The Hossack Case

Alexander (Alex) Hossack

Born in Warren County on August 16, 1868, Alex was the oldest of the Hossack children. He moved away from home around 1890; some neighbors said that his father never claimed him as a son and forced him to leave. Alex settled more than one hundred miles away, in Palo Alto County, Iowa, and he married a woman named Cora. He returned occasionally to see his family, and he and Cora and their new baby paid an extended visit to the Hossack farm in February 1900, about ten months before the murder of his father.

Alex was at his own home in Palo Alto County on the night his father was killed, but he traveled to his parents' home as soon as he heard the news, arriving on the train the next day. He acted as one of the family spokespersons, attending the meeting at which William Berry was hired to defend Margaret Hossack.

Alex's wife died when their children were still young, and Alex, unable to raise them on his own, sent them to live with Cora's sister. Alex maintained contact with his youngest sibling, Ivan, who lived in Mitchell, South Dakota, but he seldom saw his other brothers and sisters. Alex died in Dubuque in 1939.