Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-06-21
FIRST low A HANGING
/, REV. VIM. sALTER OF BURLlNG.
| TON REVIEWS EVENTS OF
4, INITIAL EXECUTION.
Joseph G. jackson Was Hanged AZ An.
drew jackson County, July is, 1912
and Dr.. Salter, Now of Burlington,
Was Present As Spiritual Adviser.

Rev. Dr. VIM. Salter of Burlington,
recently reviewed in a brief article
the first execution in Iowa, as follows:
"The first capital punishment in
Iowa was not that of the Hodges, but
of Joseph T. Jackson at Andrew,
jackson county, for the murder of q.
Perkins. The trial. conviction and
sentence took place before Judge
Thomas S. Wilson. The murderer was
executed July 10, 1912. A short time
before, the Rev. John c. Holbrook,
pastor Of the Congregational church
of Dubuque, at the request of the
murderer and Of his wife, preached
sermon in his presence, of which Mr..
tHelbrook gave the following account:
The meeting was fully attended,
and such a scene as seldom witnessed.
After the people had collected, and
! the meeting was about to commence,
the prisoner, large, Middle-aged
man, was led in, in chains, and placed
! near me. The clanking of his chains
and his downcast eyes and agonized
countenance produced a deep sensa-
ton in the assembly. l took for my
text the words How shall we escape
LII we neglect so great salvation" and
1 spoke Of the condemnation of sinners,
and showed the fallacy of all hopes of
/ escape, except by repentance and
faith. It was scene of thrilling in
terest, and the circumstances of the
prisoner before us, under sentence,
| and about to suffer the penalty OF
death, strongly impressed upon the
assembly the truth was proclaiming,
/ jy,oy al,
will have stood at the bar of God and
safely through all the physical crises
| peculiar to the female sex. 1t is sold
] by all druggists throughout the
world.
| received his sentence. said: Here
you see one who in few days will be
in eternity and who will be placed at
Gods bar to undergo a trial of greater
moment than the one he has just
passed through"
81 endeavored to improve the scene,
and faithfully to warn the prisoner and
/ all present Of the trial which awaited
them in eternity, and the certainty Of
their awful doom, If they continued to
neglect the great salvation. Many stout
| hearts trembled, and many manly
cheek was wet with tears, while the
poor prisoner was convulsed with an
!, guish of spirit Oh he said, no one
7 can tell what suffer, or what would
rive to restore to life the man have
killed. convsrsed with, the prisoner
,, g. =. assed him to repent and make
e peace with God His wife could
not speak, as l took her nand and
urged her to endeavor to assist her
husband to prepare for eternity. (The
Home Missionary, XIV, 1923, Sept,
1929
MY knowledge of that occasion
grew out of the fact that was sent
the following years as missionary to
Jackson county, and that l preached
my second sermon in Iowa, and for
two years subsequently on alternate
|, Sabbaths, in the two-story log court
house in which the trial of the muir
derer had been held, and my pulpit
was the desk from which he was SEN
fenced to be hung.
81 may add that my predecessor as
pastor of the Congregational church
of Burlington, the Rev. Horace
! Hutchinson, was upon the scaffold,
with Bishop Loras Of Dubuque at the
hanging of the Hodges in this city, in
1916; that David Leonard, for many
years afterward deacon of the Con-
gregational church, was foreman OF
the jury which brought in the ve.dict
of guilty; and that ]. c. Hall, the
Hodges lawyer, after their convic-
4 ton, said to Judge Mason, who was a
man Of refined sensibilities and op-
posed in theory to capital punishment,
4 that he need have no scruples in pro-
nounclng the sentence of the law upon
the nurderers, as they had confessed
to him their guilt"