(Independent, October 9, 1924)
Jim Davenport, transient, accused Sam Dean of coming to home armed‑ but Jim got first shot in;
It took‑two firings from shotguns (no one hit) to clear the atmosphere at Melville Monday following a home brew‑crap game party in the Dobrenz garage there that afternoon that had left a decidedly cloudy feeling. Just what happened and why and how will be brought out more fully in Carrington next Wed. when Sam Dean, 42, a transient, will be given a preliminary hearing charged with shooting with intent to kill.
Jim Davenport, a threshing laborer from Scotland, South Dakota is the complaining witness and he acknowledges that he was not only the heavy winner in the dice game that afternoon but that he fired his shotgun first that evening at the Chas. Grabencamp farm home at the west edge of Melville.
It goes like this:
Tells of Dice Game
Davenport says that several men were indulging in a dice or crap game in the Dobrenz place Tuesday afternoon. He admits he cleaned several of the players. A considerable sum was won. One man lost $200. There was home brew, he says‑ one man brought a gallon. Davenport won so much that the game ended. He started out, he says. Then according to his story, Mrs. Dobrenz stuck a rifle in his ribs and demanded that he give her $100 of his winnings. He says he "kidded" her along and later was able to grab the rifle. He says she grabbed at his roll of bills and tore the corners from two twenties.
Got Away, Loses Coat
Then according to Davenport, Dobrenz and Dean pitched onto him as he was getting out the door. He says he got away but left his mackinaw and cap and $20 in silver on a table. He went to the Grabencamp farm where he is employed and Mr. Grabencamp offered to go to town to get his clothes, he claims. He states that they got as far as the depot, then listened.
They returned to the farm and later, it is asserted, Dobrenz and Dean came to the place. They asked if "Jim" was there. Grabencamp answered and insisted on wanting to know who was there. Some words were exchanged and Davenport says he later opened the wooden door and the screen door, armed with a shotgun.
Both Guns Discharged
He says that a little later Dean stuck his head and the little single barreled shotgun through the door. Davenport says he fired. He thinks the report of his gun startled or shocked Dean that Dean's gun also went off. Mrs. Davenport, who is up here with her husband, says that the Dean gun's charge went into the woodwork of the room. She says she can not understand why her husband's charge missed Dean. A voice outside was heard to say: "We'd better go."
Davenport and his wife came to Carrington and swore out a complaint about 8 o'clock Tues. evening and got a warrant for Dean's arrest. Sheriff Allen R. Hall went to Melville and found Dean asleep in the Dobrenz garage. He brought him to Carrington and the hearing has been set for next Wed. morning at 10:00.
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 363