Martin C. Golden

Unsolved Murder

This is a Newspaper article that appeared in the Fruitport paper in 1990

 

Unsolved murder occurred 84 years ago

By Jean Cummings

 

Jack Rollenhagen brought in this old news story – a

murder which occurred in April, 1906, and was never solved.  The armed robbery, which resulted in the death of store proprietor Martin C. Golden, occurred at Dennison, a settlement three miles west of Coopersville.

 

At the end of he day Golden locked up his store and prepared to walk the 150 feet to his home, but he was shot along the wooden walkway.  The robber took $100 in cash, $100 in checks and the victim’s gold watch.

 

The news article reporting the murder theorizes that the murderer was an amateur, as professionals never took watches.  They were too easily traced.  Golden’s widow believed the robber knew her husband and his habits, and probably knew that Golden was expecting money to arrive on the mail train Monday night.

 

Golden was 35 and had been a teacher in Coopersville before opening the store three years prior.  His widow was left with a four-week old daughter.

 

Newspapers of that day were more graphic than today’s.  The article quoted Mrs. Golden as saying, “I grabbed the dining room lamp and ran down the boardwalk.  I found him lying on his back with that awful hole in his forehead,  He was gasping and seemed unconscious, but I could see in his eyes that he knew me, and when I screamed and grasped his poor hand, his finger closed on mine.  I saw the orange in his mouth.  I took a piece of it from his lips and prayed of him to speak to me.”