Explanation

     Editor Argus: - you state in your last issue "that you have nothing to conceal and wish to make known the whole facts." Acting upon your statement, I present a few facts for your publication. I did as Sophia Kohlway states, write a letter, informing her, as I had been informed on good authority, that H. F. LASHIER would call upon her soon and induce her, if possible, to come to Long Prairie with him, and that the plan was to arrest her when she arrived here. I informed her that H. F. Lashier was not an officer, and that properly no authority to compel her to come, and that she need not unless she wished to.
     I did not request her to burn the letter as she states. I wrote it in English with full knowledge that she spoke and understood but little of the language, and read none. The letter was directed in care of Mrs. Blackwell, Matron, with the explanation that she would read and explain it to her.
     As for fact no. 3, Mrs. Kohlway came to Long Prairie last fall as a witness in the case of STATE against John Miede for John, and while here the house, or granary, in which she and the Miede's had been living, was burned together with all the clothing belonging to her, except that which she wore, which was a disgrace to her sex. I solicited help for her, and obtained a very comfortable and respectable outfit together with some money but not without a great deal of opposition for the majority of those whom I approached many believing her equally guilty with the Miede's of the murder which had just been committed. I believe and endeavored to impress upon those with whom I conversed upon the subject that she knew nothing about the murders, and even if she had, it was the duty of every woman to assist her, considering her circumstances.
     Actuated by these motives, and no other, I wrote to her as I did, and if it accomplished the effect of protecting her from arrest and imprisonment, I am satisfied, although I did not seek notoriety in the part I took in this matter.
     It is a pleasant thought to me, that there comes a time when we shall know as we are known, and the secret motives of all our hearts shall be revealed and they, not public opinion, or political capitol, form the evidence upon which we shall receive the judgment of the judge of all the earth.
     Trusting that my past life and character (and I shall endeavor so to direct my future) have been such that you do not deem it necessary this communication should be upon oath, and under the seal of District Court. I subscribe myself...
Mrs. Lena Crowell

Todd County Argus - Friday, April 2, 1880

Michael Miede at Stillwater

     Mr. Editor: We arrived at Stillwater with Mike all right, but I will give you the details of the trip. We arrived in St. Paul rather late so Mike was taken directly to the jail. He took a good look at the massive structure and his countenance showed that all hope of escape fled from his soul. The next morning, I went to the jail after Mike, and found all the prisoners, about forty, in the hall where they take their meals. I called for Mike and he came forward carrying his boots, they having been taken off in order to fit the shackles closer. I bid him good morning, but he could make me no reply, but broke completely in the end and cried bitterly. We started for the depot, taking in Sheriff Bassett at the Windsor House and 9:15 found us at Stillwater. By special request the conductor halted the train and let us off directly in front of the STATE PRISON. We walked in and found Warden Reed standing in the doorway. Sheriff Bassett introduced himself, telling where we were from, and the Warden guessed the rest. Mike was taken in through the large iron gate into the deputy Warden's office, where the great world beyond which Mike is destined never more to gaze. He braced up a little and answered some questions asked him by the Warden. We were then shown through the different apartments. The first thing we came to worth mentioning was the cells of the Younger Brothers, Jim was the first who is suffering from rheumatism, the next was Cole who is also suffering from the same complaint. He was reading a paper and merely bowed to us as we entered. We bade Mike good-bye and visited the shops where the Minnesota threshers are made, Mike confessed to us that he knew of the murders, a fact which he has hither to denied.
    

Todd County Argus - Friday, April 2, 1880

Minor Notes about the Miede's

     * Mrs. Kohlway is employed in the family of a cigar maker in Milwaukee.
     * Mrs. Kohlway said that her uncle in Wisconsin has the notes that were bulldozed out of Turhurst.
     * Mrs. Kohlway's mother and sister were with her at the birth of her child in Milwaukee. It died at the age of eight weeks and three days.
     * Mr. Irsfeld said the he was in the cell with "Black John" for three hours and that Miede was hung twenty minutes after he left.
     *"Black John" told Mr. Irsfeld a few hours before he was lynched that he and Mike bulldozed Wm. Turhurst out of $500 in money and notes.
     * Mrs. Kohlway refused to go on the same train that carried Michael Miede to Stillwater. She did not wish to see him again dead or alive.
     * A family by the name of Cary are living in the house where Kohlway and Steinhuber were killed. The family consists of a husband, young wife and two small children.
     * "Black John" told Mr. Irsfeld, that if they would not hang him in the night, he would be willing to be hung in the day time for he wanted all the people to see upon.
     * It was clearly proved at the trial that Michael Miede was the worst man of the two, "Black John" being afraid of him. Mrs. Kohlway had to beg for her life because she wavered and wished to return to her husband.
     * Mrs. Kohlway is a very prepossessing German woman, about seventeen years of age with large lustrous black eyes, a round full face, even features with full well shaped form of the medium height. The adventures which she had passed through during the past year is another example that truth is stranger than fiction.

Todd County Argus - Friday, April 2, 1880

Mrs. Kohlway's Story
A Full and Correct Statement of the Causes which led to the Murder of Kohlway and Steinhuber

     The Argus man found Mrs. Kohlway at the Long Prairie Hotel and proceeded to interview her as to the relations between herself and the Miede's with the following result:
     Mr. Kohlway was kind to me as a general thing, but when he lost his temper he was cross and swore a good deal. It was the practice of Mike Miede to come to our house and stay all night often. He would sleep down stairs and Kohlway and I slept upstairs. Kohlway was not a fit man to live with a woman, as he practiced masturbation, and when I remonstrated with him about his evil ways he told me I could go with another man if I wished. Before I left Kohlway, but after Mike and I became good friends, there was a man came who was hunting land named Terhurst, and John and Mike made a plan to get his money. They made me help them. I was to go out to the stable as a signal to them, when they were to come in. Mr. Terhurst and I were talking about a love affair of one of our friends in Wisconsin. I gave a loud burst of laughter and the Miede's rushed in and threw him on the floor and tied his hands and feet and told him they would hang him if he did not pay them money and they got a whip and threatened to whip him. They took $130 away from him and took his note for $370, leaving him money enough to pay his fare back to Wisconsin where he lived. Mr. Terhurst did not insult me nor did he make improper proposals of any kind to me. The Miede's forced me to help them. Mike Miede ought to be hung at the first tree. The money was divided up as follows: "Black John" $75.00, August Riemer $25.00 to pay for flour, Mrs. Kohlway got a pair of earrings and $20.00 was sent to Wisconsin to bring up one of Mrs. Kohlway's sisters to be "Black John's" mistress; but Mrs. Kohlway went over to Kohlway's house and had him write to her sister not to come, and the money was sent back and the post master at Hartford took it on account the Miede's owed him. The Miede's used the money around settling up debts.
     Mike coaxed me so I went with him. "Black John" often insulted me but I told Mike and he and John had a word fight and Mike cooled John down. After I had left Kohlway I tried to return to him four times, but Mike prevented me. I told Mike that I had swore to return to Kohlway, and he took his gun down and cocked it and was going to shoot me, but I pulled at his shoulder and begged him not to kill me, promising that I would never return to Kohlway. I wished to get away from the Miede's so I wanted Mike to let me come to confession with Mr. Hart, and I was going to send an officer for my clothes and go back to Wisconsin with Kohlway but Mike said, "Do you suppose that I will let you go with such a man as Hart?" He watched all the time. I was afraid of him.
     Kohlway came to Miede's one day and wanted to talk with me, but Mike said to him, "go away." "If you come here again, I will shoot you," and Mike kept a gun on the wall and told me if Kohlway ever came I must shoot him. Mike used to sing German Hymns to me Sundays and then he would pray that we might always live together and be happy. He had a nice voice and his singing always affected me, and he made me fold my hands and kneel with him. Mike and John took me with them hunting deer and I cooked for them and they slept in the day and hunted at night. When we returned their house was burned and the Miede's were all awful mad and swore they would inceriary arrested, but did not threaten to kill anyone at that time. I was scared and I felt awful bad. Then came the lynching of "Black John" and the arrest of Mike, and you all know the rest. I have been well treated in Wisconsin, and I hope I may never see Todd County after I am gone. I know I was very, very wrong to do so and I would never, never do it that way again. If I could have got away from Mike, I would never have let him come near me again.
     The question was then asked: "Do you think you'll ever marry again?"
     She changed the countenance and appeared to hesitate, then answered: "Not yet - I don't know if I ever would marry again."
     Mrs. Kohlway departed for Wisconsin on Monday's stage. May she never again be called upon to pass through such scenes is the hope of the Editor of The Argus...

Odd Notes from early on from the "Caught on the Run" column of the Todd County Argus...

July 9, 1879
     Mr. Barnhardt, of Ward, brought two parties to town last Saturday on a strange errand. It seems that a brother of John Miede, of that town, recently came over from the Old Country and his wife refused to come along. After a short time here he took a fancy to another man's wife, whose name we have forgotten, and she reciprocated, and the business which brought them to town was for the husband to release the wife so that the newly-made lovers might have nothing in their way. The man who is to lose his wife seems to take the matter cooly, as though it had to be so.

July 16, 1879
     We have received for publication a notice from some unknown party in the town of Ward, but as no name was given we cannot publish it. The article is in the nature of a notice to two men and a woman of Northern Ward to cease their disgraceful conduct or they would be taken in hands by the public.

November 7, 1879
     The house belonging to John Meide of Ward, was burned a few nights since, while he was in the woods hunting. He has been living with a woman not his wife, for weeks past, and it is supposed the building was tired by his neighbors to drive him away or induce him to change his way of life.

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