The Sioux City Journal Wednesday, July 15, 1925
INDIANS FEARED PONCA PIONEER.
Former Sheriff of Dixon County Remembers Stirring Days.
(Special Dispatch to The Journal.) Ponca, Neb., July 14. —
Fifty-nine years ago a young man brought his wife and seven children into Dixon County, Neb., and settled on a homestead eight miles northwest of Ponca, not far from the Missouri river.
That man, now more than 90 years old, was Mace B. DeWitt, third elected sheriff of Dixon County. He still resides on a section of his old homestead. Several unforgettable experiences happened to him while he was sheriff of the young county. He was elected to office in 1867.
Two stirring events worthy of special note took place in 1870. A young man named Mat Miller murdered an elderly man named Dunn two miles southeast of Ponca, for his money. The men had traveled on foot from Sioux City, Ia., and Mr. Dunn was on his way to buy a farm in Dixon County. The crime was committed on July 3. After the Fourth of July celebration, young Miller left Ponca. The same day a hunter discovered the body of the murdered man in a thicket.
Evidence substantiated the suspicion cast on Miller. Immediately Sheriff DeWitt started out to find his man. After a three weeks’ hunt, he found him in Council Bluffs, Ia., riotously gambling away the money of his victim. The Sheriff brought his prisoner back to Ponca in irons.
The people, impelled by the determination to see justice done at once, took Miller from the sheriff, and before a self organized and orderly tribunal held a trial for him in the old Lutheran church. The presiding man was Rev. H. Beardshear, father-in-law of Sheriff DeWitt. Miller confessed his crime, stating that he stabbed his victim many times, cut his throat and crushed his head with a club.
Vote for Hanging.
A vote was taken by the 500 persons assembled in the church as to whether the prisoner should be hung. There were only two dissenting votes. The minister, who had opened the investigation with prayer and had solemnly conducted the proceedings, sentenced the criminal to death. He was placed in a wagon and taken to the western edge of the town where he was executed from a gallows consisting of three scantlings joined at the top. The body was removed to the church and next morning buried.
Less than a month after that, Sheriff DeWitt arrested five Winnebago Indians for the murder of a man in Wayne County, then attached to Dixon for judicial purposes. On the day court was held, 200 Winnebagos arrived in Ponca, and whether or not Judge Crounse deemed it unhealthy to proceed with the trial, he transferred the case to Washington County. Sheriff DeWitt proceeded to take his prisoners there. Twice on the route, he was waylaid by the armed Winnebago’s, who insisted on the release of the prisoners, but the sheriff’s courage and firmness kept them away. The prisoners were tried at Blair, Neb., and sent to the penitentiary.
Mr. DeWitt is now blind, but well remembers those stirring days. He served as county sheriff for 10 years, and with the county board of supervisors for five years. He is still quite active.
