Bio: Ableitner Murderer found in Levis, Clark Co., Wisconsin

Contact: Janet

Surnames: Ableitner, Hurlbut, Schuster, Staley, Hurlbut, Lindsley, Leonard, McCullough, Whitman

----Source: Town of Levis 125th Book (Provided by Clark Co. "The Jailhouse Museum") – 1856 - 1981, Author unknown

History of Olmsted County, Minnesota, Together with Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers, Citizens, Families and Institutions – Joseph Alexander Leonard Courthouse

In 1864 the county commissioners had the erection of a new court house commenced , the business of the county having out grown the " old court house " on Broadway. The location of the new structure was the subject of a bitter controversy . Persons interested in property in the vicinity were urgent for its location alongside the old jail , the present site of Schuster's Brewery . The controversy was settled by locating it on the handsome lot of three acres in the addition to the city platted at that time by William McCullough , a wealthy Rochester dry goods merchant . The building , which was a very fine one for that time , was erected under the supervision of County Commissioner Hurlbut. It is a brick with stone trimmings , and with a narrow skirted figure of Justice on the dome . It has the lower story devoted to the county offices and the upper story a court room and anterooms . The upper part of the building was badly racked by the cyclone of 1883 , and several alterations have been made from time to time , adapted to the changes in the times , notably a handsome reconstruction of the court room a few years ago . The original cost of the building was $32,000 , and the sum had been saved from the tax levies of several years , so that no bonds or special tax was necessary for its payment . The new court house was finished and occupied in January, 1867. It is scarcely large enough for present uses , and some board of commissioners of not many years hence May expect to wrestle with the problem of providing for an ampler and more modern county building . Counties , as surely as boys , outgrow their clothes.

The commissioners established the county seat at Rochester and, from 1858 to 1866, met in a large two-story frame structure built by Charles Lindsley and leased to the county Jailhouse

One of the early built county buildings was the jail , a cheaply built and ugly structure of stone , located on Main street , south of College , in Rochester , with a small yard enclosed by a high board fence . It was not only primitive , but soon grew dilapidated , and in a few years was not only an unsafe storehouse for prisoners , but a most shabby house for a sheriff and his family. For several years every grand jury had reported it as disreputable , but it was not till 1886 that the county commissioners decided to build a new one. After a great deal of doubt as to a proper location they fixed upon the court house block as the most convenient , and in December , 1888 , the present jail was finished and ready for occupancy . It is a handsome two - story brick cottage , only a few rods from the court house , fitted up as a sheriff's residence in front and with one of the best steel celled jails in the state in the rear and capable of accommodating fourteen guests of the county , ' though there are seldom more than half a dozen of them . The county is remarkably free from criminality .

Murder

. A Murder--A murder of great brutality was perpetrated in the township on the night of October 29 , 1867. Frederick Ableitner and his wife , an inoffensive old German couple , lived on a farm about two miles west of St. Charles . Though apparently poor they were believed to have money received from Germany . John Whitman , a man with a family , living at St. Charles , had seen Ableitner , in paying some harvest hands , exhibit a sum of money and conceived the idea of robbing him . He took into partnership in the job two young men transient harvest hands , Charles Edwards and George W. Staley . On the night of the murder the trio filled up with whisky in a St. Charles saloon . Staley had a revolver and on the way to the farm they each cut a club . Whitman claimed that Edwards suggested that “ dead men tell no tales . " Arriving at the house , Edwards knocked at the door and told Ableitner that they had lost their way and inquired the road to Chatfield . On Ableitner opening the door Edwards knocked him down with his club , and on his trying to rise , Staley shot him . It is believed that three shots were fired at him . Edwards lighted a paper by which they saw the old man walking about the room , holding his hand to his side and groaning . These facts are gathered from a confession by Staley . Ableitner died in a few hours . He stated that there was only $ 15 in the house . The murderers were driven away by Mrs. Ableitner . A few days later Staley was arrested and examined by Justice Thomas Stevenson , who discharged him on the ground of insufficient evidence , but the citizens held an indignation meet and took means to employ a detective . Edwards disappeared immediately after the murder and Whitman and Staley left a few days after Staley's discharge . It is an interesting fact that Staley was put in charge of Whitman during the preliminary examination , he not being suspected at that time . About the time of their disappearance, D. J. Page , a Chicago detective , came to St. Charles to ferret the case . He traced Whitman through Wisconsin , Michigan pineries and brought him to the Rochester jail . Whitman pleaded guilty to murder in the third degree and was sentenced by Judge Barber to eight years imprisonment in the state penitentiary . His health broke down in prison and Governor Austin pardoned him after he had served about two years and a half of the term . Eight days after the arrest of Whitman , Staley was arrested in a lumber camp in the Wisconsin pineries . He was tried at Rochester on a charge of murder . County Attorney Start and Attorney

A logging camp

A logging camp on Black River presented to the spectator a combination of animated sights and sounds. Here, camped in log shanties, and with log stables for oxen and horse, were congregated together anywhere from twenty-five to nearly 100 men according to the size of the winter’s work laid out for them.

Some of the men would be engaged in cutting down the pine trees, and were called “choppers”, some were engaged in sawing the logs into lengths, varying from 12 to 18 feet, or more, the average being 16 feet. Others with oxen were busy skidding the logs and others called “teamsters” engaged in hauling the great loads of logs on immense sleighs from the skidway down to the river, where they would be unloaded either on the ice on the river, or else put on rollways on the river bank, from there at the opening of the river in the spring to be tumbled into the swift running current, the last work mentioned being called “breaking the rollways”. Before the logs were landed, they were marked on the bark on the side of the log with the owner’s log mark, and stamped on the ends of each log several times with what was known as the “end mark’. Each logger had his own number or mark, which was recorded in the lumber inspector’s office at La Crosse. Each “end mark” was different either in design or initial, no two being alike, and the purpose was to design a mark that could easily be cut upon the log with an axe.

With the coming of spring and the disappearance of the snow from the logging loads, labor in the forest came to an end. The loggers now turned their energies to the log drive. The rivers were freed of their imprisoning coat of ice and spring floods came to carry the logs to the mill. Unhappy the logger if his operations took him far upstream, if the melting snow and the spring rains produced only a slight rise of water. Then his logs were tied up, and he must wait for a more favorable year to carry then to market. However, when the river was high the men gaily set forth to break the rollways and to deliver to the swollen stream the harvest of the winter’s work. The drive was most picturesque as it was the most dangerous portion of the season’s operation. Down the ice-cold torrents thousands and thousands of logs went hurtling and surging, sometimes halting at an obstruction and piling up in ride masses then rushing on again in greater momentum.

A crew of men furnished with boats or bateaux, tents, blankets, and provisions would follow down the river behind the floating logs, and with pike poles and cant hooks tried to keep the immense sea of logs floating down the river in constant motion. Sometimes the logs would jam up against a rock or bridge pier and would extend more than half a mile up the river. The dexterity the men showed in accomplishing the break was marvelous. The work was done at the keystone of an arch bound and held the great mass together. The work was dangerous, and sometimes a daring fellow did lose his life. The work was well paid, n the late 1860’s and early 70’s, log drivers received from $6.00 to as high as $7.00 per day. No union labor there, nor eight hours a day work. The hours commenced at daylight and ended at darkness. Teamsters generally continued their duty long after daylight had gone, in the care and attention that was necessary to give their teams.

The boss of the camp was the foreman, but the real czar was the cook. He had a helper who was termed a taffel or cookee. When the meals were ready he announce “Grub pile”. The menu had a sameness about it that bordered on monotonous. Breakfast consisted of pork, beans (with or without vinegar), hot biscuits with molasses, tea and occasionally coffee. Dinner was the same except stewed dried apples were added to the menu. Supper was a duplicate of breakfast, except Sundays, when stewed prunes would appear on the menu. Salt, pepper, and mustard were served at all meals and were called knick knacks. When the logs were banked at the landings, they were visited periodically by a “scaler” who measured the logs with the Scribner rule, and estimated the number of feet in each log, afterward giving the owner a “scale bill” stating the number of logs scaled with their marks, and the number of board feet measure that they contained, and filed a copy of the same with the Lumber Inspector of La Crosse.