THE ARGONAUTS.

"Lang Maun Your Lum Reek"

Forebears and Family History.

JANE CAMPBELL, Born 1821

Married

JAMES COCHRANE, 1840

The James Cochrane Family and Descendants

A Local History

Distance lends enchantment even to such dubious instances as six young blades from our best families who murdered the local banker. "The Meade Murder", when mentioned in Waupaca, brings up such wild tales that the original cast and their fate is buried in obscurity. A short trial immediately following the murder listed it as perpetrated by persons unknown.

One by one several of the lads left town. They do say one boy was hung in Arizona and his belongings shipped home. Another went to Mexico. It was reported one died of smallpox and a sealed box, supposed to contain his remains, was buried in Waupaca cemetery amidst arched eyebrows.

Meanwhile two active young brothers, the Williams boys, were elected sheriff. They felt they had enough evidence to convict the culprits. The second trial was reported in Metropolitan papers and the Waupaca Post published a daily paper recording the events at Court. Work of all kinds ceased for miles around. Wives and acquaintances testified as to the whereabouts of the accused on the night of the murder. One elderly woman testified she saw three of the suspects at sunrise, hitching up their horses and leaving town the morning of the murder. "How did she remember the time after all those years?" "I was taking a bath and looked out my window," she said. In calling her for re-examination, the second time, the Judge called out, "Where is the old lady who took the bath? Bring her in." After that she was known as "The old lady who took the bath."

Again the lads, now grown men in business, were acquitted. But they do say it took all the money their parents had, to pay the bill. Other tales grew up about the murder. When each of the suspects was on his deathbed, two friends spent that last week in his bedroom and no one else was allowed in, presumably in fear of death-bed confessions, though probably it was merely a friendly gesture.

The power and loyalty of the First Families is a wonderful thing. To the credit of our pioneer system of personal rehabilitation, the accused all became model citizens. Years later, it seemed as though a fifty-year old crime, encrusted by legend and old wives tales, had its horror considerably softened by television’s contribution of Jesse James, Baby Face Nelson and Billy the Kid crimes. It was then I suggested to Ray Pinkerton that I thought the time was ripe for a who-done-it or a movie, based on the "Meade Murder". I was going to write it. At once the old "first family" standard of a small town asserted itself.

"Why would you want to unearth a dead scandal that would hurt so many people and oldsters who are kin of those six unfortunate young men?" The matter was dropped, of course!

All this happened yesterday, if you ask me; but is pre-history if you ask my grandsons!

John Pinkerton married Mary Pinkerton of Salem, New York, in 1884. Aunt Mary told me that when she went to the depot in Salem to get her ticket to Waupaca, the agent tried to persuade her not to go to such a terrible place. He showed her a copy of the New York paper telling all about the Meade murder, proving that was no place for a young lady.