Posted By:	Tom Girardi
	Email:
	Subject:	Re: Lynching of William Jackson
	Post Date:	January 29, 2005 at 14:53:50
	Message URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/ia/fremont/messages/256.html
	Forum:	Fremont County, IA Genealogy Forum
	Forum URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/ia/fremont/

THE NEBRASKA CITY NEWS. January 18, l869. "PARTICULARS OF THE MURDER OF HOLLOWAY. The Murderers Captured and Hung" The following particulars of the murder of William Holloway, at Holloway's Lake, Fremont County, on last Thursday night, we learn from a gentleman who was an eye-witness to the brutal, bloody and fatal affair. On the evening above stated, Mr. Holloway invited a number of his friends and neighbors to visit his house for the purpose of dancing and enjoying themselves; everything went on smoothly until about 11 o'clock, when two notorious bullys entered the room cursing, and swearing that they would participate in the fesitivites of the evening. Mr. H. requested them to behave themselves or leave his house; without another word, one pulled from his pocket a revolver and the other a knife; with the revolver his brains were beat out, and with the knife his body was mangled in a horrible manner. The murderers then took their departure toward the Missouri, followed by pedestrians and men on horse-back; on Saturday morning at an early hour one of them was seen crossing the ice on the Missouri river near Rock Blufs, and the other emerging from the timber ready to cross. Both were captured and taken to Sidney, the county seat of Fremont County and lodged in jail; at a late hour on Saturday night or at an early hour on yesterday morning they were taken from the jail and hanged. Their bodies were taken down yeterday, lifeless. The deceased, if we are not mistaken, was born and brought up on the farm where he was murdered. His father was the first white settler on the Iowa bottom. The excitement in the neighborhood in regard to the affair is intense. ----- HOLT COUNTY SENTINEL (Oregon, MO.). Vol. IV No. 29. January 22, l869. "Tragedy Near Bartlett Station. - A man Killed and His Body Mangled. - The Perpetrators Under Arrest" We learn from a gentleman who came down from Council Bluffs last evening, the particulars of a horrible tragedy that occurred near Bartlett Station on Friday night. Our informant states that a party was given by a gentleman living near Bartlett Station on the night above mentioned, and some forty persons were present, among whom a young lady whose brother was uninvited. He, feeling himself slighted, prevailed upon another young man to go to the party and break it up. They armed themselves and went to the house, and, having gained admission to the room where the guests were assembled, the first mentioned of the two drew his revolver and fired it off, the ball going through the floor. This unlooked for proceeding created much excitement and confusion, and the ladies were badly frightened. The proprietor, (whose name we did not learn) approached the one who had fired his pistol, to prevail upon him to leave, when the latter struck him on the head with his pistol, fracturing his skull and killing him. The other young man, who had accompanied the one who struck the fatal blow, then stepped up to the lifeless body of the proprietor and, drawing a knife, stabbed him several times in the breast. The ladies fled from the house and the perpetrators of the crime were seized, disarmed and escorted to town and given up to the authorities. This tragedy has created a great deal of excitement in the neighborhood, and we learn public opinion is very strong against the pepetrators. - St. Joseph Gazette, 17th. ----- HOLT COUNTY SENTINEL. February 5, l869. "THE BARTLETT STATION MURDER. THE MURDERERS ARE ARRESTED AND LYNCHED" From Mr. Joseph DeBeard, Marshal of Hamburg, on the St. Joseph and Council Bluffs Railroad, we learn the following particulars of the murder at Fremont City imperfectly given in our Sunday morning's issue, as located at Bartlett Station. The killing was done at the Sherman House, in Fremont City, about six miles east of Bartlett. It seems that the parties were playing a game of cards, out of which arose a difficulty. The murdered man, Min Halloway, was about 26 years of age, and much respected, a farmer by profession. His slayers were Jackson and Horton, aged 21 and 25 respectively, also farmers. The tragedy took place in a room where a ball was going on, of course creating the greatest consternation. The killing was done with clubs and pistols in a most brutal manner, the murders escaping afterward to Nebraska, where they were followed by the indignant citizens of the vicinity of the scene of the crime. They were taken on Weeping Water, brought back to Sidney, Iowa, where they were summarily dealt with before Judge Lynch's court, receiving the deserts of their crime at the hands of the incensed people. The men, Jackson and Horton, are said to have been old offenders. Their home was at Bartlett Station. - St. Joe Gazette, 19th. ----- THE NEBRASKA CITY NEWS. February 8, l869. "A Subject" Some little excitement was created in town last Saturday morning by the arrival of a posse of men from Iowa, who were in search of the body of Mr. Holloway, lately murdered at Holloway's Lake, in that State. It seems they had been informed that the body of their late friend had been removed from its last resting place by physicians of this city, and that the aforesaid physicians were dissecting the same. The services of the city Marshal were secured and with him they made a descent upon this dissecting room, located in the first ward. The corpse was examined and proved not to be the one they were after. Now, that the matter is generally known in our city, we would state that the body was sent from St. Louis to this city some three weeks since and that Drs. Hess, Wallace, Thomas and a Mr. White, who is studying anatomy, are busily engaged in what is termed dissecting. We visited the room yesterday and found two of the gentlemen above named busily at work with their knives and books. We incline to the belief that it is essential and necessary for physicians to have subjects, that they may not become rusty in their profession. ----- THE FREMONT COUNTY SUN. May 15, l902. "An Old Murder Re-Called". All of our older citizens will well remember the murder of W. M. Holloway, who lived near Thurman, on the night of January 14, l869, the murderers being William Jackson and James Orton, young men residing in the neighborhood. The young men were arrested and confined in the county jail at Sidney, and a few nights later they were taken from the jail by a crowd and lynched. Just recently Sheriff Dixon received a letter from a man by the name of John W. VanBibber of McLoud, Okla., asking for information relative to the matter of the lynching. In this letter he speaks of two men being wanted here for the lynching and asks how much reward is offered for their arrest, and alleges that he believes that he can locate the men. It seems that no effort was ever made to capture the men engaged in the lynching or no reward was ever offered. ----- THE FREMONT COUNTY HERALD. June 22, l922. "Randolph News". Mrs. T. M. Britt of Minneapolis, Mrs. and Mrs. Harry Dunlap of Emerson, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. McCain, Mr. and Mrs. L. E.Foster and Mrs. and Mrs. C. R. Brewer of Tabor formed a picnic party Sunday, and they drove near McPaul to visit the old Holloway homestead where Mrs. Britt's parents settled in 1858. The first stop was made at the site of the stone house which was torn down some years ago and the stone used in the basement of a barn on the Baldwin farm. It was here that Mrs. Britt's brother Minturn (sic) was killed in January 1869, and for which two men were lynched by a mob near Sidney. Dinner was eaten under the trees at the Lucas home. After dinner they drove over near McPaul to the old homestead where her parents had died and where she grew to womanhood and from which place she was married. On the way home stops were made at the Thurman and Tabor cemeteries where so many of her kindred are buried. ----- From Walter Farwell: This will be a crude first attempt at telling the ghost story that passed down in Clorinda (Greenwood) Liggett's family, as it concerned a Holloway murdered by two young men who were not invited to a party. For the life of me, I can not remember when I first heard it, or who it was that told it to me, but here goes: The injured man died, his funeral being attended by his many friends and by the curious. But on the first night after the funeral, one of the young girls who had been at the party, heard a wagon and team pass in the night. She was immediately alerted, for the horses' hoofs had been wrapped in gunny sacks and the wheels on the wagon wrapped in burlap bags, so as to deaden any sound. Obviously, interception would not have been smart as the driver was making it known he did not want to be noticed. As the night passed, the young girl became more and more alarmed, and before dawn she was filled with foreboding. Something told her she must check out the grave of the Holloway boy which had been laid to rest in the Plum Hollow cemetery the day before. Therefore, she arose at the first light of day, and started making her way to the road up the loess bluffs to the cemetery. Soon she found it harder and harder to go further up the steep incline, but go she did. As she neared the cemetery, she began hearing the wind through the old pine trees which grew in Plum Hollow Cemetery. Unmistakenly, the wind was moaning. It was only with super-human strength that she reached her goal - the gravesight. Instead of a fresh dirt mound over the grave, there was a hollow. She fled from the cemetery, shouting as she passed along the return route, for help and that the boy had been taken during the night. The story usually ended with the observation that the pine trees in the Thurman cemetery still moan whenever the wind blows. (It WAS the first thing I looked for, when I made my first visit there.) But, there is more: 30 or 40 years ago I came across a newpaper clipping from a Nebraska City newspaper in which it was stated that a posse of men from Plum Hollow were looking through every doctor's office in that city for a body which had fallen victim to grave robbers! The date fitted exactly! I no longer think it just another ghost story. Now, my last question about the story is one of whether the body was ever found. ----- THE OMAHA WORLD HERALD. Jan. 21, 1969. "A CENTURY FLASHBACK: January 21, l869, from the Omaha Daily Herald" - Fremont City, Iowa. On the evening of the 15th a party of M. W. Holloway's friends gathered at his house for the purpose of dancing. About 10 o'clock two noted ruffians named Jackson and Orton tried to break up the party. Jackson drew a revolver and fired it when Mr. H. attempted to remonstrate with him. Orton attacked him from behind with a dirk knife. Jackson escaped but was captured in Weeping Water in Nebraska. Both Jackson and Orton are now in custody. Holloway died last night. He was a quiet, inoffensive man and much beloved by his neighbors. Jackson and Orton are rebel refugees and hard cases. It is hoped they will get what they richly deserve - a dance at rope's end. ----- Letter from Janice Hidy Holloway. P.O. Box 137. Gualala, CA 95445". 15 Feb. 1980, to Walter Farwell: I wonder if I wrote to you, thanking you for your letter of 22 June 79? I think I did, yet I think I didn't. I'll go on the latter assumption. I had read 2 other vesions of the Holloway murder. The one I think nearest the truth being: Wm. Minitree md. Mary Jane Baldwin. They had 3 children; their baby girl d. Mar '67. Mary Jane died 23 Jan. 1868. Minitree gave a dance at his home, after nearly a year's mourning, which was then proper. Jackson & Orton were't invited & were insulted; they decided to do something to bust the affair up & they did. So, Minitree d. Jan 1869 - and one of his little sons, Riley, d. May 1870 - nearly 10 yrs old. This left one child, Harvey, b. 1857 d. 1920 md. 1875 Mariah Emma Cloyed.