Bio: Beardsley, Grant (Fatally shot - 1912)

Contact: Ann Stevens

Email:  sdann88@yahoo.com 
 

Surnames: Beardsley, Wilson, Schmidt 
 

----Source:  Neillsville Times (Neillsville, Clark County, Wis.)  Oct 10, 1912 
 

Beardsley, Grant (Fatally shot - 8 Oct 1912) 
 

Grant Beardsley, a grocer living in Grand Rapids, was shot by a masked man while returning home from work Tuesday evening about 7:30 o’clock, when he refused to hand over his purse.  The grocer thought the man was playing a joke on him, but received a bullet in the back. 
 

Beardsley died in the hospital at Grand Rapids.  Feeling against his assailant, a boy named Wilson, was so strong that he was taken to the Wausau jail by Sheriff John Schmidt as lynching was feared. 
 

Wilson had been in jail once before for horse-stealing, and was arrested again Friday for holding up a man, but was discharged Saturday for lack of evidence.  He lost his job about the same time. 
 

Wilson is said to have claimed he needed the money to get married.  He was tried and received a life sentence to Waupun.