(As reported to Claude Stelzreide by Jim Stoeber in 2003)

  This is the story of one Fred Steltzenriede(sic), a 35 year old man living on his farm, along with his 28 year old wife, Anna; their 3 year old son, Carl; their 7 month old daughter, Anna; and Fred's 70 year old father, Carl.

  It seems that Fred had promised some potato sets to a neighboring farmer by the name of Snyder (I haven't been able to pin down his exact identity yet). Mr. Snyder decided to pop in on the evening of March 20, 1874 to pick up his potatoes, and upon opening the front door, found Fred laying there on the floor in a pool of blood. He summoned some of the local neighbors, all of whom refused to enter the house for fear of what they may find. They opt to send somebody up here to Belleville to summon the county Sheriff.

Sure enough, the entire family had been murdered some time the evening previous by somebody wielding an axe, and $100 stashed away at the family home had come up missing (I'm sure quite a large sum of money at that time). Fred lost 3 fingers in fighting the fugitive, and from what the newspaper account tells, was nearly decapitated. Carl, Fred's father, seemed to have struggled some with the intruder as well, but Anna and the children were still in bed, as if they had been killed in their sleep.

  The funeral was the following Sunday, March 22 at the Zions Church. Zion was the local Evangelical Church; it would later become a part of the Evangelical and Reformed, and eventually part of what we now know as the United Church of Christ. It has quite a history to be proud of, as it dates back to 1836. The newspaper recounts 1000 people attending the funeral, with burial being at Freivogel, the Church Cemetery. It got its name from the gentleman who donated the parcel of land to the church for the cemetery, and I believe this is where the church originally began.

  The Steltzenriede's originally had a marker on their grave. Some years after their deaths, however, somebody got the bright idea to exhume the family and move their remains to Walnut Hill Cemetery here in Belleville. The headstone was trucked up here to the cemetery, where I believe it still stands, but the remains remain at Freivogel. It was later decided that Freivogel would be their eternal resting place. Why the headstone was never returned to its rightful place, I can only speculate that perhaps the stone was feared in too fragile to risk being trucked back to Millstadt.

  A couple of men were initially arrested in connection with the murders. One was listed as Fred. Boeltz, who was married to Anna's sister. He was reported to have been quarreling with the Steltzenriede's just prior to the murders. Another man listed was one John Afkhen. I forget just what his connection was at the moment. At one time, the county offered a $1,000 reward, as did one of Fred's brothers; several people were arrested and subsequently released, and nobody was ever convicted in the killings.

Local legend says that townsfolk were still fearful into the 1940's of the man who committed the "Saxtown Murders". Saxtown is an unincorporated area that sits between Millstadt and Floraville. 

 

Last time, I discussed the Belleville newspaper mentioning a farmer named Snyder who had been promised some potato seed by Fred Steltzenriede, and had the misfortune of finding the murdered family. This turns out to be a chap named Ben Schneider, who at the time was a 28 year old farmer who lived just a few farm houses down from Fred, with his wife, Katie. Ben and Katie lived in their later years in the town of Millstadt itself, right down the road from a fella named Wilson Baltz, who wrote a small book about the murders back in 1974. Ben passed away in 1927, Katie in 1941, and both are laid to rest at Mt. Evergreen Cemetery in Millstadt. Mr. Baltz also confirmed what I had said; some family and friends of the Steltzenriede family had at one point decided to have the remains of the family exhumed and moved up here to Walnut Hill Cemetery in Belleville. The furthest they got with this project was getting the headstone moved up here; the trustees of Freivogel Cemetery in Millstadt decided that Freivogel was to be their final resting place forevermore. The Steltzenriede stone sits at Walnut Hill to this day, methinks because it's too old, fragile, and heavy to be safely removed back to Freivogel. I also have a more precise location of where the Steltzenriede family farm ( 60 acres if I saw correctly ) is located. Perhaps I can drive out there in the morning before heading to the grocery store and get a better look at the place, thereby being able to show you and or your kinfolk where it is whenever y'all get the chance to come visit. The original farmhouse was torn down in 1954, but to the best of my knowledge, the barn still stands - or at least it did in the late 1980's. That's all I have for now. I'll be in touch. Sincerely Yours,

 

Jim Stoeber

 Belleville, Il