Iowa Old Press
The Davenport Daily Leader
Davenport, Scott co. Iowa
Sunday, November 29, 1896
SEARCHER PIERCE PARDONED
His Unique Course Still Possible Unless Prohibitory
Law is Repealed.
DES MOINES, IOWA, NOV. 25 - Gov. Drake issued a
pardon to Frank Pierce and the fact was conveyed to the
convict as a sort of Thanksgiving present. Pierce was
serving a four-year
sentence for the killing of E. H. Wishart in Des Moines on June
30, 1891.
There were two more years of his sentence to be served. The
bare
announcement of the issuance of the pardon conveys nothing of
particular
interest.
But to every inhabitant of Iowa it recalls the whole story of
prohibitory
legislation in this state and especially the most sensational
period in the
history of Des Moines during that time in which it was advertised
to the
world by the National Woman's Christian Temperance union as the
"largest
city in the world without a saloon."
Frank Pierce was known, in the technical language con-
nected with Iowa's attempt to enforce prohibition of the sale of
intoxicating liquor as a searcher. He was a member of the
Pierce-Potts-Hamilton constabulary with which every man,woman,
and child in
the state is perfectly familiar, for the number of people with
whom those
officials came into contact during their reign over Des Moines is
too large
to be computed. Pierce ruled Des Moines for three years and
during that
time seized and destroyed thousands of gallons of liquor of one
kind or
another. Incidentally he enriched himself, was prosecuted
time without
number for offenses of multitudinous variety, shot two or three
men and was
lauded, feared, cursed and hated without limit.
Pierce as Prohibitionist
Frank Pierce was brought up on a farm and afterward
learned the black-smith trade. His father was well-to-do
and a prohibitionist. At the age of 14, Frank took an oath
to never touch
liquor and he kept it. He came to Des Moines
from his home in Polk county, fourteen miles north. He was
here when the prohibitory amendment was adopted in Iowa
by 30,000 majority in June, 1882. He was here and helped
denounce the supreme court for holding the law unconstitu-
tional because a legislative clerk failed to engross two or
three words properly. He was here when the legislature
passed the prohibitory law under which a man became a
criminal who sold any kind of liquor from beer to absinthe.
That law went into effect on July 4, 1884. Every saloon
sign came down in Des Moines on that day and prohibi-
tion was inaugurated.
Frank Pierce was a cart driver those days. He had a
gray mare and express cart and in going about the city
from 1884 to 1887 he discovered that prohibition did not
prohibit. It was a short step from this observation
to the
determination to do a little enforcing on his own hook. He
got himself elected constable. Under the prohibitory law
officers who seized liquor were allowed good fees. Pierce
insisted that he was not after the fees but that he was en-
gaged in the sole purpose of enforcing the laws. The fees
were therefore incidental. As they grew however, Pierce's
thirst for the enforcement of the law grew. He formed a
combination with several other men, among them George
Washington Potts and George Hamilton, a man named
Mercer, a man named West and several others. They
secured the positions of constable when possible and if
not constable as constable's helper or special constable
or witness.
Grew Rich on Fees
It became so in Des Moines that a man with a flask of
whiskey purchased in Chicago couldn't slip into an alley
to take a drink and avoid Pierce or some of his cohorts
who would drag the flask to justice court, have it con-
demned and earn fees in the operation. During a period
of three years preceeding 1890 and including a part of
that year the four justice courts of this county paid out
between $40,000 and $60,000 a year in fees to persons
interested with Pierce and his coterie in the enforcement
of the prohibitory law so far as seizures of liquor could do
it. Searches were hourly sensations. Beds of
invalids,
the sod on front lawns, reputable store buildings and all
sorts of places were searched by Mr. Pierce until liquor
in Des bottle and never but one bottle in a place. Thus
the last year during which the enormous fees mentioned
were paid the majority of the cases were for the condem-
nation of single bottles of beer or other liquor. About the
middle of 1890 the newspapers exposed the methods of
the searchers and the enormous fees they were making
and this, together with popular indignation at the outrages
perpetrated by the Pierce-Potts-Hamilton gang, resulted
in the purification of the constabulary and the suppression
of Pierce.
Pierce turned scavenger. As soon as the tide turned
against him and his methods prejudice against him grew.
Prosecutions for blackmailing owners of liquor and con-
victions for prejury and taking bribes had overtaken some
of the men with whom Pierce had been prosecuting his
business. This with the newspaper exposures worked
his ruin. The mayor of the city refused to give Pierce a
license as scavenger. Pierce appealed to the courts
and the judiciary, of course, said he had a right to pur-
sue his business if he wished to do so, provided that
he conformed to the statutes. Pierce was issued a
certificate. On June 30, 1891, he drove his scavenger
wagons to the crematory grounds but was refused
permission to unload them. The city administration had
stationed a policeman named E. H. Wishart at the
crematory to guard the grounds. Pierce and the officer
had a dispute. Pierce finally declared his intention of
burying the contents of his wagons in the street. The
officer objected and finally drew his revolver. Then
Pierce shot Wishart three times.
Threatened With the Rope
Wishart died that night about 12 o'clock. Pierce
had been arrested immediately after the shooting and
until midnight the thousands of men who surged around
the jail need only a rope and a leader to end him. Yet
three years before Pierce had been the lion of Des
Moines and his reception at public meetings was al-
ways an ovation.
However, public fury cooled. Pierce
asked for a
change of venue for trial on the charge of murder in
the first degree. It was granted and he was tried in
Indianola, Warren county, in the winter of 1892. His
defense was that of self-defense. He claimed that he
did not know Wishart was an officer, that he had been
warned that the city administration had plotted to kill
him, and he swore that when Wishart drew his revol-
ver he believed the immediate purpose was to kill him
and that he shot in self-defense.
At any rate, Pierce was found guilty of
manslaughter
and sentenced to four years in the penitentiary. He
appealed to the supreme court, but about one year ago
he was taken to the penitentiary.
[transcribed by M.C.B., Apr 2006]