MEET MAYBELLE – A HATCHET-WIELDING CRUSADER AND FRAUDSTER

Every city and town has its share of irregular folks. They just stand out a little more in a small municipality. Take the case of Maybelle Trow Knox of Le Mars – a hatchet-wielding crusader, forger and pension fraudster.

Maybelle Trow was born May 27, 1889, on a farm near Kingsley owned by her father, William Z. Trow, a Civil War veteran originally from Albany, Wisconsin. Mr. Trow’s wife, Lucinda Angela Lane, was a native of Bangor, Maine.

Mr. Trow became one of the wealthier men in the county. After he died, his widow and daughter left the farm and moved to Le Mars. They lived in a “somewhat pretentious” eight-room home in one of the better residential areas of Le Mars. Mrs. Trow served visitors tea and crumpets. Her daughter studied piano and violin and enrolled in music courses at Western Union College in Le Mars. In 1914, Maybelle’s cousin, Sumner Browning Knox, moved to the Trow home to study for the ministry at Western Union College. He quit college the next year and became a letter carrier. Eventually, Mrs. Trow discovered Maybelle and Sumner were “keeping company.” She tried to keep them apart, but they eloped and were married in Woonsocket, South Dakota, in 1919. They returned to Le Mars and lived with Mrs. Trow.

TEMPERANCE CRUSADER

Growing up, Maybelle was reportedly a lonely, withdrawn school girl, but as Mrs. Sumner

Knox she “blossomed into the grand dame of Le Mars society.” Among other groups, she became active in the Women's Christian Temperance Union. That’s where Maybelle overstepped her talents. Toting a hatchet in true Carrie Nation style, Maybelle led a raid on a Le Mars soft drink establishment owned by Joe Duster. No liquor was found. “It really was a soft drink place," according to long-time Sheriff Frank Scholer. "There probably were other soft drink places where liquor could be obtained, but not there."

Owner Joe Duster was irate over the raid and remarks made by Maybelle. He sued her for $15,000. She apologized and the case was resolved out of court. She lost her position as WTCU president and was avoided by other antialcohol crusaders.

Forgery

Less than 20 months later, in December 1932, pleaded guilty to a forgery charge in connection with her claim to $10,000 from the estate of T.M. Zink, a Le Mars attorney and womanhater who specified in his will that his estate was to be used to build a womanless library. (The court set aside Mr. Zink’s strange will –another interesting story, no doubt). In the midst of the trial Maybelle allegedly lapsed into a coma.

Maybelle served one year in prison for her crime. Her husband cared for her mother while Maybelle served her time. But, by the time she was released, the family’s home had been foreclosed upon. To stay in the home, Mrs. Trow paid $15 per month in rent out of the $40 per month pension she received as a Civil War widow.

MURDERER OR SIMPLY CHEATING THE SYSTEM?

In 1938, neighbors noticed that they had not seen Maybelle’s mother , Mrs. Lucinda Trow, for some time. Yet her pension checks were still being signed and cashed every month. When a courthouse official questioned Maybelle, she punched the official in the mouth, causing him to lose several teeth. To check out the rumors, Rome F. Starzl, editor and publisher of the LeMars Globe-Post, went with one of his reporters to the Trow-Knox home on Nov. 8, 1938. Maybelle denied that her mother had disappeared and that she, in turn, was fraudulently cashing her pension checks. She said her mother was upstairs sleeping. Starzl offered to take a picture of Mrs. Trow to quash the rumors and gossip. Maybelle seemed enthusiastic about the idea and set a time for the picturetaking that afternoon. But when the editor and reporter returned, no one answered their door, despite pounding and shouting.

To add to the mystery, Maybelle’s husband, Sumner Knox, had disappeared, too. Finally, Sheriff Scholer investigated. "We poked around with iron rods after a neighbor told us about some digging done during the night," Scholer recalled years later.

On November 13, 1938, the body of Mrs. Trow was found under the flower garden in the yard of the Trow-Knox home, located a block north of the Plymouth County Courthouse. She was buried in a casket fashioned from a kitchen cabinet. Examinations by pathologists failed to find any evidence of violent death. Officials said the woman had been dead for six months and likely died of natural causes. Maybelle tried to redirect suspicion onto her missing husband.

Lucinda Trow

And where was her husband? The rest of the yard was minutely examined. The well, cistern, attic and basement were probed with great care. Nothing more was found.

However, it turns out she and Sumner had been divorced and he was alive and well, living in Oregon.

Just 17 days after her mother’s body was found, Maybelle pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in connection with three of the six Civil War pension checks she cashed. There were no signs of foul play, although Maybelle later said she would have pled guilty to murder provided she received the death penalty, which she said was lesser punishment than being confined in prison.

Sources

• Le Mars Globe-Post via iagenweb.org.

• Sioux City Journal via newspapers.com.

• Sioux Falls Argus Leader via newspapers.com.

• Le Mars Sentinel.