A Little Shooting Bee with Dr. Lemke

Dr. Herman Lemke was living the proverbial American dream. Born in Berlin, Germany in 1864, Dr. Lemke “came from a very old and wealthy family and received a first class education.” He graduated from veterinary college at the age of 23, and after serving in the German army as a regimental veterinarian for a few years, he immigrated to the United States. He settled in Bakersfield in the early 1890s, and, after receiving his license to practice veterinary medicine from the State Veterinary Medical Board in 1893, he opened a practice on 18^th Street near Chester Avenue.

In October of 1893, he married Maud Roberts, the eldest daughter of a prominent local farmer and former Confederate colonel, Elisha M. Roberts (for whom Roberts Lane in Bakersfield is named). The couple celebrated the arrival of their first daughter, Eda, the following year: “Dr. Lemke is the proud and happy father of a daughter. He is doing as well as could be expected under the circumstances that it is his first.” Another daughter, Gertrude, was born two years later. If Dr. Lemke’s standing in Bakersfield wasn’t secure in the community with his marriage to Maud, he cemented his prominence by hiring the architecture firm of B. McDougall and Sons to design his residence.  B. McDougall and Sons also designed the Southern Hotel, Kern County Hospital, and the Noriega and Olcese homes.

Dr. Lemke was also successful in his professional life. He maintained a thriving veterinary practice that advertised “Latest improved operating table. No danger,” was the deputy health officer for Kern County, and was on the board of the California State Veterinary Medical Association. This world crumbled and Dr. Lemke’s seemingly perfect life ended on the evening of April 16, 1896. While sitting down with his wife and daughter for supper, Lyons Brown, a former employee seeking restitution, shot Dr. Lemke twice. Dr. Lemke died at noon the following day.

Lyons Brown had worked for Dr. Lemke for about eight months but had been let go a few days prior to the shooting for insulting the Lemke’s housekeeper, Angelina Sellinger. At the time of his dismissal, Dr. Lemke owed him about $70, or two months’ worth of wages. Dr. Lemke informed him that he would have to wait to get his pay until Dr. Lemke was paid at the first of the month.  On the morning of the shooting, Brown went to the house and again demanded his payment. Relenting, Dr. Lemke told him that he would try to get the money and would meet him at the bank that afternoon. When Dr. Lemke went to the bank, Brown was not there. At about 7 o’clock that evening, Brown went to the house – first to the barn to retrieve some clothing that he had left behind and then he entered the house through the back door. Walking through the kitchen, he walked into the dining room. Mrs. Lemke sat with her side and back partly toward the door and was holding her daughter in her lap. Dr. Lemke sat across from her facing the doorway through which Brown had entered.

Brown again demanded payment from Dr. Lemke.  Upset at having his supper interrupted and his family disturbed, Dr. Lemke told Brown to leave and that he would talk to him after supper. According to Brown’s account, Dr. Lemke then pulled his pistol and threatened Brown. Both Dr. and Mrs. Lemke claim that Brown drew his pistol first. Regardless, Brown shot first. The first shot hit Dr. Lemke in the shoulder while he was still sitting down. Rising, the next shot struck him in the lower part of the right side of his chest. Brown’s next four shots went into the wall behind Dr. Lemke. With his revolver empty, Brown turned to run, and Dr. Lemke got off two shots with a bullet striking Brown in the left shoulder.

As Brown ran out of the house and towards downtown Bakersfield, he reloaded his revolver. Upon reaching the Arlington Hotel at 19^th and Chester Avenue, Brown turned himself in to Deputy Canaday. Brown was taken to the County Hospital and held under guard.

In the meantime, the Drs. Rogers, Helm and Fegusson were called to attend to Dr. Lemke. It was determined that Dr. Lemke’s lung and possibly intestines and liver were pierced. An operation was conducted and a hypodermic injection was administered, but Dr. Lemke fell into a coma at 8am the following morning and died at noon.

Although Brown confessed to the killing, there were witnesses, and Brown had openly threatened to harm Dr. Lemke in the days previous to the shooting, the trial was not straight-forward. First, there was trouble sitting a jury; some potential jurors claimed to have a history with Dr. Lemke and others were prejudiced against Brown. Dr. Lemke was not as well liked by everyone in the community as his standing seemed to indicate. And there was also the question of Dr. Lemke’s pistol.

The trial began on June 12, 1896. The jury consisted of F. W. Snyder, J. B. Fisk, W. Canfield, F. C. Clark, Henry Pscherer, F. D. Foss, R. W. Gay, G. H. Deacon, J. M. Ruth, John O’Toole, R. M. Brown, and Charles Graves (who, incidentally, married Dr. Lemke’s widow in 1898). District Attorney Alvin Fay and by J. W. Mahon prosecuted the case.

The prosecution called Dr. Fergusson as the first witness and he testified to the wounds. W. R. Macmurdo was next to be called. He had surveyed the house and testified as to the location and range of the bullet holes.  Charles Maul, who sat on the Coroner’s Jury, was called to identify Dr. Lemke’s pistol. Brown had earlier stated that Dr. Lemke had pulled his pistol first but had difficulty cocking it. Maul showed that the pistol was in working order, although upon cross-examination the “cylinder never revolved at all.” Under-sheriff Pyle later testified for the defense that Dr. Lemke’s pistol did not work well when he examined it after the shooting. Angelina Sellinger and Mrs. Lemke were then next to testify.  Mrs. Sellinger testified as to the events leading up to the shooting: Brown stopping by the house in the morning and then again in the evening. She was not in the room when shooting occurred. Mrs. Lemke testified:

The doctor and myself and children were at the supper table. Brown came in from the kitchen and went around to the northeast side of the table. The doctor was sitting at the south end. When Brown came in he said to the doctor: “Have you been down town?”

“Yes sir,” replied the doctor.

“I did not see you.”

“May be you don’t think I was.”

“I don’t say so.”

“Go out of my house you ----- of -----.”

“I won’t do it. I have come for a settlement.”

“I tell you go. This is my family.”

“I know it.”

At this the doctor put his hands on the table, slightly pushing back his chair, and started to get up, and then Brown pulled his pistol and remarked: “You ----- of a -------, do you see this?”

“This is all I heard them say,” said the witness,  “and then the shooting began.”

 W. H. Scibner was the last to testify for the prosecution and he reported on his conversation with Dr. Lemke following the shooting: As soon as he heard the shooting, he and Mr. Cogdon ran over to the house and found Dr. Lemke lying on the sofa.  Dr. Lemke told him that “Brown had insulted the cook and they had had a shooting scrape.” According to Scribner’s testimony, Brown shot at Dr. Lemke three times and then Dr. Lemke fired twice. Missing him with the first shot, the second shot hit Brown in the shoulder.

Brown took the stand in his own defense. His version of the events placed Dr. Lemke as the aggressor:

“I told him I would go, and I hesitated, and he said ‘Are you not going,’ and then he began to stretch up and pull his pistol and said ‘By God I’ll settle you!’”

“He then tried to work his pistol. He was up by this time on his feet, and I called out: ‘Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! If you don’t stop, ------- I’ll kill you!” I then pulled my gun and commenced to shoot.

 Defense attorneys Graham and Emmons called several witnesses to speak to the reputation of Dr. Lemke. Although it does not appear that anyone who knew Dr. Lemke testified, “ a number of [the witnesses] answered that [Dr. Lemke’s reputation] was bad, and they gave the names of citizens they had heard say so. Some of them had heard the same, but could not remember the names of those who had told them.”

Initially the jury was in a deadlock and asked to be discharged. The judge encouraged the jury to continue deliberating, and after an additional hour and a half of deliberation, they found Brown not guilty of killing Dr. Lemke. On leaving the court room one of the jurors was overheard telling Brown: “Be careful and don’t get into any more trouble like this.”

Leaving the courthouse, Brown boarded the train and headed to his home state of Kansas where the Tulare Register noted he will “likely find satisfaction after his arrival east in posing as a bad man from the wild west.” At least some Bakersfield residents weren’t happy with the outcome either: "It will scarcely be claimed by any one that the action of the jury in the case of Lyons Brown makes “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in Kern county any safer than it has been in the past.”

But life went on. Dr. Lemke’s widow married one of the jurors, Charles Graves, and, after Mr. Graves died, she married Robert Davis. The Lemke’s youngest daughter Gertrude died at the age of twelve, and the eldest daughter married, had a family, and lived until the age of seventy-three. Lyons Brown’s whereabouts after leaving Bakersfield are a little more shrouded. According to an Ancestry.com search, there is a James Lyons Brown (1872-1938) who was born in Kansas and died in New Mexico and who married and had a family. Perhaps he took the juror's advice to heart.