I have one more piece of information to add to this discussion. Several years
ago we completed an inventory of a proposed road widening project in Sandy,
Utah.  The road ended at an historic cemetery at a very busy intersection.
 In doing the history background work I ran across some newspaper information
concerning a particularly unsavory character whose body found its way to this
cemetery, information which really drives home the need to do background
work.  It is a bit long, so take your choice about reading it - it is quite
an interesting story, however.
 
I quote from my report of 1990:
 
Charles Thiede was apparently the first saloon keeper of record in the City
of Murray [adjacent to Sandy] and also owned a brewery [this was in 1894].
 he was a German who had emigrated to this country in 1885 with his wife,
Mary and daughter following in 1887.  He was considered a somewhat unsavory
character who had, in the past, been charged with selling liquor without a
license, dispensing liquor to minors and assault.  He also frequently
quarreled with his wife.  His crimes apparently reached a climax in late
April, 1894.  According to the Deseret News of May 1, 1894:
 
"One of the most cold blooded and deliberate crimes ever perpetrated in this
territory occurred at a late hour April 30, 1894, about half a mile west of
Murray, and 7 miles from Salt Lake.  The scene of the awful tragedy was a
saloon kept by Charles Thiede, who is said to be of German extraction.
 ....
 
About 10:00 p.m. certain of the neighbors heard a woman's piercing screams
proceeding from the direction of the saloon, but as this was no very uncommon
thing at Thiede's no particular notion was at first paid to the incident.
 The presumption; therefore, is these were the unfortunate woman's dying
cries.  What actuallly happened, however, is at present a matter of
conjecture, but it is thought that Thiede chased his wife out of the house
into the yeard and there inflicted the fatal injuries upon her [with a
knife]."
 
Thiede was placed under arrest and taken to trial for the murder.  Though he
never admitted to it, he was convicted and several appeals were rejected.  He
was eventually sentenced to die by hanging.  The murder particularly incensed
the local Murray populous who might have lynched Thiede had not the Sheriff
apprehended him as soon as he did.  Thiede was hanged as ordered in Salt Lake
City at the rear of the County Jail at 10:41 a.m. August 7, 1896.  His was
the first execution under Utah State Government aucpices.
 
It is the following information which has particular relevance to the Sandy
Cemetery.  According to the Deseret Evening News of August 8, 1896: "DO NOT
WANT HIM.  Sandy people object to the murderer Charles Thiede in this quiet
little cemetery.  Threaten to exhume the body if the relatives do not remove
it."  Another article in the same paper was entitled "A LONESOME NIGHT
WATCH":
 
"Citizens of Sandy are decidely indignant because Mr. C.J. Schmidt,
brother-in-law of Charles Thiede, who was yesterday hanged for the murder of
his wife, took the body and interred it in his burial lot in the quiet little
grave yard of Sandy.  Last night little groups of people were seen on the
street corners of the usually tranquil little smelter town discussing what
they considered an affront to their decency and dignity in the burial of a
wife murderer among their beloved dead.
 
The matter grew from street corner talks into the form of threats.  Several
residents had determined to insist upon the removal of Thiede's body by the
relatives or they would take the action themselves.  Fearing threats might be
carried out Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt, the latter a sister of Thiede, sat all
night on the grave of the executed man and kept lonely vigil over the newly
made mound.  There was not law that a murderer could not be put in a family
grave in Sandy.  They had planned to move Mrs. Thiede from the Murray
cemetery to be placed by her husband who had been executed for her murder.
 The law enforcement officers had been called and they claimed it would be
dangerous for parties to interfere.
 
Whether sufficient pressure could be brought to bear upon the Schmidt's to
remove the body is a deference to the unanimous wish of the people in
question, but juding from the prsent out look something will be done either
with or without consent of the relatives."
 
The final chapter of this story appears to have taken place on the night of
August 9, 1896.  According to the Deseret News of August 10, 1896:
 
"At midnight last night the body of charles Thiede, executed for wife murder,
was exhumed from the burial lot of the Schmidt's at Sandy and reinterred in a
field outside of the cemetery at a point which according to survey, is in a
public street and will probably be used as such someday.  the fact was not
accomplished without considerable trouble, but Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt at lasat
yielded to the persuasions of the cemetery board and the disagreeable matter
is at last ended and it is hoped that Thiede and the whole affair will now be
forgotten."
 
Well, "forgotten" is a relative word.  Perhaps for their era of 100 years
ago.  We are currently monitoring reconstruction of that very road
intersection and, if this story is true, will soon find out if Theide's body
still lies beneath the pavement there.
 
Mike Polk
Sagebrush Consultants, L.L.C.
Ogden, Utah