Marathon County, Wisconsin - Chapter 32, 1913

Chapter 32

Incidents: Fires - The Flood of 1912 - German Bi-Centennial Celebration, i88s - Stormy Session of County Bvard - Sheriff's Adventures - An Atrocious Murder.

Disastrous Fires

This city has been more than ordinarily fortunate in suffering small losses from conflagrations. Fires are perhaps of not lesser frequent occurrences than in other cities of equal size, but in most cases here the spreading of fire was prevented and the loss confined to the house or place where it originated.

Several mills and factories burned down, for instance, the Dunbar saw mill, the R. P. Manson saw mill, the F. W. Kickbusch sash and door factory, the Werheim & Haseltine sash and door factory; but this is not surprising, considering the inflammable nature of the materials in and around such mills. The factory of the Wausau Box & Lumber Co. burned down on June 18, 1907, and the sandpaper and quartz mill on June 19, 1907. But in all cases the spreading of the fire was prevented, even in the burning down of the large Forest House, a frame built hotel with 100 feet front, 60 feet deep and three stories high, and other frame buildings within ten feet from the burning one and only a hand engine to combat the fire.

The most destructive fires - destructive because human life was destroyed - was first, the burning of the Gudsole building on corner of Second and Washington streets, where a school was taught in 1859-60. The front room was the school room, the back room a carpenter shop, and Gudsole and family lived upstairs. A fire broke out in the shop, in all probability through the lighting of a match by a boy and one of the Gudsole boys and one brother of Bert Gowan, sleeping upstairs in bed, were choked to death by the smoke, no one else being in the house at the time to save them, and when they were dragged out of the building, not yet touched by the flames, they were beyond recovery, asph3^iated by the smoke, and both, from six to nine years of age, died within an hour after rescue.

26th day of November, 1886. A man in the prime of life, Carl Honigle by name, lived in a small one and a half story house on Williams Flat, with his wife and five children, the oldest ten years, the youngest a baby. He was a sober and industrious man, attending to the warehouse and delivering goods for J. C. Gebhard, keeper of a general store on Third street. There were two doors into the house, one opened in the kitchen and the other in a sitting room. This last mentioned door had an outside door, a storm door so called, which was fastened from the outside, so that all ingress and egress during the \\inter months was through the kitchen door. A fire broke out in the night time in the kitchen part, how, was never satisfactorily discovered. During the night, Honigle was woke up by the smoke which had nearly choked him. Discovering the danger, he threw his wife out of the window to save her, then going for the baby, brought her to the window, where he sank down with it, overcome by smoke, and he and all the children perished. The fire company turned out promptly after alami was given, the chief. J. C. Gebhard, tried to enter the house through the broken window and reached down to get out of the thick smoke coming out, and as he did so, he felt the body of the baby which he pulled out, but it only made a few more gasps before death ended its suffering. It was 3 o'clock A. M. when the fire company arrived, and soon thereafter Honigle's body was taken out, still gasping, and he breathed his last at 11 o'clock. His body was not burned, but the water thrown in the house through the flames, got heated and falling down scalded the body. In one night the wife and mother was deprived of husband and her five children and left penniless, besides, after this night of terror.

The fire in Plumer's and Stewart's yards on May 24. 1886. has been mentioned in a former chapter and how it occurred. It was the most destructive conflagration that ever happened in W'ausau. It jumped from the Plumer lumber yard into the Stewart Lumber Company yard, consuming every pile in both yards cleaning both yards clean of lumber and rubbish. The depot building of the Chicago, Milwaukee & Lake Shore Railroad (now Chicago & Northwestern), standing just south by west of the Tremont House in B. Williams Flat, could only be saved by the utmost exertion of the railroad crew and the fire kept out of the flat.

Another disastrous fire occurred January 16, 1892. The Opera House, now the Leader store, and Alexander Hall, had been opened in 1883-84, it had nearly as large a seating capacity as the present opera house, but was much more elegantly finished inside, and with excellent stage setting: there was really no more elegant theater building in the city of Milwaukee. There . was enough of inflammable inaterial inside to prevent saving the building proper, but because of the failure of the engineer or engineers in charge of the pumping station to pump water from the river after the well was exhausted, the fire spread to the whole of the Opera House block and clear to the L. S. Cohn building, where Wright's jewelry store how is, and consumed everything inflammable, leaving only the bare brick walls standing. The Cohn building itself was saved only by the utmost exertion of the owner, L. S. Cohn.

Columbia Hall was partially consumed by fire on March 29, 1908. It was the largest hall in Wausau for assembly purposes or social gatherings, but at the time of the fire was used as a store room by the Ruder Brewing Company and one family lived in the front rooms on the second floor. The whole of the inside was burned, only the bare brick walls remaining. It was rebuilt and is used as a bottling establishment of the George Ruder Brewing Company.

The Flood Of I9I2

The floods of 1866, 1880, and 1881 have been referred to, but the highest stage which the Wisconsin river at Wausau ever reached, was on July 24, 1912, and because of its destructiveness and the quickness with which it came down, deserves more than passing notice, the river rising one and a half feet higher than in the historic flood of 1881.

All during the 23d of July a steady rain fell at Wausau, at times during the afternoon, to speak figuratively, it fell in sheets. At about 6 o'clock P. M. the sky suddenly darkened and looked very threatening on the southeast, but it partly cleared off, the clouds taking a sweep to the north. But in an hour afterwards the sky was dark again, lights had to be lit, and rain began to fall incessantly until about 3 o'clock in the morning. Four and one-half inches of rain fell in Wausau in twenty-four hours. No flood, however, "was anticipated during the night, even if the heavy rain extended far northwards, as it would take hours for the flood to reach Wausau, and the river being low, a considerable rise might occur without doing any damage.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, the river at Wausau was at low normal stage, very little water running over the main dam. Unknown, however, to the people here, the heaviest rain on record fell during all of the 23d of July and the night following, north and east of Wausau in Marathon county, and over portions of Lincoln, Langlade, and Oneida county, not extending west of the Wisconsin river excepting in Marathon county, where the territory in range 7, towns 29 and 30, were also affected by the heavy rain. Above Wausau the rain came down in torrents; in Merrill there fell 15 inches of rain in 28 hours, of which 113^ fell in 24 hours. Telegrai>h, telephone, and railroad service between Wausau and Merrill was out of commission on the night of the 23d, and no one in the city learned of the coming of the highest flood until the waters reached Brokaw. It is a noteworthy fact that these cloudbursts were confined almost entirely to territory east of the Wisconsin, affecting mainly Prairie, Pine, Trappe, and the Eau Claire rivers, and all the creeks and water courses on this side, and not quite as far north as Tomahawk, and Devil and Silver creeks on the west side, but not raising the Rib river to any great extent. At Tomahawk there was not much more than just a noticeable rise.

Mr. Walter Alexander reached Merrill from the north by auto during the evening of the 23d and was unable to proceed further. He made every effort to communicate with Wausau to give warning, without avail. All wagon road bridges were either gone or unsafe in northern Marathon and southern Lincoln counties, and there were no means of communication open whatsoever. Every ravine was a raging torrent, every creek a river and every level meadow a lake, for forty miles east and north of Wausau.

People went to bed in Wausau in total ignorance of what happened in the north and what was to happen here within a few hours. Even the men who had charge of the various plants operated by water, and who usually anticipate every change in the river, went to bed without a suspicion of more than the ordinary rise, which vvould be due about during the following day, but not during the same night. No one expected such an immense volume of water to come from such a short distance, nor had any one an idea of the immense volume of water that fell in so short a time.

The first news of the flood reached Wausau from Brokaw about midnight. The flood reached that dam a little after ten o'clock at night and came on so sudden that the men in charge of the gates were only able to raise some of them. By midnight the river had risen sixteen feet at the Trappe Rapids at the head of the Brokaw dam. A section of the dam gave \\ay while the men were at work at the hoists and the gates had to be abandoned.

As the river had broken a part of the dam. the volume of the flood increased by the water in the large pond came booming down, and within less than an hour millions of feet of logs, timber, boom sticks, and flood trash came rushing down, running into bridges, piers, and booms of the upper Wausau pond, tearing out the piles from the boom piers, and the river at Wausau began to raise at the rate of several feet an hour. A little after midnight. C. S. Curtis was telephoned by his night watchman asking for instruction, infomiing him that the river was threatening to overflow the stone wall on the bank and flood the basement, and he, while not believing the danger great, nevertheless tried to get to the plant. Between one and two he got to the high bridge, and by that time the power station of the electric work was overflowed and the lights were out, while at the high bridge logs coming down struck one of the posts holding up the bridge, which made it settle over a foot, and it was too dangerous to attempt to cross. Mr. Curtis tried to get across on the slough bridge, but there the water was already rushing down Shingle and across Washington streets, and he did not dare cross in the darkness. Mr. W. L. Edmonds received the news of the breaking of the Brokaw dam, and at once communicated with the manager of the street railway, who imm.ediately set to work on the east end of the guard lock to raise a dam from the guard lock over the railroad track to prevent the water from overflowing the track and undennining the lock. When he arrived there with the crew the water had already begun to run over the track, and they had hardly put a few timbers in place when the water rose so quick that he and his men were driven from their work. The water rushed faster and faster over the track, washing it out, and undermining it by washing away the filling. At the guard lock the water was at its highest at two o'clock A. M., because of the log jam which had run against the guard lock. It reached its greatest height in the main river at about eight o'clock in the forenoon. It had risen i^^i feet at two o'clock A. M. at the guard lock. It cut out the railroad track on the east bank, part of the guard lock, and undermined the abutment of the high bridge which came tumbling down in the forenoon, carrying with it the first span of the bridge. Cars were washed down, the railroad bridges to the Barker and Stewart mill, and the bridge to the Clark Island were saved in the nick of time by running on a train of cars filled with logs, weighing down the structure, which saved the bridges and probably the guard lock, too, because with the going out of these bridges, the rush of the water would have been so much swifter and stronger that the guard lock would have gone and let the whole flood down at once, sweeping everything below the lock before it, Kickbusch's store, government building, the mill dams, Heinemann mill, and very probably the power house of the street railway company, causing the main current to rush through the slough instead of the main river.

On the main river, the pile bridge was the first to go, tlien the railroad bridge from Barker and Stewart's mill to the west shore was pushed off its moorings, and so was the railroad bridge from the east shore to Barker and Stewart's mill. Logs coming down the falls struck the stone pier of the

Northwestern railroad bridge with such force as to knock out big chunks of the stone in the pier, and had there been as many logs as were in the boom in former times, and all coming down, it is very probable that the stone pier would have been knocked out, too, letting the bridge down. Logs knocking against Strollers' bridge knocked it ofif the piers and carried the steel bridge down a quarter of a mile, leaving it stranded on the island below west of the property of Judge Henry Miller. The pumping station was overflowed at two o'clock A. M., the fires put out, and the power house of the street railway put under water, and electric lighting interrupted, until a current was received from the Mosinee plant, on the evening of the 24th.

Scholfield also suffered by the flood, the Eau Claire river rising to a great height, and by breaking of the dam of Kelly Manser's mill, increasing the flood, destroying the bridge, washing out the road and doing damage. In the country most wagon bridges throughout the east side of the county were washed away, and some in the towns of Main and Berlin, though the rain was not near so heavy as on the east side of the river. The damage was great, the street railway company, the city, Barker & Stewart, the Rothschild Paper Company, and the Wausau Paper Mill Company at Brokaw being the heaviest losers. Part of the west bank of the river at Rothschild was blown away by dynamite to allow the water to flow off, which gap had to be filled by the lengthening of the dam. but the dam itself was not damaged.

How fast the flood came is shown by the fact that the horses which Mr. Healy had in his barn at the foot of Franklin street and near the river were only with difticulty saved from drowning in the barns, and one did drown. Other horses in bams along the east shore above the guard lock were saved with difficulty. On the day after the flood, a farmer, Ernst Kell, came to the city with milk as usual and attempted to cross the bridge at Stiensfield creek which was yet covered by water. He supposed he knew the bridge, but missed it a little, and his wagon tumbled off the bridge, and he drowned being unable to get out of the wagon. His son who was with him got out and saved himself by swimming.

The loss was indeed very large, going into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but with Wausau grit and perseverance it was repaired and only traces of it can now be seen. Two other floods came after the July flood, not reaching the same height, but hindering the repair of the damage done.

The old guard lock has been replaced, the new one l^eing made of concrete with large gates, which will pennit the opening of them and with the opening of more gates at the guard lock in time before a flood comes down, permitting the flowage of a'large amount of water through the mill pond, the height of the water above can be lowered. Xo such amount of rain fall had ever before been experienced in the past, and it may never come again, but it may come again as cjuick as this last one. Cautionary measures are being taken by the federal authorities, and the men interested in water powers to guard any future surprise in that respect.

Beside the loss in bridges, washed-out roads, broken dams, and broken water mains, there was a loss in the floating off of saw logs, timber for paper mills, and the stoppage of work during the time it took to make repairs. The waterworks of the city of Wausau w'ere out of commission for nearly two days, but the population suffered no appreciable harm, except the annoyance of getting water from a distance instead of having it at home.

The county board held a session soon after the flood had subsided and appropriated the sum of a little over $25,000 for repairs of bridges and washed-out roads, which was one-half of the estimated amount of the costs, the other half being borne by the towns and villages, but no part thereof being for repairs in the city of Wausau, which loss the city alone must bear.

A Grand Celebration The German Bi-Centennial Celebration

"Last Saturday was a gala day for Wausau and although it was known for two weeks that our German fellow citizens would commemorate the day, on which, 200 years ago, the first German settlement was founded at Germantown, near Philadelphia, hardly any one dreamed that the celebration would turn out so grand an affair as it proved. Little was known and heard of it before, except that at a meeting held for the purpose, a committee of arrangements was appointed and given carte blanche to do as they best saw fit. The committee then went to work in an unostentatious manner, and nothing more was said or heard outside of Gennan circles, except the notices which appeared in the city journals, from time to time, showing that something was to be done. Finally a programme was published (a modest looking affair), simply stating in a few dry words that a procession would be formed at the courthouse at one o'clock, and that the three largest halls were secured for evening entertainments and that the admittance would be free to all of the halls.

"Now if we had a right at all to find fault with the committee, we would blame them for not better preparing the people for the rare treat which they

"It is the unanimous voice that the street procession was the grandest ever witnessed at Wausau and would have done honor to a place ten times the population of our place.

"As it was, it proved a sublime affair and the day will long live green in the memories not only of our Gemian fellow citizens, but of the people of other tongues, and native-bom Americans as well, who were only sorry that they were quasi, only guests, and unable to more assist our Gennan fellows, except b}' their presence and taking part in the general amusements.

"Then followed a long line of industrial wagons fitted up by the Gemian business houses, each one was heartily cheered as it passed through the throng.

"Wagons representing Industry, etc. : J. Jaworth, blacksmith wagon with forge and wagon making utensils ; Brick making, Garske & Goebel ; Pump Works. H. Gerbsch ; Shoemaking, C. Wiskow and P. Meyer; Tailoring, C. Woesner; Display of flour in sacks; Ancient wagon with German settlers; Symbolic wagon; Upholstery Display, William Bauch; old style mode of extinguishing fires ; steam fire engine and hose cart ; bears recently killed suspended in wagon representing game of 1683 and 1883; Bing's clothing emporium display; Heinemann Bros.' carpet display; cigar makers' union; J. & A. Stewart & Co.'s shingle packing; John Schneider (float) as master of the guild in costume of fifteenth century, shoeing a horse.

"The marshal of the day, Mr. J. C. Gebhard, ably supported by Messrs. J. Williams and P. A. Werich, led this colossal procession safely through the crowded streets over to the West Side, and from there out to Schubert's Park, and to his excellent management perhaps is due the fact that no accident of any serious nature took place and that the procession moved on without any delays.

"At Schubert's Park, Hon. John Ringle, after well directed remarks of the object of the celebration, introduced the speakers. Reverend Kern, Messrs. Pink and Mueller, who made each a short but telling speech, all being enthusiastically applauded; then the official part of the celebration was declared closed by the president.

"During the afternoon, Schubert's Park was visited by thousands of merry people, and neither during the day nor at night, while the dance was in progress, was there any disturbance, but the whole festival passed off as smoothly and pleasantly as could be desired.

"In the evening there was an entertainment at Music Hall, consisting of songs and tableaux and general amusements, and short but sweet addresses in German (we know of what we speak, for we understand the language) by Messrs. H. J. Lohmar, A. Mehl, E. Schultz, Louis Schlecht, and L. Marchetti. Mr. M. H. Barnum was called and responded with a short, well deliv- ered address, and then the people started homewards or to the other halls, having spent a most pleasant evening. The tableaux, we are infonned by those that know, were intended to be more in number and more carefully arranged, but the costumes not arriving before Friday night, made it impossible to do better, as the arrangement had to be carried out in haste and without previous trial. But we can assure the gentlemen who had the matter in charge that they ought not to give themselves any uneasiness at all on that account. These pictures could not have been better had they been studied for a whole week, and everj' one was finely executed and heartily cheered.

"The other two halls were also crowded to their utmost capacity, and many buildings were handsomely illuminated, chief among which were those of Capt. C. H. IMueller and George Ruder's brewery.

"Among the humoristical points in the affair, we mention the capsizing of Columbus' vessel on the corner of Third and Washington streets, at the beginning of the procession almost, and as we expressed a fear that 'Santa Maria' would be shipwrecked, a member of the committee, whose initials are L. M., assuredly but confidently and under the seal of secrecy, told us that that was a part of the programme and represented the damage done to the original at the Canary Islands. Although not a skeptic, we took this statement under much distrust, but judging from the alacrity with which the damage was repaired and the vessel afloat again, we were half way convinced and do not know which most to admire, the daring of the committee to order the undertaking, or the skill and science with which the plan was carried out by Hugh Alexander.

"Another point was made by George Ruder, whose wagon with King Gambrinus (M. Eichert) in kingly garb, carried his brewery in miniature, showing six strong developed brewers malting, and the manufacture of lager beer according to the old German fashion from nothing but barley and hops, while on the rear end he carried a 'Milwaukee brewery,' having a number of glass jars and a chemist in the costume of Mephisto. under whose direction was made beer, ready for sale, in less than no time, and by the aid of drugs, changed clear well water to Milwaukee beer, which was offered freely to the by-standers. but was not in great demand.

"It would take more space than we can spare to describe each particular business represented in the procession. It is enough to say that each one was superb and everything perfect, nothing could have been improved. We cannot close without making a special reference to the Indian girls in the parade. They were the neatest, prettiest, cosiest Indian girls ye editor ever, ever saw, and he will wager his whole printing office against a nickel that

"The weather was favorable for the exercises, but it looked bad on the previous night, which retarded the preparations and made the partakers 'hustle' the more in the morning when it looked yet dubious, but it changed for the better just about two hours before the time set for the street parade.

"We do not know whom especially to credit with the arrangement of the whole affair, but we congratulate our German fellow citizens for having instituted and successfully carried out a festival the like never before had been seen in Wausau."

occurred in the spring of 1885, which had its ludicrous side nevertheless. In the session of the Legislature of that year, the perennial bill to divide the county was up for action again, and the county board, or the chairman acting in behalf of the whole board, had appointed a committee to lobby against the passage, because there was a lobby from the territory proposed to be taken from Marathon county, at Madison to lobby for the measure. When the county board met in the spring of 1885 after the adjournment of the legislative session, a motion was made to pay the chairman of the board the sum of $114.60 for railroad and hotel expenses of the lobby which opposed the project. The claim was just for actual expenses of the committee, making no allowance for their time at all.

This motion was bitterly opposed by the members from the towns which desired to be set off into the new county. When the opponents saw that they were not strong enough to prevent its passage, they amended the motion "to pay to the towns of Spencer. Brighton and Hull the sum of $40.00 to reimburse these towns for their expenses in lobbying for the bill." That amendment increased the turmoil. In the heat of debate some member drew a parallel between this claim and the rebel debt so-called, using the words "rebels" and "secessionists," which brought on the stomi. Half a dozen members or more were up at the same time, protesting, holloring, calling others to order, and for a time it looked as if a personal encounter would take place. In the midst of this tumult, while the chairman, Mr. S. Kronenwetter, was pounding the table furiously to no effect, the member from Texas, John T. Gallon, rose up, crying at the top of his somewhat squeaky voice, "Mr. Ghairman, Mr. Ghairman, what are you knocking this table for? Knock them (pointing to the excited members) on the head, knock them on the head." This pertinent remark, more than the gavel of the chairman, brought order again, and the motion was passed without the amendment, and if the dove of peace did not spread her wings oyer the assemblage, order was at least restored.

A few incidents in the life of two of the sheriffs of Marathon county are worth mentioning, as showing the value of discreet and fearless men in that office. In mentioning only two instances, it is not to be supposed that other men in the position of the two gentlemen to be mentioned might not have done similar good work, but the occasion for good service was presented to the-men to be mentioned, and when the occasion presented itself, it found proper men in the office to deal with it and to apprehend desperate men, who otherwise might have escaped.

On the loth day of March. 1899, four yeggmen robbed the Amherst Bank. On the morning following the robbery, Sheriff Malone was telegraphed to by a conductor of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad that two men who might be the robbers were on his train, but when the train had pulled into the depot it was found that the suspects had left the train at the junction, and this fact with other suspicious circumstances which he learned from the conductor, strengthened the sheriff's suspicion that the conductor was right, and the men would turn out to be the ones wanted for the bank robbery.

He looked carefully into the places where men of that description would try to stop, and coming to the Adams House saw two suspicious looking strangers in the bar room who somewhat nervously and hurriedly looked over a morning paper. Acting so as not to attract their suspicion, he stepped closely up to them and placed them under arrest, when the men made a move to reach for their pockets, but were immediately stopped by the command "hands up," reinforced by the pistol in the sheriff's hands. The men were easily made prisoners by the other men in the room, while the sheriff kept them covered with his revolver. When searched in the sheriff's office, they had ov&r $3,000 on their persons, together with a kit of burglar's tools, and a pint of nitro-glycerin. Knowing then he had two of the right men. he made search for the other two. The news of the arrest spread like lightning over the city, and the sheriff kept the telephone wires warm with his inquiries for other suspicious characters, and was informed that two men, strangers, were seen going south on the railroad track towards Scholfield. Losing no time, he with his deputies hastened down, and near the railroad bridge saw two men going down in one of the ravines, evidently trying to evade a meeting. The sheriff then told his men to circle around the ground, driving the men to the Eau Claire river, and when they did so, the suspects fired on the sheriff's men who returned the fire, when the suspects fled trying to gain the woods, which they did and for a while kept under cover. But there was snow on the ground and the men could be traced. The sheriff then telephoned to Wausau for more men to head the men off in every direction which was done when the additional posse from Wausau arrived. He then placed the men so that the two suspects could not come out of the woods without being seen, and he, with his deputy, followed the tracks in the snow made by the men. They had tried to get out on the road which nms along the track of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway east of the place where they were first seen, but saw the road guarded and the sheriff coming up towards them and that they could not get away. Their attempt to hide or get away through the woods was frustrated by the snow on the ground, and they gave themselves up to the watchers on the road, after seeing that a battle was useless because there were too many men on their track who could or would shoot, too.

When the sheriff first tracked them through the ravine there was fast firing for a while, one of the flying missiles barely missing the under sheriff, Mr. Jerry Bradley, but the sheriff and his men kept close up to their quarry, so that they could not get away, and when the posse from Wausau arrived, there was nothing left for them but unconditional surrender. They were taken to Portage county, and being caught "with the goods on," in police parlance, they plead guilty and were sentenced to five years' confinement at Waupun. They were four of the most desperate, daring bank robbers, and William A. Pinkerton, the head of the Pinkerton detective firm, wrote Sheriff Malone a personal letter, congratulating him on the capture of the men.

Five years ago last June the most fiendish crime known to the criminal law was committed in Marathon county. A horrible murder was perpetrated upon a young girl, just blossoming into womanhood, with no trace left as to its perpetrators. The victim was on her way home on Sunday from church in Stratford, where she had been to communion, and the murder was committed upon the public highway not far from her parents' place.

Late in the afternoon a fanner by the name of Rudolph Fuhlweiler. coming along the highway from his place, towards Stratford, found the dead body on the road and gave the alarm to the nearest neighbors. He then hastened to Stratford, from where notice reached the county authorities at about nine o'clock in the evening. The district attorney, sheriff and coroner took the next - the two o'clock morning - train to Stratford, and while they were there busying themselves to get a jury for the inquest and making inquiry, Sheriff Frank O'Connor, without stopping at Stratford, went at once to where lay the dead body, guarded by four neighbors. After arriving there he made some inquiries as to who gave the first alarm of the deed and was told it was Fuhlweiler, who had said that he was out for some shooting and towards evening he stumbled upon the body. When day had come an inquest was held, and at the request of the district attorney the people went into the woods to see if traces or foot tracks could be seen, and the sherifif, acquiescing in the order, although not looking for results from the nature of tlie ground and the rain which had fallen during the night, went also in the woods, keeping close company with Fuhlweiler. closely watching him without attracting his attention, however, when his suspicions were aroused by the curious manner of answering the innocent looking questions addressed by the sheriff to him and by his whole conduct.

During the night and before the officers had arrived at Stratford, two tramps had been arrested by the excited neighbors as the supposed criminals and before the tramps were taken to the county jail by the sheriff, Fuhlweiler had hinted that they must have met the victim, which they stoutly denied.

On Monday afternoon. Sheriff Frank O'Connor, who took the tramps to the county jail, soon satisfied himself that they were innocent, although they were still held. He took the night train again to Stratford. Previous to leaving the tramps he had made arrangements with a trusted confidential friend to get Fuhlweiler away from home, so that he would not be home when the sheriff' would be at his place the next day. as contemplated, which arrangement his friend had carried out, and hustling from the jail right to Fuhlweiler's house and making Fuhlweiler's wife believe he was looking for evidence against the two tramps, he learned from her that Fuhlweiler had been away from home on Sunday all the afternoon until about 6 P. M. Having learned this he was not slow in hunting up Fuhlweiler, whom he found, and pretending to collect evidence against the two tramps, without letting him know that he had already interviewed Airs. Fuhlweiler. the sheriff was told that he (Fuhlweiler) spent the whole afternoon at home. This false statement, together with the suspicious conduct of the previous day in the woods, satisfied the sheriff that he was on the track of the criminal. In the mouth of the victim was found a piece of cotton cloth with which the fiend had attempted to stop her outcries, on the piece of cloth were traces of salt, indicating that salt was carried in the cloth before it was used for its last purpose. On searching the woods all by himself, the sheriff found a deer lick so curiously located as to give an unobstructed view to the road from Stratford, looking through the woods, so that a person coming from there was in plain view for some distance to a person looking from the lick, and the sheriff calculated that in all probability Fuhlweiler, knowing of the girl's usual attendance at church, had been lying there in wait for his intended victim. The curious location of the salt lick, the known habit of Fuhlweiler of hunting and fishing, the cloth bearing evidence of salt, his false statement as to his whereabouts on Sunday afternoon when the crime was committed, strengthened the sherifif's suspicions, and having laid his facts before the district attorney the arrest of Fuhlweiler was determined upon, and on Wednesday following the crime he was taken into custody. Meanwhile the sheriff having ascertained that Fuhlweiler had changed his clothing since Sunday, he immediately after placing him in jail went back to Stratford, went to the prisoner's house, arriving there in the early morning, and searched the house. There hidden in the bed he found the prisoner's under clothes which he had worn Sunday, with blood on them, in the attic he found a bow net tied up with a rope exactly like the piece with which the unfortunate girl's hands were tied.

Still keeping up the hunt for evidence, after searching for days, the sheriff finally discovered an old abandoned logging road, hardly a trail then, leading oft' from near the place of the crime in the opposite direction, and following that trail over dry ground, then o\'er half a mile through a swamp, he found the foot tracks of the murderer as he fled from his crime, which came out on the main road again very near Fuhlweiler's place; here on the road the murderer could take the road, and pretending to be leisurely walking and looking for a shot, could come upon the dead body, pretending to be hunting, and then gave the alann to ward off suspicion from himself, which he did.

Meanwhile the examination had been adjourned a couple of times, the prosecution, F. P. Regner, district attorney, perfecting the proof, and when Fuhlweiler was taken the third time before the examining judge, the sheriff (Fuhlweiler had been left in complete ignorance so far as the incriminating evidence found against him) wanted to test the conscience of his prisoner and whether he would run away if he had a chance, or rely on innocence and refuse to run. Consequently he took him always alone to the courthouse without handcuffing him, though always on the lookout for a break. The third time Fuhlweiler was taken to the courthouse, the sheriff took him as usual alone and unhandcuffed, and when out of the jail, turned to lock the door. The prisoner utilized this second and made a dash for liberty. Letting him have a few jumps purposely, relying on his swiftness as well as on his strength, the sheriff followed the prisoner, soon caught up and knocked him down.

The examination being adjourned again, and the prisoner in jail, the sheriff then for the first time charged him with the crime, confronted the prisoner with the evidence he had against him. the cloth in which the salt was carried, the deer lick with the outlook towards the road, the bloody clothing, the rope, his search and finding of the trail with the footmarks in the swamp, his false statements, and under the weight of these proofs, the fiend, who up to that time had put on a bold front, was crushed and confessed his guilt, and he is now ser\-ing a life sentence at \\'aupun.

It was the arduous and intelligent search of the sheriff for weeks and by day and night, which led to the detection and conviction through this complete chain of circumstantial evidence.