The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-12-02
CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.
story Told BY T. b. Hutchinson, Fairmont

the prisoner as was the result at Oska-
loosa The self constituted tribunal
FASTENED along the dark business which
had brought them together and in less
than an hour from the time s'Pleas" An
derson entered that school room he
walked out condemned to die at the in
stance of a ''lynch court" and with
out giving the poor man a chance to
go home and bid his wife and children
farewell the mob took him a short dis
lance from the building and strung him
up to tree until dead
Now let me diverge from the Ander-
son portion of this narrative and take
up another thread which though at first
may appear different will finally inter
vene and become part of worp and wool
of the story of Pleasant Anderson's IL
legal execution through "circumstantial
evidence"
That same year there was doing bust
ness at Albin, Monroe county, Iowa, the
first county seat west of Ottumwa, a
financial institution known as the Mon
roe County Bank. A man named Dan
Miller was its cashier. He was promi-
nent in business, social and religious
circles in the community. He was a
member of the Presbyterian church and
superintendent of the Sunday school. He
was ever foremost in good and phian-
thropic works. His wife was the daugh-
ter of a prominent physician, and they
had a couple of pretty children.
About this time the affairs of this
bank became muddled and the report
gained credence that its affairs were ex-
ceedingly shaky. The result was that
depositors began to draw out their
money and take it elsewhere for safe
keeping. One of these was VIM. Meal
lester, of Blakesburg. On the very af-
ternoOn of the day that he was so
foully murdered at night, he went to
Abba and drew out between $4,000 and
$4,000 from the bank presided over by
Dan Miller. Others did the same and the
outcome was the bank failed and clos
ed its doors. Losers pressed an in
vestigation. After due inquiry it was
found that Miller had been doing bust
ness with high hand and was an en-
bezzler in a large amount of funds
entrusted to his care. He was arrest
ed, tried, convicted and received SEN
tence of seven and half years at hard
labor in the penitentiary at Fl. Madison.
He proved good and exemplary pris-
oner and with the time. credit he got on
good behavior was duly lessened and in
time he was given his liberty.
Let me now transfer the scenes, of my
narrative to Idaho, for there it was
Miller and his family went after his re-
lease from prison. And,u sub rosa, it
may be said that Miller's wife, a lovely,
gentle and noble woman, stood faith
fully by him in all his trouble. During
all the years he was in exile from the
hearthstone, and though suffering all
the acute pains of heart agony she
never wavered, never faltered in,her allie
glance to her husband and when the
prison stripes were by him laid aside
to once more don the habiliments of cit
izenship she was the first to walk by
his side and join him in search for a
new home far beyond the scenes of so
much disgrace and suffering. So to
Idaho they went.
A year or two passed by. The family
are endeavoring to make the most of
life and live as happily as they can
within the shadows of a recent dark
past. The devoted wife and the loving
children struggled bravely on, no doubt
ever trying to ease their heart cravings
and looking forward to. clearer sky
and bright sunset when the candle of
their existence became ready to be
blown out. f
So the time goes. But the husband and
father was taken i'll. He who, a few
years before, had been in the prime of
young manhood, strong, and jubilant, now
lay gray and jaded upon a couch which
later proved his deathbed.4 The grim
rider of the white horse had come to
claim him. ,4I .a. 81
And in this connection the most thrill
ing part of my narrative comes to light.
In that little dark chamber, in modest
little home in IDAHO; as Dan Miller lay
upon his last bed he summoned an at
torney and a notary and in their pres
ence, and the presence of his faithful
wife, he told of the murder, of VIM.
McAllester; of how the man on that
gloomy October day way back in 1882,
had come into the bank, drawn out his
money and carried tt away; how he
(Miller) had planned to again get the
funds into his possession and possibly
save the tottering bank; how he had
taken team and through the binding
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