REPUBLICAN

August 6, 1886

 

A BRUTAL MURDER

 

Rev. G.C. Haddock shot down in the streets.

 

From the Oshkosh Northwestern.

            SIOUX CITY, Iowa, Aug. 4 – Rev. Geo. C. Haddock, pastor of the Methodist church of this city was assassinated last night in an unfrequented street which he had occasion to pass.  He was shot and died before he could be conveyed to his home. The assassin fled in the darkness and there is still no clue to the perpetrator of the terrible deed.  Since his coming here he has been an ardent supporter of temperance  and has waged a hot war against the saloons, assisting in the prosecutions  for violations of the prohibition law and speaking at temperance meetings. His fierce arrangement of the liquor traffic brought down upon him the hatred of the anti-prohibitionists and it now appears that previous threats had been made against his life.  The body will be taken to Wisconsin for burial.

            This morning F.C. Haddock, of the law firm of Houghton & Haddock, received a dispatch from Sioux City, Iowa saying that his father G.C. Haddock of that city, was shot down and instantly killed on the streets last night by an unknown assailant.  No particulars were obtainable and this afternoon Mr. Haddock left the city intending either to reach Sioux City in time to accompany the remains to Racine, where the interment will take place, or to meet the party in charge upon the road, as a dispatch was received saying that at Mrs. Haddock’s request the burial would be made at Racine.  Before leaving the city many of Mr. Haddock’s friends and acquaintances o his father’s called to express their sympathy.  The victim of the cowardly outrage was Rev. George C. Haddock, formerly of this city, and a man well known in all parts of Wisconsin, as at one time he was one of the most noted Methodist ministers in the state, his ability in the pulpit, and his untiring labors in the cause of temperance having given him a wide spread reputation. He was born in Watertown, New York, and received a partially collegiate education in the east.  His early life, however was fraught with many changes and experiences calculated to try the best of men.  At one time he was engaged in setting type at Columbus, Ohio where he experienced religion and became converted. Later he engaged in journalism and at one time published a newspaper at Sparta, in this state.  In 1860 he joined the Wisconsin Methodist conference.  After becoming a member of that organization he was stationed at Port Washington, Waukesha, Clinton Junction, Oshkosh twice, Ripon, Appleton twice, Fond du Lac, Racine, Milwaukee, Bay View, and presiding elder of the Fond du Lac district.  In 1881 he was transferred to the Iowa conference and was stationed first at Burlington, then Fort Dodge, and finally at Sioux City, the scene of his dastardly murder.

            When located in this city the first Methodist church was assigned to him, which was then situated where the First Presbyterian church now stands, and he was engaged in preaching there at the time of President Lincoln’s assassination.  In 1877 he was pastor of the Algoma Methodist church, and later returned here to take part in the celebrated Carhart trial in which he preferred charges against Mr. Carhart.

            The deceased was about 55 years of age and leaves a wife and one son, F.C. Haddock, of this city.  The cause of the shooting is assigned to the fact that Mr. Haddock was taking an active part in some 80 injunction suits against saloon keepers angered at his vigorous persecution, resorted to this cowardly means of getting rid of him.  He had always been a temperance war horse, and was so strongly combative and terribly true to his convictions that he was absolutely fearless and attacked without flinching every evil that stood in the way of a reform which he advocated.  He was without doubt, a man of extraordinary vigor of mind and his pulpit expressions were marked with a strength of intellect and keenness of perception seldom seen.  A history of his life while in Oshkosh would be replete with interesting reminiscences of a man who had the courage to say what he thought to be right and for the public good. It was while here he denounced the rebellion in such terms that there was some talk on the part of certain sympathizers with the south, of tar and feathering him, but those who did the talking did not dare to act, as they knew that single handed, Mr. Haddock did not fear them all.  The manner of his death has been the subject of conversation about the streets today.