Just a word of caution. You can't believe everything you read in print. Could it be that they didn't want to say he had been shot in the paper but rather said he died of an illness. I've seen that done before. Grace, a native Iowan You wrote: If I'd not been reading the old newspapers on microfilm in the State Historical Library in Des Moines, I'd never have known her father died after a 3-4 da. illness, probably pneumonia. No mention of him being "shot". There was no death record in the court house, no burial record in the cemetery....nothing but the small article in the newspaper about him dying.