The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1940-04-04
Farmer, Admitting Assault, Agrees
Neuer toVisil SpringdaLe Home
TAKEN TO ST. PETER;
NEIGHBORS APPEAR Z
FOR C.. r. McCRILLIS

oAS We Ass NNSSAsAAA-Ao
Charles r. McCrillis, Y, will
never. again see the Springdale
township farm where he has lived
for 80 years, by order of District
Judge A. B. Gislason who re-
ceived McCrillis' plea of guilty to
first degree assault in the Red
wood county courthouse Tuesday
afternoon.
McCrillis was voluntarily COM
mitted to the state hospital at st.
Peter and will be taken there by
Sheriff L. j. Kise this week.
When and if the hospital superin-
tendent approves his release, he
will go to Iowa to live, he prom
ised Judge Gislason.
He was sentenced to five years
in the Saltwater penitentiary and
given a stay of execution by the
judge. The sentence will be in.
voked if he ever returns to this
section of the state.
Twelve farm neighbors who
came to court on his behalf gath
cred around the gray-bearded
farmer in the corridor to offer
affectionate good wishes after
the hearing. 1t was probably the
last time that he will see any of
them.
His arrest followed an at
tempted shooting of his ten
ant, Floyd Farr, "a, on Nc
Crillis' 80 acre farm two
miles east of Tracy last jan
uary ~. ~
The attack. followed a dispute
over cash rent for the tract, Nc
Crillis claiming that Farr owed
him $123.50 Farr moved off the
farm soon after the incident.
Mr.. and Mrs. Farr occupied the
McCrillis house in which the
owner had reserved two upstairs
rooms for his own living quarter.
After, discussions of the cash
rent from time to time, "Farr put
in some bills against me he had
no right to do McCrillis told
Judge Gislason.
One Farr claim was for. S. a
month for heating McCrillis'
rooms, the stove pipe running
through one of them. The other
was shut off from the rest of the
house and heated by an oil stove,
McCrillis testified.
81 furnished him wood for two
winters" the aged farmer said.
Referring to McCrillis' act of
firing a 1ong-range goose gun at
the automobile in which Mr.. and
Mrs. Farr were seated on their.
return to the farm after Saturday
night shopping at Tracy, Judge
Gislason asked,
'Do you feel that was a normal,
natural thing to do?" u
mo I can't say as. it was" the
defendant replied.
would you do it again?"
81 can't answer that question:"
said McCrillis.
Admitting some brooding over
his trouble with the tenant, he
said, "My nerves got the best of
me-" He is not normally a quick
tempered man, he said, has al
ways got along with his neighbors
and this was the first time that he
had ever had trouble with any
one.
In staying execution of the
sentence, Judge Gislason said,
"The court has been advised
that, during your life in Red
wood county, you have had
an excellent reputation among
your neighbOrs and acquaint-
ances. You were not a
trouble maker and are high
ly respected by all those who
know you.
"You are to keep out of the
southwestern part of the state and
preferably out of Minnesota" the
judge said, $50 that no tempta-
ton will be placed in your way.
eve don't want you to have any
contact with your former tenants,
their friends or relatives and we
want you to stay away from the
danger which might result from
those contacts"
McCrillis, born in Iowa, came
to his farm here in 1910. 1t is his
only property, he said, and has a
So 200 mortgage against it.
His closest relatives are nep-
hew and niece in Iowa, his wife
having died in 1884,
He was represented in court by
A. R. English, Tracy attorney.