 |
| Find a Grave photos by "LDA" |
On the third night of summer 120 years ago --- June 23, 1898 --- Woodburn also was the scene of a sensational assassination --- that of its young physician, Dr. Will Swisher, shot point blank through the heart while walking home from his office at about 10 p.m. Here's how The Chariton Patriot reported the story in its edition of June 30:
MURDER COMMITTED AT WOODBURN
Dr. W.F. Swisher, a leading physician of Woodburn, was shot and instantly killed on last Thursday night, June 23, while going home from his office. He had been out to spend the evening, and visited his office for the purpose of extinguishing the lights before going home. He had gone only a half block after locking his office door, when he was met by an unknown man, who shot him through the heart. Dr. E.J. Lawrence was sitting in his yard at the time, and was a witness to the deed. It is said that Swisher and his assassin exchanged a few angry words but they were not understood. The doctor's knife was found open by his side.
The man who is suspected of killing Dr. Swisher was in Woodburn the day of the tragedy, stopping at the hotel. He told the keeper he had a "... dirty job to perform." He paid for his meals as they were served him. After committing the act attributed to him, the man ran west and mounted a horse. The horse was found hitched to a rack in Lucas the next day. The murderer probably came to Chariton on a train and from here trace of him has proved indefinite.
As for the cause of the murder, nothing is known for certain. It is commonly reported and accepted as truthful that Dr. Swisher was engaged to marry a young milliner at Woodburn in a few weeks, and jealousy on the part of a rival is given by some as the cause for taking his life. Dr. Swisher's parents reside at Woodburn and he lived with them. They say that if their son had an enemy they did not know it.
Another version of the affair has been given. It has been stated that Dr. Swisher had trouble in West Virigina five years ago. That the brother of the young lady he wronged had stated that he would kill the doctor if he had to wait years to accomplish the deed.
With so little knowledge it is going to be exceedingly difficult for the officers to clear up the mystery.
Dr. Swisher was a widower. He married Miss Mattie Dailey, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T.V. Dailey of Woodburn about two years ago. She died suddenly soon after their marriage. She is buried in the Catholic Cemetery in this city.
Dr. Swisher was buried at Woodburn last Friday, the lodges participating in the funeral service.
There also was a third common theory, reported in some other Iowa newspapers in the days after the murder --- that a Woodburn-area farmer thought the doctor was spending too much time with his wife. But the case went cold almost immediately --- a posse attempted to follow the assassin, but failed to locate anything other than his horse, tethered in Lucas; the report of a suspicious man at nearby Weldon led nowhere. And so the death remains unsolved.
The knife at Dr. Swisher's side, mentioned in reports, turned out to be a pocketknife, blade unopened. Although Dr. Lawrence saw the flash of gunfire and heard the report, the night had been too dark for him to get any impression of the physical characteristics of the assassin.
Will Swisher was a son of John Wesley and Isabel "Bella" Swisher, born Oct. 25, 1866, in Monongalia County, West Virginia. His father was a prosperous dry goods merchant and Will was a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore. He had opened his practice in West Virginia and apparently was quite popular.
The gossip that linked him to a "wronged" woman back home in West Virginia came to nothing. There are newspaper reports of Will returning to West Virginia for visits after relocating to Iowa, so if someone there wished to kill him, it probably could have been accomplished more conveniently.
His murder was reported upon in the newspapers of West Virginia and those reports provide some clarity about the family's movements and cause for the move west. The West Virginian of Fairmont, for example, reported that "Deceased went with his parents to Iowa some four or five years ago. His father is well known in this section, having been born and reared in this county. For a long time he was engaged in the mercantile business at Farmington, and owned what is known as the Buckley farm near Worthington, which he sold just before going to Iowa. He was in the mercantile business at Buckhannon for some time, where he met with reverses, and went from that place to the west."
Dr. Swisher was licensed to practice in Iowa during 1894, soon after relocating to Woodburn where his parents had opened another mercantile store.
On April 21, 1895, he married Mary Frances "Matie" Dailey, only child of Wooburn residents Thomas V. and Emma Dailey. The Rev. Frank J. Leonard, then serving St. Mary's Church in Chariton (now Sacred Heart), married the couple and several from Chariton served as witnesses.
Sadly, Matie became ill 11 months into the marriage and after a three-day illness described in contemporary newspaper reports as "congestion of the stomach" (appendicitis?) died on May 5, 1896, at home in Woodburn, age 24.
Calm and conscious toward the end, Matie planned her own funeral Mass at St. Mary's Church in Woodburn and asked to be buried in the consecrated ground of Chariton's Calvary Cemetery to which her remains were brought, accompanied by some 40 friends and family members, by train. Some years later, her parents had their daughter's remains moved to St. Mary's Cemetery, by then established just northwest of Woodburn.
And that's about all there is to say about the cold case of Dr. William Festus Swisher's assassination. By mid-July, in the absence of new developments, the media moved on.
Will was buried in the Woodburn Cemetery, joined there later by his parents and other family members. He's commemorated on his parents' tombstone, but with his middle initial, "misprinted" on a lovely white bronze monument as "T" rather than "F."
+++
There also was a third common theory, reported in some other Iowa newspapers in the days after the murder --- that a Woodburn-area farmer thought the doctor was spending too much time with his wife. But the case went cold almost immediately --- a posse attempted to follow the assassin, but failed to locate anything other than his horse, tethered in Lucas; the report of a suspicious man at nearby Weldon led nowhere. And so the death remains unsolved.
The knife at Dr. Swisher's side, mentioned in reports, turned out to be a pocketknife, blade unopened. Although Dr. Lawrence saw the flash of gunfire and heard the report, the night had been too dark for him to get any impression of the physical characteristics of the assassin.
Will Swisher was a son of John Wesley and Isabel "Bella" Swisher, born Oct. 25, 1866, in Monongalia County, West Virginia. His father was a prosperous dry goods merchant and Will was a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore. He had opened his practice in West Virginia and apparently was quite popular.
The gossip that linked him to a "wronged" woman back home in West Virginia came to nothing. There are newspaper reports of Will returning to West Virginia for visits after relocating to Iowa, so if someone there wished to kill him, it probably could have been accomplished more conveniently.
His murder was reported upon in the newspapers of West Virginia and those reports provide some clarity about the family's movements and cause for the move west. The West Virginian of Fairmont, for example, reported that "Deceased went with his parents to Iowa some four or five years ago. His father is well known in this section, having been born and reared in this county. For a long time he was engaged in the mercantile business at Farmington, and owned what is known as the Buckley farm near Worthington, which he sold just before going to Iowa. He was in the mercantile business at Buckhannon for some time, where he met with reverses, and went from that place to the west."
Dr. Swisher was licensed to practice in Iowa during 1894, soon after relocating to Woodburn where his parents had opened another mercantile store.
On April 21, 1895, he married Mary Frances "Matie" Dailey, only child of Wooburn residents Thomas V. and Emma Dailey. The Rev. Frank J. Leonard, then serving St. Mary's Church in Chariton (now Sacred Heart), married the couple and several from Chariton served as witnesses.
Sadly, Matie became ill 11 months into the marriage and after a three-day illness described in contemporary newspaper reports as "congestion of the stomach" (appendicitis?) died on May 5, 1896, at home in Woodburn, age 24.
Calm and conscious toward the end, Matie planned her own funeral Mass at St. Mary's Church in Woodburn and asked to be buried in the consecrated ground of Chariton's Calvary Cemetery to which her remains were brought, accompanied by some 40 friends and family members, by train. Some years later, her parents had their daughter's remains moved to St. Mary's Cemetery, by then established just northwest of Woodburn.
And that's about all there is to say about the cold case of Dr. William Festus Swisher's assassination. By mid-July, in the absence of new developments, the media moved on.
Will was buried in the Woodburn Cemetery, joined there later by his parents and other family members. He's commemorated on his parents' tombstone, but with his middle initial, "misprinted" on a lovely white bronze monument as "T" rather than "F."
No comments:
Post a Comment