THE MURDER OF ADELE KAUFMANN IN MASON COUNTY, TX

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Published April 29th, 2014 by Unknown

[From Hunter's Frontier Times Magazine, June, 1950]

"In a lonely spot on East Comanche Creek, six miles north of Mason, Texas, there is a walled-in grave of a young girl, who was foully murdered while on her way home from school on the evening of December 16, 1892, just fifty-eight years ago. She was pretty seventeen-year-old Adele Kaufmann, the daughter of Joseph Kaufmann, who had come to America only a few years before. In Switzerland Herr Kaufmann was a school teacher and an organist in a Catholic church. We understand that after locating in Mason county he also served sometimes as an organist in the Catholic church at Mason. He and his family acquired a small farm on East Comanche Creek, and occupied a log house. They were in modern circumstances, and were respectable, industrious, and very religious. The property has since passed into other hands, and has been greatly improved. The old log house occupied by the Kaufmann family is still standing, but is in a state of decay as will be seen by the accompanying photograph recently made. A photograph is also shown of the place where the girl was murdered, and also the rude tombstone which marks her last resting place. This tombstone was carved of sandstone by Mr. Kaufmann, and bears the inscription, partly in German and partly in English, which reads:

ADELE KAUFMANN

Geborn 8th Dez. 1874

Died 16 Dec . 1892.

Die rache ist Mein, Ich will vergelten, spricht der Herr . (Translation: Vengeance is Mine; I will repay saith the Lord. ) The photographs and the translation were sent to Frontier Times by Mr. W. H . Kuhlmann of Fredericksburg, who made a special trip to Mason to get them for us.

Although the foulest of murders was committed nearly sixty years ago, the event is yet fresh in the memory of many of the people of Mason, who can recall vividly the thrill of horror which pervaded the public mind when the news spread from lip to lip that Adele Kaufmann had been murdered while returning from school. The mystery of the murder of that beautiful girl is as profound today as it was fifty eight years ago, although every effort was made by diligent officers, backed by a justly enraged public, to ferret out the murdered and bring him to justice. The finger of suspicion pointed to different individuals, and two or three arrests were made, but innocence was proven in each case and they were released. No one person was ever directly charged with the crime. It has been claimed in later years that a confession, followed by a suicide, was made, but of this we do not have any proof. But if the red handed murderer is still living — if he still dwells among the people of the earth, a burning conscience through all these long years must inflict on him all the tortures of the damned.

From my father's old newspaper, the Mason Herald, of December 22, 1892, we reproduce an account of this appalling murder as it appeared on that date:

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"Mr. Joseph Kaufmann is a well-to-do German farmer residing six miles north of Mason. His family consisted of himself, his wife, two sons and three daughters, the eldest being about 18 years old and the second had entered upon her 17th year. She was considered the brightest of the family and being endowed with all the noble attributes of a bright sunny nature, combined with rare personal charms, she could not be other than a favorite with all who knew here. She was a regular attendant at the East Comanche school. The distance from her father's to the schoolhouse is something near three miles, and the route to be traversed is mostly over a rough broken country, covered in many places with a heavy growth of timber peculiar to this region. Mr. Neil Wilson lives one mile from Mr. Kaufmann's and directly on the road leading from Mr. Kaufmann's house to the school. The road leading from Mr. Kaufmann's to Mr. Wilson's being rather circuitous to the broken surface of the country, led Mr. Kaufmann to open a bridle path through the forest on a direct line to Mr. Wilson's and this is the road, or more properly speaking, the dim trail traveled by Miss Adele Kaufmann while going to and coming from school.

"Last Friday Pro. N. C. Wood's school at the Ayers school house, East Comanche, closed for the week, and as the happy pupils bade their teacher goodbye, there was none who turned their faces homeward with more joyous heart than pretty Adele Kaufmann. Her many good qualities had won for her the highest regard of her teacher and the unbounded respect and affection of her associates, and when she bade them adieu on that fatal evening, little did they dream that it was the last. Miss Kaufmann, in company with the children of Mr. Wilson, reached the latter's place of abode a little after five o'clock Friday evening on their return from school. After a short stay there chatting with Mrs. Wilson and others of the family, she set out for home alone and this was the last seen of her until her body was found the next morning cold in death.

"When the sun had gone down Friday night and the shades of evening began to overspread the earth, Mr. Kaufmann and family wondered why Adele tarried away so long. She had never loitered on the wayside, but her return from school was always prompt and on a trip to Llano, it was thought more than probable that she had concluded to remain with Mrs. Wilson overnight and come home early in the morning. But it was Friday night; there would be no school on the day following, and besides, the dutiful child had never presumed that far on parental authority. She had never remained away without the father's consent, and these facts, coupled with a strange indefinable presentiment of evil, intensified the uneasiness and solitude of the family to such an extent that when the evening meal was concluded, Mr. Kaufmann set forth to obtain tidings of the absent daughter.

"It will be remembered that Friday evening was quite cool and after sunset the sky became overcast with clouds and the night was very dark. Mr. Kaufmann had not gone far before he found it impossible to proceed, owing to the impenetrable darkness, and retracing his steps he decided to wait until morning to prosecute the search. The first streak of dawn Saturday morning found Mr. Kaufmann following the dim path, through mesquite flat and postoak wood towards Mr. Wilson's. Just one-half mile from his house and exactly half-way to Mr. Wilson's he came upon the form of his daughter lying in the dim trail, cold in death. Stunned, appalled and heartbroken over the discovery, he hastened to Mr. Wilson's and gave the alarm. In a very short time neighbors gathered at the fatal spot and tendered every aid that human sympathy could render. Sheriff P. C. Baird and Justice Garner were notified at once. and in company with Dr. J. D. Beck and others, hastened to the place where the body was found. At this particular point there is an opening of perhaps thirty acres of ground comparatively free of timber. On the south is a large granite formation, covering probably on acre and elevated but a few feet above the surface. On the north of this, and only a few steps from the trail, is a dense thicket of undergrowth, while to the east the surface slopes off to a small ruin or branch some 150 or 200 yards distant. Near the north edge of this granite surface and on a small elevation over which the trail ran, where the ground is very hard and gravelly, was where the body lay.

"About 4 o'clock Friday evening three young men were at or near Mr. Wilson's hunting hogs, and left shortly before the arrival of the school children and went in the direction of Mr. Kaufmann's. Shortly after their departure several shots were heard coming from the direction they went, and also the baying of dogs. When the body was found it was first supposed that stray shots from one of these guns had done the fatal work, but upon closer examination it was found that the young lady had been brutally and foully murdered. She was lying partly on her side, with her face next to the ground. Her bonnet covered her head and was drawn down over her face in such a manner as to conceal her features from view. When this was removed a most shocking sight was presented. Five gaping wounds about the head showed how completely and speedily the murderer had accomplished his horrible work. There were no signs of a struggle, all appearance seems to indicate that she had been felled to the earth by a sudden blow from a blunt instrument and the murderous blows continued until life was extinct. The murderer had evidently selected his ground on account of its firmness, and he left no trace of his identity whatever.

"Dr. J. D. Beck gave the body a post-mortem examination and found that a nameless crime had not been committed, nor was there any evidence to show that such had been attempted.

"Under a postoak tree, twentyfour steps from where the body lay, was found the stone with which the fiend incarnate had committed the inhuman act. It had been thrown by him into a pile of leaves under a clump of small brush. When found, the stone was covered with blood and the coloring of the blue bonnet which the young lady wore. Twenty-two feet from where the body lay was found the depression in the hard soil from whence the stone was taken. All the evidence showed that the murderer did his work hastily, and that while holding the stone in his hand he felled his victim to the earth and beat her head into a jelly, then casting the stone into the brush fled.

"Close by her side lay her shawl and satchel containing her books, and some five or six feet away lay her lunch basket. Her dress was not in the least disarranged, more than would follow a sudden fall of the wearer to the ground."

This is the account which appeared in the Mason Herald on Thursday following the murder. Officers instituted a thorough search for clues other than the murder stone. About one hundred yards away, near the bank of the small branch in which were some small puddles of water in the sand bottom of the creek, it was found that a horse had been tied to a postoak tree. The horse's tracks plainly showed that the animal had been tied there for perhaps an hour or two. The animal had rubbed his neck against the tree and left gray hairs on the bark of the tree. And in one of the scant water holes in the small creek was bloody water indicating that the murderer had tarried there long enough to wash his hands. Footprints in the wet sand next to the bloody pool had seeped water and were shapeless. The trail ended here.