A MURDERER AMONG THEM

Denison Review – July 20, 1902

KILLED BY HOBOES

Milwaukee Brakeman Stabbed to Death at Arion, Iowa

Two Negroes are Supposed Perpetrators of Crimes.

Sheriff's Posse Captures One and is After the Other.

ARION Iowa, July 20 – Fred Powell, a brakeman on the Milwaukee railroad, was assassinated here at 2 o'clock this morning by two negro hoboes and received such injuries that he died on the train between here and Charter Oak.

The negroes were attempting to steal a ride when Powell discovered them and ordered them from the train. One of them became saucy and in the altercation that followed, Powell was stabbed between the short ribs. The negroes at once disappeared in the darkness and Powell was taken onto the train and it proceeded on its way to Charter Oak. Before reaching there he died and his remains were given into the charge of a local undertaker.

Arion Train Depot (Photo from Dow City-Arion Centennial Book)

In running from the train the two negroes met another hobo, a white man by the name of F.H. Pfeffer. They told him they had been in a quarrel with a “brakey” and hoped they had killed him. Pfeffer is held at Charter Oak as a witness.

The two negroes are known to have taken their supper at a restaurant here last night. After the trouble with the brakeman they walked to Dow City and took breakfast. There they learned that their victim had died and soon after separated, one going east and the other west from Dow City about 11 o'clock this morning.

At noon Sheriff Powell and a posse of men arrived at Dow City and started in search of the men. Part of the men went east and the other part went west. The party under Sheriff Bell went east and at 4 o'clock this evening captured one of the men in the high weeds on the banks of the Boyer river about two miles southeast of here [Arion]. He was at once taken to the county jail at Denison for fear of violence. The party which went west has not been heard from at a late hour tonight, but the men are instructed to stay in the hunt till they return with their man dead or alive.

Main Street, Arion (Photo from Dow City-Arion Centennial Book)

Fred Powell, the dead man, made his home in Sioux City, as his runs over the road made that point convenient for him. He was a single man and his parents live at Sanborn, Ia.

County Coroner Dr. W.B. Evans of Arion went to Charter Oak this afternoon to hold an inquest, but adjourned the hearing till 8 o'clock tomorrow morning in order to get witnesses.