Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/178

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J. R. Sovereign; Supreme Judge, M. J. Jones; Superintendent of Public Instruction, S. L. Tipton.

The Prohibitionists placed in nomination V. G. Farnam for Governor and W. C. Caldwell for Lieutenant-Governor.

The Republican candidates were elected by a plurality of from 16,000 to 20,000.

On the night of August 3d, 1886, an actrocious murder was perpetrated in Sioux City which aroused the indignation of the public, not only in Iowa but throughout the country. Rev. George C. Haddock, pastor of the First Methodist Church of Sioux City, had for a long time been the most energetic and fearless prosecutor of violators of the prohibition liquor law in that city, where the saloon keepers were persistent and habitual defiers of law and order. He had secured the conviction of a number of the persistent lawbreakers and was untiring in his efforts to close the resorts of this character. He was warned by letters containing threats of personal violence unless he desisted from trying to enforce the law against the saloon business. But he was fearless and conscientious in the crusade against the traffic, refusing to be intimidated. On the evening of the assassination the Rev. Mr. Haddock with Rev. C. C. Turner procured a livery team and drove to Greenville, returning about 10 o’clock, when Mr. Haddock drove alone to the stable. As he started towards his home he observed several men standing on the sidewalk near a saloon. As he started to cross the street a shot was fired from the group which pierced his neck killing him almost instantly. The murder caused intense excitement and indignation and the next evening a public meeting was held, crowding the court-house. The respectable citizens expressed their abhorrence of the cowardly crime and large rewards were offered, to which Governor Larrabee added a reward in behalf of the State. Detectives were employed and every effort possible was made to discover the assassin and evidence to convict him. But the