- A MURDER IN JASPER COUNTY -

A correspondent of the Springfield Patriot writing from Carthage, gives the following account of a murder recently committed in that county.

Crossing Ozark prairie I met a queer funeral procession. Seated in a two horse wagon drawn by a span of travel-worn horses, was a man and woman, and, partly covered with hay in the rear of the wagon was a coffin, too surely enclosing mortal remains, was evident from the odor as I passed. A solitary horseman made up the solemn procession. When I arrived at Bowers' Mill, I learn from one of the local reporters, that are substitutes for newspapers in rural places, the following particulars of a shocking murder:

Frank Little and ______ Mansker, had been associated in a horse race about two months ago, at Minersville, in which Little's horse, ridden at the race by Mansker, was beaten, and Little was loser of sundry tons of green backs which he had considered well betted. On Sunday, August 1st, Little and Mansker met at one Michael's on Spring River, four or five miles from Sarcoxie. Michael's is a noted house in that region, and the old man's daughters are said to be very free in their intercourse with visitors. Mansker had stopped at the house for dinner, and tied his horse about one hundred yards or so from the house. Little came up to the house and wanted to talk the matter of the race over with Mansker, accusing him of "throwing the race." Mansker declined to talk about it and started out to get his horse. Little followed him out, and when near the house requested Mansker, to sit down and talk it over. Mansker refused and went on towards his horse, when it appears, Little ran up behind him, reached around and struck him with a knife in the bowels, the blade cutting near the navel and ripped him open so that the bowels gushed out, and the poor wretch sought to keep them in place with his hands, and at the same time, to defend himself drew a pistol, which was snatched from his grasp by Little, who knocked his victim down with the pistol and beat and stamped on him while prostrated. Michael and his daughter then came upon the scene and carried the wounded man to their house. Little followed after swearing he would shoot him after he was carried into the house. Mansker lived about twenty eight hours, and died about sundown, Monday, August 2nd. He lived near Mt. Vernon, and leaves a wife and three children. He was a man generally respected until quite recently, and was a member of the Methodist Church. Little is also a man of a family. He bears a bad character. Engaged in gambling, horse racing, etc. Dr. Harvey, a good physician, attended Mansker, and the statements above, or similar, came through him from the deceased, who was able to converse sometime after he was stabbed. No inquest or examination was taken or held by the magistrate or other officer. No attempt has yet been made to capture Little, and so far as known, on Thursday or Friday last, he may have been prowling around in the vicinity where the atrocious crime was committed. The people in the neighborhood seemed to care very little about the murder, as some state the parties were "low down" people and it did not make much difference. The funeral procession met by me was the wife and friends of the deceased, taking the remains home for interment.
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William was married first on September 20, 1860 in Perry County, Illinois to Martha Crain (1842-1866). They had three children; Benjamin Halleck, Henrietta, and Nancy Mansker.

After the death of his first wife, William was married second in 1867 in Lawrence County, Missouri to Tantha Elesif Davis. They had two children, Walter W. and Emma W. Mansker (married John Sherman Fox, both died in California).

Some years ago, I received information from a descendant of William and his first wife Martha Crain about the above early Missouri newspaper article that gave an account of a man named Mansker who was murdered in Jasper County and brought back by wagon by his (second) wife to be buried in Lawrence County. No marker has been found in Davis Cemetery, but he was likely buried in one of the open spaces near his son Walter, a marker possibly having been covered or eroded over time.