John Gheen Indicted for the 1848 Murder of Amos Condit

The next court term was held April 24, 1848. The grand jury having been summoned, they retired, and presently returned with an indictment against John Gheen for the murder of Amos Condit. The Court required Gheen to give bond in the sum of $4,000, but not being able to do so, he was remanded to Keosauqua to await trial.

The witnesses, Silas W. Condit, Alpheus P. Hawes, Josiah Merritt and Levi Galloway then gave recognizance to appear as witnesses at the trial. The cause was, however, terminated May 14, 1849 by the Attorney for the State declining to prosecute, and the prisoner was discharged from custody, by William McKay, then Judge.

This murder was committed at "Trader's Point," just below Council Bluffs, probably in March, 1848. There had been trouble in that settlement in regard to a division fence, and Gheen and a few other choice spirits had assembled to remove the fence.

Condit was a shoemaker, and seeing the squad assemble, repaired to the spot in his shirt sleeves to see what the trouble was about. As he approached, Gheen raised his rifle and shot him dead. Gheen afterward claimed that he believed Condit was approaching with hostile intentions.

The reason of the indictment having been quashed is said to have been that Mahaska County, and not Appanoose, had jurisdiction of the case.

Gheen returned to Trader's Point after his release, soon after which he disappeared, and Mr. Stratton, who visited Council Bluffs a year or two afterward, was informed that Gheen had "gone cat-fishing," meaning thereby that Condit's friends had revenged his death by making an end of Gheen, and depositing his remains in the turbid Missouri.

It was an uncomfortable matter for the poor tax-payers of Appanoose, for the costs aggregated about $250.

The following persons composed the grand jury at this term: George W. Perkins, James Hughes, David Bealer, E. A. Packard, Ephraim Sears, James Wright, John Overstreet, John Felkner, S. N. Sales, Jonathan Scott, Joseph Jump, Henry Allen, Edward Bryant, William Bryant, Lindsey W. Spooner, Anthony Williams.

The attorneys who attended at this term were: J. C. Knapp and Augustus Hall, Keosauqua; Samuel Summers, Ottumwa; "Peg-leg" Perry and Samuel McGaharan, Bloomfield. They were fed and housed by Powers Ritchie and A. Packard.

The Court House not having been completed, court was held at Wadlington's store, and the juries deliberated in James Hughes' blacksmith-shop.

History of Appanoose County, Iowa, 1878
Submitted by Cathy Danielson