On This Date in Minnesota History: November 26

November 26, 1880 – On this date, Mary C. Weishar was found guilty of the first degree murder of her husband this past April in Kasota, Minn. The Le Sueur County jury was out only three hours before they brought back their verdict, which was contrary to general expectation, but at the same time, said to be satisfactory to the public.

Mary’s claims of innocence, attributing her husband’s murder to the secret work of his personal enemies, were contradicted by a neighbor’s daughter who told the sheriff that she was visiting the Weishars on the Sunday of the murder, and that Mary proposed to her to go +off together and start a house of ill fame; that she said she was tired of living with her husband, intended to kill him, and for that purpose had bought a pistol, which she showed to the girl, saying that she had tried it on a board; she also said she would have killed him the preceding Saturday night, but two of her children were awake. The girl said that on the Sunday she was at Weishar’s, Mary gave her a bottle and money to get some whiskey at Smith’s nearby, but she was ashamed to ask for it and broke the bottle on her way home.

When confronted with what the girl had said, Mary is claimed to have sworn fearfully, called the girl a vile epithet, and said she would like to slash her. Mary admitted she had said some of things related by the girl, except where it implicated herself.

The board at which the girl said Mary fired was subsequently found, and had two holes made by pistol balls.

Mary was sentenced to the State penitentiary for life. “Until the establishment of the Shakopee State Reformatory for Women (1920) the Stillwater prison received female as well as male convicts.”¹

New Ulm Weekly Review; “Mrs. Weishar Convicted.” Dec. 1, 1880; p. 2.

The Northern Pacific Farmer; Wadena, Minn.; December 02, 1880; p. 7.

Daily Globe; “The Kasota Murder.  Arrest of Mrs.  Weishar on Suspicion of Having Killed Her Husband.”; St. Paul, Minn.; April 28, 1880; p. 1.

Daily Globe; “Two Lifers. A Man and Woman Each Convicted of Murder in the First Degree—They Pass Through St. Paul En Route to Stillwater—A Call Upon Them at the Depot.”; St. Paul, Minn.; December 4, 1880; p. 4.

¹http://libguides.mnhs.org/content.php?pid=483891&sid=3966450

http://www.kasotamn.govoffice2.com/

Murder of Mary Weishar’s husband; see April 11, 2015 blog

Mary Weishar delivers baby in prison; see May 7, 2016 blog

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