Iowa Old Press

Correctionville News
Correctionville, Woodbury, Iowa
March 26, 1914

IOWA STATE NEWS

John O'Neil, foreman of a Rock Island section gang at Fairfield, shot and killed a laborer named Ernesto Reyes. Reyes and a number of other Mexicans had been discharged by the company, but for a week or more had refused to leave the bunk cars. O'Neil went to the car and told them to leave. Reyes and another Mexican are claimed to have seized an ax and spade and started off for O'Neil, who jumped from the car and fired at the men as they came to the door, killing Reyes. O'Neil was acquitted by the coroner's jury.

Lack of money and a position with which to support his wife and baby was given by Archie Hayes of Fort Madison as a reason for ending his life with a bullet through his brain in his home there. His wife and child were in an adjacent room while he penned the note and pulled the trigger of a small rifle.

Charles W. Lockard of Wadena was taken back to the Fort Madison penitentiary after losing a habeas corpus case. Lockard had served several months in the penitentiary. Lockard's contention is that his attorneys persuaded him to consent to a plea of guilty in order to get a light sentence.

A man supposed to be Albert Dalton of Creston, Ia., was murdered on the "O" street viaduct in South Omaha. His body, with the throat cut, was found by an officer, but there is no trace of the murderer. Dalton was a railroad man about 40 years old.

W.E. Young, managing editor of the Cedar Rapids Gazette, who has been connected with the paper for twenty-five years, lies dangerously ill at his home in that city. At a consultation of physicians it was declared he may not recover.

The body of John H. Janke was found floating in the river at Burlington. It was identified by papers found in the clothing. Janke disappeared Nov. 24, 1913. He was a member of the fraternal order of Eagles.

Mrs. Katherine Korab, the mother of Paul A. Korab, cashier of the Iowa City State bank, and one of the first Bohemians to come to America, died recently at Western. She was 82 years old. She and her husband came from Bohemia in 1854.

Peter Frye, a farm hand, aged 50, died at Burlington as the result of a fractured skull. He was knocked down by John Hedge, a negro, and his head struck the sidewalk with terrific force.

The infant child of Mrs. Herman Waller is dead at Allison and the mother probably fatally burned as the result of an explosion when a bottle containing alcohol fell on a hot stove.

One of the most bitterly contested legal battles that has come before the bar of Henry county was ended when the jury in the case of Hannah Obermier and Lizzie Philpot against the Anton Totemeir estate returned a verdict awarding $8,967.88 to the two plaintiffs, who claimed that they worked for the dead man for a period of years between 1892 and 1902.

L.S. Coffin of Fort Dodge has filed an action in district court to dissolve the guardianship appointed some time ago by Judge Albrook. Mr. Coffin declares that he is now of sound mind. He also charged that C.V. Findlay, his guardian, is not a proper person for the position. Mr. Coffin fought the appointment of a guardian when action was brought by Mrs. John Rutledge, his only daughter, in 1913. The action followed the adoption by Mr. Coffin of a woman as his daughter, who since has married.

Claude Henninger, who entered a plea of guilty to violating the Mann white slave act in transporting Mamie Adams from Allentown, Pa., to Missouri Valley, was sentenced to serve sixty days in the county jail at Logan. The court was lenient with the young man when it was shown that his wife had left him and he and the girl came to Iowa to make their home and marry when Henninger had secured a divorce.

If William Dobson, formerly of Tama county, happens to put in an appearance within the next ten years he will find himself possessed of $5,207 and its accumulated interest as a result of the will of his father, the late Sumner Dobson. William Dobson disappeared and his whereabouts are not known. Before his father died he divided up the property among his eleven children, each share being $5,207.

An unusual case is being tried in the district court at Boone in which children are suing grandchildren. The will of the late James Irving gave all of his property to his grandchildren and omitted his children, who had had a guardian appointed for him. The children, who number five, are suing all their children and much interest is being aroused over the outcome.

There is a good deal of excitement in the southwestern part of Humboldt county over the report that gold has been found on the farm of Rolf Hanson, one mile west of Thor, by well drillers. There were two layers of the metal, one about 150 feet below the surface in a hard rock formation, and the other in black sand.

Dr. W.M. Scott of Centerville has a rival for honors as having lived longest in Iowa, in the person of J.P. Alfrey of Farmington. Mr. Alfrey was born at Farmington in January, 1836, and has resided there continuously during the seventy-eight years of his life.

Chester Davidson, 16 years old, accidentally was killed at a dance at Percival. He sat down on a window sill on the second floor, lost his balance and fell backward to the ground, breaking his neck.

John D. Reed, 95 years old, for fifty years a resident of Dubuque, is dead. He was born in England. In his early life he followed the sea, later engaging in railroad work.

Hal Wheeler, the 21-year-old son of Mrs. James Lee, living near Audubon, committed suicide at the home of Tom Newell, where he had lived for two years. Wheeler shot himself in the forehead. In searching for a motive for the suicide it was found that Wheeler recently had been told that his frequent visits at the home of a young girl near the Newell's must cease.

[transcribed by C.J.L., March 2007]


Iowa Old Press
Woodbury County