Anton Koewler

The News Democrat

Georgetown, Ohio

29 March 1900

 The death of Anthony (Anton) Koewler, my great-great grandfather, on 26 March 1900 was not unexpected. It came after receiving three gun shot wounds, including one in the chest, just over six months earlier.  His death left his wife, two sons, and six daughters to mourn him. 

  An argument over possession of a gun changed the lives of not only Anthony and his family, but, no doubt, the life of the young man who delivered the shots, William Sidwell. 

The News Democrat
Georgetown, Ohio
7 September 1899

  The newspaper article written at the time of the incident tells the story of what transpired in the melon patch on that Sunday afternoon. Anton is said to have had a reputation for being quarrelsome which really makes me wonder how he earned that description. We will never know what angry words were passed between the two parties to cause Anton to point his weapon at Sidwell which in turn enraged the 28 year old enough to retrieve his gun and actually fire three times. Were his actions those of a "peaceable young fellow" as the writer of the article claimed him to be? Was it regret that made him turned himself in for his crime?  Sidwell paid for his crime by serving four years in the penitentiary for killing Anthony Koewler. He can't be found in the 1910 or 1920 censuses, but is found living with his widowed mother on South Second Street in Ripley, Ohio in 1930. He was single and a farm laborer. Two years later, he was a resident of the County Home in Georgetown where he died at the age of 60 as a result of chronic nephritis.