CEDAR COUNTY, NEBRASKA - BENTZ Alonzo ==================================================================== NEGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. This file was contributed for use in the NEGenWeb Archives by Carol Tramp. Permission granted by R. Dump, Editor of Cedar County News ====================================================================== Taken from excerpt in Cedar County News 9/17/1914 written by Peter C. Nissen In April 1864, a man, Dr. Alonzo Bentz who lived on a claim four miles west of St. Helena was killed in a way of which I will give full particulars. He was a doctor by profession and a widower. He was crippled in one leg which was shorter than the other. He was always known and called old Doc. He had a pony he rode and it was lame. We could tell far off it was him coming as far as we could see. He built his cabin near the edge of the bluff on the river, not far from the pond going to Yankton, just before the road leads to the end of the bottom and will always be known as Bentz Hill. Felber, from St. Helena, used to travel that road to Yankton. He was a carpenter by trade. He would go every Monday morning and come back home Saturday evening and would stop to see old Doc. So did everyone stop who knew him. We could always tell if he was home, the door being half open in good weather. He had a dog, but savage. Nobody could come to go into the cabin unless old Doc called the dog back. So one Saturday in April, Felber came home and as usual stopped to see how he was getting along, and found the door closed, something unusual. The dog was inside, and growling. But Felber knew the dog and the dog knew him. So he opened the door and went inside. He found outside the door a bundle of empty sacks left there by some person, who must have gone into the cabin and transacted some business with Doc, and went a way again and left the dog inside. That will be plain shown further on why it was done. As Felber went into the cabin he saw the old man lying on the floor and felt of his hand which was stiff and cold. So he went out and shut the door and went home as fast as he could. Then he sent his son down to tell me. We had some soldiers stationed there. I went and got the sargent with the other men, all on horseback. We took a lantern along, it being pitch dark, some meat and bread for the dog. As we came near the cabin, got off the horse and left one of the men to hold them. While we were going to the cabin, we spread a little apart and advanced. As we came close to the cabin the dog growled and barked. We lighted the lantern. I got the meat and bread out for the dog and called him. He knew me. He was partly starved, but we could see we could not do anything. He was cold and stiff so we went home. Next morning, I called the sheriff, who was acting coroner, who went there and brought the body to St. Helena, called a jury, investigated the matter and found he was shot by the same person who must have been in the cabin close to him as the place was powder burned. The ball entered the left ear upward, and tore off part of the face, part of the nose, and part of the head. Beside him on the floor lay a book open but face down and we found it to be a dictionary, as the page he was looking for was bespattered with blood and hair when he was shot. On the table was a bottle of ink with penholder in the bottle and an unfinished letter he was writing to his son. He was very particular in spelling words. So when he came to “I have not been very well since you left” there he looked into the dictionary to see how “left” was spelled, because that place was covered with blood that he received the shot, and that was all the evidence and the date of the letter showed it was done on Thursday before and there was a lawsuit before me on Friday, and the Doctor told me before, he wanted to come down that day to see it, but it showed he wanted to finish that letter and take it along. I told him often to come down and stay overnight, that I would not be surprised if we would find him some day dead. He would only laugh and say he was not afraid, he had a good dog and two guns, and he was not scared of Indians. In the first place they would never come inside on account of the dog; besides some smoked meat was hanging untouched. They would have killed the dog and then taken what they wanted. The only thing I missed was a pocket book and some surgical instruments. He always had them lying on top of the bureau. That was gone and we never could find it. I also took down the depositions from every person that I could find traveling that road back and forward on that day, but could not find any positive proof as to the party. His son came up afterwards to see about it but he did not do anything. He was a soldier in the United States being stationed at Plum Creek, Nebraska. He was later killed by Indians out on a scout. Old doctor’s brother came up too. He is a farmer and lives in Kansas and he did not seem to be inclined to want to do anything, so that was the end of that.