Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Herman, Ludwig September 12, 1897
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Pat Blood pat.blood@gmail.com April 4, 2010, 1:36 pm

Belding Banner – Thursday, 16 September 1897
The township of Orleans has furnished a number of sensations in the annuals of 
crime during the past twenty years, but none so cold blooded and mysterious as 
the one which occurred last Sunday morning at a very early hour.  Ludwig 
Herman, an inoffensive German, aged 69 years, was the victim of a most brutal 
murder.  He was an old soldier, a member of Wm. H. Borden Post of Ionia and 
had left his little farm about seven miles southeast of this city near the 
Pitt farm, Saturday morning, and went to Ionia where he drew his pension, 
amounting to $24.  Being a man of jovial disposition and addicted to the 
unfortunate habit of drinking intoxicants, he remained in the city all day and 
visited several saloons.  Late in the afternoon he purchased some groceries, 
paid some small bills he was owing to different merchants and was seen around 
the city as late as 12:15 o’clock, at which hour he endeavored to get lodging 
at the American and Union hotels and was last seen by Mr. Callow proprietor of 
the latter, as he was crossing the street after banging on his door.  He was 
refused admittance because of his condition.  It is supposed he then started 
for home on foot, probably reaching there between one and two o’clock Sunday 
morning.

Herman lived alone in a small house back from the road and besides farming in 
a small way, made chairs and baskets, which he sold through the country.  
Isaac Waite was the nearest neighbor and was also a good friend of his.  Not 
noticing Herman around the place as usual Sunday morning, he called there 
about seven o’clock and found the back door open, and on entering, he was 
horrified to find Herman lying on the floor in a pool of blood and dead.  
Herman was in his underclothes, having apparently hung up his outer garments 
preparatory to getting into bed, when the murderer dealt the blow.  His skull 
was crushed in the back part just above the neck, and just back of the right 
ear was a gunshot wound, the hole being the size of the muzzle of the gun.  It 
was thought that Herman was hit on the skull first from behind with an iron 18 
inches long which was found on the door.  This iron Herman used in making cane 
chairs, and it was brought from his workshop in an adjoining room.  Herman 
kept his gun standing at the head of his bed.  This the murderer had evidently 
grabbed up and fired one cartridge at so close a range that the flesh was 
burned.  The shot went clear through Herman’s head and lodged under the skin 
over his eyes.

Mr. Waite says that there was no particular disorder in the room where the 
dead man lay.  The body lay alongside the bed, one arm doubled under, the gun 
on the floor.  An open bible was on the bed.  In the adjoining room, from 
which the back door was left open, there was a jar of cucumber pickles knocked 
over, a chair overturned and some other evidences as though someone might 
hastily have entered or left by the open door. 

Mr. Waite at once notified the neighbors and that by forenoon justice of the 
peacr, Bert Clark, held an inquest with John Morton, Thos. Murray, Henry 
Kelly, Guy Beach, John VanGleson and H. Clark as jurors.  The inquest was 
adjourned until Wednesday.  Neither the sheriff nor prosecuting attorney were 
notified until after the inquest, consequently no officer was present or saw 
the lay of things as the murderer left them.  After the jury had adjourned the 
general shift of things was made, so that the officers have to work on the 
stories as told them by neighbors and the jurors.  Eleven cents and the dead 
man’s watch was found on his person.

The funeral was held Tuesday and the remains buried in the G. A. R. lot at 
Ionia.  The only relative present was a son, Lewis Herman, of South Blendon, 
Mich., who says the family consists of two sons, five daughters and the wife, 
all living.  Some of the neighbors are inclined to believe it a case of 
suicide.  Fred Pitt of Orleans, who lives next to Herman, says he is unable to 
make up his mind which it was.  Pitt sold the forty acres to Herman last May.  
Herman came over to the field where he was working and paid him $4 and later 
$6 making $10 he had paid on the place.  He was to pay $400 in all, $200 
December 15 of this year and the balance later.  The $10 was to apply as rent, 
and as interest when contract was closed.  He was to pay $10 more tomorrow had 
he lived.  During the bargain Pitt says Herman spoke of a man owing him $200 
but did not say he held a note.  Mr. Pitt said Herman had a good reputation 
and so conscientious that if he couldn’t pay promptly it made him gloomy and 
uneasy.

While Mr. Pitt thought it might have been possible for Herman to have held the 
gun behind him and shoot himself, he still thought there were many mysterious 
things – the scattering of the papers, tipping over of a crock of pickles in 
the other room, as though someone had left in a hurry.  The doctors, who 
conducted the autopsy, agree that the shooting was not a case of suicide.  
They incline to the opinion, however, that the old man was not struck a blow 
with the heavy iron tool which was found near his body.  They think the 
concussion following the explosion which shattered the skull, the weapon being 
held very close to this head.  The officers have been working faithfully but 
as yet have secured no tangible clues.



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