A Gruesome Double Murder
One of the Murderers is Lynched

     The residents of St. Cloud were greatly upset around evening of last Monday to learn that a murderer was lodged in the local jail, and, after a short inquiry, to ascertain that the prisoner was one of a pair of brothers, who had perpetrated a bloody murder of a couple of Germans in Todd county. The horrible account is as follows:
     In the town of Ward, in Todd county, a Kolway family settled in the neighborhood of two unmarried brothers, by the name of John and Michael Moede last spring, and lived together on a farm with Steinway. John Moede persuaded Kolway's wife to leave her husband, and take up residence in his house. This co-habitation shocked the whole neighborhood, and repeatedly John Moede was told, to get this woman out of his house. Several days ago the house of the Moede brothers burned, and one presumes that the women of the neighborhood set the fire, to put an end to this scandalous affair. Moede, however, held Kolway responsible, and publicly threatened revenge. Soon Kolway, and his house-mate Steinhuber disappeared. In the house were found clues to the perpetization of murder; bloodstains on the floor, and a blood-saturated ax. John Moede, suspected of the deed, was arrested, and brought to the jail in Long Prairie. Although he denied guilt, he was held, and accused of his crime, whereupon a mass of people threatened him. Then he claimed - that his brother Michael had murdered both men, whereupon he, John, had dragged the bodies away and buried them. One of the victims had been killed on the spot, while the other had been beaten to death with an ax. At the place he disclosed, the bodies were found, wrapped in a bedsheet and covered with dirt. The people were out of themselves with frenzy, stormed the jail and demanded the murderer be handed over. They tied a rope around his neck, dragged him to a nearby oak tree, from which they hanged him. After the Moede brothers house was reduces to ashes, Michael and his brother-in-law Remer went on a begging trail with a cart, seeking to gather enough money to rebuild the burned-down house. He was arrested while on this tour. It was with the greatest of difficulty that the Sheriff was able to keep Michael out of the hands of the mob, and to get him here alive, where he will be held under the tightest security until the next sitting of the court in Todd county. He denies knowing anything of the murders, claiming he had always had the best relations with his neighbors - and underlined all his remarks with the same statement: If I must die, I die innocent.

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Friday, November 14, 1879 - Todd County Argus

Buried in the Bushes - That is What was Done with the Murdered Men in Ward
Mutilated Remains of the Missing Men Exumed
The Self-Confessed Murderer Taken from the Jail and Hung
The Full Particulars of the Sad Affair

     In our last issue we gave full particulars of the discovery of the distinct traces of murder in the Town of Ward, and that suspicion rested on John Meide. Circumstances pointed so strongly to them that on Friday of last week he was arrested and brought back to town to pass an examination. He retained B. F. Hartshorn as his counsel and the case was before Justice Bassett, of Hartford.
     Before the first witness had finished his testimony Black John began to show signs of mental agony, great drops of sweat standing out on his brow, and after court adjourned and Deputy Sheriff Davis had taken him to his cell, he broke completely down and begged the officer to take him away from there, and then confessed to a knowledge of the murder, but laid it all on his brother, Mike who he said killed the men and told him how he did it and where he buried the bodies.
     He stated that Mike took his double-barreled shotgun and went to the house where the men lived shooting Steinhuber with the right hand barrel. Colway then tried to escape but was forced back into the house and guarded there while he loaded up and shot him with the same barrel. The bodies were then carried out and buried near the house in the thick brush where no one could find them. All this he said Mike had done.
     The prisoner then told where the bodies could be found, and Henry Speiker in company with coroner Nesslein started after them. After searching some time a slight trace was discovered in the bush, leaves and brush which was followed up to where the bodies were buried. Two small round holes were dug within a foot of each other and into these the bodies were forced, having been first prepared by stripping a grain bag down over the heads and tying them up in sheets taken from the bed, the bodies bent double and the sheet tied by the four corners. A little dirt was thrown on them and this strewed over with leaves and all concealed with brush.
     When it was discovered how cruelly these innocent men had been murdered the rage of those present knew no bounds. The remains were placed in a wagon and brought to town and placed in the courtroom where they were viewed by hundreds of people. Strong men grew sick at the sight of the gastly remains, and vengence was plainly written on many a brow.
     An examination showed that Steinhuber was shot in the head, the charge entering near the right ear and passing out his left eye tearing away a portion of his face leaving the brains pertruding. On the body of Colway no marks of a gunshot wound could be found. His face presented the appearance of having been struck with the broad side of an axe, completely mashing it out of all semblance to a human face. He also received a blow on the top of the head, which is probably the one which killed him.
 

     Men who have stood on the battlefield and seen human forms mangled in every conceivable manner without flinching, turned away from the sickening sight presented by these two men who were brutally butchered in their own house when least expecting any danger. The prisoner was brought out and conducted to where the victims were stretched side by side, and was completely overcome either by the dawning realization of his awful crime or fears of such personal violence, but no such demonstrations were made and very few threats.
     In the evening the coroner held an inquest and Black John's testimony was substantially the same as his confession to the sheriff on Friday night as given above. He was placed in the jail, and although those who attended him say they were satisfied he would be lynched before morning, nothing was done to protect him. In the night he took off a Mackinaw coat he wore and gave it to Sam Strong who was with the officer in the corridor of the jail, telling him to give it with his mittens, pipe, and tobacco, to his brother Joe, as he would never see morning dawn; that he was a bad man and wanted to die, but he did not want his body cut to pieces.
     In a few minutes after he ceased speaking, about two o'clock in the morning, the tramp of the mob was heard outside. One blow with an axe and the outer door flew open and with the words "stand back," the corridor filled with armed men. A few blows cut the door fastenings of the cell door and Black John was at the mercy of the infuriated mob. In a moment a rope was round his neck and he was half led and half dragged to the outer door, where he was jerked ten or fifteen feet and was dragged to a tree back of Mr. Jones' house where he was found hanging a foot or two from the ground. The hanging was only a matter of form as he was dead before he reached that place.
     The doomed man spoke not a word nor murmured during the time the door was being forced nor when he was seized. He was cut down about eight o'clock Sunday morning and taken to the courthouse and layed beside his victims, and crowds gazed on the sickening sight of three murdered men lying side by side. Black John looked perfectly natural more like sleeping than dead with only a small scratch on his nose. His shirt was torn as he was dragged, and pieces were found on the small brush near the jail. Colway and Steinhuber were in full dress except coats and all besmeared with blood, and in this way they were put in coffins and buried in the north-west corner of the Catholic Cemetery wither they were followed by a large concourse of people on Sunday afternoon. Black John was buried by the coroner on Tuesday in the Catholic Cemetery.
     The prisoner told a different story from that told before the coroner's jury. He stated to a few individuals Saturday evening that he killed Colway. He said he and Mike went to Steinhuber's house two weeks ago last Monday afternoon and killed the two men. The men were not at home and they took the spade from the house and dug the holes to bury the bodies. When the two men came home Mike went into the house, accused Steinhuber of burning the house and when he denied the charge, shot him. Colway then attacked Mike when he (John) stepped in the door and killed Colway with the axe.
     This story is probably nearest the truth, as it corroborated by the appearance of the house and also Colway's body. There were only the marks of one shot in the house, as stated last week, and no shot wounds on Colway's person. Fears of violence is probably what deterred him from telling this story to the Coroner's jury. He also stated that if Mike could have got hold of his rifle at a certain time John Becker and Barny Borgert would not be alive.
     On Sunday evening about sundown S. D. Davis and P. Hermes drove into town with Mike Meide in irons having captured him about fifteen miles from Melrose while he and August Reimer were soliciting help to cover the loss sustained when their house was burned. They drove up to the jail and a large crowd rushed after him. He took these demonstrations to mean violence to the prisoner and would not stop at the jail til assured by the crowd, not one-tenth of which favored lynching at all, that he need not fear, when the prisoner was put in the jail. The prisoner was terribly frightened and cried like a child. The Officers collected several armed men to guard the jail, and about dusk stole the prisoner off in the woods and took him to Hartford where the examination was held that night, and the next day at eleven o'clock took the train at Motley for St. Cloud where he arrived safely. Meantime they were awaiting him in town, to hang him Monday night. Threats of taking him from the St. Cloud jail and hanging him had been freely made.
     The woman with whom Mike Meide had been living (Colway's wife) who is incidentally the cause of all the trouble, is about seventeen years old and does not know enough to distinguish good from bad. She supposed that when Mike said he bought her that it was a legitimate trade, but Mike very likely killed Colway more because of his standing between him and this woman than for anything else. Both John and Mike have families in Germany, and their sister said last Saturday they both had committed murder there and escaped to this country.
     John has been a resident of this county for eight or nine years and has been growing worse each year. Mike immigrated to this country last spring and together they made a dangerous pair in a community.
     There is one of the brothers still left named Joseph, but he is of a different turn and is a good citizen, and expresses no sympathy for his brothers.
     The woman is still at the hotel, but we have not learned what will be done with her.
     As to the crowd (about fifty or sixty in all) who did the lynching, all we have to say is that they are, under the law, guilty of murder and will doubtless regret the rash deed which stained their hands with human blood. No excuse can be found in this case as the prospects were that the law would deal properly. It is also unjust to destroy property to avenge social wrongs no matter how flagrant. It was such violence of law which began this trouble.
    

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