A HORRIBLE DISCOVERY

     For some months past, two men named Colway and Steinhuber have been living together in the Town of Ward in the vicinity of Hart's Mill. Several times last week neighbors called there but found the house closed and no one around and it was supposed they had simply gone away to attend to business.
     The first of this week a man went there finding everything silent and deserted, opened the door and found the house occupied by a hog. He closed the door and looked through the windows and saw things which prompted him to all a few neighbors.
     On Tuesday, about fifteen men, including Justice Bassett of Hartford, visited the place and made an examination. They found, in the wall over the bed, seven buck shot buried in the wood. A coat, which was hanging there apparently at the time the shot was fired, was penetrated by the shot and was splattered with blood and what appeared to be brains. A piece of bone, which resembled the finger bone of a man's hand, was found sticking to the coat, and a piece of skin and flesh was found on the wall.
     In front of the bed on the floor was the distinct marks of a great pool of blood which had penetrated the cracks in the floor and saturated a portion of the potatoes in the cellar. The axe in the woodpile was covered with blood on one side as also was the door frame on one side about the right height from the floor to indicate the position of a man's body as it was being carried out by two men.   
    The wardrobe of the two men, except that usually worn every day, was undisturbed and their firearms and watches were also in their usual place, except the gun which was loaded and lying on the floor. Their pipes were found in their accustomed box which indicates that they had not gone away on business or they would have taken them along.
     Those who are conversant with affairs in the neighborhood of the supposed tragedy have not long to hunt for parties to whom every circumstance points as the guilty parties. Suspicion attaches to one John Meide and his brother who are noted characters in that neighborhood. It will be remembered that some time ago, The Argus spoke of a man in Ward having taken another man's wife. Colway, one of the missing men, was the husband of the stolen woman whom he married in Wisconsin last spring and John Meide and his brother are the men who took her and have been living with her for the last six months.
     The other day, while the Meide brothers were off hunting, their house was burned with all its contents and John Meide was heard to declare that he knew of two men who done the deed and he would have revenge. He said that two men had to go in a hole. These dire threats were made before several reliable men. The two missing men were quiet peaceable men and most likely had nothing to do with the burning of the house which was done by some of the enraged citizens of the community who were tired of such disgraceful conducts as these parties were guilty.
     The citizens of the neighborhood are thoroughly aroused and, on Wednesday, a large number went to search for the bodies. The place where the hearth stands in which the missing men lived is very bushy and it may be difficult to find the bodies. The fact that a spade is missing leads to the conclusion that the bodies were buried somewhere in the vicinity. Preparations were made to arrest the suspected parties on Wednesday morning, but a rumor reaches us that they have skipped out. If everything is as the circumstances indicate, it is one of the most brutal coldbloodiest murders that has ever come to our ears.

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St. Cloud Times - November 12, 1879

HORRIBLE MURDER
Two Men Butchered in Todd County
The Murderers Arrested -
One of them Lynched, the Other in Our County Jail

     From a special telegram to the Pioneer Press, we extract the following particulars of the killing of two men in Todd county, and the lynching of one of the murderers:
     LONG PRAIRIE,  via SAUK CENTRE, Nove. 10 -- On Friday last, this community was startled by the information that two men living in a shanty in the town of Ward, fifteen miles north of Long Prairie, had been murdered. Two Germans, named Kalway and Steinway, occupied a shanty on a farm mutually owned by them, and on Monday evening, it was remarked that they had not been seen for several days. Neighbors went to the house, found the door locked, and upon looking in at the window saw evidences of an alarming nature and forced the door. The furniture, floors and walls were covered with blood, with occasional pieces of matter supposed to be brains.

BLOOD HAD STRAINED THROUGH THE FLOOR, saturating a bin of potatoes, and hogs gaining access were feeding thereon. The facts were communicated to the neighbors, and an investigation led to the conclusion that a double murder had been committed, and the bodies of the victims concealed. Search was made but without result. Meantime, the excitement increased to fire heat, and it soon became known that an old feud had existed between a Polander named John Meide, known as Black John, and the missing men, and John had threatened to shoot them. Last spring, Kalway came to Ward with a woman said to be his wife, and for a time, lived with Black John and his brother Michael. Subsequently, the woman was
INDUCED TO LEAVE KALWAY, and has since been living with John and Michael Meide. About three weeks ago, the Meide house and stable were burned by an incendiary, and Black John accused Kalway and Steinway of setting the fire, but the suspicion is believed to be unfounded. Upon the strength of these facts, John was arrested on Thursday and turned over to deputy Sheriff, Davis, who brought him Friday morning to Long Prairie, the county seat of Todd county., in which the murder was committed, and he was lodged in the jail to await developments. Friday afternoon he was presented before Justice Bassett. But little evidence was adduced. A large crowd gathered and threats of lynching were made. Under this pressure, John made what purports to be a
CONFESSION OF THE MURDER to Sheriff Davis, stating that his brother Michael had told him he committed the murder, visiting the house of the men, shooting one and then loading his piece and shooting the other. He told where the bodies could be found, and a party went in search. They were found in the bushes as indicated, covered with earth four or five inches deep and leaves and brush piled over them, the traces being well covered. The searching parties had passed within a few feet of the bodies without discovering any traces of the burial. They were exhumed and brought to Long Prairie Saturday. Kalway had
A HOLE BLOWN THROUGH HIS HEAD as large as a man's fist, evidently with charges of buckshot. Steinway was hacked and mutilated beyond resemblance of humanity. Meantime John had told another and probably true version. He said he and his brother Michael went to the house and his brother went in with a gun. After a few words, Michael shot Kalway through the head and Steinway sprang upon Michael, when he (John) rushed in and split his head with an axe. They rolled the bodies into blankets, carried them 40 or 50 rods and buried them in holes previously dug for the purpose. They then locked the house and went away. They spent the time after the murder prior to the arrest is
BEGGING ON THE STRENGTH OF THEIR LOSS by fire on Thursday, Michael and his brother-in-law, August Remer, started for Sauk Centre with an ox team, begging from house to house. Upon the arrival of the bodies of the murdered men at Long Prairie, the excitement was terrible but undemonstrative. An inquest was held and continued until midnight, the evidence of John being taken in his cell. A verdict in accordance with the above facts was rendered. Black John was under the guard of Deputy Sheriff Barton and one assistant, who slept in the corridor of the jail, a rough building 18x24, with plank cells. About three o'clock Sunday morning they were awakened by some persons attempting to force the outside door, and in a moment, the door was burst in and the room filled with men, none of whom were recognizable by reason of
THEIR FACES BEING BLACKENED. A half dozen or more put the sheriff and assistants in a corner and told them to move on the peril of their lives. Others attacked the cell door with axes and chopped it away. A rope was put about the neck of Black John, who pleaded, begged, screamed and cursed to no purpose. The party numbered about two hundred. It is supposed, by marks on the ground, that he could not keep his feet, and he was literally dragged about eighty rods to a small red oak tree, and the next morning
HIS BODY WAS FOUND HANGING in the wind. About 9 o'clock he was cut down and brought to the court house and laid along side the bodies of his victims. On Sunday, the coroner buried the bodies of Kalway and Steinway and today Black John was buried. On Friday, Sheriff Davis started after Michael and Remer, the latter not at all implicated, and traced them to Sauk Centre. They visited several business men soliciting money to rebuild the burned house. Thence they struck for a German settlement in the Southern part of Stearns county and were found near Lake George. Remer was left with the ox-team and Michael taken by Davis, who arrived with him in Sauk Centre.
     [From Sauk Centre, Michael Muede (as he gives his name) was taken to Todd county and at dead of night was brought before a Justice, had a hearing, was held for trial, and ordered sent to the Stearns county jail for security from mob violence. The Sheriff arrived with him on Monday evening, and he is now under Sheriff Mickley's charge. -- ED. TIMES.]

 

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