The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-12-20
II An FEELING FINE; -
WORDS ON posi- CARD
MRS. MEYER RECEIVED

and buggy there. The night before
my brothers disappearance, however
he stayed with Herman Boelke, a
| neighbor of Pat Lyons about half d
mile away. He went to Mr.. Lyons
| place Saturday morning. and asked
him to so TO town with him and
bring out his well digging outfit
| which was in Lewisyille. Pat con
! scented to do this and hitched a team
! to his wagon and the two arrived in
| Lewisville early. in the forenoon.
! Both men are said to have drunk
/ freely. When evening came neither
one wanted to so home. Finally
Lyons managed to give his partner
the slip in some way and drove
home. without him, leaving the well
machinery also. My brother came
to town early in the afternoon. He
! was kept in town longer than he
| expected in order to get a team
shod
Met Brother in Saloon:
was in Charles MiIler's saloon. He
/ was not drinking. l asked him when
, he was going home and he replied
that he was going in few minutes.
AS business was rushing in the res
taurant, I talked to him no further,
but my brother.in-law, Alfred Bret.
tenfeld, said that he started out a
/ little after nine. Schram was with
my brother, and Mr.. Breitenfeld said
! that Schram had asked to ride as
/ far as Pat Lyons farm, as it was
only a mile and right on his road.
He said that Pat had gone off and
left him and his well rigging. No
more was seen of him by any one
! here in town. The next morning,
Sunday, my sister-in-law, Fred's
, wife, called up and asked if her
husband had gotten into any trou-
bic. answered no She said that
he had not got home yet. I did not
pay much attention to this at the
time, but at five o'clock in the after
noon she called up again, now thor
oughly frightened, and said that the
neighbors had been hunting all day
for Fred and could not find him.
His dog. also, was missing I now
sat up and took notice, and set out
to look for him myself Ny brother
in-law and | drove out to the farm
and interviewed the searchers They
found wagon track which tallies
we'll with the one made by the one
Fred was using, about quarter of
mile from Fred's house, between
Lewisville and his farm. The tracks
led to a hay stack about sixty rods
out in the field. Here the team
which had pulled the wagon had evil
IDENTIFY stopped for some time, as the
ground was well tramped down
around the stack and a considerable
amount of hay had been eaten.
Went to Another Haystack.
1.-The team had backed up after n
time and then the tracks led to an
other haystack nearer the road.
From the way the ground was tramp
ed, | do not think that they stopped
here as long as they did at the first
place. The tracks then led to the
home of my brother and to the place
in the door yard where the wagon
now stands. The team had been
found by Mrs. Meyer that morning
in their stalls. The harnesses had
been removed and hung up in the
regular place. Mrs. Meyer said that
she had heard wagon drive into
the yard about one o'clock, but she
was not sure of the time She did
not get up then as she thought her
husband would soon be in to get the
lantern. He did not come in and a
little later she got up and went out
to see why her husband did not
come in. She found the barn door
shut and latched on the outside and
the team in the barn as before de-
scribed. She then hunted all over
the premises for him but could not
find him. After this the hunt for
him took place. do not think
Schram is familiar with the barn
as he has only been on the place
twice. Herman Boelke told me that
Schram came to his place about two
o'clock in the morning and asked for
nights lodging. He drove in with
his horse and buggy. Mr.. Boelke
made Schram bed on the floor and
he slept the rest of the night. l do
not think Fred had much money
with him. He had two cream checks
for the cream he had taken to town
that day and also some money for
the chickens.
Schram Was SurIy.
After this talk with Mr. Meyers
brother, Sheriff Osten went to the
village lookup and put on the
gloves" with William Schram, who
had been arrested by Constable Au.
gust Sonnenbend on a warrant sworn
out by H. T. Meyer, charging him
with being responsible for the dis
appearance of Fred Meyer, his
brother. Schram was rather surly
and wanted to know what it was all
about He was told that he would
find out if he waited long enough.
His story was as follows: 81 am
thirty-eight years old. came to
this country thirteen years ago and
have worked around Fairmont, Tru
man and Lewisville ever since" The
sheriff made him tell all the places
he had worked at and how long al
! each place, and when the months
were counted up, it made it seem
that Schram had been in this coun
try for about twenty years. His oc
cupation with all of his employers
was almost always given as plant
ing corn or harvesting. Most of the
time he was planting corn. He said
he had had small scrap" with one
man about leaving the corn planter
out in the field. Two years ago he
bought a we'll digging outfit in part
nership with Charles Miller. A year
( later he bought out Millers share
| He then bought new outfit and
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