POISONED

On Friday last Emil Mathern, who resided on the bottom some three miles north of Blair, while working in the field, plowed or dug up some roots resembling parsnips, and eating of them himself, gave some to his boy who also ate of them. Returning home Mathern was taken violently ill and soon after died. On notification Coroner Pierce repaired to the place and next day held an inquest, the jury composed of Chris Rathmann, Rice Arnold, W. G. Harrison, John W. Tew, F. H. Matthiessen and Joe Cook. The inquest was adjourned over one day in order to give time for a post mortem examination of the stomach of the dead man, which was made by doctors Monroe and Noble and by this examination the wild parsnip theory was verified as the fresh roots were found therein, and the coroner’s jury found that “Emil Mathern came to his death by eating some poisonous roots while working in his field, not knowing the said roots contained poison”.

For a time after the death was reported there was strong suspicion of foul play because of the fact that the dead man’s wife is none other than the notorious Mrs. Bottenschein of some years ago, whose husband was killed, as alleged by her, through the window while sitting at the table eating. The case was wrapped in mystery, and though no evidence was found to disprove her statements, yet prevailing sentiment was strong that she killed Bottenschien herself and her subsequent action tended to confirm this sentiment. This sudden death of another husband was cause for grave suspicion to center on her. But evidently there is no grounds for it in this case, as she was in Blair the day of Mathern’s death and arrived at home just as he had unhitched his team and went into the house sick. The post mortem was for the purpose of ascertaining the facts as to the parsnip story told by the boy, and was confirmed so thoroughly as to completely exonerate her from suspicion.

~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair, Nebraska Public Library~~~