The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-08-05
JUDGE MASON is DONOR
When Property No Longer Was Used
for School It Was to Revert to
Heirs and This Has Been
Done by Transaction.

United states navy, utLlS reQ
school house on the hin and deeds
of transfer all play their part in a
recent real estate transfer which has
been recorded in the district court
house here.
A deed has been given to James
Richey for one acre, in square
shape, located one mile southeast of
Argyle and two miles north and one
mile east Of Vincennes by Mary ].
Remey and George G. Remey.
This piece of land was formerly
the property Of the Argyle school
district but under a certain provision
made by the doner of the land to the
school, the school lately forfeited it's
right to the property and it was re-
turned to the heir of the doner.
Charles Mason, at one time chief
Justice of the supreme court of Iowa.
Judge Mason was at one time judge
of the District court in Lee county
and is famous for having passed SEN
tence on the Hodges, William and
Stephens, who were Mormons and
residents Of Nauvoo, and who were
Indicted and tried for murder, and
sentenced to be hanged.
The brothers, William and Stephen
Hodges, were residents of Nauvoo
and were Mormons. Early in the year
1916 John Miller and his son-in- law,
man by the name of Licey were
murdered in Lee county. They were
supposed to be possessed by large
sum Of money. During the night of
May 10 almost seventy-five years to
the day the Hall portrait is to be
hung at the capitoD they were
aroused when three men broke into
their house and attacked them. In
the fatal fight that followed. one of
the bandits lost his cap. This cap
was the only clue but it led Edward
Bonney of Montrose to Nauvoo. Bon
ney accused the Hodges brothers
and John Brown Of the crime. Brown
escaped but two Of the Hodges were
indicted in Lee county and extrad-
sicted The indictment was found at
a sitting Of the territorial court in
West Point. The place Of trial was
changed to Des Moines county and
Judge Mason, as presiding Judge,
held his court in Old Zion church on
the site of the Grand Opera house
on North Third street. Hall and Mills
were retained to defend Hodges. l..
D. Stockton prosecuted. After con-
tinuence, the trial opened on June
16. The evidence was entirely cir.
eumstantial but the jury found the
brothers guilty and Judge Mason SEN
fenced them to be hanged a month
later.
Judge Mason's Sentence.
In sentencing the men, Judge Ma
son said:
The trial on which your lives de-
pend has now terminated, and -
you, that determination is fatal. At
ter q full and fair investigation, that
jury to which you had intrusted your
extended to you. may almost be said
to have been your selection, have
declared that you are guilty of
murder, murder which, in point Of
atrocity. may almost be said to be
unparalleled in the annals of crime.
With scarcely an apparent induce.
ment for the commission of the most
trivial of offenses, you are guilty OF
the greatest; you have not only with
sacreligious hand invaded the sacred
fountains Of life; but with apparent,
deliberate purpose, nearly akin IN
malice to that of the arch fiends, you
have entered into the little Eden of
love and contentment, with which a
quiet and unoffending family were
surrounding themselves-cut off in
The bloom and maturity Of manhood,
Ties of their chief support; desecrat-
ing their very hearth-stone and their
iife's blood, and brought desolation
and utter woe into that house, which
but for you would have been the
abode of all the sacred and innocent
pleasures of domestice life. Nor are
The consequences of your crime con-
fined to. the immediate sufferers.
Though fessened in intensity, they |
nave extended to the whole COM |
munity feeling Of apprehension and |
insecurity, which has been communi- |
Gated to every cottage throughout |
The country. Where blamelessness |
Oh life which creates no enemy-a |
mediocrity of conditions which ex- |
cites no envy-where an almost en- |
tlre absence of that motive that ad-
dresses itself to the sordid love OF |
gam. cannot secure the slumberer |
from the assault of the midnight as
sassin, well may the indweller of ev-
cry cabin feel that anxiety and con-
steFnahon which must so greatly
augment tho aggregate evil OF hu.
man existence. For all these evils, i'm
mediate and remote, the law holds
you responsible, and is now about to
apply all that there is of remedy
Within its reach. Blood for blood is
us stern demand, and never was the
sanguinary requisition more right
eous, unable to restore the dead, it
affords such vengeance for the liv-li
ing Your lives, to, are regarded as
70 Incompatible with the safety of So
ciety. and in the bloom of youth and
!. neaith, you are by the hands of your
.eilow mortals to be consigned to
the gallows and the grave. AS an ex.
ample also coornc IN hQ ca11ad f0r |