CRIMINAL MENTION

A DOUBLE TRAGEDY — LYNCHING OF KEPHART

On Saturday, the 29th day of June, 1860, T. B. Barnett, while fishing in Cedar Creek, one mile and a half north of Batavia, in Jefferson County, discovered, in a state of nudity, the dead bodies of a woman, a little girl about six years old, and a boy apparently aged about twelve years. The woman and the girl had drifted partially under a tree that had fallen into the creek, and the boy was found a short distance below under a log. Mr. Barnett spread the alarm through the neighborhood, and a messenger was sent to Fairfield about midnight after the Sheriff and Coroner. The latter held an inquest on the dead bodies and elicited the facts embodied in the report of the Coroner's jury, which were as follows:

State of Iowa, Jefferson County, ss.—An inquisition held in Batavia, Jefferson County, State aforesaid, before Thomas Barnes, Coroner of said county, upon the bodies of three persons lying dead, found in Cedar Creek, near where the Iowaville and Lancaster State road crosses the said creek, there lying dead, by the jurors whose names are hereunto subscribed. The said jurors, upon their oath, do say, that the said persons, names unknown, came to their death by some person, as there are four large cuts on the head and face of the woman; one on her forehead, and just before her right ear; jaw broken; and behind her right ear, skull broken; and on the back part of the head, skull broken, and her left shoulder broken. The boy had wounds on his forehead, skull broken, and the brains oozing out; another wound on the back part of the head, skull smashed, with a bruise on the left arm. The girl had her right cheek, with part of her upper lip and part of her nose, upper jaw-bone and teeth, cut off, with her under-jaw considerably fractured.

We, the jury, are of the opinion that the wounds were sufficient to produce immediate death. The woman had blue eyes, dark auburn hair, and was about thirty years of age. The boy had also blue eyes and auburn hair, and was about eight or nine years old. The girl had blue eyes and auburn hair, and was about three years old.

All of which we submit this first day of July, 1860.

A. COLLINS,
H. P. HOLMES,
JOHN ADAMS,
Jurors.

THOMAS BARNES, Coroner of Jefferson County.

The County Judge, with commendable energy, immediately issued the following handbill, offering a reward for the arrest of the murderer:

MURDER!—TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD!

A woman and two children were murdered in this county on Friday evening last, and the bodies thrown into Cedar Creek, about nine miles west of Fairfield. The murderer is supposed to be about six feet high, of ordinary weight, dark complexion, without whiskers, and when seen, on Friday afternoon, was unshaven and was wearing a half-worn Leghorn hat and dirty white shirt; he was without a coat or vest. He was driving two yoke of oxen to a wagon. The wagon was an old, light two-horse wagon, muslin cover, dirty and old, but sound. The lead yoke of cattle was the smallest, and of a yellowish-red color with some white; the other yoke was dark-red and brindle, the brindle being on the near side. An old-fashioned red and match-work coverlet was over the fore end of the wagon. With the team were two dogs, one a reddish-yellow, long-haired dog; the other, a puppy four or five months old, of a bluish-black color. From the tracks where the bodies were carried to the creek, it is supposed there were two persons concerned in the murder.

On behalf of the county of Jefferson, I offer a reward of $200 for the apprehension of the murderer or murderers.

WILLIAM K. ALEXANDER, County Judge.

FAIRFIELD, IOWA, July 1, 1860.

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An additional reward was raised by subscription among the citizens of Fairfield.

Sheriff Robb started at once for Batavia, where he learned that an old man and a little boy, with an ox-team, answering the description given in the hand-bill issued by the Judge, had been seen on the road on the day of the murder, near where the bodies had been found. the Sheriff, David R. Huffstutter, Harrison Smith, William A. Tearden, H. A. Miller, Andrew Smith, Lewis Spurlock and Samuel Espe started in hot pursuit on the Sunday following the tragedy, and eventually tracked the party described to Upton, Scotland Co., Mo., four miles south of which place they found the team and man and boy.

The old man, whose name they learned was John Kephart, aged sixty years, gave up without resistance. The little boy seemed alarmed and fled crying to one of the party for protection. The little fellow told the Sheriff that his name was Willis; that the dead woman was his mother, and that he did not see her killed; awaking in the night, he saw her lying in the wagon, dead, with a large gash in her head. He saw Kephart kill his little sister and brother. They awoke, too, when his mother was killed, and jumped out of the wagon, and Kephart had some trouble to catch them, as they ran under and around the wagon to keep out of his reach.

The boy first remembered seeing Kephart in Muscatine, Iowa, when he came to move his (the boy's) parents and family south. His father's name was William Willis. It was ascertained that Kephart and the Willis family lived in Cherokee County, Mo., for a time, where he kept a grocery and sold whisky to the Indians. In the spring of 1860, he started for Iowa. The boy further stated that his mother, whose name was Jane Willis, and the children, whose names were Joseph S., aged twelve, and Maria Jane, aged six years, were killed near Eddyville, Iowa, and that the bodies had been hauled a distance of thirty miles.

Some account of Kephart's career was gathered from various sources. He had resided near Trenton, in Henry County, in 1850, and was considered a man of considerable means. He was at one time a preacher in the church of the United Brethren, and, at the time of the murder, had his certificate, or license to preach, with him. He was the father of nine children, all respectable citizens, and at the time of the murder had a wife living in Washington County, Iowa. While a resident of this section, he was engaged in a number of disreputable transactions, falling into the clutches of the law and being confined in jail. Kephart was for a time associated with the noted land pirate, John A. Murril, whose rendezvous was a cave situated some distance below Louisville, Ky. In the year 1833, in Lancaster, Fairfield Co., Ohio, for having been concerned in several murders with that noted criminal, he was a prisoner at the bar, and was condemned to death, but contrived to make his escape.

As soon as the Sheriff reached Fairfield with his prisoner, a preliminary trial was held before the County Judge. He waived an examination, and was then regularly committed to jail. On the first night of his incarceration, the Sheriff, on entering the Jail, found the prisoner hanging by the neck against the door of his cell, and immediately cut the rope. The would-be suicide falling heavily to the floor, received a very severe contusion of the skull, which almost knocked what life out of him still remained after his attempt at hanging. He was,however, eventually restored. He had secured a rope with which his captors had bound his feet together when he was first taken, and which was still fastened about one ankle when he was committed to jail, and which he had secreted about his person.

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On Thursday morning after the murderer was secured, a large body of well-armed men, on horseback, in wagons and on foot, marched into town in good order, proceeded directly to the jail, which they surrounded, and called for the keys. The lynchers, as they proved to be, were mostly from Wapello and Jefferson Counties—the citizens of Fairfield being generally opposed to their summary mode of procedure. Speeches were made to the mob by Judge Alexander, Mesrs. Wilson, Acheson, Negus, Slagle, Lamson and others, who made every off that might satisfy them that the prisoner would be safely kept until a fair trial, according to law, could be given him. Their offers and arguments were answered by loud cries to open the doors, with increased turbulence and excitement. Several of the mob procured a post, which they brought to bear as a battering-ram against everything that stood between them and their victim. The doors soon gave way and the murderer was immediately seized and borne by four men to a wagon and driven off under guard. The wagon containing the prisoner stopped at nearly every house on the road, in order that all should see the fiendish murderer. As he was quite faint during the trip, buckets of water were thrown over him. When the procession arrived at the place of execution—at the spot where the bodies of the murdered woman and her children had been found—the crowd had been augmented to 1,200 persons, and there were 2,500 people—some from a distance of thirty miles—awaiting their arrival on the ground, about four hundred women being included among the number, who had here gathered together to witness the execution of a human being. The roundabout road by which the prisoner had traveled made the distance about thirteen miles from Fairfield.

About 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the prisoner was brought forward by two men, who assisted him up the ladder to the platform of a gallows that had already been prepared. There was no trial, as all were convinced of his guilt; the services of a minister were neither offered nor asked for, and ten minutes were allowed for confession, which he employed by stating that he was innocent of the murder of the woman. He also asked if his shroud was made; on hearing which, he was shown his grave, and told by some one in the crowd that he would get no shroud. After his hands had been secured behind his back, a handkerchief fastened over his face and the rope placed around his neck, the rope that held the trap-door under his feet was severed by a blow from a hatchet in the hands of one of the party, and the prisoner was launched into eternity directly over the spot where the bodies of his victims had been found.

Resolutions were then passed, dispersing of the property of Kephart, which were to the effect that the money discovered in the wagon—amounting to $428, which had been found concealed in a keg of soap-grease—the wagon itself and the oxen, should be given for the benefit of the living boy of the murdered woman; and a guardian was then and there appointed for him. The body was then taken in charge, for the purpose of dissection, by some physicians who were on the ground. The citizens soon afterward dispersed to their homes to attend to the peaceable avocations of life, and the remembrance of the part that they had taken in launching a red-handed murderer into the presence of a higher tribunal that that of man, sat easily on their minds.

THE MATHEWS HOMICIDE

At Fairfield, on Thursday morning, May 23, 1867, was enacted a tragedy, the bloody details of which are shocking and blood-curdling as those of any murder which has ever blackened the criminal records of the State of Iowa. On the morning in question, Joseph Mathews, a laborer, between the hours of

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7 and 8 o'clock, when everyone but himself and wife, Mrs. Sarah A. Mathews, had quitted the premises, when the latter had no though of the murderous intent in the mind of her husband, and while she stood with her back turned toward him, seized an ax and deliberately hewed her head to pieces. This terrible crime was enacted on a bright, beautiful morning of the pleasantest month of the year, when all the better and holier instances of man and bird and beast seem to reign with the fullest sway.

Early after the tragedy, news of which had been conveyed abroad by James Frank Mathews, a twelve-year-old son of the victim and her un-natural husband, who had returned home in time to witness a portion of the tragedy, and anxious crowd surrounded the dwelling. Mathews, when arrested and conveyed to jail, offered no resistance, remaining as immovable and impassive as a beast. Various conflicting feelings pervaded the multitude; some were filled with the deepest indignation at the enormity of the crime, and clamored loudly for speedy and certain vengeance; some, taking into consideration certain well-known peculiarities in the character of Mathews, gave better counsels. These prevailed, and the matter was left to its proper course.

C. E. Noble, Coroner, summoned J. M. Shaffer, J. L. Myers and John R. Shaffer as a jury of inquest, and proceeded to view the remains of the murdered wife and mother. The following facts were elicited:

The body of Mrs. Mathews, when first discovered by the citizens, was lying on the right side in a small room on the north side of the house, nearly opposite, the residence of Mr. G. D. Temple. The face was to the floor, and large pools of blood were under the head and shoulders. To the north of where the murdered woman lay, and near the window, stood two barrels, and on the other side of the dead body, along the south side of the room, was ranged a row of boxes. From the nature of the contents of some of these, it may be supposed the wife was busy about her household cares, and that she had entered the fatal chamber for some article used in her culinary duties. An ax, the head and blade of which were found dripping with the life-blood of the faithful woman, who scarcely an hour before was so full of life and vigor, lay near the bleeding body. The hair was desheveled and clotted with blood, and the wounds and marks of violence were quite distinct, and the jagged edges indicated that the murder had been effected with a blunt instrument. There were fully nine wounds—any one of which might have been caused the death of the woman—"poor dumb mouths," which bore their ghastly testimony to the ferocious and savage instincts of the brutal and unreasoning husband. The left sleeve of the dress was torn from the shoulder, and a purple bruise on the back of the right hand, indicating that a blow had been warded off, showed the desperate struggle of the wife and mother in the vain endeavor to preserve her life.

Mrs. Mathews was buried the day following the murder, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, a vast crowd assembling at the Methodist Church to attend the obsequies, showing the universal respect in which she was held by all who knew her. Never had the slightest breath assailed her good name. All things tended to shroud the murder in the darkest mystery; and in vain was the search for a motive that would lead to the commission of so horrible a crime.

She had been married about sixteen years, having come to Iowa with Mathews and her parents, Joseph and Sarah Hudgell, in 1856. At the time of her marriage, she was about nineteen years of age, bearing more than twenty years younger than her husband. Their married life did not vary from that common to persons in their station of life. The struggles "against the wolf"

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were not an exception; he with his ax and shovel working industriously among the people, and she with prudence, care, economy and neatness, managed the affairs of the household. They accompanied each other and their children to church, and to all public places of entertainment, where Christian men and women might be found, and enjoyed in company the social re-unions so common in village and country life, seemingly a happy pair.

At the time of the homicide, Joseph B. Mathews, the murderer, was nearly fifty-six years of age, having been born October 11, 1811, in the State of New Jersey, from whence he had moved to Ohio, and from there to Iowa with his wife in 1856. He was remarkably taciturn, reserved and quiet man, rarely commencing a conversation, and, when addressed, generally replying in mono-syllables, and never entering with spirit into the discussions common among the people. His education was limited: he could read and write, but did little of either, finding no company in books and papers, and passing his hours, unoccupied by labor, in communings with his own spirit, or in listless inattention to the matters surrounding him. For some years, he had been a member of the Methodist Church, regular in his attendance, and neglecting none of his religious duties in the church or family. No one suspected that he was capable of so horrible a crime; no ne dreamed that murder was in his heart; no one imagined that, in an evil hour, he would imbrue his hands in the blood of his affectionate and loving wife. With all this showing, then, it was not wonderful that the quiet community of Fairfield should be startled upon the announcement of the murder.

On the 25th day of May, Mathews was taken from jail and brought before Squire Evans for a preliminary examination. The prisoner pleaded "Not Guilty," and was remanded to jail to be tried at the ensuing term of the District Court. When the case was called for trial at the September (1867) term of Court, a motion was made to postpone it until the January term, which motion was granted. The case came on for trial at the January (1878)[?] term of Court. Messrs. Slagle and Atcheson, attorneys for the defendant, applied for a change of venue, and the case was taken to Washington County. Court commenced in Washington on the 27th day of April, and, all parties being in readiness, the trial proceeded. The evidence elicited in the case agreed with the events above recorded, with the additions of depositions taken of some of the prisoner's relatives in Ohio, who testified to the fact that insanity was hereditary in the family; that his mother became insane some time previous to his birth, and that his sisters and other members of the Mathews family were victims of that malady. There were also certain other marked peculiarities in the character of the prisoner that led to the belief that he was of unsound mind and subject to melancholia.

The trial was before Judge E. S. Sampson, and his charge to the jury was regarded as a masterly summing-up of the deductions to be drawn from the evidence. The following sentiment taken from Judge Sampson's charge to the jury on this occasion, is well worthy the consideration of all readers:

The doctrine, which some doctors suggest, that every person who commits some enormous offense is more or less insane or of unsound mind, is one to which I cannot subscribe. To my mind it is a dangerous doctrine to the welfare of society, and is calculated to mislead the mind when drawing the distinction between the acts arising from a wicked heart, and such as have their origin in a diseased mind. When we find the highwayman striking his stilletto to the heart of the benighted traveler, securing his gold, and reveling on his ill-gotten treasure; or when we see the husband stealthily, through pretense of affection and love, slipping to the lips of his lawful wife the cup of poison in order that he may take to his arms the alluring paramour, we see at once, and justly, too, it is not the unsound brain that commits the crime, but the rotten and diseased heart.

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On Monday, the 4th day of May, 1868, the case was given to the jury, who, at half-past 1 o'clock in the afternoon, returned the following verdict:

We, the jury, find the defendant, Joseph R. Mathews, guilty of murder in the second degree.

On the Friday following, the Judge sentenced the prisoner to imprisonment for life. He was taken to the Penitentiary at Fort Madison, by the Sheriff of Jefferson County, and given into the custody of the Warden of that institution, there to remain for the term of his natural life. Mathews conducted himself there as he had done ever since the murder. He could not be made understand that he must work, and the shower-bath was twice brought into requisition before his stubbornness could be overcome. However, he eventually fell into the ways of the institution, and became a good workman among the convicts.

THE BUTLER-WOODARD AFFAIR

In the latter part of June, 1856, a shooting affray occurred between Hardin Butler and John Woodard, both residents of Cedar Township, and living one mile apart, which resulted in the death of the latter, when he had but lately returned from California.

When Woodard setout for that far-off State, he left his wife at home. She was a thrifty woman, industrious and economical every way, and, having a number of cows, turned her attention to butter-making, from the sale of which she received considerable sums of money.

On one occasion she sold a lot of butter, and took a note of hand in payment therefor. She subsequently sold the note to a man named Scott, who held it until it was "outlawed." Scott then went to Mrs. Woodard and made her believe that she was responsible to him for the payment of the same, and that she must pay it, which she did.

Hardin Butler lived a neighbor to Mrs. Woodard, and two or three times, when she had butter to convey to market she rode to town with him, when he happened to be going with his wagon. Butler learned how she had been imposed upon by Scott, and urged her to commence suit against him to recover the value of the note. When Scott learned of Mrs. Woodard's determination, he sought to "get even" with her by circulating insinuations that there had been an undue intimacy between her and Butler.

When Woodard returned home from California, these reports came to his knowledge, and he swore that he would avenge his honor by killing Butler on sight. The two men soon met a few rods from the line, between Cedar and Round Prairie Townships, when, as was supposed, Woodard drew his pistol and fired, but missed his aim, and that Butler returned the fire, mortally wounding his assailant.

Butler gave himself up to the authorities, and was held for murder in the first degree. The trial occasioned considerable interest; but as Butler was enabled to prove clearly that Woodard fired the first shot, and as he had been heard, by several persons, to threaten the life of Butler, the latter was finally discharged, it having been shown that the shot was fired in self-defense.

Butler now resides in Missouri, near La Plata. The widow of Woodard married again and removed to Cass County. John Huff, Woodard's brother-in-law, stated that the latter had been successful in the land of gold, and that he knew that, previous to his death, he had buried somewhere near his residence $500, all in $20 gold pieces, which has never been found, so far as known.

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A POLITICAL MURDER

Another fatal encounter took place at Batavia, in the latter part of October, 1860, just previous to Lincoln's first election. Party spirit ran high at that time, and the affray here mentioned grew out of a political dispute. It appears that six men, whose names were Silas McCart, Pleasant McCart, Isaac Gerringer, John McQuerry, and two other men, went to the house of John A. Mix, on Friday, for the purpose of attacking it, or some person in it. Amos Wimer, who was boarding with Mr. Mix, told them not to come near. The house was then stormed with brickbats; and, during the siege, Silas McCart struck Wimer with a brick, when the attacking party rushed in, in a crowd, upon him. Wimer succeeded in drawing a small dirk-knife from his pocket, with which he stabbed McCart four times, the latter dying of his wounds the following Sunday. Wimer made his escape and kept himself concealed for some time, for fear of being lynched. He afterward joined the army and fell in the Union cause at the battle of Shiloh.

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