The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1907-02-21
A LANDMARK IS GONE
Icons Historic Old Court House is
Torn Down and will be Replaced
by a Fine Modern Building.

Torn Down and Will be Replaced
by a Fine Modern Building.
Monday morning the work of demolish-
ing the old court house was commenced
in earnest by a large force OF men under
the supervision of Geo. W. Sanger, who
was employed by the board of supervi-
sors to superintend the tearing down of
the old building and the work has pro-
gressed rapidly. By Saturday night it
is expected that all the walls will be
down although it will take few days
longer to get the brick all cleaned,
sorted and piled up.
2 With the destruction Of the old court
house passes one of the landmarks of
early Leon, and a building whose de-
struction recalls many incidents to the
older residents of Leon and Decatur
county. 1t was the fifth building
erected for court house purposes in this
county, the first one being log house
erected at Decatur City about 1851, but
it was only used short time, being
after wards remodeled for hotel at the
northeast corner of the square at
though the logs have been long since
COtCiSo WlOu SluluSo. NuCu OAC SOuuOy
seat was located at Leon small frame
now stands the fine residence ofSlephen
Varga. There was trouble over this
building and we are told that after the
Judge held court in it for one or two
terms it was rejected and the county
refused to receive it from the contrac-
tors. A second building was commenced,
hr1f
wrecked by wind storm. A building
was then built on the corner which is
now occupied by Kraft Clothing Co.'s
store. At that time fire proof vaults
were not thought of, and on the morn
ing of March 81, 1874 it, was destroyed
by fire, together with all of the county
records up to that time. At the time of
this fire the safe in the county treas
urer's office contained something over
$4,000, but fortunately the safe passed
through the fire intact and the money
was found in good condition when the
safe was opened.
The present court house was erected
in 1875 at a cost of about $4,000. The
county had on hands about $4,000 in
the swamp land fund; and they agreed
to use this money for new court house
if the people would donate enough
money to complete building which was
estimated to cost about $4,000. The
sum of $4,000 was raised in donations,
and Lyman Forgrave scaled the contract
price down several thousand dollars and
the building was completed, being at
that time thought to be ample for the.
needs of the county for many years.
Less than two years after the build
ing was completed it was partially
destroyed in an attempt to rob the safe
in the treasurer's Office. The late
Francis Varga was county treasurer at
the time. On the morning of April L,
1877, the residents of Leon were start
led by hearing loud explosion and
upon running to the square found that
the west side Of the court house had
been blown out by burglars. Certain
suspicious acts on the part of w. W..
Van Schoaick and Howard Read, two of
the businessmen of Leon, soon resulted
in their arrest for the crime. Under
the name of Van Schoaick & Read they
were engaged in the hardware business
in the room now occupied by j. A.
Casters grocery store. Being fnan-
cially involved the men had been drink
ing pretty hard and conceived the idea
of robbing the safe in the treasurer's
Office to relieve them of their financial
difficulties. They had with them at the
time dissolute woman from Ottumwa,
and she was used as lookout while
they did the work. They used explo-
sives secured from their hardware store
but being inexperienced and pretty
drunk at the time only succeeded in
blowing the west wall of the building
out and secured nothing. The safe at
the time contained about $1,000. After
the attempt Van Schoaick secured a
buggy and drove the woman to Osceola,
where he was arrested and Read was
arrested in their store dead drunk.
Both men were tried for the crime the
same fall after being confined in Jail for
some time. The trial was before Judge
Forrey, of this city, and the jury re-
turned a verdict of guilty, Judge Forrey
sentencing them to the penitentiary
for seven years. The men were de-
Tended vigorously by attorneys Joe S.
Warner and N. p. Bullock, and after
their conviction a new trial was Sc
cured, change of venue being taken
to Charlton, where they were tried and
convicted the second time and SEN
fenced by Judge Burton to seven years
in the Ft. Madison penitentiary. Van
ocHOdlck WAS pdfuOueu bAOftly DelOro
lvkis term expired, nearly dead with con-
sumption and he died few months
after being released. A parole was
also secured for Read before his term
expired, conditioned on his refraining
from the use of Intoxicating liquors,
and he re turned to Leon, but in short
time went to the bad, and his parole
was revoked by Governor Larrabee and
he was taken back to serve the re-
mainder of his term. After being re-
leased he did not return to Leon and
his present whereabouts are unknown.
The old court room has been the
scene of many hard fought legal battles
where many thousands Of dollars have
been involved as well rs the life and
liberty of many persons. Some of the
most noted murder cases in the history
Of the state have been tried in the old