Alexander McArthur
22 YOA
West of train station
Davenport, IA
Scott County
September 5, 1899
On Labor Day morning of 1899 — Monday, September 4 — 22–year-old Cedar Rapids resident Alexander McArthur was in high spirits. After working for Rolla Jackson and saving his money, he had accumulated $60.
When he showed the cash to his father Martin McArthur, with whom he shared a home at 1001 South Fifth Street, the old man advised his son to deposit the money in a bank.
But Alexander had other ideas. He took the $60 and boarded an eastbound Excursion Train to Davenport. He planned to celebrate the holiday there and to take in the Johnson County Fair in Iowa City on the way home.
But, Alexander failed to return from his holiday trip and his father never saw him alive again.
On the evening of Tuesday, September 5, a Rock Island passenger train chugged slowly west out of the Davenport train station.
As it did, Mrs. Lena Aldine — who lived across from the tracks about 300 yards from the station — leaned out the window to watch it pass.
She saw two men on the rear platform. Just as they moved past her, one man pushed the other off into the path of an eastbound Chicago Rock Island and Pacific freight engine on the double track.
Then he jumped from the car and ran down East Fifth Street into the approaching darkness.
Lena Aldine informed the Davenport Police.
Officers found a man’s badly mangled body on the tracks. According to the Atlantic Weekly Telegraph, the victim was “literally ground to shreds” by the wheels.
Officer Adam Staffenbiel took charge of the body until the Scott County Coroner could be summoned.
The body was taken to Boles Undertaking Parlor and put on display, along with the man’s personal effects: a return ticket stub to Cedar Rapids, two nickels, and a linen shirt collar marked “J. McA.”
Curious townspeople filed through the funeral home on Wednesday. The Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette cynically noted:
“All day yesterday many people called there for the purpose of identifying the remains or one pretext or another.”
By the time the man’s belongings were bundled up by the undertaker, one of the nickels had been stolen as a ghoulish keepsake.
Because the victim’s return ticket was to Cedar Rapids, Davenport authorities telegraphed the man’s description to City Marshal Joseph Kozlovsky there.
Shortly afterwards on the street, Marshal Kozlovsky happened onto Martin McArthur, who told him his son Alexander went to Davenport and did not return.
Courtesy photo findagrave.comKozlovsky informed Martin about the unidentified murder victim in Davenport.
Martin McArthur — assuming that Alexander was wearing his brother’s shirt, thus the mark “J. McA” on the collar — sent a detailed telegram to authorities describing his son.
A match was made.
On Wednesday, September 6, Marshall Kozlovsky accompanied Martin McArthur and his daughter Catherine McArthur Alt by train to Davenport, where they identified the victim as their son and brother, Alexander.
At 3:00 a.m. on Thursday, the family left with the body for Cedar Rapids and burial took place that day in Linwood Cemetery.
Police reported to the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette their speculation about what happened to the victim:
“McArthur fell in with some fellow to whom he foolishly exhibited his roll on Monday and who induced him to stay over the night.”
Officials believed the companion then robbed McArthur and pushed him off the train to cover his crime.
On Thursday, September 6, Scott County Coroner Dr. Fredrick Lambach convened an inquest at the funeral home; the hearing took up most of that day and the following Saturday.
The Cedar Rapids Gazette published the results of law enforcement’s investigation:
“[McArthur] was in company with another stranger while in the city, whose name seems to be Wellsley. Together they visited the resorts in the lower part of town and it is reported that money was freely spent.
A report is also in circulation to the effect that he made the remark in one of the houses that he would not spend any more money as he was nearly ‘broke,’ and that he would have to save enough to get back to Cedar Rapids.”
Although investigators could not find Wellsley, a man named L.M. Johnson claimed he was still in town and was telling people his “pal” was run over by the train.
Lena Aldine insisted to the coroner’s jury that she saw the victim and the man who pushed him standing on the rear platform of the train. She also said she was put out of her house by a “colored woman” because she “had talked too much” about the incident.
With the help of Officer Adam Stuffenbiel, she located that woman — Mrs. Matilda Marshall — and another woman, Miss Mattie Marshall, who were brought before the jury. Their statements seemed vague to jurors, as if the two were hiding something.
However, Davenport resident C.A. Carlson’s testimony contradicted Lena Aldine’s. He claimed to be sitting in front of the Kyle Saloon on Fifth Street between Brady and Perry as the train pulled away from the station.
Carlson said a man boarded the third car from the front and that a few yards west another man got on the same car. Then a man wearing a white uniform came out of the car, an arm was extended, McArthur fell off to the south, and the other man jumped from the train to the north.
Carlson’s assertions led to the investigation of a black train porter, George Slater; and some newspapers incorrectly reported that Slater confessed to shoving McArthur off because he didn’t have a ticket.
George Slater testified that he rode the platform of the mail coach as the train pulled out of the station and remained there, looking for tramps, until it reached Brady Street, where he jumped off and permitted the smoker car to pass and then got back on.
Slater claimed he knew nothing of the death until he returned to Davenport the next morning.
James Baker, a Why Store [sic] employee, corroborated Slater’s testimony, having seen the porter get off at Fifth and Brady and then back on further down the train.
The railroad company, moreover, stated no train employee wore a white uniform.
George Slater was cleared and let go.
Another witness, Davenport cigar maker Joe Hendel, said he jumped off the smoker about 30 feet east of where McArthur was killed but knew nothing was amiss until a crowd gathered. He insisted that McArthur did not fall off the rear of the train.
On Saturday, September 8, the jury — composed of Layton R. Ackley, Charles M. Wittig, and John D. Tichenor — released their ruling:
“The deceased came to his death by being run over by an East [sic] going freight of the C.R. I. and P., Sept. 5, 1899, at about 9:15 o’clock.”
The jury did not rule the death accident, suicide, or homicide.
Martin McArthur asked Cedar Rapids insurance adjustor James LeGore to investigate his son’s death.
LeGore traveled to Davenport to interview coroner’s jury witnesses and others, hoping to establish that Alexander McArthur was pushed from the train by a porter.
The investigator was particularly charged with locating Alexander McArthur’s mysterious companion Wellsley to confirm the porter theory.
LeGore learned that the friend’s name was actually Ellsey Riley. He searched for Riley in Davenport and then traveled to Albany, Illinois, on the east side of the Mississippi River to locate L.M. Johnson, who supposedly knew where Riley was.
LeGore admitted that Riley probably would not be found and was making himself scarce for fear of implication in the death.
Questions and information about the unsolved 1899 murder of Alexander McArthur should be directed to Iowa Cold Cases through the Contact form.
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