Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-09-23
Mary Gonterman Tells an
Unusual Story; Happen
ings Occurred Near
Batavia in 1860

Dear Juniors
AS have not written for long time
l will write you an unusual story which
happened a few miles from my home
in the spring Of 1860. Ait
One Saturday while T. B. Barnett
was fishing in Cedar Creek one and
One-half miles north of Batavia he dis
covered in a state Of nudity, the dead
body Of a woman, a little girl about six
years old and boy aged about twelve
years. The woman and the girl had
drifted partly under some roots Of
tree that had fallen into the creek. The
boy was found q short distance below
under log. Mr.. Barnett. very much
frightened, spread the alarm through
out the neighborhood. and messenger
was sent to Fairfield about midnight
after the sheriff and coroner The county
judge. William X. Alexander offered a
reward of 5000 for the apprehension Of
the murder or murderers and sent out
the following description:
A woman and two children were
murdered on Friday evening last and
the bodies thrown into Cedar Creek
about nine miles west Of Fairfield. The
murderer Is supposed to be about six
feet high, of ordinary weight, dark COM
plexion, without whiskers, and when
seen on Friday afternoon, was un-s
shaver and was wearing half worn
Leghorn hat and dirty white shirt; he
was without coat or vest. He was
driving two yoke of oxen to a wagon,
which was old, with a dirty muslin
cover. From the track where the
bodies were carried to the creek it was
supposed that there were two persons
concerned in the murder. An addition
al reward was raised by subscription
among the citizens Of Fairfield Sheriff
RObb started at once for Batavia.
where he learned that an old man and
a little boy with an OK team, answering
to the description given in the hand
bill issued by the Judge, had been seen
on the road on the day of the murder
near where the bodies had been found.
The sheriff and a number of other
men started in hot pursuit the Sunday
following. They tracked the party de-
scribed to Upton, Scotland county, Mo.
Four miles south they found the yoke
Of oxen, man and boy. The old man
whose name they learned was John
Kephart, aged 60 years. gave up with
out resistance, The little boy seemed
alarmed and fled, crying to one Of the
party for protection. =
The little fellow told the sheriff that
his name was Willis, that the dead
woman was his mother. but he did not
see her killed: he awolle in the night
and saw her lying in the wagon dead,
with large cash in her head He saw
kill his little sister and broth
had wakened when his mother
was. killed and jumped out of the
wagon and Kephart had some trouble
to catch them as they ran under and
around the wagon to keep out Of his
reach.
The boy first remembered seeing
in Muscatine, Ia, when he
came to move the family south. His
fathers name was William Willis. 1t
was ascertained that Kephart and the
Willis family lived in Cherokee county.
Missouri. for time where he kept a
grocery and sold whisky to the Ind
for Iowa. The boy further stated that
his mother whose name was Jane
Willis, and his brother and sister, JOS
eph and Maria, aged II and years.
were killed near Eddyville, Ia. and
that the bodies had been hauled at the
distance Of thirty miles.
Kephart was at one time preacher
in the church Of the United Brethren,
and at the time of the murder had a
certificate or license to preach with
him. He was the father Of nine children
all respectable citizens and had wife
living In Washington county, Iowa.
When they bound him with rope and
took him to Jail he got a piece Of the
rope he was bound with and tried to
hang himself in his cell, but the
sheriff cut the rope.
On Thursday morning after the muir
derer was secured, large body of we'll
armed men, on horseback, in wagons.
and on foot marched into Fairfield and
directly to the JAIL surround
ed it and called for the keys The
y,yara Xyo na11 nd
Jefferson counties, Fairfield being OPP
posed to their mode of procedure. The
Judge talked to the crowd and tried to
satisfy them. to give the prisoner a fair
trial, but they only cried louder for the
doors to be opened.> ..
The mob procured posts as their bat
erfng ram against everything that
stood between them and their victim.
Down came the barred door and the
prisoner was seized by four men who
carried him off to a wagon under guard
The wagon containing the prisoner
stopped at nearly every house on the
road in order that all might see the
fiendish murderer. He was so faint dur
ing the trip that buckets of water were
thrown over him. When they arrived
with the murderer at the place Of eEos
cution there were $500 people, some
from distance Of thirty miles. There
also gathered 1900 people along the
road from Fairfield
They were murdered because they
would not tell where their money was
and he kent this one little boy thinking
he would make him tell where the
money was hidden but he did not do so
until kephart was arrested, then he
told them that the money was hidden
IN key Of soap grease. amounting to
$42S. This amount, the wagon and
oxen We're kept for the benefit of the
living boy. This boy was taken care Of
by the people of Fairfield and grew TO
manhood and afterward went west and
is an officer on one of the boats on the
western coast
Mary Gonterman.
Batavia, Ia, r. No 3.