Gunshot Mystery: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “In the News”

 

Fred Macbeth Victim of Shooting in Mankato

Fred Macbeth: 1873-1906 (Maternal First Cousin 3x Removed)

 

Fred Macbeth had a short life, dying at the age of only thirty-two. He left few records behind, but there was one tantalizing hint that he enjoyed what time he had—that he might have been a bit wild. At age 26, he was the victim of a shooting—not in the more crime-ridden big city of St. Paul, where he was living and working, but back in his sleepy hometown of Mankato, Minnesota. Fred was in the news, and the news wasn’t good!

Fred Macbeth was born September 1, 1873, in Mankato, Minnesota to parents Collin Macbeth and Ellen Downing Macbeth. He was the fifth of their six children, and the youngest of their four sons. His father, Collin, died when he was ten years old.

By 1893, Fred was living in St. Paul, Minnesota, working as a laborer and boarding in someone’s home. I have found no 1900 census record for him. But he did appear in the newspapers the year before.

The first article, dated October 18, 1899, reported that Fred was shot in the left leg by a man named Alois Getzell. The article states Fred was “on his way to the home of his brother.” (See No. 1, below.) Two of his brothers, Charles and John H. Macbeth, were living in Mankato at the time, so he could have been intending to visit either of them.

The shooter apparently panicked, “supposing Macbeth and companion were going to hold him up.” What was Fred doing at the time to convince Mr. Getzell that he was in danger? And who was Fred’s companion? The article went on to state that Fred’s wound could be fatal, and that he was visiting friends in Mankato, but lived and worked in South St. Paul for “commission merchants” Tomlinson & Stafford.

The follow-up article, dated November 1, 1899, left me with more questions. (No. 2, below) The shooter “was allowed to plead guilty to assault in the third degree and paid a fine of $15.” Quite a light sentence for a shooting on a public street. “Both parties were considered at fault, and Mr. Macbeth was not seriously injured and did not care to prosecute Getzel, who is an old man.” This makes it sound like Fred really was threatening to rob the old fellow! The article noted that Getzel was drunk at the time. I would wager Fred had been drinking as well. 

There are no further records for Fred until his marriage on January 13, 1904 to a young woman named Addeline “Addie” Leseman. Fred was thirty; Addie was just twenty-one. After the marriage, the couple moved to South Dakota, where they appear on the South Dakota State Census in 1905. Fred and Addie were living with Fred’s brother Collin and Collin’s wife Mamie on the farm Collin homesteading.

Fred's 1905 South Dakota Census Record

Tragically, just a year later on January 26, 1906, Fred died in South Dakota. I have found no death record indicating his cause of death. Addie filed probate papers in Minnesota as his executor. 

Fred's probate record following his death in 1906

She seems to have moved back to Minnesota following his death. She may have been ill herself and needed to live with her parents in Blue Earth County, since she died August 26, 1907 of tuberculosis at the tender age of twenty-three. (See No. 4 below) She is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Mankato, as is Fred. They are probably buried together, but there is no marker for her grave so I can’t be certain.

Addie Macbeth's death record: cause of death listed as end stage "tubercular consumption".

Without two small news items about Fred’s altercation with an old, frightened man with a gun, Fred’s life would have passed in obscurity. To family historians like me, the sum of his life would have been his birth, a few census records and a headstone. He left no children, and even his widow died shortly after his untimely death. Thanks to the newspaper, I have a glimpse into his real life: that of a young man who cared enough about his family and friends to travel nearly one hundred miles to visit them, but who may have been a little wild and out of control that night in October 1899, leading to a dangerous encounter in a quiet Minnesota town.  

 

Sources:

 

1.       Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN. Oct. 18, 1899 issue. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

2.       Minneapolis Journal, Minneapolis, MN. Nov. 1, 1899 issue. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

3.       "South Dakota, State Census, 1905", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MM4B-ZN1 : Sat Jul 20 04:06:03 UTC 2024), Entries for Addie Macbeth and Fred Macbeth.

4.       "Minnesota, Deaths and Burials, 1835-1990", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FD41-6MR : 16 January 2020), Addie Leaseman McBath.