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The First Murder Trial in Taylor County. REMINISSENCES OF EARLY DAYS. Editor Democrat: A brief paragraph recently appear ing in your paper, announcing that Joseph Brice had recently been back to Illinois on a visit to friends, brings freshly to my mind, and no doubt to many others, recollections of exciting scenes which transpired here in an early day, the recital of which will no doubt interest most of your read ers. Some time during the month of March, 1865, the early settlers of Tay lor county were startled with the announcement that the remains of a dead body had been found in what was then known as the Glasgow neighborhood, a few months east of Hawleyville, with such marks of vio lence as to leave no doubt of the fact that a foul murder had been commit ted. The ghastly find was in a deep hollow several rods from a wagon road leading from Hawleyville to the three forks of Platte river, along which there was considerable travel by emigrants. The body had been considerably eaten and the clothes torn by wolves, so that identification would have been impossible had the corpse been that of one with whom the people were familiar, but appear ances made it quite certain the crime had been committed to the fall or the fore part of the winter, and as no one had been missed from among us it must be the corpse of a stranger who had been foully dealt with while far from friends and home. The remains were brought to Bed ford for examination and identifica tion if possible. For want of a coro ner the investigation was of necessity desuitory and unofficial; nevertheless the deep interest excited caused the examination to be most thorough. The torn garments finally yielded up one little paper that told who the victim was, where he resided and what his associations were. It was the travelling card of an Odd Fellow. This little paper, though much faded, clearly revealed the name of William Mullen, a member of the J. O. O. F. of Glenwood lodge, at Glenwood, Ia. Fortunately at even this early day a lodge of this benefficent order had been established at Bedford and quite a number of our pioneers had entered its mysteries and taken upon them selves its binding obligations. Only those who have been initiated into the mysteries of the order and been inspired with the sentiment of broth erhood it teaches can realize the fim ness of resolution with which the task of hunting down and bring to justice the murderer or murderers of this brother of ours was entered upon. Nor is it easy at the present time, with our telegraph and tele phone facilities and well organized police force, to comprehend the diffi culties that had to be met within this case. Months had passed since the crime was committed; the murderers had had ample time to make their escape. The country through which they had probably passed after committing the crime was almost destitute of inhab itants for a distance of one hundred miles, and of course they would dis guise themselves and cover their tracks as far as possible, yet the task was undertaken and carried to a suc cessful termination in a manner so unique that a detailed account of it can hardly fail to be of interest, even at this date. Soon after the corpse had been identified as that of an Odd Fellow, the lodge was convened in Bedford, and after fully considering the mat ter it was determined that every lodge of the order in the west should be made a police station and every member of the order a policeman, to hunt down the murderers, and the secretary was instructed to open com munication at once along the route the criminals would be most likely to take. As a preliminary to this, however, it was necessary to correspond with the lodge at Glenwood for particulars. This resulted in speedily bringing the wife of the murdered man to Bed ford, who fully identified the clothing as those worn by her husband at the time he left home. She also gaves us a description of the two men with whom her husband had left on his fatal trip to Keokuk for the purpose of recruiting his small stock of drugs. The outfit was a light spring wagon with a span of horses, which she fully described to us. The two men were entire strangers, recently from the plains and dressed in the garb of Indians, or with full suits of buck skin trimmed in Indian style. One she described as a tall, powerfully built man, apparently about 30 years of age, the other is several years younger, not so tall, but also very strongly built. These men had in some way learned that her husband was about to start for Keokuk and engaged him to carry them through for a certain sum of money. *She did not like the appearance of the men and remonstrated with her husband against taking so long a journey through an unsettled country with entire strangers. With the information received from Mrs. Muliep our secretary was prepared to open correspondence with other lodges all along the line of travel the murderers were believed to have taken, and the peculiarity of men’s apparel together with the mi nute description we were able to give of the entire outfit, inspired us with the belief that our search would be rewarded with success. This duty our secretary attended to promptly, but answers to his letters came in slowly. The first was from Davis county, informing us that two men answering the description given had stayed with a farmer right ino the north part of that county about the time of the murder. The next one was from Van Buren county, in forming us that two men answering the description in all particulars had stopped there several days and had disposed of the team harness and wagon. Shortly after this came a letter from the Judge in Fulton coun ty, 11, saying that two men, answer ing to the names of Joseph M. Brice and John M. Crans, answering fully to the description given, had been stopping there several months; that they had recently come from the plains and had with them the suit of buckskis as described; that they had been looked upon with suspicion for some time, and furthermore that the crime of burglary had been recently committed there; that Brice was sus pected of the crime and had left; that Crans was still there and had been employed as a clerk in a business house. There could now be no doubt that the murderers of William Mullen had been discovered, but how were they to be secured and brought back to this county for trial. Who was to follow Brice? No legal steps had been taken here to secure their capture and no one here seemed to look upon himself as the man to file an infor mation for commencing proceedings. Finally it was arranged between Bed ford lodge and the lodge in Fulton county, Ill, that Brice should be charged with the crime of burglary that had been committed there, and that the sheriff of that county should be put upon his trail while a strict watch should be kept of Crans. While these matters were being secretly conducted between the two lodges, the governor of Iowa had been prevailed upon to offer a reward of $500 for the capture and conviction of the murderers. Armed with a war rant, Sheriff Johnson of Fulton coun ty started out upon the trail of ash. Brice, and in a short time a letter was received fro Mr. Wagner, N. G. of the Fulton county lodge, saying that Brice and Crans were safely lodged in the jail of that county. Brice had been captured in western Minnesota and rushed through to Ill inois without being allowed an op portunity to secure council or other means of escape. As soon as the news of their cap ture was received to Bedford the friends of the murdered man at Glen wood were informed of the fact and James Muller, a brother of William, appeared before the writer, who was then acting as a justice of the peace in Bedford, also as secretary of the Bedford Judge, and filed an informa tion against Brice and Crans, upon which a warrant could be issued for the legal arrest for the murder, and also laid the foundation for procuring a requisition on the governor of Illi nois, which was readily granted. While these preparations were go ing on a son of William Mullen was sent to Van Buren county to examine the team, harness and wagon which had been sold there and see if it was the one his father had left with. He found no difficulty in identifying them to the entire satisfaction of the purchasers. One evening early in the month of September, 1865, the attention of our people was attracted by the appear ance of four strangers alighting from the old stage coach, which had just arrived from Mt. Ayr, and stopped in front of the frame hotel which then stood where the Bedford house now stands. Two of these strangers had their feet chained together and were receiving the special attention of the other two. I hardly need state that the men In chins were the long looked for murderers of William Mullen in charge of Sheriff Johnson of Fulton county, accompanied by Mr. Wagner of that county. On the 11th of September a prelim inary examination was held before Justice E. Houck and an order made by him that said prisoners be con fined in the upper story of the court house until the district court con vened, and that they be closely guarded during such confinement. This order was made after consult ing Judge Day, who then presided over this judicial district, and was in accordance with the wishes of our people. We had no jail at the time and there was none nearer than Win terset, and we had already had one prisoner charged with horse stealing make his escape from that jail. At that period of our history courts were held only twice a year, and court in course would not con vene until the last of February; but Judge Day concluded to hold a special session for the trial of said prisoners, which was set for December 9th. W. M. P. Dong, now deceased, was then sheriff of Taylor county, and into his charge was committed the safe keep ing of the prisoners until otherwise disposed of, [Continued next week]
Newspaper Details
Taylor County Democrat
Bedford, Iowa, US
Thu, May 02, 1895
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Audrey H.
USA 16 Jan 2026
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