After the Storm

     As time hastens on and the fog lifts from the confused brain of a number of the strongest advocators of mob law so recently enforced here, they see how foolish has been the course persued and their minds are entertained with vane regrets.
     It begins to dawn on their now sober minds that the most cruel and dangerous of the two criminals is yet to be punished and that the only available witness against him is beyond human reach, and was placed there by their own hands, thus decreasing the probability of his punishment by law.
     The program that was mapped out at the beginning was to hang both the accused criminals as soon as they could lay hands on them. The fact of the guilt of both men was so plain that there was no room for the slightest doubt in the question, and it boldly declared by men that it was no use to waste time and money in trying such brutes. If such was the course that had to be taken it was very wrong to wait until the law had taken hold of the men and placed them beyond the possibility of escape, and where punishment was sure to follow their crimes, no excuse can be found in the leniency of the law nor in the looseness of Todd County justice, as the Pioneer Press has it.
     As it appears now imprisonment for life would have been the portion of the one and the gallows the portion of the other and most dangerous one, and there was no danger of the governor pardoning such a criminal as was argued by those who were active in stirring up the feeling. We admit that several men in Ward have good reason for wanting both criminals placed where escape was impossible, as we believe their lives were in danger and that they could feel safer were the men both dead, but as it now stands it is worse than ever, the dangerous one being left and the best witness against him removed, and the stigma of lawlessness resting in our county. It is not best to commit a deed and repent later.

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The Todd County Argus - Friday, November 21, 1879

     Week before last during the confusion attendant upon the murder trial and its results, the report was calculated to the effect that some time ago Colway should have come to town and asked the County Attorney to put the Meide brothers under bonds to keep the peace, as he feared they would take his life, and that Mr. Crowell persuaded him to let the matter rest. Of course the feelings of the people were in just the condition to be wrought upon by such a report and curses brought in deep were heaped upon Mr. Crowell's head. Mr. Crowell states that Mr. Colway has never spoken to or approached him on this subject and that he knew but little about the matter. A story is also out that Mr. Jones told Mike Meide that no body could do anything with him for living with another man's wife and to go ahead. It is our opinion that men who manufacture such falsehoods could be in a better business.
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The Todd County Argus - Friday, November 28, 1879

     It seems scarcely possible that a joke could grow out of the late chapter of horror which has been written on the pages of Todd County's history - the double murder and mob rule of a few days since - but the following extract clipped from the report of the tragedy which is going the rounds of the state papers is decidedly laughable.
     The brother, Mike Meide, was captured in Stearns County some twelve miles below Sauk Centre, and taken to Long Prairie Sunday. Everyone expected he would be treated in the same summary manner as Black John, but the mob found a man in charge of affairs (when they talked of taking Mike) who knew his business, namely, the sheriff of Todd County, F. C. Chase, who had been absent while the hanging on Sunday morning had been performed, and who proposed to keep his prisoner safe at all hazards and so notified the mob, who, knowing Mr. Chase, concluded that if an attempt were made to force the jail while he was in charge, the Coroner would have too much business on hand, and wisely desisted. After dark Mr. Chase spirited the prisoner away, and sent him to St. Cloud for safe keeping, via, Motley and the Northern Pacific Railroad.
     Mr. Chase had nothing to do with the arrest of Mike Meide. When he was brought into town he was met by a curious crowd anxious to get sight of the prisoner, not to lynch him. Sheriff Chase appeared on the scene and ordered the crowd to stand back which they did not do. After dark he retired to the bosom of his family and slept the peace of the just, while Deputy Sheriff Davis spirited the prisoner away. We do not wish to convey the idea that we are at all ungrateful to our sheriff for his past services, but we dislike to have it appear to outsiders that Mr. Chase is the only man fit to govern Todd County, and that he was starved out for want of business as sheriff, being at present engaged as clerk in a Sauk Centre store.

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The Todd County Argus - "Caught on the Run" Column
November 29, 1879

     The St. Cloud papers hoot at the idea of a Todd County mob taking the prisoner Mike from their jail. They have a jail there that is worthy of the name, and it would require more than an old axe and five minutes time to force an entrance. Todd County should have a better jail, as this rickety concern now used is only an aggravated nuisance.

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The Todd County Argus - Friday, December 5, 1879

Outside Sentiment
- Wright County Times   

     Todd County people are just beginning to realize that the murderer who is now lodged in the St. Cloud jail is a much worse criminal than the one they hung, and that the one hung was the only possible witness against this one, whose escape from punishment is not attended with very serious doubts.
     The prevailing sentiment outside seems to be that the mistake was not in hanging the one, but in allowing the other to go unhung.
     The civil law of Minnesota is thought to be all any reasonable criminal can ask, but not quite stringent enough for the public good, hence an occasional interposition of Judge Lynch.

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The Todd County Argus - "Caught on the Run" Column
December 5, 1879

     Mike Miede is trying the insanity dodge in the St. Cloud jail, but that won't work well with such a chap as he is known to be.

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The Todd County Argus - Friday, January 23, 1880

John and Michael Meide

     The law abiding citizens of Todd County were astonished and astounded last November when the bodies of murdered men Steinhuber and Colway were found and placed in the court room preparatory to the Coroner's inquest. The dead was one of the most foul and cold-blooded, double murders ever perpetrated, and its details are too well known to need repetition at this time. Few who witnessed it will forget the scene when "Black John", so called, was led into the courtroom to view the dead bodies of his victims, nor can they in after years blot from the mind the subdued but murmuring determination which resulted in launching into eternity one of the blackest of confessed murders. He has paid the penalty which his own last imprecation invoked and all must, each for himself, judge of the act that few may approve, and lest forget, which ended a murderous and adulterous career.
     But this is not all. Michael Meide has been held for trial. The judge and the jury who are designated by law to enquire and find as to his guilt and render judgment thereon will convene at Long Prairie on the 24th day of next month. The evidence against him is limited, and may possibly prove entirely circumstantial. The judge will be a just one, and the jury from among the best men of our county. A fair and an impartial trial will be had which must be considered, under the forms of law, as final. The Argus will publish for the benefit of its readers a full and complete report of the trial, its termination, the verdict, and the judgment thereon. As to the guilt of Michael Meide, the Argus does not now deem it proper to say more than that in this neighborhood and of Hartford and Ward, there cannot be found a man, woman, or child who believes him to be otherwise than guilty of this horrible and premeditated murder. A murder which has on account of its atrocity, been heralded throughout the civilized world, and stands recorded upon the annals of crime as one which has scarcely been surpassed and seldom equaled.
     Peculiarity of our criminal law designates the jury as the authority to prescribe the measure of punishment in cases of murder in the first degree, and should the jury find him guilty in that degree, it will rest with them to inflict the death penalty or incarceration in the state prison for life.
     We have no doubt that a jury can be impaneled in this county by finding twelve men who have not formed or expressed an opinion, though it may require a special selection by venire, from remote parts of the county. A plea of guilty which is improbable would void a trial. The death penalty can only be inflicted by a unanimous verdict.
    
    

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