Iowa County in Iowa
Frank Searaway
43 YOA
Rural Millersburg, IA
Iowa County
May 8, 1911
Frank Searaway lived alone about six miles northwest of Millersburg, Iowa, and disappeared on or around Sunday, May 7, 1911. For some time, neighbors thought he’d gone to see his sister in Benton County, but began to worry when he stayed gone so long.
They wrote his sister to inquire about him.
When the sister replied that Frank had not been there, a number of men organized a search party and set out to find him.
They found Searaway buried in his stable with three bullet holes in his head and his skull crushed in. Townsfolk believed he’d been killed for the purpose of robbery.
Millersburg in Iowa County
Searaway’s remains were interred Sunday evening, July 9, by the township trustees in the Longstreth Cemetery.
Searaway, who was born May 23, 1867, was survived by his sister, Francis (Mrs. Henry Paul).
The Williamsburg Journal-Tribune referred to Searaway as “a harmless, inoffensive man, living alone and troubling no one,” and called his death “one of the worst tragedies in the annals of Iowa County.”
In another article dated July 27, 1911, the Journal-Tribune wrote:
By the process of development it is quite likely that the officials may uncover the dastardly crime. The old theory that “Murder will out” has held good in every case since Cain’s and there is every reason to believe that the Lincoln township murder will not prove an exception.
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