Author: Catherine Renschler

A murder trial in the sleepy little town of Juniata?  You’re probably asking, “How did that happen?”   Well, Juniata was the county seat of Adams County from 1871 to 1878.  In 1872 a small frame courthouse, 16 by 20 feet, was built on Juniata Avenue.  In that small building, the county and district court trials were held.

On September 17, 1875, at Kearney Junction (original name of Kearney), Milton Collins was murdered by Jordan P. Smith, a Texas cowboy. Smith and several other cowboys in charge of a herd of horses rode to the Kearney Junction saloon on the 16^th, where they spent the day and night drinking.  The herd of horses was left to shift for themselves, and in the night, the horses helped themselves to  Collins’ cornfield south of Kearney Junction.  The next morning, Collins corralled the horses and intended to collect damages before releasing them.

Milton Collins, age 24, was born in Johnson County, Iowa.  The family was well-known pioneers in Buffalo County, with his father, Rev. Asbury Collins, serving as the County probate judge.  Collins had a young wife and an infant son.

When Collins told Smith he wanted $20 for the damage to his corn crop, Smith, who was still drunk, drew his gun and ordered Collins to open the corral gate.  As Collins dismounted his horse, Smith shot him fatally.  The murder was witnessed by Collins’ wife and his father, as well as neighbors named Scholes.  Judge Collins carried his son into the house, but he immediately expired.

Smith and the other cowboys drove the horses south across the Platte River bridge and west along the river, dispersing into the sandhills.  Judge Collins rode into Kearney and rounded up a well-armed posse, which began the pursuit.  Another posse started east, led by Deputy U.S. Marshall D. B. Ball from Dawson County, who had been telegraphed.  The cowboys were eventually surrounded, and eleven of them were captured.  But Smith and one other man escaped.  Kearney Junction had previously suffered so much destruction at the hands of drunken cowboys that a number of the posse determined to lynch the captives.  But cooler heads prevailed.  The following day, Smith and one companion were captured on an island in the Platte near Plum Creek.

Smith was bound over to Buffalo County District Court, and because of lynching threats, he was sent to the jail at Fremont for safekeeping.  The district court at Kearney Junction convened on December 13, 1875, with Judge Samuel Maxwell presiding.  Smith’s attorneys’ request for a change of venue was denied.  On December 17^th the jury returned a verdict of “guilty of murder in the first degree.” Judge Maxwell sentenced Smith to be “hanged by the neck until you are dead on April 7, 1876”.    The defense attorneys filed an appeal, which the Nebraska Supreme Court heard in January 1876.  The verdict was reversed on technical grounds for lack of a change of venue, jury selection, and jury instructions.

In the meantime, the other cowboys who were arrested were either not charged or were found not guilty.

A second trial was held in May 1876 at Lowell, the county seat of Kearney County from 1872 to 1878, before Judge G. W. Post.  During a break in the trial, Juniata attorney Jim Laird, who was defending another case, learned that an organized mob from Kearney Junction was intent on lynching Smith.  Attorney E. F. Gray and Laird rushed to the courtroom, got a prop for the lone guard to put against the door, and then positioned themselves in the narrow stairway. As the mob started up the stairs, the attorneys cocked their pocket pistols, sending them into retreat. Judge Post then organized a posse to guard the prisoner, and the mob dispersed.

The jury returned a verdict of guilty of second-degree murder, and Smith was sentenced to 30 years in prison.  Because of threats to lynch Smith, he was transferred to the Lancaster County jail.  The Lowell court verdict was also appealed to the Nebraska Supreme Court and reversed on the grounds of juror qualifications, witness examination, and jury instructions.

By now you are probably wondering how a cowboy could afford several lawyers and two Supreme Court trials.  Well, according to newspaper accounts, Jordan P. Smith had a wealthy foster mother, Mrs. Patterson, in Texas, who, along with Smith’s twin brother, attended the trials.  According to newspaper accounts, Smith was born in Missouri in March 1853, and the family moved to near San Antonio, Texas, about 1855.

Smith’s third trial was held in February 1877 in the little courthouse at Juniata.  District Judge William Gaslin, known as the terror of criminals, presided.  Attorney B. F. Smith of Juniata was one of three who assisted District Attorney Dillworth. Three attorneys, including James Laird, acted for the defense.  The jurors were J. W. Striker, John Gates, G. Laher, L. Webb, M. Perkins, J. Adams, D. Bigelow, E. M. Allen, W. Hodgson, R. S. Langly, A. Caldwell, and R. H. Nolan.

The trial attracted a lot of local attention, and the courthouse was packed every day.  One wonders how many spectators could squeeze into the 16 by 20 room filled with lawyers and jurors.  The Juniata Herald published a daily “Extra” during the trial.  Unfortunately, no copies of the Herald prior to November 1877 are extant.

James Laird was well known to the jury, and he was an excellent speaker.  The jury found Smith guilty of manslaughter with a recommendation for mercy.  But Judge Gaslin sentenced Smith to the maximum, ten years in solitary confinement.  However, the state prison warden did not comply with the solitary confinement portion of the sentence.

After the third trial, the editor of the Fairbury Gazette commented, “Jordan P. Smith, on his third trial for murder, which took place at Juniata recently, was sentenced to a term of ten years in the penitentiary. On his first trial, he was sentenced to be hung; the next time to thirty years imprisonment.  In this ratio, one more trial should set him free.”

In March 1884, Smith was released from the penitentiary after having his sentence reduced for good behavior.  I have not found what became of him after his release.

Milton Collins is buried in the Kearney Cemetery.  His wife Anna-Belle Cook remarried to Brantson Jones Miles in Henry County, Iowa, on September 16, 1879.  She is buried with her second husband in Wilhelm’s Portland Memorial Mausoleum in Portland, Oregon.  Roy Asbury Collins, Milton’s son, became a prominent physician in Portland, and ironically, was shot and killed by his jealous wife in July 1909.  He is buried in the Kearney Cemetery with his father and grandparents.

The trial enhanced James Laird’s reputation, and he went on to be involved in other high-profile trials.  When Nebraska was awarded three Congressional districts after the 1880 census, Laird was elected the first representative from the Second District and was in his fourth term when he died in August 1889.  Laird, a bachelor, is buried in Parkview Cemetery in Hastings.

The little frame courthouse on Juniata Avenue was torn down after the records were moved to Hastings.   Unfortunately, no photo of the building is known to exist.

I recently checked the family history to see who the oldest living ancestors were in the year 1900.  This is the story of the earliest born Renschler ancestor who lived to see the twentieth century. He is the great-grandfather of my mother-in-law, Maxine Wymore Renschler.

William Allen Hayes, called “Bill,” was born in Jackson County, Ohio, the son of Nathaniel Wilson Hayes and his first wife, Sally Detty.  There were no birth records in Ohio at that time.  The date of his birth, recorded in various documents, ranges from 1836 in his obituary to 1841 on the 1885 Kansas State Census.  After much research, I have concluded that September 1837, as recorded on the 1900 census, is the most likely date.   Bill was only eight years old when tragedy struck the Hayes family.  The mother, Sally, died after the birth of her fourth child, Nancy, in May 1846.  Nathaniel remarried in June 1847 to Ruth Clark.

Bill’s father, Nathaniel Hayes, never stayed in one place long.  By 1852, the family was living in Monroe County, Iowa.   The 1856 Iowa state census of Monroe County lists Nathaniel’s occupation as “smithing” and “Wm” age 15, as a farmer. Ruth is not listed, having apparently died after the birth of her fourth child, Abigail, in early 1856.   It didn’t take Nathaniel, age 37, long to find another wife as he married Deborah “Terrell,” age 19, on October 20, 1856, in Wapello County, which adjoins Monroe County.

On March 8, 1860, in Wapello County, William A. Hayes married Susan Jane “Tyrell,” age 17.  The interesting note about this marriage is that he married his stepmother’s sister.  They would have 14 children.  The June 1860 census of Wapello County lists the occupation of both Nathaniel and William as “laborer.”  Neither one owned any real estate.

William joined Company E, 14^th Iowa Infantry in October 1861.  He was described in the Regimental Descriptive Book as 23 years old, 5 feet 7 ½ inches high, light complexion, hazel eyes, and black hair.  He was mustered out in 1864 at the end of his three-year enlistment.  In a future story, I will tell about William’s Civil War exploits.

In 1870, both William and his father, Nathaniel, were living in Long Creek Township, Decatur County, Iowa, with their families.  Both were farmers who owned no land.

In the spring of 1871, the extended Hayes family moved to Washington Township, Republic County, Kansas, where they filed for homesteads; Nathaniel and his son-in-law William T. Stewart in Section 3, and William a half-mile south in Section 10.  Their homestead applications all stated they settled on May 13, 1871.

 

William’s homestead application #10899, dated February 4, 1874, is for 160 acres in the northeast quarter of section 10, Washington Township.  The post office was Center Mound, Republic County, Kansas.  I do not know why he waited three years to file for a homestead.  The year 1874 was the famous grasshopper year when no crops were raised.  By October 1878, when his Homestead Proof was filed, he had 55 acres under cultivation in corn, wheat, rye, and oats.  He had a frame house 14 by 24 feet, a stable, a hog pen, a chicken house, 3 acres of forest trees, and a hedge.  His Homestead Proof states that he lived in a “temporary” house until the frame house was built. The family tradition was that the family had lived in a sod house.

According to the 1880 census farm schedule, the farm was worth $1,500, he had $150 worth of implements and $250 worth of livestock.  By then, 100 acres were tilled, and there were four horses, one milch cow, one other cattle, and seven swine.  Two cattle had been sold in the past year.  Produced in the last year were 50 dozen eggs, 100 pounds of butter, and 50 bushels of potatoes.  Grains raised were barley, Indian corn, oats, and wheat.

The March 1885 agricultural schedule of Republic County, Kansas, Harbine post office, shows:160 acres worth $3500, only $40 of implements, $50 wages paid during the year past, 17 acres winter wheat, 15 acres spring wheat, 65 acres corn, 20 acres oats, ½ acre potatoes, 8 acres millet, 300 bu. Corn and 50 bu. Wheat on hand.  Forty acres were still unbroken prairie, which produced 25 tons of prairie hay.  $25 worth of eggs were sold, 400 lbs. of butter made;  Four horses, four milch cows, 39 other cattle, 38 swine.  Five cattle had died.  $400 of animals were slaughtered.  Twenty apple trees, four cherry trees, and 1 acre of maple trees were listed, and one dog.

Dryland farming on the plains was not easy or particularly successful.  William filed his patent (a government-issued deed) in October 1878 and took out a mortgage in November.  During his ownership of the land, he took mortgages in 1878, 1880, 1885, 1887, 1892, and 1895. The year 1894 was the famous drought year when nothing was raised.  He sold the homestead on May 9, 1896.  By that time, his son Harmon, our ancestor, was married and living in the village of Harbine on the Kansas side of the Nebraska border.

The Byron Herald reported on March 11, 1898, that “W. A. Hayes has packed up his household effects and moved to Beaver City, where he will in the future reside.”  The family lived on a farm two miles southeast of Beaver City, Furnas County, Nebraska. In 1900, they lived in Beaver Precinct on a farm they owned.  Three children, Ida, age 38, Sarah, age 17, and Ernest, age 13, lived with them.  Ida never married and died in 1908 in Superior.  She is buried in the family plot in Washington Cemetery.

In December 1904, the family moved to Superior, Nebraska, where William died on December 22, 1905, at the age of 68.  A short funeral service was held at the home, then the remains were taken to the Washington Church in Republic County, Kansas, where another funeral was held.  The Odd Fellows Lodge of Republic, Kansas, conducted the burial rites at the grave in Washington Cemetery.

I visited William’s granddaughter, Annabelle Hayes Tavener, in 1979.  She told me stories about the extended family.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a tape recorder at that time, so I took notes.  She called him “Grandpa Bill,” and said he was a gentle, timid man.  His wife ran the household.    He was survived by his wife and eleven children.

 

Peter Koob, a farmer and day laborer, was married to Barbara Witzenbacher from Hambach and had 6 children with her. His daughter Barbara was born on January 23, 1838 in Friedrichstrasse in Heppenheim and was baptized the next day in the Catholic Church of St. Peter.  She was named Maria Anna Barbara Koob. 

In 1839 the Koob family emigrated to the USA on the ship Ariosta which left the port of Antwerp, Belgium, and docked in New York harbor on Oct 16, 1839. The majority of the passengers were families from Heppenheim and the nearby villages of Kirschhausen, Sonderbach, and Erbach. Most of them moved to Randolph and Suffield townships in Portage County, Ohio.

However, the Koob family settled on farmland in Utica, New York, where they became American citizens named Cope. From a young age, Barbara felt called to the monastic life, but at the same time, she was obliged to contribute to the livelihood of her family through hard factory work. It was only after her father’s death in 1862 that she entered the St. Anthony Convent of the Franciscan Sisters in Syracuse, New York at the age of 24. There she made her vows on November 19, 1863, and took the name Sister Marianne.  The schools and hospitals of her order were particularly important to her. Because of her assertiveness, she and several other sisters turned a saloon into a hospital that also treated alcoholics and African-Americans, and which still exists today. Due to her skills in organization and administration, she was appointed Superior of the St. Joseph’s Hospital in 1875 and two years later as Provincial Superior of her order.

When the King of Hawaii was looking for volunteers to care for lepers in 1883, Mother Marianne’s Order was the only one willing to undertake this difficult task. “It will be my greatest joy to serve the abandoned lepers,” said Mother Marianne.  Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) meant rotting alive, which at the time could only be prevented by isolating the sick. There was no cure.  A leprosy epidemic broke out in the 1860s, and in 1864 Hawaii’s government passed isolation laws to contain the disease. In 1866 the island of Moloka’i was designated a leper colony.

The conditions in the colony were terrible. Sick people were often torn from their families by the authorities and taken to the leprosy hospital in Kaka’ako, Honolulu, where they usually disappeared without a trace.

Sister Marianne and her fellow sisters cared for over 200 lepers in the colony. As early as 1885 she founded the Kapiolani Home for the healthy daughters of lepers. She not only took care of the physical ailments of the sick through devoted care but also introduced hygienic measures and had new clothes tailored for the lepers in the girls’ home.

When the hospital was closed in 1888, all the lepers were evacuated to Moloka’i, which means “island of the dead.”   The lepers eked out an existence without any medical care and were left to their fate.

At the request of Father Damien de Veusters, a Flemish friar and long-time director of the home for boys, Mother Marianne and 3 Franciscan Sisters arrived in Moloka’i in November 1888, just in time to take over the management of the home and to care for those with leprosy until their deaths.  She first founded a home for girls and women with leprosy to protect them from violent and assaulting men. She worked for the lepers for another 30 years.

Intensive care, hygienic measures and the procurement of medicines from abroad improved the living conditions on Molokai’i to the extent that the epidemic was contained and many of the leper’s children were saved from infection.

Mother Marianne was spared the illness and cared for the sick until her death on August 9, 1918. She was honored for her self-sacrificing, long-term work under the pontificate of Benedict XVI. Beatified on May 14, 2005, and canonized in Rome on October 21, 2012. 

In the church of St. Peter in Heppenheim, a memorial plaque and a statue of mother Marianne on the high altar honor a courageous, generous and determined woman, a true saint from Heppenheim. 

The above information was taken from https://www.geschichtsverein-heppenheim.de/barbara-koob-eine-heilige-aus-heppenheim.html

You are probably wondering why I am including the story of an American saint in my family history blog.  The reason is that passengers on the ship Ariosta that brought the Koob family to America included our ancestors, Peter Klein and his wife, Barbara Greisemer.  Their five children included our ancestor, John Klein (Kline), born in 1820 in Sonderbach, a village near Heppenheim, and died in 1855 in Randolph Township, Portage County, Ohio.  John married Margaret May, born in 1824 at Kirschhausen, near Heppenheim.  Some of her relatives were also on the ship Ariosta.  Their son, John J. Kline, born in 1848 in Portage County and died in 1914 in Hamilton County, Nebraska, was my generation’s great-grandfather. 

 

Juniata’s Town Pump and Bandstand

Few people living today remember Juniata’s iconic bandstand, windmill, and hand pump, which stood in the center of Juniata Avenue’s intersection with 10th Street.

The history of the public water supply in Juniata goes back to the town’s very beginning, when in the spring of 1871, the B & M Railroad bored the first well.  It was located east of Juniata Avenue on railroad property.   The well was to provide water for the railroad’s steam engines, but was also used by the settlers.  Then, in November 1874, a well 87 feet deep and six feet in diameter was dug for the steam-powered flour mill.  In September 1878, a public windmill was erected east of Juniata Avenue on 10^th Street.

The 1884 Birds Eye View drawing of Juniata shows the large railroad windmill and large windmills at the Commercial House Hotel and the livery barn, both just south of the tracks on Juniata Avenue.   Twelve other windmills are shown, one by the livery stable at Juniata Avenue and 8^th Street, the remainder at private houses.  Only two windmills are shown north of the tracks.  The majority of houses lacked a water supply.  They either hauled water from the town windmill located on the south side of 10^th Street between Juniata and Adams Avenues or got their water from a neighbor’s well.  Hauling water would have been a huge inconvenience.  No wonder they only took a bath on Saturday nights, and everyone in the household used the same water.  During the winter months, they seldom, if ever, bathed.

The village bandstand was built in September 1904.  It stood in the center of the intersection of Juniata Avenue and 10^th Street and could be seen from four directions.  In October 1905, the village put down a new well on the north side of the bandstand and moved the windmill there.  A large cistern was constructed for the public water supply and for firefighting.

 

 

About 1943, an electric pump was installed on the well to fill the cistern in the middle of the street, and the landmark windmill was removed.

 

Juniata installed a water and sewer system in 1957, making the well and cistern obsolete.  A 1960 tornado damaged several buildings in town, including the railroad depot, and it was at that time that the last portion of the bandstand was removed.

The gazebo in the downtown park is a replica of the lowered bandstand constructed in the 1970s by Wiseman Construction.  It was placed in the center of the intersection where the original had stood until it was deemed a traffic hazard and removed.

Myrna Maxine Wymore was born at 10 p.m. on August 27, 1914, at Byron, Thayer County, Nebraska.  She was the third child, second living, of Andrew Burr (called A.B. or Burr) and Ina Clara (Hayes) Wymore.  Her father’s occupation was listed as a farmer on her birth certificate.  However, he soon quit farming to be a traveling salesman.   I never met him, as he died in 1950, but from talking with the family, he was called “Burr or A.B.” The signatures I have seen were always “A B Wymore.”

Maxine never used the name Myrna, but she sometimes listed it as her middle name.  Her older sister, Irma, was born in 1912 at Byron and her younger brother, Arthur Clark Wymore (called Clark) was born at Hastings in 1918.  The Wymore family moved often.  In June 1917, when A. B. registered for the World War I draft, they were living in McCook, and he was selling Singer sewing machines in “western Nebraska.”

The Wymore family was living in a rented house at 315 Kerr Avenue, Hastings, in January 1920 when the census was taken.   A. B. was working as a traveling agent according to the city directory, and the census gave his occupation as “agent for a cream business.“

In September 1920, when Maxine was six years old, her father purchased the house at 310 East 10^th Street in Juniata for $500. The Juniata column in the Adams County Democrat had this to say: “Mr. Wymore, traveling supt. for an Omaha creamery company, has purchased the Vreeland property on the east side and, after sundry repairs, will move in and become a fixture of the town, it is hoped.”

The Adams County Democrat reported in November 1921, “Mrs. Wymore, who has been ill for so long, was taken to the Nebraska Sanitarium last week for treatment.”  The Nebraska Sanitarium, located on East Ninth Street in Hastings, was a homeopathic hospital run by the Seventh-day Adventists.  I haven’t found any written diagnosis or description of Ina’s illness.  However, many years ago, when members of her generation were still living, they insinuated it was depression caused by A.B.’s continual absences from home.

However, poor Ina had another reason to be depressed.  A. B. had moved his brazen girlfriend and her three girls into their home in Juniata on the pretext that she was doing the housework.   Aunt Mary Wymore Bates (who called her brother Burr) told me that “Burr and family drove down to Jewell County, Kansas, to visit his parents.  When they went to leave, Nellie took the front seat alongside Burr, and Ina was in the back.  Burr’s mother, Amanda (McNabb) Wymore, told her son to get his wife in the front seat where she belonged.  Burr was not happy with his mother.”

This is the story a Hayes family member told me about the incident that led to A. B. committing Ina to Ingleside (Hastings State Hospital).  Ina was gone from home, and when she returned, she found A. B. and Nellie in bed together.  In a rage, she grabbed a kitchen knife and chased him around the table.  After that, he had her committed.  Her parents tried to take her to their home, but couldn’t get her released.

How all this drama affected the Wymore children, I do not know.  Maxine, who was old enough to remember, never spoke of it, and I, thinking it was too personal, never asked.  She did mention her Grandmother Hayes taking her to visit her mother at Ingleside.  She also noted that she and her siblings often spent the summer months at her Grandparents’ Harmon and Ruth (Kimball) Hayes’ Republic County, Kansas farm.

Exactly when or where A. B. met Nellie Morgan Conover. I don’t know.  Her husband, Ray A. Conover, had died in January 1919 at Sutherland, Nebraska.  However, it didn’t take her long to appear in Juniata, where she had no relatives.  In her March 1922 application for a Mother’s Pension, she stated she “came to the county March 22, 1920.”  She also claimed that she owned a five-room house in Juniata with a $200 mortgage.  She said she got $15 a week from A. B. Wymore for caring for his three children.   The county granted her $25 per month in welfare.  In November 1924, Nellie Conover sold the house in Juniata for $575.  The Democrat reported:  “A. B. Wymore has sold his home in Juniata to George Reynolds and will move his household goods to Nelson, where he has rented a home. They expect to go Friday this week.”

On March 19, 1925, the Hastings Democrat reported: “Word has been received of the death of Mrs. A. B. Wymore at her home north of Edgar.  Mrs. Wymore had been at the hospital at Ingleside for some time, and when the doctor told them she could not last but a few days, she expressed her desire to be taken home, and so her daughter, Erma, and Mrs. Conover accompanied her in the ambulance.  She only lived two or three days after getting home.”

This is what the Hayes family told me about Ina’s death.  Ina wanted to see her children, so she was taken to their home.  Her family wasn’t told she was there or that her health was precarious.  Three days later, on March 12, 1925, she died suddenly.  Ina was buried in the Washington Cemetery in Republic County, Kansas.  After the shock of Ina’s death and burial, some of the Hayes family were suspicious about her sudden death and approached the county attorney about having her disinterred and examined for poison.  They were told it was too late.  Fifty years later, some Hayes relatives were still convinced Nellie had poisoned Ina.

Maxine was ten years old when her mother died.  She never mentioned the death or funeral to me.  When I tried to ask her about her early life, she always said, “I don’t remember; that was a long time ago.”

On August 11, 1927, the Hastings Democrat mentioned the marriage of Burr and Nellie.  “Mrs. Nellie Conover and Mr. Burr Wymore were married at Scottsville, August 1st, and are taking a short trip, but have not yet decided where they will make their home.  Mr. and Mrs. Wymore lived here a few years ago.”   At this time, I do not know where they lived between Ina’s death in 1925 and 1928 when I found them in the Kansas City, Missouri, city directory.  They were residing at 2028 Kansas Ave., and A. B. was listed as a salesman.

The Juniata correspondent to the Hastings Democrat reported on August 23, 1928, “A. B. Wymore and family of Kansas City are moving into the Ray Magner house.”  That house (now significantly altered) is at 111 East 7th Street.

Andrew Burr Wymore Jr., called “Junior,” was born September 13, 1929, in Juniata.  Maxine was fifteen, and Clark, the youngest child in the family, was eleven.  With five older sisters, Junior was fussed over and dressed like “Little Lord Fauntleroy.”

In July 1930, Andrew B. Wymore purchased the house at 609 Blue River Ave in Juniata for an undisclosed amount.  Maxine always called it “the big house.”  She lived there during her high school years.  Her 16^th birthday party was reported in the Kenesaw Progress.  “Mrs. A. B. Wymore and daughters entertained 20 young folks in honor of Miss Maxine’s 16th birthday Wednesday evening.  Decorations were in blue & white.  A box was decorated with crepe paper and long streamers, each one leading to some gift.  After games, a delicious lunch was served.”

Throughout the ’30s and ’40s, the Juniata columns of both the Hastings Democrat and the Kenesaw Progress were full of the doings of the Wymore family of five girls and two boys.  Maxine was fun-loving and popular.  She played basketball and was in the glee club.  She dated Gaylord Weseman seriously during  ’31, ’32, and ’33, and the story is that his heart was broken when she married Bud Renschler.  The gossip columns never mentioned Bud and Maxine dating.  Maxine graduated from Juniata High School in May 1934.

 

Bud Renschler was working in Iowa for A. B. Wymore, selling chicken remedies.  In late July, A. B. and Nellie took Maxine to Harlan, Iowa, where on July 28, 1934, she married Marion Eugene “Bud” Renschler in the Methodist parsonage.  Maxine was 19 years and 11 months old, and Bud was 19 years and 4 months old.

 

The Lux family arrived in New York Harbor on November 16, 1853.  They were in Iowa by December 14, when Henricus purchased 144 acres in the northwest quarter of section 7, Tete des Morts Township, Jackson County, Iowa, for $1600.  This land bordered that of the Saint Donatus Catholic Church.

Tete des Morts, township, which in French means head of the dead, was named for the creek of that name.  According to legend, the name was derived from the numerous skulls of Indians killed in a battle along the creek.

Unfortunately, we do not know how the Lux family traveled from New York City to Tete des Morts.  We know they did not travel by wagon because in less than a month, they were in Iowa.  The most likely route would have been by railroad to Chicago and then on to Rockford, Illinois, the end of the line in 1853.   Perhaps they purchased a team and wagon in Rockford, which is 82 miles, about a seven-day trip, from Dubuque, Iowa.  The population of Dubuque in 1853 was about 3,300. The only way to cross the Mississippi River at Dubuque was by ferry.  Then it would have taken another day to travel the 13 miles to Tete des Morts.

I assume there was a house, either log or stone, already on the farm when Henricus purchased it.    However, the price of the land seems high—about $11.10 an acre—when government land was selling for $1.25 an acre.

When the Lux family arrived at Tete des Morts, they found a log church that was built in 1848 and dedicated to Saint Donatus of Muenstereifel, protector against lightning and storms.  He was widely venerated in the Rhine Valley and in Luxembourg.

The Lux family had just arrived in Iowa when tragedy struck.  Eleven-year-old Jean Lux died January 26, 1854, and on March 3, fourteen-year-old Henricus Junior died.  They were the only sons of Henricus and Mary.  It is not known what caused their deaths.  On February 21, 1854, the oldest daughter, Theresa, married Johann Tritz.  Theresa died on January 30, 1857, aged only 24.  Her grave in the Saint Donatus cemetery is unmarked.

In October 1855, daughter Mary Ann married Peter Theisen, and in November, daughter Susanna married Karl Hoffman, both in the little log church.  Both couples lived to celebrate their 50^th wedding anniversaries.

In the autumn of 1856, the church and parsonage, along with their contents, burned.  A new stone parsonage was soon built.  The list of contributors includes H. Lux $4.90.  The 42 acres belonging to the church were surveyed, and it was noted that two of Lux’s fences stood on the church property.

The cornerstone of a new stone church and rectory was laid in April 1858.  Donations for the new church included $75.00 from H. Lux, a substantial sum at the time.  In 1859, a Catholic school, which met in the rectory, was organized.

The 1860 federal census’s agricultural schedule gives us a glimpse of the Lux family’s farming operation.  The farm was valued at $4,000, of which ninety acres were improved–that is, cultivated.  The value of farming equipment was only $50.  The livestock consisted of 5 horses, 3 milch cows, 2 oxen, 3 other cattle, 5 swine, all valued at $400.  Produced the previous year were 120 bushels of wheat, 50 bushels of corn, 30 bushels of oats, 15 tons of hay, 100 bushels of potatoes, $50 worth of fruit, 500 lbs. of butter, and the value of animals slaughtered was $200.    These numbers were about average for the community.

The first outdoor Way of the Cross in America was built at Saint Donatus in 1861.  Fourteen brick shrines line a winding path, some 500 feet up the wooded hill behind the church.  In 1866, a large four-story boarding school for girls, St. Mary’s Academy, was built.  The School Sisters of Notre Dame from Milwaukee supplied the school.  H. Lux paid $30 to the church in 1869.  This probably included money owed from previous years, as he paid $5 for pew rent in 1870.

Daughter Elisabeth married Peter Kummer in 1865, and daughter Mary Ann (yes, two daughters named Mary Ann) married Martin Mousel in 1869.

A continued drought killing trees was mentioned in the church chronicle in 1874, and a large cross was erected in the cemetery that year.  Also in 1874, “Numerous deaths among the little children,” but no cause was given.

A high school, Tete des Morts High School for young men, was erected in 1875.  Classes were held during the five winter months.  A notation in 1875 reads “Towards the south and west boundary (of the church land) towards H. Lux came a board fence on the one-half of the parish border line; the other half, Lux must make and keep up.  To make such fences is very expensive but exceedingly necessary.”

Henricus wrote his will in September 1875.  He left his daughters, Susanna Hoffman, Marianne Theisen, and Elisabeth Kummer, each $800 to be paid after the death of his wife.  To his daughter, Mary Mousel, he left the remainder of his estate, both real (the farm) and personal.  Henricus died May 8, 1876, at age 73 and was buried in the church cemetery, where his grave marker still stands 144 years later.

Mary Lux was living on the farm in 1880, along with her daughter, Mary Mousel, and her six children.  Martin Mousel had died in 1877.  Mary died January 2, 1894 at the age of 86 years.

Henricus and Mary are my great-great-grandparents, the great-grandparents of my grandmother, Catherine Kaiser Trausch.  Many descendants of Henricus and Mary Lux live in Adams County, Nebraska, including families named Theisen, and Mousel.

Information about the church was taken from the “Original Chronicle of the Parish of St. Donatus,” translated from the original German by Arnold Toma in 1955. 

 

My third great-grandfather, Henricus Lux, was born February 24, 1804, at Hagen, a tiny village in the commune (equivalent to our county) of Steinfort, Luxembourg.  His father, Frederich Lux, was a day laborer and a cultivator.   Because of the high infant mortality rate, infants were usually baptized the day they were born.  Henricus grew up in Hagen, and nothing is known about his childhood except that he was the fifth of six children.

Henricus (written Heinrich on his marriage document) of Hagen married Maria Boseler of Goetzingen on June 18, 1829, at Koerich, the seat of her commune.  Saint Remigius church at Koerich dates back to the 1100s.  The existing church was built in 1610.  There were various additions and alterations over the centuries, the last being the onion-shaped spire, which was built in 1791.  Henricus and Maria were married in the building you see here.

At the time of the marriage, Henricus’ father was deceased, and his mother was living at Hagen.  Maria’s parents, Michael Boseler and Theresa Biver, were living at Goetzingen.  The couple settled into married life at Goetzingen, where nine children were born between 1831 and 1847.  Three of those children died as infants.

Luxembourg took a census in 1843.  At Goetzingen, Henry, as he is listed, was a cultivator, as was his wife, Marie, and, surprisingly, her mother, Theresa Biver, age 63, born in 1780.  Twelve people, including his mother-in-law, Theresa, and her two youngest daughters, were living in what was probably a small stone house.

In late 1853, the Lux family sold their possessions and set out for Antwerp, Belgium, where they boarded the American barque “Sea Duck.”  A barque is a sailing vessel with three or more masts.  The family traveled in steerage, as did most immigrants.  There were 193 people on board the ship.  The trip to New York would have taken at least six weeks with good sailing weather.  They arrived in New York Harbor on November 16, 1853.  At that time, immigrant ships sailed into the docks on the east side of Manhattan.  New York’s first immigration facility, Castle Gardens, did not open until 1855.

An 1854 Passage Contract, probably similar to the one Henricus signed, contained the following stipulations:

1. Passengers will not be able to board until it is found that they have enough food for the journey.
2. Passengers will be entitled to have on board the said Ship:
   1.) A place in steerage.
   2.) Free carriage of 100 kilograms of luggage or 20 English cubic feet for each adult
   3.) Empty cabin space and medications in case of emergency.
   4.) Place for cooking.
   5.) Fresh water, wood or coal, and lighting.
3. Trunks, crates, bags, and barrels must be clearly marked on the top with the number of the owner’s cabin space.
4. Passengers must bring their bedding and cooking utensils.
5. Passengers must load and unload their baggage and food, neither the Captain nor the Emigration Office being responsible for such tasks.
6. Weapons of all kinds must be surrendered to the Captain.
7. Large trunks and crates will be lowered in the hold, as well as the potatoes, biscuits, and wine.
8. While the Ship is at dockside, it is not allowed to go down into the hold. At sea, the hold will be opened at necessary time for Passengers to access their food.
9. Before boarding the Ship, each Passenger over the age of ten shall load the following food:

• 40 pounds of biscuits.
• 1 hectoliter (2 bushels or 140 lb.) of potatoes or 30 pounds of dry vegetables.
• 5 pounds of Rice.
• 5 pounds of Flour.
• 4 pounds of butter.
• 14 pounds of smoked ham.
• 2 pounds of salt.
• 2 liters of Vinegar

10. Any Passenger who does not have these quantities on board, twelve hours before departure, will not be able to travel with the departing Ship.
11. The Captain provides water, wood, kitchen, unfurnished cabin space, and medicines in case of illness.
12. Fresh water is only for drinking and for preparing food; and should not be used for washing.
13. The utmost cleanliness should be observed in the steerage to prevent contagious diseases. Everyone must ensure that their space is kept clean as well as the area in the front every morning, otherwise he/she would not be allowed to cook.
14. It is strictly forbidden to smoke on the ship, to make fire, or to burn candles while the vessel is at dock. At sea, smoking is permitted, but only on the deck and with covered pipes.
15. Special captain’s permission is required to light a lantern in the steerage, and it is strictly forbidden to carry chemical matches on board.
16. Passengers must avoid any dispute or quarrel among themselves or with the Crew. Anyone who thinks he has cause to complain will address himself to the captain, to the provisions and orders of which every passenger owes absolute obedience.
17. The stern of the ship is reserved for the captain.
18. It is forbidden, under severe penalties, to give wine or spirits to drink to the crew; passenger who disregard this security, will have his/her drinks seized.
19. The same penalty shall be done to passenger with signs of drunkenness and cause disorder on the ship.
20. The amount of the passage is payable the day before the fixed departure; whoever neglects this payment or who misses the ship, will lose his account or his passage. All Passengers must be on board two hours before departure time, especially women and children. It is advisable to bring fresh bread for five or six days.
21. Passengers must have their passports stamped by the police.
22. When the Ship is out of the dock, all Passengers must get on deck and meet by family together with all members from the same receipt.  Roll call will be made, and all will be dismissed to the steerage.
23. These Regulations are made solely for the benefit and well-being of the steerage passengers for their safety, convenience and health.

The Captain expects that he will not be put in a position of ire. 

When the Lux family immigrated to the United States, there were no immigration regulations in place.  Throughout the 1700s and most of the 1800s, the US encouraged free immigration, even advertising in Europe for homesteaders to fill the Great Plains and the West.  On August 3, 1882, the United States Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1882. It is considered by many to be the “first general immigration law” because it created the guidelines of exclusion through the creation of “a new category of inadmissible aliens.”

The story of the Lux family’s life in Iowa will follow when I get it written.

 

 

It is with sadness that I chronicle the destruction of the Kleier farmstead which stood neighbor to my farm for well over a hundred years. Of the farmsteads that I remember in my immediate neighborhood, eight are gone, a testament to the loss of the family farm.  As the value of grain failed to keep pace with inflation more and more land was required to support one farm family.

The Kleiers were our closest neighbors.  In those years without air conditioning, the doors and windows were open in good weather and we heard what was going on at the Kleiers.  We heard them calling the cattle, yelling at the dog, or talking in their yard.  We heard their car start up, and heard their machinery in the field.  When the old lady, known to me only as “Mrs. Kleier,” was alive, we occasionally visited with her.  I remember her well, she was a thin woman with a very large goiter.  Her husband, Herman Kleier, died before I was born.

When I was a girl Mrs. Kleier lived there with her two bachelor sons, Al and Edwin.  Al married when I was eight leaving just Mrs. Kleier and Edwin.  Edwin was as overweight as his mother was thin.  After his mother died he never bathed and had an unpleasant body odor.  His overalls were so crusted with dirt they probably could stand up by themselves.  My Dad loved to tell this story.  One day while he was out in the yard Edwin stopped by to visit.  As they stood there talking our dog walked around Edwin sniffing, then heisted his leg and peed on Edwin’s overalls.  The pee just ran off, didn’t soak in.  Edwin didn’t notice.  My Dad said he could hardly keep a straight face.

As neighbors did in those days, Edwin and my Dad occasionally worked together in the fields, and Edwin stayed for supper.  When Edwin ate meals with us, Agnes and I argued over who had to sit next to Edwin at the table.  The Kleiers believed in “signs,” natural occurrences that indicated things to come.  I remember one time Edwin said, “I heard an owl hoot last night, it will frost in six weeks.”  My Dad said jokingly, “Someone should have shot that damned owl.”

My mother often reminisced about the Kleiers.  “Mrs. Kleier was my neighbor for years.  She was a little old, wiry woman with a great big goiter hanging on her neck.  In those first years when we lived here [1930s], neighbors were more neighborly.  They did more work together and helped each other, because they needed each other.  There was no entertainment in those years; visiting the neighbors was entertainment.  We went over there, and they came over here.  We sat and talked.  If they ever played cards, I never heard of it.  One night, we were going over there, and you were small.  I said to you, “You mustn’t ask her for something to eat, because that isn’t the way to do.”  So you looked at me and said, “Mom, you better put an apple in your pocket.”  I never forgot that.  We didn’t have Agnes yet, so you were about three years old.

In earlier years, Mrs. Kleier helped all the neighbor women with cooking for threshers.  One time, the Kochs were in the threshing run, and some other neighbors from around, and they were threshing on this place here when Koch’s dog and the man who lived here’s dog got into a fight.  The men got mad at each other over the dog fight, so Koch stomped off home and didn’t help with the threshing the rest of that day.  He even came to the house and made his daughter, who was helping with the cooking, go home too.  So Mrs. Kleier was saying “What are we going to do now, we are short of help,” but the next morning Koch came back because he happened to think that he had to get his grain threshed yet.  Old man Koch was a real hot-tempered man.  Mrs. Kleier often told that story.

Mrs. Kleier was a person who oversaw everything.    She saw that everybody had a job for the day and was doing it too.  The Kleiers were very mistrusting of people.

She often talked about the different families that lived here.  She talked about Utecht’s kids getting on top of the barn, walking right to the edge on the east side, and looking over.  She said she couldn’t even stand to look this way and see those kids on top of that barn, and they were small yet.  She didn’t like Utecht.  At first, Mrs. Utecht went to Kleiers to visit while Bill went to town to drink. She was afraid to stay home alone.  And he wouldn’t come home until way late, and Mrs. Kleier wanted to go to bed because they were up early to do their work.  She told me one night he came real late, and there was another man with him, and Mrs. Kleier could see they had been hitting the bottle pretty good.  So she said, “I met them at the door, and I told him enough of this.  I want to go to bed when it is bedtime.”  Well, that ended him leaving her over there.

Before Utecht, there were two bachelor Petersons who lived here.  They threw cobs in the washroom so they’d be on hand for the winter, but they got rats and mice in the house, and everything got chewed up.  The corners on the doors were chewed up. Kleiers had a dog, and those Petersons had a bench in the kitchen, and they had a ham on that bench.  They were cutting meat off of it along.  Kleiers’ dog got in, got the ham, and carried it home.  Mrs. Kleier saw the dog out there, and she went out to see what he had, and it was a ham.  Petersons said someone stole their ham, and Kleiers kept their mouths shut.  They used to laugh about that.

There was another couple that lived here.  They were young.  Mrs. Kleier told me that she came over to help her cook for threshers.  The gal that lived here told Mrs. Kleier, “I can’t bake a cake because I have to put the bread in the oven.”  So Mrs. Kleier said, “I will make doughnuts.”  But first, Mrs. Kleier went out in the orchard and picked apples and made apple sauce for supper.  Then she made doughnuts for supper.  They had those summer cooking apples in the orchard.  Mrs. Kleier had to go home to do the chores, so when she had supper ready, she left.  At the supper table, the woman’s husband said, “Well, who planned this meal?”  and she said, “Mrs. Kleier.”  He said, “Well, that’s what I thought.”  The wife wasn’t much to going ahead with anything.  She had all those apples out there and didn’t cook them.

Mrs. Kleier told about the little boy who got shot in the kitchen.  She just said that the hired man came in with a shotgun and said, “This gun isn’t safe; sometimes it just goes off.”  He had the gun laid over his arm, and the kid was setting on the floor in front of the cook stove, and the gun went off and shot him.  They called Mrs. Kleier over, and I don’t know if they had an inquest or not.  Mrs. Kleier cleaned up the mess.  She said the boy’s blood was splattered all over the walls and ceiling.  Mrs. Kleier said she could hear the mother screaming over at her house.

Kleiers went to the Evangelical Lutheran Church on Adams Central Road. Mrs. Kleier played the organ at the little Lutheran church over East.  She had an organ at home, and she practiced.”

In a January 1990 interview my parents reminisced about the Kleiers.

Bert: “I remember the Kleiers well. She ruled the roost over there. One night, we were over there, and she chewed him out something terrible because he was supposed to walk through the field with a hoe and replant corn where the gophers took it out. She kept him going. He stacked wheat a few weeks before he died.  He always said “I talked” instead of I thought. He said it all the time. He had heart trouble and dropsy. They came over sometimes in the evenings, and his feet would be all swelled up. They would sit and talk until about ten o’clock, then go home. He died young, only in his sixties. Charles [Trausch] set up all night at Herman Kleier’s wake. He died in the winter, they laid him out in the northwest room, and he froze solid.”

Edna:  “When the Kleiers moved onto their place, the kitchen part of the house was the whole house.  When they built the big two-story part, they moved the old house up and fastened it on for the kitchen.

The old lady Kleier had an operation on the dining room table. It was appendix or something like that. The doctor came out and said that if they didn’t have any wallpaper, just plaster, on the wall, then he could operate. She was real sick, but what she had I don’t remember. It was during the winter, and they kept it real warm in the house for her.

I remember she told me that when they were still building the house, her mother came to visit, and she told her mother they had a mouse in the house. All at once, the old lady said, “I’ve got your mouse.” She reached down and pinched real hard, and down fell a dead mouse. He had run up her skirts.”

The Kleier Place was homesteaded initially by Levi Chambers, who is buried in the Juniata Cemetery.  In September 1893, the 80 acres where the farmstead was located, the E ½, SW ¼ Section 6, Ayr Township, was sold to Friedericke Kleier, who died in 1898 and is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. In 1899 her son Herman Kleier acquired his sister, Ernestine Gardiner’s, half of their mother’s farm.  In January 1936, Herman and Elizabeth Kleier purchased at a sheriff’s auction the Burton place, which was the 80 acres west of their house.

Elizabeth Kleier died in 1966, and Edwin continued to live on the farm.  After Edwin Kleier’s 1979 death, the farm was sold to the present owner, Melvin Buss.

Seventy-five years ago today, Saturday, January 29, 1944, a baby boy was born at 4:14 a.m. in the Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital at Hastings, Nebraska.   He was named Howard Lee Renschler in honor of Howard McGavick, his parents’ friend, who was a prisoner of war in Germany.  Howard was a gunner on a bomber that had been shot down.   The baby was called “Pat” from birth.  He weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces, and was 19 inches long.

Pat’s parents were Marion Eugene “Bud” Renschler and his wife, Maxine Wymore Renschler.  They were 28 and 29 years old, respectively.  Bud’s occupation at the time was a fireman at the U.S. Naval Ammunition Depot.   Bud had tried to enlist in the Navy but was rejected because he was color blind.

Pat was the fifth child and first son born to Bud and Maxine.  Maxine told me she was so happy to have a son that she held him before the nurse had him “cleaned up.”  Dr. Nowers, a popular Kenesaw doctor, delivered him. When Pat came home after the standard ten days in the hospital, he was greeted by three sisters, Bobbie, almost 6, Alberta, nearly 5, and Penny, 14 months.  His oldest sister, Shirley, had died at birth in 1935.

When Pat was born, the family lived in a rented house in Juniata.  I am not sure which house it was.  I know the family had lived in two rented Juniata houses; one just north of the tennis court on 9th Street.  The other house was at 911 Blue River Avenue, on the corner of 10th Street.  Both houses still stand.  In March 1944, when Pat was less than two months old, Bud and Maxine purchased from Hattie Parmenter the house at 210 West 10th St., where Pat grew up.  We also lived there for the first three years of our marriage, and it was the first house Christina lived in.  Bud and Maxine sold the house in October 1976.

The country was in the midst of World War II in 1944.  One of the most important events of the year was D-Day, June 6, 1944, the day the Allies landed on the beaches at Normandy, France, to begin the drive to defeat the Germans.  Franklin D. Roosevelt was President.

Most women did not work outside the home; however, many were working in defense plants, such as the Naval Ammunition Depot at Hastings, where Pat’s Grandmother, Clarice Bugg, was making ammunition.  The average family income was $2,400 a year.  What would $200 a month buy then?  An average new house cost $3,500.  However, because of the war, few materials were available to build a house.   A new car, if one had been available cost about $950.  No cars, commercial trucks, or auto parts were made from February 1942 to October 1945 because automotive factories were making military vehicles.  A gallon of gas, if you had the necessary ration stamp, was 15 cents.  A loaf of bread was ten cents, and a gallon of milk was 60 cents.  In January 1944, the following items were rationed: gasoline, bicycles, footwear, silk, nylon, fuel oil, tires, stoves, sugar, meat, lard, shortening and oils, cheese, butter, margarine, canned, bottled, and frozen foods, dried fruits, firewood and coal, jams, jellies, and fruit butter.  Even items that weren’t rationed were often not available.

It’s time for a story from the Wymore side of the family.  The people in this story are not in our direct line, but they are related.

William Jackson Marion, sometimes called Jackson, was born May 13, 1849, in Mahaska County, Iowa, where many members of the Wymore and McMains families lived, and some still do.  His parents were Tipton Marion and Margaret McMains Marion.  Several members of the Wymore and McMains extended families, including Maxine Wymore Renschler’s great-grandparents, Eliot and Lavina McMains Wymore, moved to Gage and Pawnee Counties, Nebraska, in the 1860s.

William’s mother, Margaret McMains Marion, died in Gage County in 1868.  Her grave is unmarked.  She left a family of 10 children, ranging in age from 20 to 2 years old.  Along with six other area men, William joined Company A, First Regiment Nebraska Cavalry on June 22, 1869.  The entire company was discharged on November 1, 1869.  On the 1870 census, William is living with his father and siblings in Liberty, Gage County.

William Jackson Marion and John Cameron, who boarded together in Clay County, Kansas, journeyed in May 1872 to Wild Cat Creek in Gage County, Nebraska, to visit John and Rachel Warren, Marion’s in-laws. The day before they left Kansas, Marion purportedly signed a contract to purchase a team of horses from Cameron for $315, paying $30 down. It was agreed that Cameron would keep the horses until Marion paid the balance. Marion and Cameron left the Warren place in mid-May, saying they were heading west to work on the railroad. A few days later, Marion returned alone to Gage County with Cameron’s belongings.  His wife, Lydia, quizzed him about Cameron’s whereabouts.  He said he had bought out his friend, who had left in a hurry.

The Otoe Indian Reservation was located in southern Gage County and extended into northern Kansas.  In 1873, a decomposing body half-buried in the bank of a creek was found there.  The skull had three bullet holes. A coroner’s inquest was called.  William’s wife, Lydia, and her father testified that the clothing matched what Cameron was last seen wearing.    The inquest issued the following statement: “The said John Cameron came to his death on or about the 4^th of May 1872 by means of a bullet or bullets shot from a revolver in the hands of Jackson Marion.”  The Beatrice newspaper, calling Marion “a hardened and remorseless wretch thus to murder a friend for the paltry value of a team and an old wagon,” described a made-up murder scene.  In 1880, Nathaniel Herron was elected sheriff of Gage County.  He decided he would bring Marion to justice.  In December 1882, Marion was in jail in Sedan, Kansas, for stealing a wagon.  Herron headed down to Kansas and brought Marion back to the Gage County jail at Beatrice, where he would remain for the next four years.

A trial was held in May 1883 at which Rachel Warren, Marion’s mother-in-law, testified that she thought her son-in-law had killed Cameron.  The jury was shown the ragged clothes and the remains of the body. Marion, when put on the stand, professed his innocence.  But the defense, which had been hired by Marion’s uncle, William Wymore, was inept.  The jury deliberated just a few minutes and returned a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder.  Without any evidence but the testimony of a jilted wife and her parents, William Jackson Marion was sentenced to hang.

However, the Nebraska Supreme Court reversed and remanded the case for a new trial because Marion had been sentenced by a judge rather than a jury. At the time of the crime, the law required jury sentencing; by the time of the trial, it had been changed to allow sentencing by a judge. Marion v. Nebraska, 16 Neb. 349 (1884).  In March 1885, Marion, after a week-long second trial, was convicted and sentenced to death, this time by a jury — a result that the state high court affirmed. Marion v. Nebraska, 20 Neb. 233 (1886).  Meanwhile, public sentiment was changing, and more than 1,000 persons signed a petition requesting that Marion’s sentence be amended to life in prison.  The Nebraska governor reviewed the case but ordered the sentence carried out.   Marion, age 38, went to the gallows in Beatrice on March 25, 1887, proclaiming, as he had from the beginning, that he was innocent. The only member of his family present was his uncle, William Wymore, who shook Marion’s hand as he walked to the gallows.

Marion’s body was buried in an unmarked grave in Potter’s Field at the Beatrice Cemetery.  However, William Wymore was convinced his nephew was innocent.  Four years later, Wymore heard that Cameron was alive. He traveled to LaCrosse, Kansas, where Cameron had been seen, and found him.  Cameron explained that he had absconded to Mexico in 1872 to avoid a shotgun wedding in Kansas. Then he traveled to Alaska.  He had heard nothing of Marion’s trial and execution.  When Wymore obtained a statement from Cameron, the Beatrice newspaper headline proclaimed “The Dead is Alive!”  It was never determined whose body had been found in the creek.

William Jackson Marion was the seventh person to be executed in Nebraska.  In December 1986, Marion’s great-grandson petitioned Governor Bob Kerry, who, on March 25, 1987, the centennial of the execution, granted William Jackson Marion, posthumously, a full pardon based on innocence.  A grave marker, containing a copy of the pardon, was erected on Marion’s grave by his grandson.