Ernest Fee, Law Man

Ernest Fee, 1939

WILLIAM MILLER > MILO VOLNEY MILLER > ALMIRA MILLER > WILLIAM HENRY FEE m (1) Lillis HOAGLAND > ERNEST FEE

We've covered Milo, Almira, and one of today's subject's half-nephews, Vernard, in the past week or so. William Henry Fee married twice. The first marriage was to Lillas R Hoagland, daughter of Mr & Mrs Silas and Francis Hoagland. They married 01 Jan 1885 in Linn County.

The couple had two children: Bessie and Ernest. Bessie would find herself  living with her Hoagland grandparents in 1900, at age 12. She would go on to marry twice and died 23 Sep 1969 in Orange County, California.

Her father William remarried in 1897 and had nine more children and then was divorced again. In 1900, Ernest Sidney Fee was living with his father.

By 1910, Ernest was living in Custer, South Dakota with his bride, Melinda "Linnie" Roseberry, whom he had married 16 Feb 1910 in Custer. Ernest's mother Lillas lived in Custer in a different residence. She died in Custer on 10 Feb 1914.

Ernest and Linnie moved to Omaha in 1911 and Ernest joined the Omaha police department. By 1923, he had worked his way up to sergeant.  In early September 1923, Fee and three other members of the "morals squad" were called to account after a warrantless search of the premises of Charles Nejetinsky. Think back to those crazy days of prohibition and you'll have a good picture of what life was like for Ernest, who appears to me to be very serious about his work.

SUSPENDS POLICEMEN WHO RAID RESIDENCE
OMAHA, Sept 4 - A police sergeant and three other members of the "morals squad" were suspended by the city council this morning following charges by Charles Nejetinsky that his premises was searched without warrant. He alleges damage to upset furnishings resulted from the raid.

The suspension resulted when Sergeant Ernest Fee failed "to answer summons for a hearing of the charges and will be in effect pending investigation."
Lincoln Star
Tuesday, September 4, 1923, Lincoln, Nebraska

He was reinstated after a 60-day suspension on 01 Nov 1923 and was assigned to patrol duty. He soon after secured a job as a Douglas County deputy sheriff and would remain so for the next 25 years. The shennanigans that got him into trouble with the OPD followed him to his next job, still,

Linnie Roseberry Fee

with little repercussion.

OFFICERS CHARGED WITH OPPRESSION
Omaha, Jan 20 - Deputy Sheriff Ernest Fee, found guilty of two charges of assault in connection with alleged "beating up" of persons during liquor raids, was fined $100 on each count by Judge Bryce Crawford in county court and posted bond for Fee's release.
The hearing on similar charges of "oppression under color of office" while conducting liquor raids in Douglas county, filed against Dan Phillips and postponed because of the defendant's illness. Federal agent Samardick and Schmidt will be arraigned in federal court on the same charges.
Beatrice Daily Sun
Wednesday, January 21, 1925, Beatrice, Nebraska

In mid-March 1951, Fee was named the deputy in charge of the county jail after two criminals busted out of the jail in early March. The former jailer was moved to the records bureau. Ernest remained in this position until the end of his career. He retired in about 1955 at age 69. He was the sheriff department's oldest deputy. He then went into private security.

3384 Grant St, North Omaha

The Fee's lived at 3384 Grant St in North Omaha. His wife Linnie preceded him in death of cancer on 05 Nov 1964 in Omaha. Fee died at the age of 86 in Omaha in early November 1972, where he resided at the Evans Towers in North Omaha. His two daughters, Lola Brittain and Theresa Cooper survived him.

A Murderous Aside: A Little Murder, this Way Comes
Deputy Fee made the news from time to time for all types of incidents, including traffic accidents, petty crimes, and an infamous long murder trial involving an Arizona horse trainer and a Tucson heiress. He provided critical testimony in the murder trial that caused a stir in the courtroom and may well have been one of the key elements to the case's outcome.This was in the case of the murder of Tuscon heiress Ardath (Noni) Kuykendall for which her husband of 3 months, horse trainer and blacksmith, Joe Kuykendall stood trial.

"There was a little flurry late in the session when Deputy Sheriff Ernest Fee testified

under cross examination that he "did not" see any mark or cut on Kuykendall's hands when he fingerprinted him the morning after Mrs Kuykendall's death.

Fingerprinting Shown
Controversy over the alleged "scuff marks" and "cut" had stalled the trial for two days earlier after a former deputy sheriff testified to them and then when confronted with a report of a county attorney's conference, said he did not at first recall the marks and cut but was reminded of them by another witness.

Defense Attorney Hugh Boyle stepped into the jury box Wednesday and had Fee demonstrate - using Boyle's hand - just how he takes the print of each finger and finally the whole hand. Then he asked him if he saw the marks on Kuykendall's hands. Fee replied, "I did not."

Cedar Rapids Gazette, Thursday, December 10, 1953, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

On 14 Jan 1953, Kuykendall was found "not guilty" after 29 hours of deliberation in one of the longest trials ever in Douglas County. Mrs Kuykendall was beneficiary of a 26-million dollar trust fund originally set up by her great grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Smith, who was said to be the wealthiest man in New England when he died in 1927. Her life income from this trust fund was estimated to be about $85,000 per year. A will executed 13 days before her death named Kuykendall principal beneficiary to Mrs Kuykendall's personal estate. The 34 year old horse trainer and blacksmith from Arizona, had come to Omaha for the horse racing season at Ak-Sar-Ben. They had been married three months and were living in a luxurious trailer so they could watch their string of horses compete. The defense claimed the wife was intoxicated and fell and hit her head, causing her death. Within two weeks of his acquittal, he filed on her $200,000 life insurance policy, taken out less than two weeks before she died. Thirty-year-old Ardath (Noni) Kuykendall was married eight times with two children by different fathers. The custody was awarded to the fathers after her death. Kuykendall lost his attempt to get the trailer they were traveling in - it went to her estate. He would be shot to death in 1958 while trying to run another man down on a horse at a race track in Texas.

Patience Meeker's Surviving Child: Almira Miller

WILLIAM MILLER m Loraine Fountaine > MILO VOLNEY MILLER m (1) Patience Meeker > ALMIRA MILLER m George Fee

Last time, I talked about the very successful Milo Volney Miller of Center Point. Early on, he was married to a woman he met during the time he was working in the logging camps in NW Pennsylvania, Patience Meeker. She had two children, one dying as an infant, and Almira, born 23 Sep 1844. Patience died in Indiana prior to 1849 and Milo remarried.

Death Mention Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette

On 29 Mar 1863, Almira married George W Fee in Linn County Iowa. George was the son of George Fee and Abigail Means, who married in North Carolina, but were both Virginia natives who came to Iowa with the earliest wave of settlers.

The couple had three children. In the late 1890s, Almira became ill and remained so until her death on 27 Feb 1898.

Her husband George had his share of troubles during his lifetime. In October 1900, he was arrested and later convicted of assault on one Nicholas Zabosky. He lost on appeal as well and finally received a fine of $10 and three days in jail unless the fine was paid immediately. Zabosky later sued him for $2,000 in civil court for the assault. The outcome of that case is not known.

The year previously, he was pulled up in front of his church council for a church law court session which was highly unusual in the day:

CHURCH LAW COURTNovel Case Heard and Disposed of Before Elder AlbrookPresiding Elder Albrook of the Marshalltown district of the Methodist church last week conducted a court in Tama county that is somewhat novel in church procedure. Some years ago a Mrs Head requested her neighbor and brother in the church George Fee, to attend a sale and bid on an eighty-acre farm in her interest. This she claimed he agreed to do. He attended the sale and bought the farm, but was so well pleased with the bargain that he concluded to keep the land for himself. he contended that he was not acting as the agent of Mrs Head and that he was representing himself. The transaction and the talk that followed made trouble in the church, and the trouble grew perhaps faster than the membership and resources of the local body. Mrs Head claimed that the land was worth $5 per acre more than her agent had paid and as he had kept the land, she maintained that she had been defrauded of $400. The pastor in charge at the time, Rev Lee, concluded that he would put a stop to the talk if not to the trouble, and ordered a trial inside the church. five men were chosen, according to the rules of the denomination, to hear the case, attorneys were selected from the membership and Elder Albrook presided. At the close of the trial, Mrs Head was awarded $380. The case is peculiar in that it substitutes church procedure for civil court procedure.
Cedar Rapids Evening GazetteMonday, April 17, 1899, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Still, luck occasionally came his way. In late 1904, a vein of coal was discovered on his property at a depth of 100 feet. It was discovered while digging a water well on his farm in Tama County.

Fee died 12 Jul 1909 in Linn County.

Almira's children:

William H Fee was born in Mar 1864 and first married Lillas R Hoagland on 01 Jan 1885 in Linn County. They had two children before divorcing. Lillas died 10 Feb 1914 in Custer, South Dakota. I'll be revisiting the children of this marriage. His second wife, Isadora "Dora" Fanning was the mother of his next nine children. Married in 1897, it appears they divorced prior to 1925. William died 30 Mar 1928 in Waterloo, Black Hawk County, Iowa. Dora died in 1954.

Cynthia Abigail "Abbie" Fee was born in Nov 1865. She married William P Cress on 03 Oct 1886 in Linn County. They adopted one child, Leo, who was born 27 Aug 1890 to John Cress and Ida Cox.

Short Horn Cattle

William, born in 1863, died 09 Nov 1944 in Center Point. Abbie died 17 Mar 1951 also in Center Point. Leo would spend his entire adult life working on the Waterloo, Cedar Falls, and Northern Railroad.

Wesley Bartlett was born 15 Jul 1867 in Linn County. He married Estella C Cox on 23 Mar 1892 in Linn County. Bart was very fortunate to have survived a case of typhoid fever in 1886. They had four children, two of whom died as young children. I'll visit back on their surviving son another day. Bart farmed successfully, building a large, beautiful residence in 1912. Along with short-horn cattle, Fee raised American Poland-China hogs. Just prior to selling his farm in 1932, his farm was damaged by a serious storm in May of 1932, destroying a brooder house; falling timbers killing many young chicks and rain drowning others. He still maintained a stockyard, where he died of a heart attack while working in 1934. His wife also died in 1934.