A Standard History of Waupaca County, Wisconsin. An Authentic Narrative of the Past, with Particular Attention to the Modern Era in the Commercial, Industrial, Educational, Civic and Social Development.

              HISTORY OF AVAUPACA COUNTY 201
few intimate friends and no confidants. Although he was public spirited and often contributed to charity, many regarded him as miserly because he was so exacting in all business transactions,, even to the value of a penny. For years he slept in a room in the rear of his bank on Union Street and boarded at a hotel in the same block. On October 8, 1882, he did not appear at the hotel for either breakfast or dinner and one of the girls went to find out the reason for his non-appearance. Looking through the rear window she discovered Mr. Mead lying dead upon the floor of his sleeping room. The authorities were notified and upon investigation found that he had met his death by being shot in the head with bird shot, the motive being robbery, as the safe was rifled and several thousand dollars in money and bonds and all the notes and valuable papers were missing. It was generally supposed that he was murdered in the evening while making up his cash for the day, as the robbers in their haste to get away evidently overlooked $1,800 which lay upon the counter. Tuesday morning (next day) the notes and papers were found in a sack in the alley in the rear of Alain Street opposite the courthouse.
Of course the murder created great excitement and detectives from Chicago w^ere immediately employed to apprehend the murderers. After several weeks of investigation, the detectives located a man named A^an- dercar, who registered in the Jacobs House in Stevens Point at 4 o'clock A. M. the morning after the crime was supposed to have been committed, and who, it was claimed at the time, had been seen in Waupaca the day before. He was arrested and lodged in the county jail for several months until the convening of the Circuit Court. When he was tried the jury disagreed as to the verdict, standing seven to five for conviction. Van- dercar was never tried the second time, as subsequent events proved quite conclusively that he had nothing to do with the murder and was not in Waupaca at the time it was committed. It was the prevailing opinion, at that time, that the detectives found the real murderers in Waupaca and that some of the money stolen from the bank went to these Chicago detectives to work up a case against Vandercar, or other persons, so as to turn suspicion from, the guilty parties.
In 1892, nearly ten years after Mr. Alead was murdered. Judge Charles M. Webb ordered the impaneling of the only grand jury called in Waupaca County in the last sixty years to try and discover the real perpetrators of the crime. The grand jury convened in March and after due deliberation returned true bills against three former Waupaca residents as principals and seven other persons as accessories "before and after the fact." The three principals were tried jointly in the Circuit Court in June, 1893, fifteen months after indictment and acquitted.   One