Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-02-19
JAILED IN oTTuMWA.
MuIatto Killed in Davis County Was
Here in 1897.

i1ere IN 1881.
Charles Ford alias Charles Ed
wards, Bill Brown, Charles Lee, and
Frank Jones, who was killed by off,
GERS in Davis county February 6, as
horse thief, made his home in OF
tumwa in 1897, and was arrested here
for the sheriff of Knox county, Mo-,
by John w. Gray, who was at that
time night captain of the local police
force, and Officers Levi Noah and
Charles Peterson. The three men, of
whom Gray and Noah are still guard
ing the peace of the city, remember
the occurrence very well, and al
though they have been officers of the
law for several years and have made
many arrests, even the present chief
and the big man who has the depot
beat have never faced proposition
that was much tougher or harder on
the nerves.
81 have been doing police force duty
in Ottumwa for upwards of ten years
now" sold Chief Gray Sunday, but
can remember only a few times when
it took more nerve TO walk in upon
a man than it did the night we got
Charles Edwards, as he was known to
us then, and Charles Overstreet We
had received a letter from the sher-
iff Of Knox county, Mo-, telling us to
arrest Charles Edwards, a mulatto,
who was travelling with white man
named Overstreet The two were
wanted at Edna, the county seat OF
Knox county, for horse-stealing. We
kept on the lookout for the men, but
they had been here month or more
when we learned that they were the
men we wanted They occupied a
room in a little house which faces the
alley north of East Mill street and
between Union and Vine streets. The.
were employed at the packing house
The night we learned that we
wanted these two, Peterson, who wa
on that beat then, Levi Noah, and my
! self started down to the place. 1t
was one of the darkest nights | ev-
er saw, and as the place where the
men were staying is one of the dark.
est places in town, we could hardly
see our hands before us. Peterson
went to the door and knocked, and
the colored man asked who was
there. Peterson told him that he
I wanted to talk to him and Edwards
/ opened the door. | had been standing
at the side of the opening and as soon
as the door was opened | went into
the mouse and lighted match There
lay Overstreet, the white man, in the
bed, and we afterwards learned that
he had siX-shooter in each hand I'M
! der the bed-clothes but was afraid to
| spring them. Noah and Peterson
covered the two prisoners and we got
| Overstreet out of bed. He left the two
| guns there and we got them while he
was dressing.
In addition to these two guns the
colored man had one in his pocket and
another, in a holster, was hanging
from the head of the bed All four
Of the weapons We're loaded and the
two men could have stood us off cas-
lily if they had known who we were.
They were turned over 10 the Edina
sheriff and both got terms in the peni-
Tertiary at Jefferson City. We got a
reward of $50 for their arrest
| After the arrest of the two men and
before requsition papers had been Sc
cured by the sheriff of Knox county
for theii return to his state, the au-
] thorities at Centerville developed a
| sudden desire to get the man. The
sheriff of Appanoose county spent sew
eral days in the city, as did also the
Edna official, both of them wanting
the custody Of Edwards. The case at
Centerville bordered upon murder, al
though the result of the mulatto's act
was probably more than he had anti
cipated. 1t seems that while he was
staying in the city with Overstreet
Edwards went to Centerville one night
and robbed resident of that city, a
! man who was employed as agent by
one of the express companies and
whose name cannot be recalled by the
local officers.
| The mulatto's victim was cripple,
and he could not defend himself from
the robber. His inability to help him.
self was also the cause of his death
later, as Edwards left the house open
when he went away and the man
caught a severe cold, from which he
died a short time later. The robbery
and the death of the victim aroused
the people of Appanoose county, and
| they spent much time trying to locate
Edwards, who came straight back to
] Ottumwa and resumed his work at the
packing house The Appanoose coun-
| ty officers did not know where he was
until the local officials placed him I'm.
der arrest
There was a lively time around the
local police headquarters when the
| Appanoose county officer and the Knox
county sheriff came to claim the same
man, but the Missourian was the larg-
er of the two, and as he had been the
first to notify the local officers that
the mulatto was wanted for crime,
Chief Gray turned both the prisoners
over to him. In this connection it is
interesting to note that even to this
day among the 'old guard" at the pc
lice station the Edna sheriff." as he
is called. is still remembered as the
biggest officer ever seen at the station
He was nearly seven feet in height and
was a typical Missourian. Mike Nor
risey, the genial day desk sergeant al
the station, and at that time the tall
man IN tho 0tfprnwn foroa lopla d