The Murder in Schimpville and One Prisoner Who Couldn't be Contained
If I told you a murder occurred in Schimpville, you'd probably have no idea where I was talking about. Well, "Schimpville" would be referring to the 1800's version of the Yuba Sutter fair, in Marysville. In 1858, Marysville was considered prominent enough of a city that the California State Fair was held there. In 1897, the fair was held in a place called "Schimpville". These were lands near the Browns Valley grade road in East Marysville. This was the start of open-air fairs in our area.
So, If you can imagine the following occurring somewhere near East Marysville, you will get an idea of its locale.
The Murder in Schimpville This is the story of a murder that occurred in the Fall of 1882 in the early hours of the morning. "Schimpville" was named after the Schimp Dairy, where Mathias Blumer and Fred Schindler worked.
Mathias beat Fred to death with a hammer. Yet another story of jealousy over a woman. My blog seems to be littered with stories such as this.
At midnight, Mathias slid Fred Schindler's body into Simmerly Slough just east of the Marysville Cemetery, hoping to hide the murder. But after the body was discovered by a Chinese fisherman a few days later, on the 27th, Blumer was arrested.
Knowing he had been caught, Blumer confessed his crime to the Marshal named Maben:
Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 79, Number 154, 23 August 1890
"I killed Schindler on the morning of Monday, October 23d. He had not been on good terms with me, and wanted me to leave the ranch. He was jealous of me on account of a woman. On the morning of the homicide Schindler got up first and harnessed the horses for Regli; when Regli drove away Schindler went back to bed. I got up and fed the cows under my care. Schindler came to the barn about the time I got through feeding. He was in a bad humor and swore at me, saying that I had taken all the feed from the trough and left nothing but water. In trying to get some of the cows into their proper places Schindler came into the passage-way connecting the two main divisions of the barn. I was standing in the passageway, leaning on the handle of a heavy reed broom. When Schindler came up he called me a ---, and made a thrust at me with the pitch-fork. I dodged, and the fork struck the wall beside me, doing me no harm. I then struck an upward blow at him with the broom, striking him on the chin. The blow made him stagger back, and as he threw up his hands his right hand caught hold of a hammer that was hanging on the wall behind him. He raised the hammer to strike, and I caught hold of it and took it from him. In the scuffle l hit him on the head with the hammer, and he fell to the floor. I hit him again a number of times, and when I saw that I had killed him I was frightened. I hid his body in a manger at the northeast corner of the barn under a heap of hay. Then I cleaned up the blood on the floor and got Schindler's valise and hid it under the barn floor. I also hid the cap in the same way. When Regli came back I told him that Schindler had gone away to look for better wages. About half-past 10 o'clock that night, when all was still, I harnessed the milk team to the malt wagon and put the body into the wagon. Then I drove north along the road that runs inside the levee, and turned into a road running west; when I got to Simmerly's slough I threw the body in, and drove back home. I killed him in self-defense."
He was adamant that he'd rather be hanged than spend his life in prison. And boy did he show that in the events to come.
 An illustration of Blumer's escape from Folsom Prison in Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 79, Number 151, 20 August 1890 |
The murder was so brutal, papers described what Mathias had done to Fred. They said he had, "grabbed a hammer and beat Schindler's head to a jelly, lie removed I all traces of the conflict, and threw the body into a slough, where- it was found several days later. "
Brutal indeed.
He was sent to San Quentin and there he sat for a short time before the trouble began.
Eventually, he was then moved to Folsom Prison. Over the years, as stated above, while incarcerated Mathis (misspelled Matthias) gave officials a difficult time. He was hard to deal with and on occasion, he escaped from prison. He was considered the "ring leader" for a gang of men who dug tunnels to escape from Folsom.
When he was at large, the papers released information describing him. You can almost picture him:
WANTED -
THEY ARE ALL GERMANS. All of the men at large are Germans, and all speak English imperfectly. One (Blumer) of them had escaped from the prison during the Wardenship of General McComb. He succeeded one afternoon in passing John Caples, one of the guards, and escaping to the hills. He was recaptured, and all his credits, amounting to five years, were taken from him. His original term of sentence was twenty years. One other was in for life, and the other two for long terms. Their descriptions are as follows:
"MATTHIAS BLUMER. Age 40, hight five feet three inches, light complexion, blue eyes, light hair, light Bear on center of back, lower arms and breast very hairy, medium build.
C. H. KOHLER, Age 31, hight five feet seven inches, fair complexion, gray eyes, dark hair, weight 160, long, sharp features, large nose, high cheekbones, scar inside right wrist, ten vaccine marks on left arm, scar on nose near left eye, stout build.
TOM WILSON, Age 28, hight five feet five and a half inches, dark complexion, black hair, black eyes, low forehead, eyes deeply set, long aquiline nose, sharp features, high cheekbones, two left upper molar teeth gone, diagonal scar across center of forehead, prominent Adam's apple, slender build.
CHARLES GEIERMAN, Age 50, hight five feet six and a half inches, light complexion, blue eyes, light hair, high forehead, prominent nose, large ears, large wart left shoulder blade, circular scar base cf left thumb, stout build.
REWARD OFFERED.
Warden Aull has offered a reward of $50 for the arrest of any one of the escaped prisoners. Telegrams and circulars giving full descriptions of the men have been sent in every direction, and the officials have no doubt they will be recaptured."
Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 79, Number 151, 20 August 1890
And another escape followed...
Los Angeles Herald, Volume 36, Number 89, 18 July 1891
 |
They had, unknown to the prison officials, succeeded in digging a hole beneath their cell, and after getting down several feet had run a tunnel outward, with an upward incline, through the foundation wall and out into the open ground on the west side of the building. This remarkable piece of engineering work had been going on for many months, the prisoners laboring on it at night and disposing of the earth in their slop-buckets in small quantities daily. The men were afterward captured in Utah, where they were employed in working on a canal."
Morning Union, Volume 47, Number 6368, 19 July 1891
San Francisco Call, Volume 70, Number 53, 23 July 1891
Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 81, Number 130, 23 July 1891
""IN A BALLOON."
"That's How Matt. Blumer Says He Escaped, He Mas in Sacramento on Friday, and Almost Collided With Captain Lee on the Street.
Constable O'Donnell of Modesto arrived in this city yesterday afternoon, having in charge Matthias Blumer, the convict who escaped Gram Folsom Prison last Thursday for the second time.
The capture was made by Constable O'Donnell in a very easy manner. He was driving along the road from Modesto to Bill's Ferry when he met a man on foot traveling in the same direction. He asked the traveler if he did not want to ride, and his offer was readily accepted. When the man turned his face toward him O'Donnell immediately recognized bim as Blumer, and when they reached Hill's Ferry the Constable helped Blumer out of the buggy and escorted him to the lockup.
The notorious jail-breaker, murderer and desperado did not have a word to say, and merely smiled at the clever capture. <>n the way to this city the constable endeavored to get Blumer to tell bow he escaped from the prison, but on that subject he was as dumb as an oyster. He would talk freely on other topics, but when it came to telling how he gained his liberty he refused to talk. Captain Murphy of the Folsom Prison also interviewed him last evening, but could not get any more information from Blumer than the constable could. Blumer has not changed his appearance at all since he left the prison, with the exception of having discarded bis striped garments for those of a laborer. He had not even shaved.
Last night at the jail he was in a happy mood, and when Jailer Clark walked by his cell he said:
"Tell my friend Lee to come in here; I'd like to have a little chat with him." Captain Lee went in. and Blumer shook his hand heartily. The Captain recognized him as the same old Blumer he had known for several years. Then the latter commenced to talk.
"Don't you know. Lee," said he. "I saw you on Friday night, and I tell you it was the worst scare I got since I left the prison. I was in Sacramento about five hours that night, and I came near running right square against you on K street. 'By ____! I says to myself, when I caught a glimpse of you, 'There's Lee! If he sees me I'm a goner.' But I was In a crowd, and I tell you I got as mixed up in that crowd as I could. You looked right at the gang, and I thought you had me picked out, but, as luck would have it, you didn't notice me, and I just got off that street as quick as I could. I didn't stay in town very long afterward, either!"
The Captain laughed at the story, and said: "Well, tell us. Matt, how you slipped the boys at the prison." "I went out in a balloon," was the reply, and he laughed aloud.
After a long talk with the Captain about his friends here, Blumer retired for the night. He will be taken to Folsom this morning by Captain Murphy."
It almost sounds as though the Captain had a soft spot for Blumer.
As heinous enough of a crime, and the fact that ole' Mathias enjoyed giving the prisons additional work, you would think he would have spent the remainder of his years in the penitentiary. But, that's not the way it panned out. In 1909, Blumer was paroled from San Quentin, in order to settle affairs for a property he inherited in Germany.
San Francisco Call, Volume 106, Number 12, 12 June 1909
And in 1914, Blumer asked to be pardoned from the burden of his past crimes. He sought out to be pardoned by Governor Johnson.
Sacramento Union, Number 50, 19 June 1914
It is unknown whatever came of Mathias in his later years.
Fred Schindler was buried at the Marysville Cemetery in a grave that has not been able to be located. Burial records show that he was buried with a metal marker #1400.
Sources
https://www.appeal-democrat.com/yuba-sutter-fair/article_7bd106fd-e8fe-5f87-9638-9848c4e0b06c.html
https://archive.org/stream/historyofyubasut00dela/historyofyubasut00dela_djvu.txt
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/79450164/fred-schindler
Comments
Post a Comment