CHAPTER VI. (CONT'D)

A MYSTERIOUS MURDER.

On the 21st of July, 1876, the body of a man, which was identified as Theodore A. Sloanaker, was discovered floating in Turkey river, about a hundred yards below the bridge which spans that stream, on the Lewis and Atlantic road, about two and a half miles north of the former place. The body was tied by a leather halter to a large floating log, and had the appearance of having been dead some four or five days. An examination disclosed the fact that a bullet had been put through the man's head, and that he had been struck several blows with a club, or something of that nature, across the face. The body was taken to Lewis, an inquest was held before Jeremiah Bradshaw, then justice of the peace, and the body was buried without an attempt having been made to identify it. When the news was received at Atlantic, J. F. Needham, Charles Radley and William Rahm drove to Lewis, dug up the body, and immediately recognized it to be that of Theodore A. Sloanaker. The murdered man was formerly Adjutant of the Tenth Iowa Infantry, and at the time of his murder a resident of Primghar, the county seat of O'Brien county, where he conducted an abstract office. He was forty-one years of age and unmarried. He enlisted in Company K, Tenth Iowa Infantry, at Davenport, in 1862, and served during the war, being promoted gradually until he became Adjutant of the regiment. For more than a year during the war he was detailed on recruiting service, with headquarters at Davenport. He was well known to General Baker and others at Des Moines. He came to Atlantic about three weeks previous to his murder, and called on Mr. Rahm, with whom he served during the war. He remained in Atlantic about two weeks, when he started to Pleasant township on a visit to H. A. Barton, whose acquaintance he had formed while teaching school in the neighborhood four years previous. Nothing further than the above particulars has ever been developed, and the murderer of Theodore A. Sloanaker still remains enshrouded in mystery.

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Transcribed by Deb Lightcap-Wagner, March, 2014 from:"History of Cass County, Together with Sketches of Its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens", published in 1884, Springfield, Ill: Continental Historical Co., pp. 290-291.