Iowa
Old Press
Sioux City Journal, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 1884
A BLOODY RECORD.
MURDER NEAR LE MARS.
ONE FARMER SHOOTS ANOTHER DEAD.
[Note from Transcriber: The newspaper inadvertently interchanged the names of the victim and the person who committed the crime. Note the ‘sic’ indicators in the following text. Sic indicates the correct name.]
LeMars, Sept. 15.—Special to the Journal:
Between 7 and 8 o’clock this morning Henry Winter [sic-Hugh Moist], who lives nine miles south of this place, was shot and instantly killed by Hugh Moist [Henry Winter], a neighbor.
The shooting was the result of an old feud, and was unprovoked. The murderer came into town this forenoon and gave himself up. Bail was refused, and the accused was committed to jail to await the action of the grand jury. It is believed that the murderer is of unsound mind. He has a brother in the asylum at the present. The deceased leaves a wife and one child, who are left in destitute circumstances. At the inquest this afternoon a verdict of willful murder was returned.
Sioux City Journal, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 1884
THE PLYMOUTH COUNTY MURDER.
Further Details of the Tragedy—A Neighborhood Quarrel the Cause of the Crime.
LeMars Sentinel, 15: Just before Christmas last year Henry Winter and Hugh Moist, living about three miles nearly south of Merrill, had a dispute about a fence and some stock. They were at the former’s stable.
Winter having a fork in his hand at the time and with this struck Moist, who then wrenched the implement from him and proceeded to give him a thorough licking. Winter then had Moist arrested and fined $10 for an assault. They have not been on good terms since, but there has been no violent outbreak until this morning about 8 o’clock.
Moist was passing Winter’s house on his way with his horses to help a neighbor thrash. The parties met and soon Winter proceeded to strike Moist with a board three or four feet long, the latter being on a horse and the former on the ground. Afterward Moist dismounted and remarked that if Winter wanted to strike him again he had better come off his own premises into the road, which invitation was accepted.
One Leonard Mentinger was ploughing in a field near by, and hearing the disturbance looked out from behind a willow fence. Moist saw him and asked him to come there, which he did. Addressing Mentinger, Moist said that Winter had been striking him with a board, which he still held in his hand.
Winter then made two more passes at Moist, who protected his head by throwing up his arms, and finally snatched the board. Winter then called upon his hired boy, one Shrader, to hand him that revolver, which was done, and instantly the fatal shot was fired, the victim clapping his hands upon the place where the ball entered exclaiming, “Oh, my!” and immediately expired.
Mentinger started to the dead man, when Winter warned him to go at once or he would shoot him, saying that he had brought the revolver for this purpose. Mentinger then proceeded to inform the relatives, and came to LeMars.
The deceased was a young man with wife and one child, a temperate, industrious person, who so far as we have been able to learn, was highly respected by all who knew him. He was a poor man, living on the farm of Philip Schneider. The Coroner left to view the remains about noon.
Henry Winter is a middle-aged man, owning a fine farm of 200 or 300 acres, well stocked, and has a wife and three children. We have not yet had his side of the story. One of his brothers has been in the asylum, but no suspicion has ever existed that he was not of sound mind.
An information was sworn out by Leonard Mentinger against Winter as principal and Shrader accessory. Winter came in and gave himself up. Justice Hilbert declined to accept bail, committing the accused to jail to await the action of the grand jury. Mr. Augir appeared for the prisoner and filed exception to the ruling of the justice and purposes to appeal to Judge Lewis to admit the prisoner to bail.
Further particulars of the killing of Hugh Moist by his neighbor, Henry Winter, were given a JOURNAL reporter yesterday by W. F. Knowles, formerly of this city. Mr. Knowles was at the scene of the killing, on the Floyd road midway between Merrill and James, two hours after the tragedy. His story of the affair is this:
Last Spring Moist and Winter had a fight, and the latter was badly beaten. Moist is Road Supervisor, and Winter, not liking to work his poll tax under him, paid him the money, Moist promising a receipt. He [Moist] had not given the receipt, and Monday, as Moist was driving by Winter’s place, the latter asked him for the receipt. Instead, he began abusing Winter, and threatened to whip him again. Winter, who was standing inside his wire fence, told Moist not to come on his land.
Moist gave his team to Len Mentinger to hold and went up to the fence. Winter struck Moist with a piece of board, and Moist got possession of the board and was coming through the wire fence, when Winter’s wife handed his revolver to the hired boy, Henry Schrader, who handed it to Winter, and Winter fired, killing Moist, as related.
Though the killing occurred within half a mile of Moist’s home, neither his wife nor his brothers, who live in the neighborhood, had come near the dead man twenty-four hours after the killing. The body was laid out for burial in Winter’s house. The Moist family, Mr. Knowles said are Swiss, and have a superstition against approaching the body of a friend killed in a quarrel.
[transcribed by L.Z., Aug 2022]