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CRIME STORIES of RINGGOLD COUNTY, IOWA
THE MURDER of SAMUEL EGLY
The Lamoni Chronicle
Lamoni, Decatur County, Iowa
Thursday, September 29, 1904
SAMUEL EGLY SHOT DEAD
By J. W. KLING
At School Board Meeting - Dispute Over Work
KLING Bound Over to Grand Jury
Samuel EGLY was shot and instantly killed by J. W. KLING at a school meeting seven miles southwest of Kellerton, at
about 2:30, Monday afternoon, a dispute having arisen over some work done by Samuel and David EGLY. Immediately
after the shooting KLING went to Mount Ayr and gave himself up, and was bound over to the Grand Jury.
The two EGLYs were members of the school board, and had engaged themselves to do some repairing on the school
building and grounds. It seems that when the meeting was called to order, only the EGLYs, KLING, and his son
Ralph, and his son-in-law Frank TWAY, and Cash WHEELER, being present, a dispute arose over the legality of the
affair - that of members of the board engaging themselves to do the work and wetting the price on the same. The
disputants grew angry, KLING and Samuel EGLY evidently being the principal participants, and finally EGLY left the
schoolhouse and stepping outside picked up an ax lying on the partly finished walk and re-entered the building
making directly for KLING. KLING warned him, commanding him to stop; but EGLY made for him the faster, and when
within six or eight feet of his intended victim KLING drew a revolver and shot him directly through the heart, the
ball passing through his body and piercing the skin of his back. EGLY sank to the floor and without a word or
struggle expired.
Samuel EGLY was a young man, four and twenty, perhaps, and leaves a young widow and two babes. J. W. KLING is a man
past middle age, having a son and daughter married. He now awaits the action of the Grand Jury, having given a bond
in the sum of $3,000.
NOTE: Samuel EGLY was born September 5, 1869, and died September 26, 1904. He was interred at Oakland (Saltzman)
Cemetery, Ringgold County, Iowa. His epitaph reads, "How Desolate our home bereft of thee."
Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker
December of 2008
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