B. M. Watson, of Schaller, visited friends here Wednesday evening.

Mrs. Betz, of Sioux City, was a Sunday visitor in the home of her brother,
Wm. Conner.

Mr. and Mrs. Henry Van der Haar, of Sheldon, were Sunday guests of Mr. and
Mrs. Jake Berkenpas.

Mrs. Jake Porter is a medical patient in the Community hospital in LeMars.

Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Dealy and children, of Sioux City, were Sunday callers at
the W. E. Hennrich home Sunday.

Irving McArthur is in Gayville, S.D., at Charley Darville’s husking corn.
The corn there is a fair stand.

Ed Riter, sons Dwight and Fred, motored to Rock Rapids Saturday and came
back Sunday. Mr. Riter’s mother is slowing improving.

W. E. Hennrich autoed to Sioux City Saturday and Emerson Kennedy returned
with him and spent the weekend with his mother, Mrs. Jessie Kennedy.

Mr. and Mrs. Will Ewin, son Howard and daughter, Dorothy, were Sunday guests
at the Ralph Obermire home in LeMars.

Mrs. Matthew Myers, of Sioux City, was an over night visitor at her
sister’s, Mrs. W. E. Hennrich, Sunday evening.

T. K. Chapman left here Friday morning for Dazey, N.D., to visit with his
sister, Miss Constance Chapman, who teaches there. He drove her car home,
arriving Monday making the trip in two days.

Mrs. John Deegan invited a few friends last Sunday to celebrate Mr. Deegan’s
birthday. Those present were Mr. and Mrs. James Deegan and son, Joseph, Mrs.
T. K. Chapman and children and Joe Deegan.

Mrs. A. R. Jamieson, of Dunlap, spent Friday with Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Reeves
Saturday. Mrs. Reeves and Mrs. Jamieson spent the afternoon with Mrs. John
Lancaster. Mrs. Jamieson formerly lived in LeMars where Mr. Jamieson was
Methodist preacher at one time.

This community was shocked and grieved Tuesday morning to hear of the death
of L. D. Baldwin, of LeMars, who was killed by a passenger train. Mr.
Baldwin was well known, having lived here with his parents, Mr. and Mrs.
David Baldwin, on the Baldwin homestead, north of here, where he grew to
manhood.

LeMars Globe-Post, November 4, 1924

CATTLEMEN BUY F. P. MILLS LAND

GANT BROS. THOROUGHBRED STOCK RAISERS INCREASE THEIR FARM HOLDINGS.

The Frank P. Mills tract of land south of Westfield was sold last week by M.A. Cass, assignee of the Mills Property, to Patrick Gant, a well known stock raiser and farmer in that section of the country. The tract sold comprises 480 acres of land and the price paid is $120 an acre. This is one of the largest land transactions made for some time since the war time land boom slumped. The Mills land sold last week adjoins the land owned by the purchaser and will make a connected ranch of over eleven hundred acres operated under the name of Gant Bros., who have for years been breeders of Polled Hereford cattle and Duroc Jersey hogs.

LeMars Daily Sentinel: Nov. 25, 1924

LOVE BLIGHTED ASKS DAMAGES
Mrs. Anna Hill Seeks Monetary Recompense for Alleged Loss of Love
ATTRACTS LARGE CROWD
Hint of Salacious Testimony Is Drawing Card

The standing room only sign was in evidence at the court house
yesterday when the damage suit instituted by Anna Hill, of Merrill, against
Lillian Stinton, of the same place, was called for trial. All available
seats were grabbed off at an early hour and the walls of the court room were
lined by rows of spectators who stood up during the progress of the
proceedings yesterday.

Mrs. Anna Hill claims $30,000 from Lillian Stinton, declaring
Mrs. Stinton stole the love and affection of her husband, John Hill, who was
until recently, pastor of the Methodist church in Merrill.

Many Witnesses Attend

Over fifty witnesses have been subpoenaed in the case and nearly
all of them were present on the opening day. The process of securing a jury
occupied the forenoon session. The following are the jurors empanelled to
try the case: Walter Bogen, Le Mars; Jesse Kallsen, Le Mars; Mrs. Chas.
Jans, Westfield; W.G. Ericksen, Henry; John Fiedler, Fredonia; Emmett Tracy,
Sioux; Fremont Muecke, Lincoln; C. Ludwig, Remsen; George Hanke, Elgin;
Dewey Bender, Hungerford; Wm. Gruber, Perry; N.J. Holster, Le Mars. The
witnesses in the case are mostly residents of Merrill, with a few from
Aurelia, where the Hills once lived, and from Sioux City.

Opening Statements

Attorneys in the case for Mrs. Anna Hill are T.M. Zink and A.
Molyneaux, of Cherokee, and for Mrs. Stinton, Roseberry & Roseberry.
Attorney Molyneaux made the opening statement for the plaintiff and said the
plaintiff expected to produce evidence that the defendant by feminine arts
and wiles had broken up the family of John Hill and his wife, and that they
were here to seek monetary damages, which was the only recourse the
plaintiff had left. He pictures the defendant as a designing woman who had
rendered a home __________. (Last word unreadable)

Attorney F. M. Roseberry made the opening statement for the
defendant. He stated among other things that the defense would prove that
Rev. Hill and Anna Hill had been estranged for years and their married life
was full of bickerings and quarrels. He also stated that on the night last
summer when Hill and his wife came to the parting of the ways Mrs. Hill
called Mrs. Stinton over to the Hill home and stated they were about to
separate and Mrs. Stinton advised them not to act hastily. The examination
of witnesses was begun late yesterday afternoon.

LeMars Daily Sentinel: Friday, Nov. 28, 1924

LARGE CROWD ATTENDS CASE
Spectators Crowd Court Room During Trial of Heart Balm Suit
TESTIFIED TO KISSING
Sleuth Tells of Shadowing Man and Woman

The first witness to be called to testify on the opening day of
the $25,000 alienation of affection suit brought in court here by Mrs. Anna
Hill, wife of Rev. J.E. Hill, former Methodist pastor at Merrill, against
Mrs. Lillian Stinton, former member of the pastor's flock, was the
plaintiff.

In a voice sometimes choked with emotion, sometimes so low that
the jury scarcely could hear and at other times filled with biting sarcasm,
Mrs. Hill related intimate details of her married life.

A crowded court room listened to the testimony, leaned forward
with baited breath when the testimony smacked of scandal, and chuckled with
glee when it took a turn to comedy or when the attorneys matched wits across
the counsel table. With Mrs. Hill in the court room sat her two daughters,
one 16 and the other 19 years of age. Across from them was Mrs. Stinton,
defendant in the case, clothed in black, mourning for her father who died in
Sioux City recently.

Testified to Kisses

Mrs. Hill told of seeing Mrs. Stinton and Hill in Sioux City.
She told of trailing them in an automobile down Pierce street, of seeing the
preacher and Mrs. Stinton kiss before getting into her car, of seeing them
with their arms around each other and seeing them kiss three times, as they
rode down Pierce street.

Then, according to Mrs. Hill's testimony, they drove into a side
street, and parked their car. Mrs. Hill states that she, and the party with
which she was riding, consisting of her brother, her sister-in-law and her
mother, drove around the block and, coming back, saw the two reclining in
each other's arms.

Mrs. Hill states they drove around the block a second time, and
then, unable to restrain herself longer at seeing her husband holding
another woman in his arms, she yelled at them. Mrs. Hill testified they
only looked at her with "a sickly grin on their faces."

The trouble all started, Mrs. Hill stated, on a day last June
when her husband fixed Mrs. Stinton's automobile while he had on his good
suit of clothes. Up until that time everything had been going along quite
nicely with an occasional family spat, but no more than other families have,
she said.

Their biggest trouble was over the children, she asserted.
Especially when Hill would correct them for something and at the same time
place most of the blame on her for their actions. Eighty-four letters were
produced in court claimed to be written by Hill to his wife and said to be
bubbling over with love for her. Most of these letters were written by Hill
when he was over in France with a religious organization during the war.

Mrs. Hill stated that Mrs. Stinton would come over evenings and
play checkers with Hill. And that Hill one time said he felt sorry for Mrs.
Stinton because she had no boys.

Finally Mrs. Stinton and Hill became on such intimate terms that
she could stand it no longer, Mrs. Hill testified. A quarrel resulted in
which her husband told her to go home to her father and tell him that Hill
was through with her, she stated. Mrs. Hill said she went home, but came
back the next night. She saw her husband down town, but he kept dodging
her, she says. She claims she wrote him some letters in an effort to bring
him back, but he has not lived with her since then.

Called Him a "Nut"

Asked on cross examination if she wasn't her husband's boss,
Mrs. Hill replied that most women were. She admitted calling her husband a
"darn fool" and a "nut," but denied using any stronger language toward him.

In the opening statement the defense counsel declared he would
show that Mrs. Stinton visited the house only upon invitation of Mrs. Hill.
He declared he would prove that the woman Mrs. Hill saw in the auto with the
preacher was not Mrs. Stinton, and told the jury that it would have to find
that Mrs. Stinton deliberately planned and schemed to win Mr. Hill's
affection. "Shed no tears on the preacher," the counsel stated, and added,
that even if he was foolish enough to fall in love with Mrs. Stinton it did
not necessarily mean that Mrs. Stinton was to blame.

The attorney also said that he would show that when the Hills
were about to separate Mrs. Hill called Mrs. Stinton into the house and told
her that before their marriage Hill had married a 16-year-old girl in
Aurelia, Iowa, but that the marriage had been annulled.

Court Room Jammed

At the second day of the trial the crowd was even larger than at
the opening session. With every available seat taken and the walls and back
aisles lined with spectators, witnesses court to assist the bailiff in
clearing through the crowd to get to the stand to testify. At one time
during the afternoon the jam at the doorway became so great that Judge
Bradley ordered the bailiff, Jake Spies, to get the people away from the
doorway and close the doors. Deputy Sheriff Sam Lang was called upon by the
court to assist the bailiff in clearing passages. Constable Sam Schessler
was easily the star witness of the day for the prosecution, and a rigid
cross examination by C.D. Roseberry afforded a number in the courtroom
evident delight. Schessler, according to his statements spent several days
and evenings in Sioux City last August on the trail of the defendant in the
case. He told on the witness stand of trailing a woman he believed to be
Mrs. Stinton, and Rev. Mr. Hill and seeing them hugging and kissing while
sitting in a parked automobile, of having followed them into a restaurant,
where the two dined together, and of seeing them sitting on the porch of a
room house at 11 o'clock at night.

Shadowed Pair

Schessler, who insisted he was not a detective, but merely an
investigator, told of being employed by T.M. Zink, Mrs. Hill's attorney, to
go to Sioux City and shadow the preacher and Mrs. Stinton during the time
the couple were there, Hill with a dying mother and Mrs. Stinton with a
dying father in the Methodist hospital.

Schessler testified he had never seen Mrs. Stinton until he
started on his investigation. He stated there could be no mistake, however,
that the woman he saw with Hill was the same woman who was sitting in the
courtroom in front of him, except that Mrs. Stinton has lost considerable
weight since he last saw her.

When questioned about the clothing Mrs. Stinton wore on these
occasions his memory was rather vague, except that on one occasion he
remembered Mrs. Stinton wearing a skirt trimmed in white and stockings with
white stripes. He declared, however, he had a splendid memory for faces and
that there was no doubt Mrs. Stinton was the woman he saw.

He told of following the couple in their auto and of watching
them from behind trees, but denied that he ever wore false whiskers or
otherwise disguised himself.

Tells of Kisses

Once the couple was seated in a parked automobile and Schessler
could see them hugging and kissing each other, he said. On another occasion
they sat on the porch of a rooming house and another time he saw them eating
together in a restaurant, he declared.

Mrs. Hill's brother and Mrs. Florence Zwick, mother of the
plaintiff, and Mrs. Alice Zwick, sister-in-law of Mrs. Hill, corroborated
the testimony of Mrs. Hill, that the four had followed the preacher and
another woman in an automobile and had come upon them when they were parked
in a side street, hugging and kissing each other. Of the four, only Mrs.
Hill and her mother stated positively that it was Mrs. Stinton that they had
seen.

Several other witnesses were called during the day, who
testified to the harmonious life they alleged Mr. and Mrs. Hill lived during
past years, before Mrs. Stinton came into their lives.

At the trial Wednesday morning a large portion of the time was
occupied in the reading of a number of letters written by Rev. John Hill to
his wife while Mr. Hill was in France working during the war with a
religious organization.

Court adjourned early Wednesday afternoon for the Thanksgiving
holiday in order to give those in attendance at court an opportunity to get
to their homes early.

The trial of the case will be resumed at nine o'clock Friday
morning.