The Infamous Jail Fire

BURNED TO DEATH IN JAIL

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Stranger Sets Fire to His Cell in Dow City Bastille

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Evidently Smothered By Smoke and

Then the Body Burned –

Inquest Held

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Special to the Bulletin

DOW CITY, IOWA, Dec. 13, 1899.

An unknown man was burned to death in the Dow City lock-up Wednesday morning about five o’clock. The county coroner, M. N. Smith, was notified and came down on the morning train. He learned the following particulars: The deceased came into Dow City sometime in the evening Tuesday. He was about the depot at 11 o’clock seemingly intoxicated. The marshal put him in the city jail and built a fire for him, leaving him asleep in the cell, locked in. At two o’clock the marshal built up the fire and opened the cell door. At about five o’clock the building was discovered to be on fire, but no cries were heard.

The man was fairly well dressed in workingman’s clothes, rubber overshoes, and a soldier’s uniform. There were some cards and papers about him that may lead to his identification. That a man brave enough to be an American soldier would die in a hole like that seems very sad.

Photos taken 9-10-2016 still show that the woodwork around the stove was not as badly burned as the woodwork inside the cell where the unknown man's body was found

At eleven o’clock a coroner’s jury consisting of S.A. (Asa) Dow, F. S. Stone and E. H. Swasey were sworn in. The jury then viewed the body and examined the ruins of the calaboose [dungeon]. As no one knows the man, efforts of the jury were first directed toward the means of identification. He was found to be well dressed; a blue soldier’s uniform, overalls and wamus [loosely knit, belted cardigan jacket], blue woolen shirt and white undershirt, heavy course rubber overshoes covering good tan shoes of army build – about No. 7 in size. The body measured about five feet eight inches in height. The man had a light moustache. The scalp was entirely burned off, and the features unrecognizable. No money or valuables were found on his person.

In his pockets were found a railway ticket for some road in California, a soldier’s “house-wife”, a Cromwell’s Soldier’s Pocket Bible, and some employment office cards. One of these may lead to the identification of the deceased – that of Smyth’s Employment Agency, of Ogden, Utah, on which was endorsed the name “John Knapp, shipped to Kilpatrick Bros., Casper, Wyoming,” signed Roekelmer, Smythe”.

(Photos of Cromwell's Bible and Soldiers Housewife are illustrative only)

It was thought the fire was caused by the deceased, as there was nothing to show that the stove was not in proper repair, and the woodwork around the stove was not as badly burned as in the northeast corner.

THE JURORS’ VERDICT

After exhausting every point of information the jurors reported as follows:

The said jurors, on their oath do say:

We find that said deceased came to his death on the morning of the 13th day of December, 1899, at the town of Dow City, Crawford County, Iowa, by suffocation from heat and smoke caused by the partial burning of the Dow City jail, in which the deceased was at that time confined.

That in the judgment of the jury the fire was caused by the deceased, himself, either intentionally or by accident, started in a part of the said building remote from the stove. We further find that the probable name of deceased was John Knapp and former home, Danbury, Connecticut.

Coroner Smith still hopes to learn something of the man from someone in the places indicated on the partially burned cards he had in a little boon in his pocket. Should anyone reading this know anything of him they should communicate with Coroner Smith, Denison, at once.

The body was turned over to the undertaker at Dow City for burial on Thursday.