Juhl, Paul C

English

Iowa Research Online

B y Paul C. Juki
O n hot summer days when I was a youth, my friends and I swam in Brushy 
Creek and played in the timber. In 
the filtered light of late afternoon, 
we listened to the squirrels scram­
ble through the trees. And when 
nightfall came, the Jameson mys­
tery was sure to come up
The details were a little 
sketchy, even to those of us who 
had always lived in Washington 
Township, in southeastern Web­
ster County. A middle-aged farm 
woman, Adelaide Jameson, had 
been approached by a robber. He 
demanded money, and when he 
thought she was going for a pistol, 
he shot her in the back. The murder 
was never solved, so in the minds 
of my buddies and me, the mur­
derer might still be out there some­
where near Brushy Creek. If not the 
murderer, then surely the ghost of 
Adelaide Jameson.
For most of my 60-some years, 
I had stored this mystery in the 
back of mv mind. Iowa history 
has always interested me, and in 
the summer of 2002, I attended an 
original play at the Old Creamery 
Theatre in Amana, Iowa. Titled 
Lost and Found, the play was about 
a small boy who had been abduct­
ed from a Marengo family in the 
1890s. It started me thinking about 
the Jameson murder. If details were 
still available, could they be woven 
into a story? I had little to go on. 
Descendants of the Jameson family 
had come and gone in our town­
ship. I had never met a Jameson 
in the area during my growing-up 
years in the 1940s and '50s. The 
generations that knew the details 
of the story had long been dead. I 
didn't even know the date of the 
crime.
In the 1970s the State of Iowa
determined that Brushy Creek
vallev would make a wonderful *
state park. The Jameson farmstead
was purchased by the state along 
with an additional 6,000 acres. In 
the 1990s the state constructed a 
dam and flooded most of Brushy 
Creek to create a 690-acre lake. 
The remaining buildings on the 
farmstead—an old barn sided 
with native black walnut and the 
house—had been torn down. But 
the actual site of the murder was 
on a hill above the lake, just off one 
of the equestrian trails in the east­
ern part of the park.
D etermined to find out the whole story of the Jameson murder, I first gave some 
thought to where the victim might 
have been buried. The closest rural 
cemetery was Blanchard Cemetery, 
now surrounded by state-owned 
property on the west side of Brushy 
Creek Lake. A wagon carrying 
Jameson's coffin would only have 
had to travel down the east creek 
hill and up the west one to reach
the cemetery. Seldom used in the
*
20th century, the cemetery is cer-J J
tainly an old one. It is a quiet place 
with only a hundred or so graves; a 
few date to the late 1850s. Although 
most of the grave markers had de­
teriorated, it didn't take long before 
I found Jameson's gravestone and 
the family plot. Now I knew the 
date of her death—September 15, 
1884. She was only 41 years old.
On and off during the next year 
I searched for more. When I need­
ed someone in Webster Countv toJ
help with local research, I turned 
to my cousin Polly Doolittle, who 
lives outside Webster City. She, 
too, remembered growing up with 
the Jameson story. We talked with 
neighbors and prowled through 
dusty files in the Webster County 
Courthouse. The best resources, 
however, were the Fort Dodge Mes­
senger and the Fort Dodge Chronicle.
I followed the story through two
years of newspapers, winding my 
way through yards of microfilm at 
the State Historical Societv of Iowa
J
library in Iowa City. I was truly 
amazed at what I found. For start­
ers, a reporter for the Chronicle had 
visited the crime scene on the eve­
ning of the murder. The article was 
bursting with details. A diagram 
of the Jameson house showed 
where the murderer had stood and 
the path of the bullet. Jameson's 
18-year-old daughter, Abbie, de­
scribed the murderer as wearing 
a slouch hat, a heavy beard, and a 
rubber coat. A possible motive was 
proposed: Adelaide's husband was 
treasurer of the school board; per­
haps the murderer assumed that 
Jameson had several hundred dol­
lars at home in preparation for the 
next day's school board meeting.
In the weeks after, the news­
papers published leads in the case 
and comments by local citizens. 
One paper cautioned, "To all we 
say keep cool if you can, for be 
sure 'murder will out.'" Pieces of 
the mystery continued to tumble 
off the pages as 1 followed the sto­
ry over the months. Then I came 
across the climax: in 1886, two 
years after the crime, a local man 
named Johnnie Porter had been ar­
rested and charged with the mur­
der. Porter's trial took place in the 
spring of 1887, involving the law 
firms of two local heavyweights 
in the legal profession, Jonathan 
Dolliver and John Duncombe. A re­
porter's coverage of the trial para­
phrased the attorneys' questions 
to 32 witnesses and the essence of 
each testimony.
Every township in Iowa has a story—many stories, for that matter. It just takes 
someone to rediscover them, and 
then to remind others that local his­
tory can be fascinating. Perhaps the
Fall 2007 121
A TERRIBLE CRIME.
A Woman Shot Dead in Hei 
Own Home,
1H the Presence of Her Two Lit
tie Daughters,
— —- .  . —  | L _
By a  C o w a r d ly  B r u t e  W h o  D e ­
m a n d s  H e r  H u s b a n d ’s  
M o n e y .
A Heroic Daughter Picks Up Her 
Mother’s Revolver and At­
tempts to Avenge Her 
. Death,
% t
But She Misses Her Aim and the 
Villain Escapes.
A Large Force of Armed Men 
Scouring the Country.
The Husband at Work in a Corn 
Field at the Time of the
Murder.
•
Mrs. William Jameson Dies With­
out a Struggle or Moan.
The Supposition is that Death 
Was Instantaneous.
There Will be at Least Five Hun­
dred Men Out in Search of 
the Murderer Today.
A Chronicle Reporter Visits the 
Scene of a Dreadful 
Crime.
- ■ —♦
He Finds the House Filled With 
Sympathizing Friends and 
Neighbors.
A Correct Diagram Showing the 
Residence of Mr. Jameson,
L LWhich is located on Brushy 
Creek, Fifteen Miles South­
east of this City.
Jameson murder still held 
interest for others in the 
township, as it did for me. 
I decided to re-stage John­
nie Porter's trial as best I 
could from the story I had 
uncovered.
Polly and 1 scheduled 
the event for Sunday, Sep­
tember 14, 2003, exactly 119 
years and one day from the 
date of the murder. Because 
the site of the murder is part 
of Brushy Creek State Park, 
we had first contacted the park 
manager for his okay, and he 
helped arrange transportation 
for some of our elderly guests. 
The basement of the historic 
Methodist Church in the near­
by ghost town of Homer was a 
bad-weather backup.
We sent invitations in som­
ber, black envelopes to relatives 
and neighbors who we knew 
were interested in local history 
and encouraged them to dress in 
1880s garb to set the mood—and 
to bring a folding chair, to rest 
the body. 1 had fashioned the wit­
nesses' testimony into scripts for 
several speakers, and enclosed 
one into 32 of the invitations, hop­
ing that these guests would read 
them at the trial. For instance, one 
would read the part of the local 
shoemaker, testifying that the cast 
of a footstep taken in the Jameson 
garden was from a size 7 boot. 
Another would play the part of 
the defendant's wife, testifying 
that Porter and she had spent the 
evening before the murder in her 
parlor and had plans to attend an 
entertainment of Swiss bell ringers 
in Fort Dodge the next day. One 
would take the role of the victim's 
husband, testifying that he had re­
cently paid the premium for a joint 
life insurance policy. All of these 
rich details had come from news­
papers published 12 decades ago!
The day dawned beautifully, a gorgeous early autumn day in Iowa. My aunt and 
uncle hosted a huge potluck at 
their home a few miles from the 
park and then we all proceeded 
to the state park grounds. Nearly 
60 people wove their way back 
through the trees and underbrush, 
following the well-used horse trail. 
The seven-minute walk and quiet 
conversation added a certain curi- 
ositv and suspense. Brushy Creek 
Lake was just a few yards west of 
our path and filled the valley be­
yond. At the top of the hill we en­
tered an opening in the trees.
The only thing left from the 
Jameson farmstead was a storm 
cellar, which had helped me estab­
lish the location of the house. The 
trial would take place at the exact 
site of the murder, the parlor. After 
giving some brief background, I 
announced the start of the trial. For 
over two and a half hours I called 
witnesses for the prosecution and 
defense, many of them costumed
«
T r i c i a  B i r d  a n d  C u r t  L e m o n  p la y  t h e  
r o l e s  o f  w i t n e s s e s  in  t h e  m u r d e r  t r i a l .
1 aTfaJ¿ » IK
VJ u d y  E l l e r m a n  r e a d s  h e r  s c r i p t e d  t e s t i ­
m o n y .  T h e  a u t h o r  is in  t h e  b a c k g r o u n d .
in bonnets and aprons, or sus­
penders and hats. The "witnesses" 
read their scripts in character, and 
Sandy Mickelson, staff writer for 
the Fort Dodge Messenger, read the 
newspaper account of the reporter 
who had traveled 15 miles on the 
dark night after the murder.
At the end of the witnesses' 
testimony, those assembled acted 
as a jury. They were given a choice 
of four verdicts for Johnnie Porter: 
guilty of first-degree murder, sec­
ond-degree murder, or manslaugh­
ter, or not guilty. Their verdict was 
nearly unanimous: Johnnie Porter 
was not guilty.
1 then disclosed the actual re­
sults of the real trial in 1887. The 
jury had been out from 5 p.m. on
Saturday until 6 p.m. on Sunday. 
They found Johnnie Porter guilty 
of manslaughter. The case pro­
ceeded to the Iowa Supreme Court, 
where it was thrown out based on 
a procedural error.
'e ended the day where 
we had begun—under 
the century-old oaks on 
my aunt and uncle's farm. While 
we enjoyed dessert and coffee, my 
cousin Carey Dubbert, a nation­
ally known musician, played the 
dulcimer. The day had been a suc­
cess. Donald and Chervl Christo-
J
pherson, farmers near the Brushy 
Creek area, agreed: "Our families 
have lived in Washington Town­
ship for over 100 years. Taking part 
in the re-enactment made local his­
tory come alive. Everyone at the 
enactment had a special interest 
in the place the murder occurred. 
Sharing the experience at the site 
with friends and neighbors was an 
enlightening afternoon of history."
Webster County historian Rog­
er Natte also enjoyed the event: "I 
had a wonderful time and loved 
the presentation. I liked the use 
of local people who were asked 
to read the parts. I am sure that 
it made it much more fun for ev­
eryone there, including the par­
ticipants. Obviously this was not a 
professional performance but that
wasn't the purpose. The 'actors' 
just rose to the occasion. The loca­
tion of the site of the murder in a 
beautiful wooded area on a beauti­
ful early fall day just added to the 
event. This approach may have a 
lot of merit for other communities 
and events, although it might be 
most successful when dealing with 
a trial situation."
As I drove away from Brushy 
Creek and my boyhood home, 1 
was smiling and felt pleased with 
the way everything had turned out. 
Polly and I had brought together 
family and friends for a different 
perspective on a place we all knew 
well. Even though the murder of 
Adelaide Jameson was a tragic 
event, the trial re-enactment had 
given us all a chance to briefly 
stand in the shoes of actual indi­
viduals from the past. Perhaps we 
now had a better understanding of 
how our ancestors had confronted 
misfortune and defined justice. I 
left Brushy Creek hopeful that I, 
and others, would create more liv­
ing-history experiences for Iowans 
and the communities they call 
home. ❖
The author enjoys researching and writ­
ing about Iowa history. His work has 
appeared in The Palimpsest and Iowa 
Heritage Illustrated. Special thanks to 
Julie Krusemark for the use of pdwtos and 
other materials.
H
V
M a n y  o f  t h e  g u e s t s  
t o  t h e  t r i a l  c a m e  
d r e s s e d  in  1 9 t h -  
c e n t u r y  c o s t u m e s  
t o  a d d  t o  t h e  a m ­
b i e n c e .  F r o m  l e f t :  
L i b b y  D o o l i t t l e ;  
S h i r l e y  a n d  D o n  
D o o l i t t l e ,  h o s t s  o f  
t h e  p o t l u c k ;  L o u ­
ise  J u h l ;  a n d  P o l l y  
D o o l i t t l e .
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Fall 2007 123
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Murder on Brushy Creek

Iowa Heritage Illustrated

https://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1324&amp;context=ihi

Murder on Brushy Creek

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