Mysterious Disappearance Part 1

“There seems to be something in communities, at times, which impels its citizens to the same course of action. Thus we sometimes see an epidemic of crimes of various degrees. We do not find any of these in Warren county but we have found that one township has furnished three cases of mysterious disappearance, while no other section of the county, so far as we have been able to discover, gives so much as even a single case.

These are located in Richland township. Benjamin Phillips came from Indiana in the fall of 1845, and was still a resident in 1851. In the latter year he suddenly disappeared. He was working in the timber, splitting rails, when he got into some sort of difficulty with Andrew Shetterley, so he fired away with his maul and knocked Shetterley down. The latter cried out that he was killed, and Phillips thought, evidently, that it was time for him to leave the country.

Shetterley’s experiences were amusing considered in the light of his ultimate recovery. He was carried home, and it was supposed for many days that he would certainly die. Every once in a while he would call in friends to his side and in the most earnest as well as in the most agonizing terms, remark, “Oh, God, friends, don’t I die hard; did you ever see anybody suffer as I do?”

It was, however, only a few days until he was perfectly well. Phillips had given the power of attorney for the sale of his property to a man named Hinton, and soon after the former’s disappearance, he (Hinton) began to sell the most desirable of his land, except forty acres of indifferent quality, which he gave to the Phillips family. There were also rumors in the neighborhood, many years after, that Hinton had shot Phillips in the woods, north of Hartford.

Hinton soon sold out his property, and went west, with the great Oregon emigration, and died many years ago. Phillips was never heard of for a certainty, and it is one of the mysteries which humanity is not able to solve.”

From THE HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY, IOWA, containing a history of the Counties, its Cities, Town, etc. 1879