The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1908-06-26

floor but as the flames rushed
up could not get much of a
view of it. The room looked
into was used as sitting room,
not as a bedroom. This was
between five and six o'clock.
Did not stay more than three
minutes and then drove up to
Martins and he came back
with me. Have seen the body
of the person supposed to be
Alexandra Seidel as it lays in
the ruins of the fire and will
state that it lays in the place
where l saw what I supposed
to be the body when I looked
in at the window. Did not
try to get into the building at
that time"
Mrs. Hiatt testified that she
heard sounds like groans COM
ing from the building, but was
not sure, at the time her hus-
band looked into the window.
H. Solomonson, living two
miles northwest of Kelvin,
testified in part as follows:
Was in Somber when the post
office building was burning and
pulled the body out of the
building; Dougal Martin help
ed me after I got body to the
door. The body was dead at
the time; it was the body of
Mr.. Seidel. Found a gun here
on exhibition as Exhibit "O")
laying on the body. The
muzzle was pointing toward
the head, body was lying on
it's back and the gun was
laying length wise of the body
and with the muzzle pointing
to the head. The body was
cut and bleeding. We found
the body in the south room
of the building, the store room
1 think it was, although I had
never been in the building.
The building was full of smoke
when we opened the door and
all afire. .t
Dougal Martin being called
as a witness, corroborated Mr..
Solomonson's story about the
finding of the body and pulling
it out of the building. He
identified the rifle Exhibit "O")
as Seidel's rifle and said the
stock had been cracked and
wrapped with wire. The body
of Mr.. Seidel was still warm
when pulled from the building
and there was evidence of a
struggle as his clothes were
torn and disarranged and had
evidently been pulled off in the
struggle with his assailants.
He and Solomonson had exam
ined the rifle and agreed that
it had not been dischared,
there were no cartridges in it
and it had evidently been used
for club. The witness had seen
the rifle about two weeks ago,
! the stock was then on it but
wrapped with wire. Mr.. Seid-
Ell generally kept his guns
hanging in the kitchen.
Ole Solum testified that he
was at Somber about one
o'clock on the day of the MUIR
der, having brought some flour
to Mr.. Seidel. He saw two
persons around the store at that
time but paid little attention
to them. Being asked to des-
cribe them as nearly as he
could he said The looks of
them to me were breeds, One
of them was pretty dark. They
looked pretty young, I think
about twenty years. The way
l understood it from Seidel
they inquired the road to Del
oraine and so they took the
road going out north and he
hollered to them and told them
they were going the wrong
road 80 they went down the
other road" Solum stayed
until two o'clock and saw on
ly the two fellows he described.
Emil Knudson was the last
witness called and he testified
in part as follows: I live close
to German Johnson's place
about two miles from the Som
Der postoffice. Was at Somber
Sunday between four and five
o'clock and saw Mr.. Seidel
and Alexandra Seidel; saw
three men there but did not
know them and do not think I
had ever seen them before.
One had a black suit on, quite
a tall fellow, dark Completed,
had no beard on his face and