Minnesota Weekly Times

The Lynching of De Bar.—We have already
given an account of the lynching of this unfor-
tunate man. We quote further from the time he
was remanded to prison for a new trial till he
was killed. He is leaving the Court House:
The officers at once took him by the shoulder,
the detachment from Ozaukee closing around
them, and thus, pushing through the crowd, they
reached the door, where the rest of the Ozaukee
company and the Milwaukee company were sta-
tioned. So they advanced, the crowd coming af-
ter, when suddenly a rush was made by not more
than 20 or 25 men upon the center of the line, and
the troops, without a blow struck or a gun fired,
or any resistance whatever, (save by Lt. Begar,
of the Ozaukee Company who behaved well,) fell
back and abandoned the prisoner to the fury of
the mob! De Bar was instantly felled to the
ground; while lying with his face downward, he
was struck by a large stone upon the head, crush-
ing in the skull, while one fiend, more brutal
than the rest, jumped with his full force upon the
body! The poor wretch was doubtless dead from
the blow of the stone. A rope was attached to his
legs, and the body dragged by the yelling de-
mons some half a mile, the garments being strip-
ped from the body as it went, and then, mangled
and bleeding, it was hung to a tree, head down-
wards.
There seems to be little doubt that if the troops
had acted like men, the result would have been.
different; but there is less room to doubt that
nearly all the military sympathised with, or ac-
tually fraternized with the mob. Orders were
given to the troops to have no intercourse with
the excited people, but attend to their duty. This
was disobeyed, and most of the troops, as they
were alternately relieved, left the Court House,
and went away to drink beer with the rioters
again and again.
The following account of the murder is more
minute than any we have yet seen:-
On the 31st, Muehr, who owed De Bar $1.50.
for which he was directed to call on the next
Sunday, informed a Mr. Young in presence of
De Bar, that he had just sold a yoke of oxen for
$60. On the next night De Bar went to Muehr's
house and demanded his $1.50. In the conversa-
tion, Muehr proposed to give De Bar a drink of
beer, and went down cellar to get it.
On returning from the cellar, and when about
half his body was above the floor, he handed the
beer to De Bar, who took it in his left hand, at
the same time striking Muehr on his head with
some weapon he had in his right. Muehr fell
down the cellar, but soon arose and had another
scuffle with De Bar, who struck him several
more blows. Muehr caught him by the hair, but
was soon obliged to let go his hold.
In the mean time Muehr's wife had got up from
bed and started for help. DeBar gave chase,
and caught her a short distance from the house,
where he inflicted several dangerous wounds upon
her throat and neck with a knife, and as is sup-
posed, left her for dead. He then went again to
the house, saw Muehr and gave him chase.—
Muehr secreted himself in a corn field, and there-
by evaded another assault. DeBar's attention
was next directed to Paul Winderling, who was
also in the field, shrieking for assistance. DeBar
caught him but a short distance from the place
where was secreted Mr. Muehr. The lad called
on Muehr for help exclaiming:
"John! John, help me, or I shall be murdered!"
But Muehr was stunned, and too weak or fright-
ened to help. He then entreated the murderer to
spare him, saying:
"Oh, George!
don't
-let me live!
don't kill me!"
But his entreaties were unheeded—with a pock-
et knife, the brute, demon like, cut his throat in-
flicting a deadly wound!
Muehr then started across the field for the house
of a neighbor, where he arrived without being
further molested. Here he found his wife, who
had just arrived, having gained sufficient strength
to walk the distance.
The alarm was then given, and the house was
found in flames, and the murderer gone.