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History of Clayton County,
Iowa:... E Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Dick Barton. Elkins Murder Perhaps the most sensational crime in the history of the county occurred on Bear Creek, four miles southeast of Littleport, when Wesley Elkins, a boy under twelve years of age, killed his father, John Elkins, and his step-mother, in July, 1889. The crime was reported to the neighbors by the Elkins boy, who appeared, carrying the baby in his arms and declaring that some unknown man had entered the house that night and killed his father and mother. The verdict of the coroner's jury was that they had come to their death at the hands of some unknown person. The crime was so infamous that the governor offered a reward. A week later, John Wesley Elkins was arrested and held as a witness because of his statement that he was about to leave the county. His stories were found to be conflicting and, on August 1, he made a confession of the crime, as follows: "My name is John Wesley Elkins, and I was 12 years old on the 12th day of July. I had wanted to leave home and be at liberty to do for myself for a long time. I once ran away but father brought me home. Two or three days before the 10th of July I began planning to kill my parents, and when I came from milking on that night I went to the old granary and got the club which was found, and placed it on a chair in my room. About 3 o'clock in the morning I got up and went out of doors and looked all around, but saw no one. I then went into the bed room where father and mother slept and saw they were asleep. I went back to my room and took the rifle from the wall where father always hung it, and went back to their room and put the muzzle within about two feet of father's face and fired. I ran back to my room and threw the gun on my bed and grabbed the club which was on a chair near the door, ran back to their door and saw mother had jumped out of bed upon the floor and was stooped over as if to light a lamp, when I struck her on the back of the head with the club; she kind of sprawled backwards upon the bed, and I struck her several times more until I was sure she was dead, and then father kind of groaned and I struck him once or twice to be sure he was dead. After I was sure they were dead I lit the lamp and took it to my room and then went back and took the baby from their bed, and took off its bloody clothes and dressed it and quieted it. Then I started to load the rifle, but after getting the powder into the gun I could not find the balls and other things, and thought I was fooling round there too long, and went to the back door and knocked the powder out of the gun by the doorstep, and took the club and threw it out into the weeds. I then went and hitched up the old horses and took the baby and drove down by Potters and they stopped me." Elkins was tried, in January, 1890, and upon his confession was found guilty, but owing to his extreme youth he was sentenced to life imprisonment and capital punishment was not inflicted. A few years later it was reported that Elkins was a very dangerous prisoner with a homicidal tendency, and that he was the terror of the penitentiary. It was stated, however, that warden Madden took a great interest in his case and later it was reported that he had become a model prisoner. In 1898 an attempt was made to secure his pardon. this was opposed by the Elkader Register, which reprinted the confession as given above. This effort was unavailing, but other efforts were made which, though opposed in a strong speech by H. C. Bishop, the then senator from this county, were finally successful and Elkins has for many years been at liberty. He graduated with honors from the University of Minnesota , secured a position with a railway company and is now occupying a place of importance and trust, his career fully justifying his pardon. Ember Embretson
is a representative of the fine Scandinavian element of citizenship that has
contributed effectively to the material and civic development and progress of
Clayton county and though he is able to claim Norway as the place of his
nativity he has passed virtually his entire life thus far in Clayton county,
where he is a scion of an honored pioneer family and where he is a prominent
exponent of the fundamental industry of agriculture, his finely improved
homestead being eligibly situated in Wagner township, a short distance south of
the village of St. Olaf, though his greater prestige as an agriculturist lies in
his ownership of valuable landed estates I both Minnesota and South Dakota. He
has been for many years one of the well known and influential citizens of
Clayton county and for a period of twenty years he was successfully engaged in
the general merchandise business at St. Olaf, where also he served as
postmaster. As a sterling and honored citizen and influential man of affairs he
well merits recognition in this publication. Mr. Embertson was born in Norway,
on the 27th of July, 1849, and in the following year his parents, Ole and Goso
(Larson) Embertson came to America. They were numbered among the pioneer
settlers in Wagner township, Clayton county, Iowa, where the father passed the
remainder of his life as an energetic and substantial farmer, his wife likewise
having died on the old homestead place, and both having been earnest
communicants of the Lutheran church. Of their children the subject of this
sketch is the eldest; Lars is now resident of the State of Montana; Annie is
deceased; Johanna is the wife of W. Louis Larson and they reside in Minnesota;
Knute maintains his home at St. Olaf; Gunnell became the wife of Jacob Larson
and is now deceased; Henry is a prosperous farmer in Wagner township; Oscar is a
resident of Riceville, Mitchell county; and Ludwich is a representative farmer
of Wagner township, Clayton county. Reared under the conditions and influences
which marked the pioneer epoch in the history of Clayton county, Ember Embertson
attended the local schools when opportunity afforded and in the meanwhile he
gained invaluable experience in connection with the work of the home farm, with
the operation of which he continued to be associated until he had attained to
the age of twenty-two years. He then opened a modest general store at St. Olaf,
and from a small inception he built up a large and prosperous business, to which
he continued to devote his attention for a period of about twenty years, when he
retired from this line of enterprise, after having served during the greater
pert of this interval as postmaster of the village. While thus engaged in
business at St. Olaf Mr. Embretson purchased his present fine little farmstead
of sixty-six acres, a short distance tot he south of the village, and here he
erected his commodious and attractive modern residence, which continues as the
family home and which is a center of unostentatious hospitality and good cheer.
In South Dakota Mr. Embretson is the owner of a valuable estate of seven hundred
acres, and in the State of Minnesota he has four hundred and eighty acres, both
of these properties receiving on his part a general supervision. He is a
stalwart in the camp of the Republican party and has been influential in its
local councils and campaign activities. He served four terms as trustee of
Wagner township and has been notably liberal and progressive as a citizen. Mr.
Embretson is one of the substantial men of Clayton county and is a stockholder
and director of the St. Olaf Savings Bank. Both he and his wife are communicants
of the Lutheran church at St. Olaf. As a young man Mr. Embretson wedded Miss
Betsy Larson, of Reid township, and she is survived by four children - Geneva,
Parina, Adelia, and Ella. For his second wife Mr. Embretson wedded Miss Nellie
Hulgerson, who was born and reared in this county, and they have two children -
Phelman and Edwin, who remain members of the home circle. |