CARL FEICHTNER

On Monday last a farmer from Liberty came to the city and informed Dist. Attorney
Schmitz that a man named Feichtner a resident of that town had been found dead on
Sunday in a field. The man said he had shaved Feichtner and discovered no wound
but heard afterwards that there was a wound in the head. Mr. Schmitz requested
Coroner Luhman to go out and make an investigation. The funeral was to take place
on Tuesday morning at 9 o'clock but the doctor arrived there before that time,
having Harry Gilbertson with hm, so that a jury could be impaneled in case any
suspicious circumstances were discovered. An examination showed a wound in the head
through which the doctor thrust his finger. It was evidently made by a bullet. The
flesh gave evidence of having been burned with powder and the hair was singed thus
showing that the muzzle of whatever was used was held close to the head. The bullet
was found on the opposite side of the head just inside the skull. It was taken out
and placed in the possession of Justice Gilbertson who impaneled a jury.
Feichtner went out Sunday morning about the time people were going to church. He did
not return for dinner and in the afternoon his body was found. The theory is that he
committed suicide, but no gun, revolver or other weapon was found near the body and
the whole thing is surrounded by mystery. If it was suicide some person must have
picked up the weapon with which the deed was committed and concealed it.
The widow was very much opposed to an inquest's being held and protested against any
interference with the funeral arrangements. Feichtner is an old resident of Liberty
and owned a farm in the northern part of the town where he lived. For some years he
has been rather feeble.
LATER-The gun with which the deed was committed was found in a swamp which lies between
the house and the place where the body was found. The widow confessed that she had found
the body and the gun lying near. The people are quite religious and she feared that if
the fact was known that her husband had committed suicide Christian burial would be
denied him. She took the gun up and proceeded toward the house with it, but on a sudden
impulse threw it over the fence into the swamp.
The gun is a rusty old thing which had not been used for years. The missile it contained
was an old slug not a moulded bullet. The stock of the gun was covered with clotted blood
which trickled from the wound in the man's head. No one doubts the old lady's story as
Feichtner had often expressed the wish he was dead because of the bad state of his health.
He was 66 years old.
Manitowoc Pilot, June 16, 1892 P. 3
*********
Carl Feuchtner(sic)/b. -----/d. 12 June 1892/cause: shot by person unknown/
survivors: Mrs. Feuchtner & family/From the Trinity Lutheran church
records, Liberty twp.)