USA > Illinois > DeKalb County > History of DeKalb County, Illinois > Part 6
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and resigned his office, and Mr. John Campbell, of White Rock Grove, in Ogle County, was chosen in his stead. Mr. Campbell was a very exemplary man, a good Christian, a member of the Baptist Church, a father and a grandfather.
In June of this year, Judge Ford, afterwards Governor of the State, and its historian, was holding court in Sycamore, when news came down that an armed body of men, magnified by people's fears to a large army, was marching through the western portion of the County, threatening acts of violence. The Judge, considering such proceedings to be contrary to the peace and dignity of the State, resolved to send a formal embassy to inquire what were their objects and intentions. Frederick Love, the Probate Judge, the District Attorney, Farewell, of Ottawa, the Sheriff of the County, Morris Walrod, and William A. Miller, a well-known citizen, were selected as the embassy, and started out on the Oregon State Road to search for the invading army. A mile or two beyond Driscoll's Grove it was found encamped for rest and refreshment. It was discovered to be the lynchers, to the number of one hundred and fifty, or thereabouts, headed by Captain Campbell. After a long and friendly conversation, Captain Campbell, without hesitation, displayed the constitu- tion of the club for their inspection. It required its mem- bers to scour the country, investigate the character of sus- pected persons, warn them, if probably guilty, to leave the country, and lynch them if they refused. Campbell explained that they did not desire to interfere with the courts, but to aid and assist them in the enforcement of justice in cases which they were unable to reach. The commission had a friendly visit, and returning, made a very favorable report to the Judge, who seemed indisposed to make any opposition to their proceedings, but rather to favor them than otherwise. It was, perhaps, upon this identical scouting excursion that Campbell, as chief of the club, visited the Driscolls, one and all, and warned them that unless they left the country within twenty days they would be lynched. To David Driscoll he
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said : "If after that time you are found east of the Mis- sissippi river, we will brand your cheeks with R. S., and crop your ears, so that none shall fail to know your character as a rogue and a scoundrel wherever you may be seen." Is it strange that all the tiger passions in the human heart should be roused by words like these ?
There was a gathering of some of the gang soon after. The Brodies, the Driscolls, the Bridges, the Barrets, were all there ; stern, fearless, determined outlaws, exasperated to madness by the threats which had been served upon them, indignant as more honest men would have been at the stern summons to abandon their homes and firesides to their ene- mies, and fly like hounds before them.
Various modes of resistance were talked of. It was pro- posed to gather together at Driscoll's grove, fortify them- selves there, and defend their position with their lives. Some counseled a compliance with the order, and an abandonment of their homes. But the most feasible plan they could im- agine was one that best suited their crafty and revengeful natures. It had been tried in Iowa, and worked successfully there. William Driscoll had been in Iowa the previous winter, and he had told the story. It was simple, and easily executed. It was merely to shoot the 'captain of the Regu- lators. Long had been frightened into resigning by merely burning his mill. Let his successor be shot, and no person would dare to risk his life as its captain ; so the organization would necessarily become extinct. This course was resolved upon, the agents in the tragedy were selected, and the meet- ing dispersed.
Was William Driscoll present at that meeting ?
There are many reasons for supposing he was not. It was generally thought by those who knew him best that he was not connected with any of the criminal acts of his father and brothers. Those who had known him from infancy asserted that he was an exception in the family. The family, even while residing in Ohio, were noted as criminals. The father
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had served his five years in the penitentiary, and some of the sons, perhaps, deserved the same punishment. But William was known as a marked exception. He was a man of noble bearing-generous, hospitable, industrious-possessor of a large property, which he was known to have honestly ac- quired, one of the leading farmers of the County. No one could point to any crime that he was guilty of, or even seri- ously suspected of. His chief sin was that he was one of the Driscolls, and he suffered the fate of poor dog Tray for the same reason-he was found in bad company.
On the Sunday morning following this meeting, the old man Driscoll was seen about the premises of Campbell. He walked around the grounds, passed up to a clump of bushes, closely observed the location, and soon went away. He might that night have easily gone home, but he did not. He stayed at a neighbor's without any apparent reason, and slept there. Was it because he knew that a foul crime was about to be committed, and he wanted to prove an alibi ? It was so supposed. That evening just at dusk, Captain Campbell, who had returned from attending Church at Rockford, was passing from his dwelling to his stable, when he was accosted by two men who inquired the road to Oregon. His wife heard him call out "Driscoll," and immediately after there was the report of a gun, and as she rushed toward him he fell lifeless in her arms, shot through the heart. The two men immediately and deliberately walked off in the direction of Driscoll's Grove. The brave son of Campbell-a lad of thirteen years-seized his father's gun, rushed toward the retreating murderers and snapped it at them three times, but the effort to avenge the murder was unavailing : the gun did not go off. The murderers disappeared in the distance, and the grief-stricken family was left alone with the lifeless corpse of its honored head.
It will be readily understood that this shocking murder caused a prodigious excitement throughout the whole country. Swift couriers roused the entire region with the startling
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intelligence, and summoned all the clans to meet at once and devise means to secure and punish the murderers of their chief. Detachments were sent out with the morning's light to scour the country in search for the guilty pair, but the pursuit was unsuccessful. David and Taylor Driscoll were understood to be the two who had committed the crime, but they could nowhere be discovered. The scouts in their search discovered a spot upon the prairie, a half-mile from the scene of the murder, where three horses had been held while they closely cropped the herbage that grew there, and there was some reason to suppose that a wretch named Bridge, who has never since been seen in this section of country, was the man who held, ready for instant use, the horses of his companions, while they committed the murder. None of these men could be found; but the old man Driscoll was taken at his house by one party, and, in spite of his protestations of innocence and ignorance of the whole matter, and of the proof he presented of his absence from the scene at the time of its perpetration, he was carried off, his house set on fire and burned to the ground. The house of David Driscoll was also burned and his family left shelterless upon the open prairie.
Toward evening a party reached Driscoll's Grove, and set- ting their guards about it to prevent any escape, they went up to William Driscoll's cabin and took him and his young brother, Pierce, into custody. William had been the first to tell the story of the murder to the settlers at the grove. He had been in Sycamore on that day, and while there Mr. Hamlin. the postmaster, had called him into his office and read to him the startling news, which the Post- master at Oregon City had written on his package of letters for Chicago, that, passing through all the offices on the route it might speedily spread the news far and wide. William seemed surprised and saddened by the intelligence: it boded no good to him. IIe had perhaps expected to be taken and tried, for he went quietly with his captors, making no objec-
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tion or resistance. Conscious of his own innocence, he said he felt sure of acquittal. They told him that they merely wanted him to go before Mrs. Campbell, at White Rock, that she might see if he was the man who had killed her husband. Toward evening they arrived at the house where the corpse of the murdered chief of the lynchers was still lying, and where the wailing widow still mourned her sudden and awful bereavement. The two Driscolls were brought to her view, and without any hesitation she said that neither of them was present at the murder. The son who had followed and tried to shoot the assassins, was equally confident that neither of the prisoners were of the guilty pair. But the party of ex- cited men who had gathered at the scene of the assassination were cager to avenge the death of their leader, and cried aloud for victims. Those whom they had captured were of the family of the murderers.
The country was ringing with the cry that the Driscolls had done the murder, and these were Driscolls. The clans would meet there on the morrow, and these men should be kept and put at their disposal. So saying they placed them for the night in the upper chamber of the Campbell house, and a guard was set round to prevent their escape. It was not a vigilant guard, and as the night wore on the sleepless captives talked of attempting an escape. "They are deter- mined to kill us to-morrow," said Pierce-"I can see it in their looks and manner."
" No," said William, "we can prove our innocence so strongly that they can not fail to discharge us."
And after a long whispering discussion of the chances, the stern determination of the elder brother prevailed, and they concluded to remain. With the dawn of the morning a large gathering of the lynchers had collected from the country around. Many of the most respectable citizens of that sec- tion of country, such as the Cheneys, of White Rock, who had hitherto looked with some disfavor upon the summary proceedings of the lynchers, now gave up their opposition and
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freely imbibed, they soon became like a band of raving enrolled themselves as its members, and became the sternest and most sanguinary of the band. At an early hour the clans from the remoter settlements came in. There was a company from Payne's Point, led by Wellington; from the Pennsylvania settlement, led by Dr. Hubbard ; from Oregon City, led by a Methodist clergyman, by the name of Crist, and a company from Daysville, a flourishing little town, that has since gone to decay, which was commanded by one Capt. Austin.
White Rock Grove, a small belt of timber not far from the larger and better known Washington Grove, in Ogle County, had been selected as the place of rendezvous for the lynchers, and thither the band, with their prisoners, wended their way. The three Driscolls were carried in one wagon, with ropes about their necks. It had become evident to the captives that their trial was to be a mere farce, and that their fate was already sealed. Overwhelmed by the horrors of their situation, they sat stupid and dazed.
But meantime the friends of William Driscoll had not been entirely idle. At the moment of his arrest a messenger was dispatched to Sycamore to procure the attendance at the trial of some who knew of his innocence, and as they arrived upon the ground where two hundred of the infuriated lynchers were raging around their doomed victims, a couple of wagons were driven up containing a few of his defenders. Among these were J. R. Hamlin, Timothy Wells, and Frank Spencer, of Sycamore, and Benjamin Worden and Solomon Wells, of Driscoll's Grove. The lynching club of Rockford had not yet arrived, and an hour was spent in waiting for their com- ing. Near the place of the mock trial was a distillery, and during the delay a barrel of whisky was rolled out from it, its head removed, and the thirsty crowd regaled themselves with its fiery contents. Maddened by a sense of indignation at the outrages of the banditti whom they were organized to oppose, infuriated by the brutal murder of their own honored chief, and driven to frenzy by the fiery fluid which they
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HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
wolves, and it was evident that no mercy, not even strict justice would be meted out to their captives.
The little band of those who knew William, and believed in his innocence, endeavored to encourage him to hope for an acquittal. But "no," said he, "they will kill me, but they will kill an innocent man."
The club from Rockford soon arrived. It was led by Jason Marsh, a well known citizen of that place, by Mr. Robertson, the postmaster of the town, and by Charles Lat- timer, a young lawyer, who was subsequently killed in a street fight in Wisconsin.
Upon their arrival a circle was formed, and a lawyer named Leland, who has since occupied the bench in Illinois, as a Judge of the Circuit Court, was chosen as the presiding officer. Seating himself upon the ground at the foot of a tree, he had the old man Driscoll brought into the ring and arraigned before him.
" What are the charges against this man," said he.
It was a natural and pertinent question, but it rather con- fused the lynchers. There was some hesitation among them, but at last one and another charged him with certain minor offences.
The main charge was a general cry that he was one of the horse-thieving fraternity, and that they were afraid of their lives if he should be released.
The old man stoutly denied most of the charges, but he ad- mitted that he had stolen a yoke of cattle in Ohio, and one who was present says that he also admitted the theft of fifty horses in Ohio, without detection, but that he was caught in stealing the fifty-first, and served five years in the peniten- tiary, at Columbus, for it. "When I came out," said he "I resolved to lead an honest life. I moved away to this county, and I have since kept my pledge."
A very few minutes were spent in the mockery of a trial, when Leland put the question, " What shall be done with this man ?"
Some one started up and moved that "we shoot him."
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The Judge put it to vote, and it was carried with a shout of unanimity.
The old man was taken out of the ring, and William Dris- coll was taken in. He was a large, noble-looking man, and if the party had not been frenzied with rage and liquor, would have excited some respect. Accusations against him were called for. Few could charge any crime whatever ; but a circumstance that excited suspicion, and that had been much talked about, was mentioned. It was, that he must have been in the secret of the murder of Campbell, because he first reported it at Driscoll's Grove and in that section of country. We have already seen that he got the information about it from Mr. Hamlin, the postmaster at Hamlin, who had come especially to explain this suspicious circumstance, now tried to get a hearing. He asked to be permitted to say a word or two, but was met with a storm of hisses, and shouts of" no, not a word."
Spencer and Wells, who had made some defense of the ac- cused, and got excited in the discussion, had already been seized and placed under guard. A move was made to take Hamlin also, but Leland cried out that he had a right to be heard, and he was permitted to make his statement. Driscoll also talked a little. He said he had lived honestly and done no injustice to any one, unless it was that in a certain trade on one occasion, he had afterward thought he did not do quite right. Nothing was of any avail. The crowd cried "Shoot him, shoot him," and he was led out of the ring.
There was no evidence whatever against the boy Pierce, and he was discharged.
There was a motion, then, to give them an hour to prepare for death, and to give them the benefit of clergy, which, as they construed it, was to furnish a clergyman to talk and pray with them. Crist, the preacher, Captain of the band from Oregon City, went to the open whisky barrel, drank a dipper full of its fiery contents, and then knelt down and prayed, long and noisily. William Driscoll joined him audi- bly, but the old man took no notice of what was transpiring.
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Ilamlin, meanwhile, moved around among the excited crowd endeavoring to secure a postponement of the execution, or, if possible, a commutation of the sentence to banishment beyond the Mississippi, within twenty-four hours.
Leland, the presiding officer, favored the project, and while unwilling to do much himself, urged Hamlin to keep up the excitement in favor of mercy. Phelps, clerk of the Ogle County Court, favored it. McFarland was also active in support of this movement, and they finally got the party called together again, and moved for an extension of the time, but the majority, led by the Cheneys, Marsh and others, were bitterly opposed to it, and fairly hooted it down. The time had now expired, and the gray-haired old man was brought out, blindfolded, and told to kneel upon the grass. The lynchers drew up in a long line, with guns in their hands. A number, unwilling to take part in the execution, stood round in the rear, and their guns were leaning against the rees. Marsh shouted that all must join in, and he movd tha+ all the guns left standing there be whipped up against the trees. Upon this the guns were all taken, and the men fell into line. A Justice from White Rock was marshall and gave the order to fire. The fatal one, two, three was called, and at the word three an hundred guns were discharged, and the lifeless body of the old man fell over like a bag of wheat.
Then William Driscoll was led out by the side of the bloody body of his father, and he, too, shared the same fate. Not a muscle moved in either of them: so many well-aimed bullets pierced them, that but for the bandages that covered their eyes, their heads would have fallen into fragments. The bodies were thrown into a brush-heap, and the crowd dis- persed to their homes. Some pitying hand partially covered the corpses with a foot or two of earth, and a couple of weeks later, when the popular excitement had somewhat subsided, the Driscolls having found, in Mr. R. P. Watson, a friend who dared public opinion so far as to make coffins for them, and they were quietly removed and decently buried in Dris- coll's Grove.
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The crowd returning destroyed what remained of the log houses and barns of both the father and the son David, to make sure that the whole race should be driven from the country. No one dared harbor or take the houseless family in, and for two or three weeks they lived in a corn-crib amidst the ruins.
Probably no one at this time will justify this sanguinary act of execution ; none, perhaps doubt that it resulted in the death of at least one innocent man. No doubt the leading men engaged in it thought they were doing right. It is cer- tain that it resulted in dispersing the whole gang of banditti, and giving peace and security to a section of country that had hitherto been subjected to frequent outrages and constant alarm.
David Driscoll has never since been seen in this country : he fled to the uninhabited wilderness across the Mississippi, and his fate is unknown.
Six years after these occurrences Taylor Driscoll returned, and being seen in McHenry County, was arrested and brought to trial for the murder of Captain Campbell.
The witnesses against him all depended upon the testimony of the widow of Campbell, who swore positively that Taylor Driscoll was the man who fired the shot that killed her hus- band. Although six years had passed, she said she- knew him perfectly, and that she never was mistaken in identifying a person whom she had once known.
But in the course of a vigilant cross-examination, by Mr. Barry of Driscoll's counsel, she was induced to swear with equal certainty, that upon a more recent occasion she had seen Pierce Driscoll at a certain time and place. She was as positive of it as she was that she had seen Taylor Driscoll shoot her husband. It happened, however, that she was mis- taken in this. It was proved beyond a question that it was not Pierce but another brother, who closely resembled him, whom she had then seen, and that Pierce was forty miles away at this time. The jury finding her thus mistaken in identifying a person whom she had seen only a few months
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HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
before, were easily persuaded that she might have been equally mistaken in testifying to the identity of Taylor, whom she had not seen for six years, and they gave him a verdict of ac- quittal.
But the investigations of the writer of this history have led him upon evidence, which he is not permitted to divulge, which fully convinces him that Mrs. Campbell was right, and that Taylor Driscoll was really the murderer of Campbell.
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THE RESURRECTIONISTS.
CHAPTER VII.
THE RESURRECTIONISTS.
During the years 1847 and 1848, the inhabitants of the village of St. Charles, in Kane County, and of that section of the country which surrounded it, were kept in an unpleasant state of excitement by a suspicion that the graves of their friends, whose remains they had buried, were being invaded and robbed by the faculty and students of a medical institute located at that place, which was under the charge of one Dr. Richards. Two or three graves of honored citizens of that place had been examined, and discovered to be emptied of their precious contents. Many who had recently lost friends commenced the painful task of examining their newly made graves, while many others only refrained from it lest they should find their fears realized and that the outrage so hope- less of redress liad been consummated. To the gloom and terrors which surround every death-bed were added the dread surmisc, that even the grave was no secure resting place for the sacred remains of the dead. The restlessness, the irrita- tion, the indignation that was caused by this feeling may readily be imagined.
But until the spring of 1849 it was not known, nor gen- erally suspected, that the reckless grave robbers extended their depredations beyond the near vicinity of the hated in- stitute.
It was one gloomy afternoon in March of that year, that three young men, driving a pair of horses attached to a large spring-wagon, stopped for supper at the well-known tavern kept by Mr. James Lovell, on the Sycamore and St. Charles road, near Ohio Grove. A few words of the conversation
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between the party caught the quick ear of the landlord's daughter, who waited on the table, and startled her with the suspicion that the party were body-snatchers, designing to rob some grave in that vicinity. She communicated her sus- picions to her father, who at first paid no attention to them, but on second thought sent out a boy, quietly, to search their wagon. The lad returned and reported that, concealed be- neath the buffalo robe in the bottom of the wagon, were a couple of spades, ropes, hoops, etc .- all the tools required for that ghastly trade. This left no room for doubt about their intentions, and landlord Lovell at once determined to set means at work to defeat their purpose, and capture them in the guilty act if possible.
He dispatched one of his boys out on the west road to Mr. HI. A. Joslyn's and Mr. Levias Dow's, notifying them that the resurrectionists were coming that way, and asking them to follow and watch the rascals. He thought over the names and locations of those who had been buried in that section of country within the space of a few weeks. Among the healthy, hardy pioncers who then inhabited the country, a death was a rare occurrence, and none were consigned to mother carth without the knowledge, and, indeed, the presence, of most of the inhabitants for miles around.
Two bodies had been interred within a short period. One was that of a friendless German, who had been buried in that South Burying Ground in the village of Sycamore, from which the bodies have this year been removed. The other was the corpse of the fair young bride of Mr. George M. Kinyon, which but a few days before had been conveyed to the grave-yard of the Baptist Church, near Ohio Grove, in the present town of Cortland.
Leaving his friendly neighbor Josyln, to look out for raids upon the Sycamore grave-yard, he made his own way down to. Mr. David Churchill, the father of the late Mrs. Kinyon, and warned him to guard the sanctity of her grave.
Meantime the grave robbers had passed on toward the village of Sycamore, and Harry Josyln, lying concealed by
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THE RESURRECTIONISTS.
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