River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-05-28
A FATAL ERROR.

Two Parties of Nebraska yieilsntes Mis-
take Each Other for Cattle Thieves and
Engage In a Shooting Match-Judge
Aikens. Treasurer of Blaine County.
Kiiied-The Real Criminal Is Also Shot
Dead.
/ DUNSING, Neb., May 25.-Friday
morning a questionable character by
the name of McAlvey stole couple of
steers from man named Craig. living
In the southeast part of Blaine county.
He drove them within . miles
of brewster to DR. Palmer's place,
which is vacant, and put them up in
the stable. Craig followed him
and couple of his neighbors fell
In, and they tracked the steers
to where they were corralled. Craig
wished to turn the steers out and take
them home, but the neighbors decided
that they had better watch and catch
the thief. Meantime quite crowd of
people, among them Judge e. w. Aikens,
treasurer of Blaine county, had assem-
bled to assist in the watch About IL
o'clock Friday night McAlvey came to
get the stolen steers. The crowd
collared him and made him ae-
knowledge that he stole the cattle
and also that negro by the name
of Eli Creighton assisted him. The
watchers had separated without any
sign or password whereby they could
recognize each other. IL was then de-
cided to send McAlvey to Brewster in
charge of Judge Aikens, and the rest
of the regulars scattered in the hope of
catching Creighton. McAlvey was ac-
was tied to Judge Aiken's animal.
! The two men had gone about a mile
toward Brewster when three men were
heard riding toward them. The night
was very dark and it was impossible
to distinguish a person across the
road. Judge Aikens took the riders
to be the negro Creighton and some
of his gang, and though the
chances against him were desperate, he
bravely commanded the three men to
halt. Instead of halting, however they
/ opened fire at short range. The judge
also pulled his revolver and returned
the fire, but before he could fire a Sec
ond time he was shot through the body
and fell from his horse, dying instant
/ ly. Almost at the same instant Nc
/ Alvey, the thief bound to the horse,
/ was pierced through the heart by a
/ bullet. The three men who had
/ done the killing, after assuring them
/ selves that both the judge and McAlvey
were dead, rode hurriedly to Palmer's
ranch and informed the vigilants on
1 guard there that they had killed two
1 of the thieves The whole party at
/ once returned to the scene of the trag-
| edy, and it was not until then
| that the terrible mistake was dis
I covered. A young man named
/ Rittenhouse and two friends were
/ the ones who did the deadly work
under the impression that j. Judge Ailxens
| and his prisoner were cattle thieves
| coming to McAlvey's assistance. They
are nearly crazed at the terrible result
of their mistake. The whole trouble
was caused by failure to comply
with the rules of the anti-Stock Thief
association, which provide that
in an emergency of this kind
signal and password shall be
agreed upon by those participating. No
arrests have been made. The unfor-
tunate affair has eXasperated every
body to high degree against the stock
thieves, and active search is being
made in all directions for Eli Creigh-
ton, the negro implicated by the con-
fession of McAlvey, and, if captured, it
is certain that he will be hanged or
shot on short notice.
The whole country is in mourning
over Judge Aikens' untimely death as
he was man universally liked and re-
spected. He was a prominent demo-
crat, delegate to the last national
convention and candidate for the SUI
preme bench at the coming election.