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Peter Peterson Murder
Glenwood Township , Iowa, June 4, 1882


This information was gathered and submitted by Reid Johnson.
Thank you Reid for your diligent detective work.

This page was last updated on Wednesday, 31 March 2021



The following articles are all I could find on this affair in newspapers that I have access to. Further research in the local area newspapers and at the Winneshiek County courthouse is needed.

Elkader Register, Fri., 16 June 1882.

The township of Glenwood, Winneshiek county, was the scene, on the 4th inst., of a murder - the most horrible of crimes that man can commit. From what information we could gather of the terrible affair, it appears that Peter Peterson's cattle trespassed upon the premises of Hans Hanson, and were taken up by the latter. Mr. Peterson searched for his cattle and on finding them in Hanson's enclosure proceeded to take them without due form of law, whereat Hanson came out with his revolver and shot him dead. The murderer then went to Decorah and gave himself up to the officers of the law.

Elkader Register, Fri., 23 March 1883.

Hans Hanson was recently convicted of murder in the second degree, in the Winneshiek district court. The crime for which he was convicted was committed on the 4th of June, 1882, and was the culmination of a difficulty about trespassing stock. On the above day, some cattle of Peterson's trespassed on the land of Hanson, who shut them up, and when Peterson came and tried to put down the fence and take them away, refused to give them up without pay for the damage they had done. Peterson, with a stick in his hand, approached Hanson in a threatening manner, when the latter shot him with a revolver, in the forehead. Peterson fell to the ground, unconscious, and died about midnight. The scene of the tragedy was near the Peter Olson mill not far from the cave in Glenwood township. Hanson is about 23 or 24 years of age, and has a wife and child. Peterson was about 36, and left a wife and child.

Elkader Register, Fri., 26 October 1883.

District court was in session at Decorah, last week. Hans Hanson, who shot and killed Peter Peterson, about a year ago, has plead guilty to manslaughter, and will probably be sentenced to a short term at Anamosa.

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this page was last updated on Wednesday, 31 March 2021