is approaching the prisoner in a menacing attitude, showing an evident design of assaulting him, and the prisoner, without premeditation and in the heat and excitement of the moment, does an act which results in the death of the assailant, the verdict should be for manslaughter only. But in all these cases if there has been, after the provocation, sufficient time for the blood to cool, and for reason to resume its seat, before the mortal wound is given, the offence will amount to murder. The law then by which you are to be governed in this case may be briefly summed up as follows.

"First: If you believe from the evidence that the prisoner at the time he killed the deceased, was so insane as not to comprehend the nature and consequence of his act, and thus render him irresponsible, you will acquit him.

"Second: If you believe from the evidence that in the possession of a sane mind or from the immediate influence of intoxication, he willfully, deliberately, and premeditatedly, and without provocation, killed the deceased you will find him guilty of murder in the first degree.

"Third: If you believe from the evidence that the prisoner with malice aforethought, but without deliberation or premeditation, or without the fixed intent, to do the act, and without sufficient provocation killed the deceased, you will find the prisoner guilty of murder in the second degree.

"Fourth: If you believe from the evidence that the prisoner committed the crime while smarting under a provocation so recent and so strong that he was not in his then state of mind, the master of his own understanding, you will find him guilty of manslaughter.

“And remember, gentlemen, that nothing is to be presumed against the prisoner-every presumption is in favor of his innocence until his guilt is clearly proved, and every reasonable doubt is to be given to the accused. For while the law is strict in its punishment of the clearly guilty, it is not unjust in its exactions, but makes some allowance for the imperfection of human nature, and is not averse to that rule of mercy dictated by humanity, which holds, that it is better that the guilty should go unpunished than that the innocent should suffer. Gentlemen, the case is with you

in your hands are the issues of life and death to the accused-let your verdict be such as your deliberate judgment shall dictate, and your consciences approve, in view of that higher tribunal, to which we are all approaching and before which we must all appear, for final judgment and unending doom."

The case was then given to the jury, and they retired, remaining in consultation until eight o'clock in the evening when they returned with a verdict of murder in the second degree. In accordance with this verdict

the prisoner, William Winters was sentenced on the morning of June 6, 1857, to a term of ten years hard labor in the penitentiary at Ft. Madison.

THE KILLING OF LEWIS KING AND E.S. PALMER BY ARANTHUS BRIGGS.

This affair occasioned not a little excitement in every portion of the county. The facts below are gathered from the local papers at the time of the homicide:

"Yesterday morning our citizens were startled by the intelligence of a horrible murder which was committed about three miles east of Tabor, in this county, on Thursday night. It appears that at about sunset on the evening in question a man named Lewis King attempted to go across the field or yard of a Mr. Briggs, ostensibly to hunt cattle, but was warned off by the owner who forbade him stepping a foot on his premises. King was apparently determined to cross, and went back after assistance. He soon returned with a man named Edward Palmer, a hired hand of his, and the two proceeded to pass the forbidden line. Briggs was armed with a shot-gun and revolver, and threatened their lives if they stepped across. They disregarded his threats and advanced toward him. He then fired one barrel of the shot-gun over their heads, and shortly after brought Palmer to the ground with the other. King then ran after Briggs, when after a sharp tussle the latter drew his revolver and shot the other dead. This is probably Briggs' account of the affair, and is the story related by the messenger who arrived here early yesterday morning in search of the At the time he left both the bodies were lying in the lot where they fell. It is said that an old quarrel between the parties of several years' standing was the main cause of the affair. Another account says that King's cattle were held by Briggs for depredations on his place, and King was endeavoring to take them by force. The young man, Palmer, one of the killed, was formerly from Corry, Pennsylvania, where we understand, he has relatives."-Glenwood Opinion, April 24, 1869.

coroner.

The issue of the following week contained a more complete account as follows:

THE KILLING OF KING AND PALMER.

"We gave last week, a hurried statement of the affair which resulted in the killing of L. A. King and E. S. Palmer, by Aranthus Briggs, near Tabor, on the evening of the 22d ult. The following are the facts in the case, so far as could be ascertained at the coroner's inquest:

"It seems that King, whose farm adjoins that of Briggs, came to the premises of the latter, and from his horse inquired of Briggs where the road was. Briggs replied that it passed around his field. King then said: I am going through here,' meaning that he intended to pass through the other's premises. Briggs replied: 'you cannot go through here.' King declared that he would, and, dismounting, proceeded to lay down

the bars. Briggs, who was milking his cow, then arose and forbid his entering the premises. King seeing that the other had a revolver, turned and rode rapidly toward home. Briggs finished his milking and went into the house, and in about thirty minutes saw King and his hired man, Palmer, coming up the road on horseback, at a full gallop. They scarcely stopped at the bars, but laying one or two down, forced their horses to leap over, and with heavy, loaded, blacksnake whips, having the lashes wound around their wrists, steered directly toward Briggs' door, in which he was standing. Briggs warned them repeatedly not to enter his premises, and as they still approached him menancingly, he fired one barrel of his shot gun over their heads. They failed to heed the warning and as they neared the door, with Palmer a little ahead, Briggs raised his gun and planted a load of buckshot in the latter's breast and neck, bringing him to the ground. King then road his horse over Briggs, knocking him down, and about the same moment was himself thrown from his horse, but immediately jumped up and made for Briggs, who was considerably stunned. The latter, however, managed to regain his feet, and received a blow from King's whip upon his arm. They then clinched, and King threw Briggs, at the same time calling out, come on Palmer, by God, we've got him!' Palmer, however, was hors du combat, and couldn't rally much to speak of. Briggs, finally, by a desperate effort, turned his antagonist and both arose to their feet at once. Briggs started to run around the house, while King, who had dropped his whip, seized a spade and started in pursuit. Briggs then drew his revolver and fired, as he claims, at random, the ball striking King just back of the ear, and passing through the brain. Briggs then started with others, who had arrived upon the spot, and gave himself into the custody of Justice Hough. The latter, acting as coroner, held an inquest the following day. Briggs was taken before Justice Rist, waived an examination, and was released on bail. The wounded men lived but a few minutes.

"King is said to have been notoriously ugly and quarrelsome, and his summary taking off appears to give pretty general satisfaction in the community. He leaves a widow and three children. Palmer was a single man and in King's employ."-Glenwood Opinion, May 1, 1869.

Briggs was tried, and after several attempts to convict him he was finally acquitted. He was at one time in the far west when the date fixed for one of his trials came on. Without money and means of conveyance he at once began the toilsome journey home, to be tried on a question which involved even his very life. Notwithstanding this, he came, was tried and acquitted. Popular opinion said that no guilty man would thus imperil his life and willingly place himself in the prisoner's box on trial for his life, when once he was safe from the jurisdiction of the court.

THE CREECH-JOHNSON CASE.

There are such things as "sports that kill." At a time of festivity and general good-feeling at a shooting match near Glenwood, June 25, 1853, occurred the killing of a Mr. Creech by Lewis Johnson. Mr. Creech had, in company with others who loved the pastime of Nimrod, been hunting through the brush and undergrowth in search of game, south of Glenwood. In the course of their expedition they encountered a party of men engaged in target shooting, upon the results of which large sums of money were being freely betted. They had been at the scene of shooting but a short time when Lewis Johnson brought forth a young man, who, he claimed, could mark the highest score of any man in the party for a certain sum of money. Mr. Creech stepped forward and promptly accepted the challenge, and the shooting began. On footing the score it was found that Mr. Creech had won. Johnson dissented from the decision of the judges and declared that he would "fight before he would give up the money." Creech agreed to call the shooting a draw, for he was a favorably disposed person and willing rather to suffer imposition than to engage in any kind of violence.

The proposition so made exasperated Johnson to such a degree that he at once made an assault on Mr. Creech, struck him on the head a violent blow with his gun, and also in the face, the ramrod entering the eye. From the wounds received Mr. Creech died in forty-eight hours. Johnson was arrested on a charge of manslaughter, had a preliminary examination and was held to answer. He was then started for Des Moines for incarceration, but on the way his captors were served with a writ of habeas corpus, and he was taken to Council Bluffs, where he was subsequently tried and acquitted. But the ends of justice were not to be defeated in this manner. Four years later, in company with his son John and another person, he was thrown into the Missouri river at Plattsmouth and drowned. However reprehensible lynch law may seem to be it cannot be said that the guilty often escape. When justice is slow, or when her demands are unsatisfied men will take the matter into their own hands, usually successfully if not wisely.

CITIES AND TOWNS.

Aside from the security that results from aggregations of individuals there are numerous other causes that lead to the founding of cities and 'villages. "Man is a social animal," wrote a famous French naturalist of the last century, and herein is the immediate cause of their location in communities. Kindred business interests and avocations, tastes and pro

clivities, the desire to enjoy the luxury and elegance of the highest type of civilized life all act as levers to impel men to union of interests and homes. For long years the settlements in this county hardly deserved the name. A few families had collected, and had built themselves homes which they did not intend to be permanent; but the laying out of an extensive city had not occurred to them. Where these settlements were and who composed them the reader may learn from another chapter. It is intended here to present merely an epitome of the history of the several villages and towns in the county.

GLENWOOD.

The city of Glenwood is beautifully located among charming vales and glens, surrounded with an abundance of native forests that lend both protection and artistic effect. Nature has here done her best. Stretching away in the distance the valley of Keg Creek may be seen from most of the prominent points in the city, while over and far beyond it rises hill after hill lending a roughness to the landscape that accords well with the city's general surroundings. It is but a few miles to the westward of the geographical center of the county. Six miles away the Missouri may be seen in the west, an occasional glimpse of which lends a charm to the view in that direction. Mostly on the hill-side and in the glens, the city may best be seen and its beauty appreciated from the southern aspect, across the valley of the stream. The site of the town seemed attractive to some of the Mormons who had located at Rushville in 1846, and when about to change their residence they fixed upon this beautiful spot. In the spring of 1848 they first came to the site of the present city of Glenwood, and located Coonville, a village so-called from Libeus T. Coon. He came with William Britain, Silas and Ira Hilman, G. N. Clark, J. Everett, and many others who afterwards became prominent in the early history of the city. But these men were not the first to note the beautiful scenery and recognize the opportunities the site presented. Long ages before an older race, perhaps an autocthonous people, had here lived and carried on the occupations of their primitive civilization. It is an instructive fact that Glenwood is on the site of an old town, once covered by the habitations of that mysterious race called the mound-builders, and the remains of which are even yet to be found in almost any part of the city. Fragments of pottery, hunting and war implements, shells used perhaps as a medium of exchange, domestic articles of various kinds are of frequent occurrence in various parts of the city, and at points in the country circumjacent. They did not build dwellings as do the later denizens of the town. Their houses appear to have been excavations in the peculiar soil of the loess, circular in form, from six to eight feet in depth, covered with