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Bromfield-Giltner
Bromfield was surveyed and
platted in the spring of 1886 by the Lincoln Land Company. It is located on
Section 6, Township 9, Range 7, on the branch of the Burlington & Missouri
River Railroad Company running from Aurora to
Hastings. The
first building was erected by Joe Brown soon after the town was platted. This
was followed the same season by the business buildings of W. H. Leniberger, L.
P. Wheeler, G. H. Myers, Alfred Carriker, F. C. Mather, M. W. Trobee, C. N.
Dietz, National Lumber Company, G. S. Cole & Company and S. D. Chapman, and
the residences of C. E. Brown, M. D., J. A. Foster and Frank Wright. The town
had a good steady growth, and by 1890 had a population of between three and four
hundred.
It was incorporated as a
village December 11, 1888, with the following board of trustees: C. E. Brown, L.
P. Wheeler, W. H. Leniberger, John McCarthy and Charles
Allen.
The post office was removed
from Lerton to this place in 1887, A. V. B. Peck having held down the
postmaster’s chair since the establishment of the office
here.
The town and vicinity has had a
remarkable history in its chapter of crimes, accidents and casualties. The first
of these was in the fall of 1886, when a serious cutting affray occurred, by
which one Fred Gossner very nearly lost his life. Two years later Mrs. John
Schultheis was shot and instantly killed by S. D. Pierce, a neighbor. The
shooting was entirely accidental, Pierce having been requested by Mrs.
Schultheis to shoot a skunk which had taken refuge under the corn crib. Mr.
Pierce fired under the crib intending to kill or dislodge the animal. Upon
entering the house shortly after, he discovered Mrs. Schultheis lying on the
floor, dead, with a bullet hole in her forehead. Investigation revealed the fact
that the ball had glanced, passing through the window, and striking the woman
with the result above stated.
The same season another sad
accident occurred here by which Dr. T. L. Myers, a prominent citizen and one of
the leading physicians of Aurora, lost his life. The doctor had been
spending the day in Bromfield with his son, G. H. Myers, and was starting to
return to Aurora by the freight train, which left at six p.m. As he stepped from
the platform of the depot to the step of the way car, the train being in motion,
he lost his balance and fell under the car, the wheels of which passed over his
body, killing him almost instantly. This accident cast a gloom over the
community, from which they had hardly recovered when they were again shocked by
another fatal accident. This was the case of Dell Henry, who in company with
another young man, was riding out from Bromfield in a road cart. They had a shot
gun with them, which Henry was holding. While he was attempting to light his
pipe, he permitted the gun to slip from his grasp, and it dropped through the
slats of which the bottom of the cart was made. The hammer striking on a slat
exploded the cartridge, the charge entering the side of his head and face,
mangling him terribly and killing him at once. The same year Mary O’Brien, a
girl living in the family of Mrs. Bush, near Bromfield, committed suicide by
hanging.
Hardly had the words been
pronounced which sentences Henry Thornhill to be hanged by the neck until dead,
when the entire country was thrilled by the news of the double tragedy occurring
in the village on Saturday, March 15, 1890. Shortly after 2 o’clock p.m. on that
day Amos E. Staton, a farmer living a short distance south of the village, came
into the town on foot and proceeded at once to the rear door of Charles Harrod’s
meat market, which he entered. W. W. Lewis, a highly respected citizen of the
town, was the only occupant of the shop at the time, and was seated near the
front window reading a newspaper. A few seconds after Staton entered a pistol
shot was heard, and Mr. Lewis was seen running from the rear door of the
building, screaming and pressing his hand to his breast, and closely pursued by
Staton, who had a revolver in his hand. A few rods from the shop door Staton
again fired, the ball striking the flying man in the region of the kidneys,
killing him almost instantly. It was afterward ascertained that the shot fired
in the shop had taken effect in the center of the breast. Staton at once went to
the street and started south, but was immediately arrested and placed in the
village jail or “lockup.”
Great excitement prevailed, and
within a few minutes a large crowd had assembled on the street. Less than an
hour after the shooting a party of masked men were seen to emerge from an
implement warehouse and march toward the jail, while a piece of new half-inch
rope dangled ominously from their hands. Proceeding to the “lookup,” the door
was forced open, the rope properly knotted around Staton’s neck, and he was led
to an adjacent livery barn, where the rope was passed across a beam and the
murderer of W. W. Lewis was quickly sent to his account. The masked men remained
but a few minutes after accomplishing their work, then proceeded to the place
from where they had come and disappeared. Meantime—the news of the shooting
having been promptly telegraphed to the sheriff—Deputy Sheriff Whitesides,
County Attorney Whitmore, City Marshall George Barschlin, Coroner Elarton, and
others had boarded the train for Bromfield. The train from the east was twenty
minutes late, hence the train for Bromfield did not leave Aurora until about 3:30
p.m., reaching Bromfield at 4 o’clock. As soon as informed of the circumstances
detailed above, the officers proceeded to the livery barn, where they found
Staton hanging by the neck. He was immediately taken down and efforts made to
resuscitate him, but they were ineffectual. The coroner at once began his
investigations and an inquest was first held upon the body of Mr. Lewis. The
jury rendered a verdict that he had come to his death at the hands of Amos E.
Staton, in accordance with the foregoing facts.
On Sunday, March 16, a jury was
impaneled to hold an inquest upon the body of Staton. After an investigation
lasting the greater part of three days, the jury rendered a verdict of death by
hanging at the hands of parties unknown.
Source: History of Hamilton
and Clay Counties Nebraska, 1921, pages 386-490, transcribed as printed
Transcribed
and Contributed by: Cathy Danielson
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