near the center of Section 23, in Nevada Township; but early in April of 1853, when the Widow Hague and her family arrived at the same place, Lowell had set up for himself in a cabin which he had built about half a mile farther north. This was on Section 14, on the land afterward owned by Pierce, and about forty rods northeast of the house built by Pierce. The place is now owned by John M. Wells. The Lowell cabin consisted of a house of logs, with a shed-room on one side, and a door between the two apartments. The logs of these cabins form a part of the stable near the house where Pierce lived.
Doc. Billings had a cabin in Section 23, northwest of McDaniel's place, into which Mrs. Hague moved. She had bargained for the claim, which was held by the custom of the country rather than by fixed statute, but was induced to yield it to McDaniel on some pretense, and had bought a claim of a man named Hall, in Section 36, of Richland Township, four miles farther north, which, for many years thereafter, was her home. While she lived in the Billings cabin she was the neighbor nearest to the Lowell place, and McDaniel was not much farther distant.
While Mrs. Hague still remained at the Billings cabin, awaiting possession of the Hall place, she was called upon, one Sunday night, by one of the Lowell children, who urged her to visit the mother, alleging a sudden and severe illness. Mrs. Hague responded promptly to the call, but on hurrying to the place the woman was found to be already dead. Other neighbors came in. It was represented by Lowell that the woman " had a fit," and that its probable cause lay in her very hearty eating of the Sunday dinner and supper of Mrs. McDaniel, where the day had been passed in visiting. Lowell's actions, however, were peculiar, and, in connection with his unsavory reputation, aroused suspicion of foul play. He refused to permit the body to be prepared for burial in the usual manner, and insisted that it should be wrapped in sheets without changing the clothing, or removing a coarse handkerchief that was about the neck. He kept watch of everything that was done until the body was buried in the Mound Cemetery, on the McDaniel farm.
Within a few days, on comparison of views and further investigation, the neighbors determined to have the body exhumed and examined by physicians. This was done. The disclosures of this inspection and the testimony of Lowell's children, and others, satisfied the examining magistrate, Joseph P. Robinson, that Lowell should be held to answer for the murder of his wife. It appeared that on the day previous to her death the woman seemed to be in good health. During the night the children heard sounds which indicated a desperate struggle in the small room occupied by Lowell and his wife. The door between the two apartments was of heavy slabs, and was braced by a beam that extended from the farther side of the room. Lowell refused the children admittance. They testified that the sounds were such as would be produced by striking, choking and struggling. Lowell was a man of such strength that he could readily take the woman's life by such brutality, and the impression was general that he had done so. It is also said that the children stated that their mother, a former wife, had died in Ohio under similar circumstances.
During the magistrate's examination, at the house of Mr. Heald, Lowell lay upon the bed, and threatened those who testified against him, or gave opinions in favor of his guilt. He was reputed in the neighborhood to have been a pirate on the high seas in his earlier years. He habitually carried a weapon " like a sword "