The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-06-15
GOLD FIND s SEQUEL
Story Of Lynching of Reinhart,
Supposed Murderer.
From Fridays Daily

From Fridays Daily
That story of the finding of $40 in
gold embedded in an old log near lie
Sueur Center and the number of COM
ments that have been made with refer
ence to the transaction. has caused Peter
Shippman to write a story to The lie
Sueur Center Leader, which relates to
the lynching of Reinhart, the man who
was believed to have murdered his COM
panion, Bodel, stealing from his person
the money and hiding it in the tree
which was cut up into lumber but few
weeks since: Mr.. Shippman's letter is
as follows:
The version regarding the supposed
Reinhart gold in your last issue is er-
roneous in nearly every detail. | have
been a resident of Lexington township
since June, 1857, and remember well the
occurrence of the murder of Bodel and
the lynching of Reinhart for the crime,
being only four miles distant from the
scene.
| never saw either of the men but
Fred Dennison, who kept store at the
village and who boarded Reinhart while
a prisoner when a sergeant in the same
company with me in the army, related
the entire affair to me in substance as
follows:
A few days before election in Novem
Der, 1858, a respectable appearing man,
with ready money came to Lexington
to buy a piece of land. Reinhart was
there and offered to show him fine
farm he pretended to own, taking his
rifle on his shoulder as they went away.
In the evening Reinhart came back say
ing that they could not make a bargain
and that Bodel had pushed on east to
| Faribaut.
| Reinhart was well educated, spoke
| German fluently, was a good talker,
played the guitar and was a fine sing
er and agreeable company and remained
for two weeks as though nothing had
| happened, and on election day election
aered all day. Then inquiry was made
what had become of Bodel, and when
search was made it was ascertained that
Reinhart had borrowed a spade from
German woman, pretending that he
| wanted to open water course. The
spade had been used for digging a cellar
and had been badly nicked upon stones.
When the body of Bodel was found
| it showed the marks of the nicked spade
IN the arms and shoulders when it had
been forced into the hole while riggid.
Then search was made for Reinhart who
was apprehended near La Crosse, when
| it was reported that the dead mans gold
watch was found on him, and he was
brought back to Lexington, where he was
handcuffed and confined in a log Jail,
erected for that purpose. He managed
to slip off the handouts and escaped in
| his stocking feet, but little snow fell
chat night and he was tracked to hay
stack and brought back. Willard Dickin-
son, father of Wash. and Levater and
a powerful resolute man, was jailor.
| On Dec. 26, 1858, Mr.. Reuben Stafford
| with a number of women drove by on
their way to Waterville, where my
brother Francis Shoemaker, and myself
were hauling hay where Mr. L. L..
Whips now resides, and informed us
that they were expecting mob to hang
Reinhart that afternoon and asked us to
70 and help drive them back, but we de-
clined the invitation. The lynchers, I'M
der the leadership bf Frank Picker of
Montgomery, who had been a soldier in
the Austrian army, came as reported.
They were fully armed and demanded
the key to the jail wrich Mr.. Dickinson