Undaunted: A Norwegian Woman in Frontier Texas

Chapter 11

C h a p t e r 1 1 Dickerson’s Trial Seven years passed before Dickerson was found and brought to justice for the murder of Elise’s husband. In early  someone in Van Zandt County read a religious newspaper that said Dickerson had attended a conference in northwest Arkansas, where he was preaching the gospel. Johan Reiersen’s son Christian got this news and passed it on to Elise. A grand jury in Kaufman County had indicted Dickerson (see appendix) and issued a warrant for his arrest in February, . The warrant had been reissued in  and , but any attempt to bring him back from Arkansas had to be authorized by the Texas governor, Richard Coke. He had only recently taken office and was heavily burdened, but Elise was determined to have Dickerson brought to trial as soon as possible. On February , , she sent Coke a certified copy of the indictment and information on Dickerson’s whereabouts, asking Coke please to “use such force” as necessary to bring Dickerson “to justice.”1 Christian Reierson moved things along by writing to J. M. Harrison, a member of the state legislature who resided in Four Mile Prairie and knew about the Dickerson case, asking him to support Elise’s petition. Within days Coke issued a proclamation for the “arrest and delivery of said N. T. Dickerson,” accompanying it with a five-hundred-dollar reward for bringing him to the Kaufman County sheriff and depositing him “inside the jail door.” Armed with this authority, Christian Reiersen traveled to northwest Arkansas (he had been in military campaigns there with the rd Texas Cavalry during the Civil War) and located Dickerson. Possibly Christian convinced him that the passage of time since the murder had reduced the like- lihood of a severe sentence, but in any case he took Dickerson into custody and brought him back to the sheriff, who imprisoned him on May , . News of Dickerson’s return to Kaufman County was first published in Galveston, the main Texas port  miles south of Four Mile Prairie. Galveston was the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the state, and its highly regarded newspaper, the Galveston Daily News, was known for its statewide coverage of important events. The Tyler Democrat, published in the main town of northeastern Texas, fifty miles east of Four Mile Prairie, featured the news on the day Dickerson was jailed. Both papers reported that Dickerson had killed Wilhelm Waerenskjold (the Tyler Democrat erroneously called Dickerson “Dixon”); both noted that he had escaped to Arkansas; both identified him as a gospel preacher; and both said it was Christian Reiersen who fetched him back. The Galveston Daily News added that Wilhelm was “a very influential Norwegian.”2 Preparation for Dickerson’s trial took months. Residents of Prairieville and Four Mile Prairie were for the most part scattered rural folk unaccustomed to traveling miles from their homes to appear for thorny legal cases. Summer harvests were beginning, and cotton culture and ranch stock operations would last through late fall. Although most witnesses were subpoenaed without incident, some had to be “attached”—taken into custody—to assure their appearance. Mack Norman, a key witness because he was present at the murder scene, was particularly dilatory. In June Otto Waerenskjold was appointed as special deputy sheriff to arrest Norman and take his bond for $ to make sure he would appear at the trial. Even at that, in October when the final groundwork for the trial was being done, an attachment had to be issued to bring his “boddy” (the actual spelling in the document) before the court. An account book recording Dickerson’s purchase of weapons was considered vital evidence. The prosecutor had the court issue a special Subpoena Duces tecum commanding M. L. Elliott, son of the man who employed the blacksmith who had made Dickerson’s weapons, to produce the book and also to appear at the trial.3 Finding a suitable date for the trial took some time. The defense attorney was George Washington Chilton, a prominent man who lived and practiced in Tyler. The trial was to be held in Kaufman, the county seat of Kaufman County, nineteen miles beyond Four Mile Prairie for someone coming from Tyler. As Chilton had to ride seventy miles, which was two days’ travel each way, he would be absent from his home office for a week during the proceedings . The trial date had to conform to his schedule. Chapter 11 —— [3.139.70...