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Audubon County |
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CHAPTER IX.
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One of the most dastardly and cold-blooded murders committedin Audubon County occurred on the night of December 24, 1884, on section 17, of Oakfield Township. From the best reports now on file it seems that a man twenty-two years old, named Peter Ryan, had been to Brayton the afternoon prior to the murder, and had there imbibed too freely of that which so frequently kills -- whisky. Upon returning his team had ran away, and he called at the farm-house of one of Audubon County's most highly respected citizens, C. H. Kleva, at about ten o'clock at night and wanted to warm his hands, having lost his mittens, he said. In a moment or two he went out of the door, remained a short time, and returned, saying he went to see if the man was out there holding his team yet. The farmer questioned whether there was any one there, or any team, and told Ryan he did not think he had a team there; whereupon Ryan pulled a revolver and fired two shots, one taking effect in Kleva's mouth and the other in his chest, causing almost instant death to a perfectly harmless, innocent man. Marshals Walkup, of Audubon, and Cmapbell, of Exira, soon arrested Ryan, who offered but Slight resistance. A preliminary trial was held before Mayor A. B. Houston, of Exira, which resulted in binding him over to the next term of district court. The feeling upon the day of the coroner's inquest was so great that it was feared he would be hanged by the enraged neighbors. But better judgment prevailed, and he was confined in the jail at Audubon to await his trial, which was postponed until September the following year -- 1885 -- when he was tried by some of the best attorneys in the State, but convicted, and finally sentenced to the State's prison at Fort Madison for a term of twenty years, at hard labor, by Judge Loofbourow. At the same term of court parties belonging to the noted "Crooked Creek" gang, named Huntley and Heath, were sentenced each twenty months for stealing cattle. Since justice has been meted out in a proper manner by the courts of the county, but little crime has been committed, and it is without doubt that no lynching ever occurred in Audubon County where the parties were not guilty and richly deserving of such punishment. Innocent men have never been hung in this county, but many an innocent one brutally murdered. |
| Prev. <=== Continue Reading ===> Next Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass August, 2013 from "Biographical History of Shelby and Audubon Counties", Chicago: W. S. Dunbar & Co., 1889, pg. 692-693. |
