History of Logan County, Illinois, Part 37

Author: Inter-State Publishing Co.
Publication date: 1886
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 989

USA > Illinois > Logan County > History of Logan County, Illinois > Part 37

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and driver at Klatt's stable, and went out to his home. Here he had the driver, Henry Kirby, put up his team, saying that he would return to Lincoln pretty soon, and meantime they would have dinner. As Kirby was on his way to the house, after putting up his team, he heard a shot fired, and directly afterward Mrs. Herbeck ran out at the door, saying she was shot. A man employed on the farm helped her to the house of a neighbor, Peter Critz. A few moments after she left, Kirby saw Herbeck come to the door, look around as if in search of his wife, and then go back. He came out again, and in reply to a question by Kirby, said he did not want to go back to town. Kirby took his horses from the stable and went for some of the neighbors. Others, including H. L. Pierce, had been aroused by some boys who had heard of the shoot- ing, and were soon looking for Herbeck. They found him in the stable with the door fastened on the inside. While Mr. Pierce was trying the door, a shot was heard inside, and when an entrance was gained Herbeck was found dead in the hay-loft with a pistol ball in his head; he had shot himself in the left eye.

Herbeck was from St. Louis, where he belonged to a German lodge of Odd Fellows. He was strongly under the influence of liquor when he did the shooting. The cause of the tragedy was said to be jealousy. The woman was ironing at a table when shot, and was stooping over her work when her husband fired the pistol The ball struck her in the back about three inches below the shoul- der-blade and about an inch and a half to the left of the spine, and passed entirely through her body, coming out at the point of the breast-bone ; it was thought to have passed under and within an inch of the heart. She was for a time not expected to live, but did recover, to the surprise of all.

THE OLARE-CONNOR'S MURDER ..

Lincoln was the scene of an unprovoked murder on Friday, No vember 19, 1880. John Clare, a coal miner, well along in years, the father of a family of grown children, and Daniel Connors, a young man, also a coal miner, and an old friend of Clare, entered the house of John Daly, on German street, in the Third Ward, apparently on the best of terms; and after sitting and conversing together for a short time, Clare drew a revolver and shot Connor. No one was in the room up to almost the instant of shooting, and the particulars or causes leading to the crime were never learned. The matter remains one of the unsolved mysteries. Clare's trial

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was postponed from time to time, and did not take place until Sep- tember, 1881. He was then found guilty and sentenced to fifteen years in the penitentiary. His defense was that of insanity.

A FATAL BLAST.

A number of casualties have occurred in the Lincoln coal mines, but one of the saddest occurred December 4, 1880 ; Marcus Lind- sey went down into the mine at half-past four on that morning, and put in a blast which was fired at twenty minutes past six, and which cansed his death. In mining coal, rooms are opened at right angles to the entries, or should be, but Lindsey had not noticed, it seems, what direction he was taking and had turned his room until it was running nearly parallel with the entry. When he went down into the mine on Saturday morning, he drilled a hole and put in a charge of powder, stopping only eighteen inches from the face of the entry. Then when he lighted the fuse he went out into the entry to wait for the explosion and sat down but seven feet from the deadly charge toward which the fire in the slow match was rapidly creeping. A miner in a neighboring room, George S. Howser, came out to get his clothes to go home at the time that Lindsey came from his room, having fired the fuse. When the explosion took place, instead of breaking out in the room as intended, it burst through the face of the entry and threw out coal enough to have killed twenty men, had they been in the entry. The concussion put their lights out and Howser called to Lindsey, but receiving no answer lighted his lamp and went to him, finding him mangled and lifeless. The body was fearfully blackened and bruised, and both arms were broken above the elbow, while a piece of coal had'passed entirely through the head from left to right, tearing away the back part of the head al- most to the ears. Death had been "swift and pangless." Lind- sey was a married man, of good character, and a painter by trade, working in the mine during the winter season.

SUICIDE OF BEN FRANK.

On the afternoon of Thursday, December 2, 1880, Ben Frank left his house north of the Boulevard at Lincoln, telling his wife that he was going to town after some stove-pipe, and would soon be back. He did not return, and at 9 o'clock Mrs. Frank being alarmed at his continued absence, had a search instituted. This was continued, without result, through Friday and Saturday and

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up to Sunday morning, when the body of the unfortunate man was found suspended from a rafter in the barn. It was not found sooner because in a dark corner where it had escaped the first and more casual observation. Mr. Frank was an old and well-known citizen, having been in business in various capacities for many years. He was in good circumstances financially, leaving quite an estate, and temporary insanity was the undoubted canse. He had suffered a sunstroke the previous summer from which he had never fully recovered, and it was said that he had several times threatened to take his own life.

SHOT HIMSELF.

John Blake shot himself on Monday, December 27, 1880, less than a month after the Frank suicide. He was at one time in fair circumstances, and one of the owners of the " Logan Mills," but drink had ruined him. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon, alone in the basement of the mill, he fired three shots into his left side aiming at the heart; but entering too low and too far to the left, and failing to accomplish his purpose, fired a fourth shot against the right side of his head; but this ball struck on the thick parie- tal bone, and, the revolver being only a 22-caliber, the bullet was flattened and turned aside, plowing a short distance under the scalp. Two or three of the employes were in the mill office above, but did not hear the shots. Mr. Elwood finally heard him call, went down and found him lying stiff and bleeding on the ground. He was carried np to the office, where a hasty examination was made by Drs. Ross and Brown and he was then carried to his residence on Third street, where he expired the next morning. Being asked what caused him to take his own life, Mr. Blake replied that he " could not make his books balance." He was about $200 short in his accounts, and had been warned that he must keep sober and keep his business straight or he would be discharged. He was a member of two benevolent orders, and his family was thus provided for. He had signed the pledge the spring before and kept it for a time, but had remarked he must die of delirium tremens or kill himself, and he preferred the latter.

A MEDICAL STUDENT'S END.

William J. Engle, a young man twenty-three years of age, had been studying medicine in Lincoln with Dr. W. W. Houser for about six months prior to September 1, 1881, at which time he lett

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to attend medical lectures. While residing at Lincoln he made the acquaintance of Miss Jennie Lanterman, daughter of A. J. Lanterman. An engagement had followed, but this was broken off on account of Engle's conduct and bad habits. He went to Colo- rado instead of Chicago to attend medical lectures, and after a couple of months returned to Lincoln. He hung around for some days, and then shot himself in front of Mr. Lanterman's house. He had made previous attempts on his life, and was certainly of diseased mind.

TRIPLE MURDER.

A crime came to light on Sunday, August 20, 1882, that was characterized by the press and citizens as the most atrocious ever perpetrated in Logan County. The following account is condensed from that given by the Lincoln Herald :

The scene was a farm six miles east of Mt. Pulaski and two miles south of Chestnut. The victims were Charles H. McMahan, Robert Matheny and John Carlock, the last two being men in the employ of the first-named. The house in which McMahan lived stood alone in the fields, fully half a mile from any road, making it a fit scene for such a crime as the one we are narrating. There was no fence about it and no garden, the building standing in an untidy clump of weeds, with here and there a rusty piece of worn- out farm machinery, and, at a little distance, a cluster of stacks, a dilapidated shed stable and some uncovered corn-pens, where the crops of two or three seasons were slowly going to decay. The neighbors said McMahan was holding his corn for a better price. To the north was a small, badly kept old orchard. The house itself was a one-story building, 18 x 30 feet in dimensions. It was never painted, and was black with the storms of thirty winters. The in- terior of this gloomy place was equally forbidding. 1

The last time the three men were seen alive was on Friday evening, when the neighbors noticed them at work stacking oats near the stable. On Saturday one of the neighbors was annoyed by a stray horse belonging to McMahan, and on Sunday forenoon David Long went to ask him to take it away. Long found no one at the house, but noticed that quilts were hung at the windows, and that some things were out of place. Frank Lyon and Alfred Ayres afterward joined in the search, which lasted, perhaps, two hours, when, led by a sickening odor from a clump of tall weeds near some corn-pens, about 300 yards south of the house, one of

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them came upon the body of young Carlock. Without making a careful examination, they at once concluded that the body was that of Charles McMahan, and jumped to the conclusion that McMahan had been murdered by his two hired men. It was not till an hour later, when the body of Matheny was found in the weeds within fifteen feet of that of Carlock, that the magnitude of the crime began to dawn upon the horrified spectators. Search was then made for the body of McMahan, and was continued for some time before it was found concealed in tall grass in a slough at a point 120 yards southwest of the other two. All three were found lying upon their backs, with their throats cut from ear to ear, the gash in young Carlock's throat having almost severed his head from his body. All were blindfolded, gagged, their hands tied behind their backs and their feet hobbled so that they could only step about eight inches. Their hands had clutched the weeds beneath them so tightly, in their death agony, that the weeds had to be cnt before they could be removed. Matheny and Carlock had each been struck a severe blow over the head, probably with a billy or club-a blow which laid bare the skull.

McMahan was a bachelor who lived alone, except that he usually had a hired man employed the year through. They did their own cooking, and lived in a rough, uncomfortable way. There was no evidence of a struggle in the house, and the three must have sur- rendered quietly to what seemed the inevitable. The accepted theory was that the thieves did not at first intend to murder their victims, but that, finding themselves recognized, they afterward decided to kill them, on the theory that " dead men tell no tales." There was nothing to show that the house was closely searched. After their money and McMahan's watch were secured, the three were marched in a hobbled condition south across a piece of plowed ground to the corn-pens above mentioned, where the two young men were butchered. McMahan was taken to the slough, about 120 yards southwest of the others, and his throat cut.

This affair, as may well be supposed, created the wildest excite- ment throughout the county, especially the southeastern portion. Governor Cullom offered $200 each for the arrest of the murder- ers. The Board of Supervisors offered $1,000 reward, and authorized the use of an equal amount for the employment of detectives in ferreting out the perpetrators. In addition to these rewards the relatives of McMahan offered $1,000; residents of Chestnut and vicinity, $500; residents of Beason and vicinity, $500; residents

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of Latham and vicinity, $500, and residents of Mt. Pulaski and vicinity, $500. This made a total of $6,600.

These heavy rewards attracted a number of volunteer detectives, and many arrests were made during the succeeding few months. No evidence sufficient to convict any one, however, was found, and it began to look as if justice was to be cheated. Jan. 1, 1884, the matter was placed by the authorities directly into the hands of the Pinkerton agency, and the arrest of J. H. Hall and David Long was accomplished on Saturday, Feb. 16, 1884, at East St. Louis, whither they had been decoyed from St. Louis to avoid the delay of a requisition from the Governor. They were in prison in St. Louis four courts until Tuesday evening following, when they were brought to Lincoln. J. H. Hall was a brother of Noah P. Hall, and the latter a brother-in-law of McMahan. Long was never suspected of complicity in the affair, but was employed by the detectives to associate with Hall and gain his confidence. Long did learn Hall's guilty secret, and his testimony was very useful on the trial.

At the May term of court, 1884, the grand jury indicted J. Hol- land Hall, Mrs. Bell Hall, his wife, and William Ferris, Mrs. Hall's brother. The trial commenced June 10, and was concluded on the 25th, the jury finding Hall guilty and sending him to the peniten- tiary for life. Ferris was acquitted on the charge of murdering McMahan, but immediately rearrested upon the charge of killing Carlock and Matheny. It was hoped that additional evidence could be secured against him by the next term of court. Mrs. Hall was not seriously suspected of guilt. At the September term the case against Ferris was dismissed, with leave to reinstate. This ended the matter in the courts. Hall is now serving his life sentence, and the murder is rapidly being forgotten. It was the general desire of the people to see Hall hanged, for if ever murder warrants capital punishment surely this triple crime should result in an execution of the guilty man. It was also generally felt that . Ferris should have a life sentence, or at least fourteen years im- prisonment. This case, lasting twenty-two months, cost Logan County $6,000.

A PROMINENT FARMER SUICIDES.

John Thomas, a well-to-do farmer living near the corporation line of Lincoln, commited suicide on January 19, 1883. He had been in bad health for several years and suffered at times intensely. His disease was catarrh of the head, in a very severe and probably incurable form. Under the influence of his disease, he was gloomy

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and despondent, and at times he would avoid his friends as though conversation was a burden. He sometimes said he would rather die than suffer as he did. On January 9 he started for Southwest Missouri, in company with A. B. Nicholson and Joseph Ream. He hoped thus to improve his health, but, finding no re- lief, he returned on Wednesday, the 17th. He went out home the next day, and remained in bed most of the time, requesting to be left alone. At about 7:30 the next morning, while the family were at breakfast, he went to a closet and took out a breach-loading rifle, loaded it with a cartridge and then went into his daughter's room, where his younger daughter, Emma, was asleep. Sitting upon the side of the bed he placed the muzzle of the rifle to his forehead and touched the trigger. The report was so smothered that those in the dining-room did not notice it, but Emma awoke and ran to them, saying, "Something is the matter with pa."- Mrs. Thomas ran in and raised him up. Seeing the blood, but not noticing the gun, she thought he had burst a blood vessel, but in a few moments the dreadful truth became apparent. A physician was sent for, but the shot proved fatal within fifteen or twenty minutes. The coroner's jury returned the only verdict possible under the circum- stances. Mr. Thomas was sixty years old, and a native of this State. He came to this county in 1853, and settled at first on Sugar Creek. He made many friends, and became one of the county's most prominent and highly estcemed citizens. He was one of the leading men in the county agricultural society, and was one of the most active workers in the building of Zion Church, north of Lincoln. He was materially prosperons, being the owner of a fine farm of 160 acres, adjoining the city limits, and having personal property of considerable value besides. His suicide was undoubtedly due to the cause universally assigned for it-continued ill-health, which had, to some extent, affected his mind.

THE CARPENTER CASE.

The mysterious murder of Zura Burns, on the night succeeding Sunday, October 14, 1883, made Lincoln a center of sensation for several months, and gave it a national notoriety. It ruined the reputation of a prominent business man, ate up his property, en- tailed vast expense upon Logan County, gave employment to an army of lawyers, detectives and reporters, and gave the readers of the newspapers a surfeit of unwholesome literature. The affair is yet so fresh in the memory of the citizens of the county, and peo- 26

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ple formed so many partisan opinions concerning it that it is im- possible to write as complete and impartial a history of the case as it deserves.

Mrs. Patrick Jewett made the discovery that a murder had been committed, finding the body of Zura Burns at 7:30 Monday morn. ing, October 15, 1883. She quickly spread the news. Coroner Boyden and Dr. Leeds at once went to the scene of the tragedy, at the far end of the short lane lying between the ten acres owned by Chris. Lawrence and the ten acres owned by James S. Ran- dolph, in Sigg's addition, northwest of Lincoln. The body was lying in a furrow. There were no indications of a struggle, yet the ground was somewhat tramped. The tracks of a buggy led from the spot southward through the lane, where they were lost in the road. In turning her over a horrible spectacle met their gaze, as the right side of her forehead had been crushed in with some blunt instrument and her throat was cut from ear to ear; one eye was open and the other closed; her tongue protruded slightly be- tween a set of large teeth, while her face and hair were clotted with her blood, rendering it almost impossible to distinguish the features. The earth beneath the wound was saturated with blood to the depth of several inches.

The remains were brought to town, and later in the day were identified by the Lincoln House clerk and a 'bus driver, the latter claiming he brought her from the Peoria, Decatur & Evansville depot the Saturday morning previous. An examination of the Lincoln House register showed that on the morning mentioned she subscribed her name as Zura Burns, of Vandalia, Ill. It was fur- ther found that she had left the Lincoln House a little after 8 o'clock Saturday night, with a small hand satchel and a goesamer. Her father, William H. H. Burns, was telegraphed for and ar- rived Wednesday morning. "Zura " was a nickname, the proper form being "Missouri."

The coroner's jury met on Wednesday, and was composed of Will- iam M. Dustin, A. B. Nicholson, Henry Ahrens, David Gillespie, George I. Harry and Simon Rock-six highly respectable citizens. Thomas W. Kenyon and Samuel Stern were afterward substituted for Messrs. Dustin and Nicholson. This jury remained in session from October 17 to November 1, on the latter date rendering the following verdict:

"In the matter of the inquisition on the body of Missouri Burns, deceased, held at Lincoln, Illinois, from October 17 to November

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1, we, the undersigned jurors, sworn to inquire of the death of Missouri Burns, on oath do find that she came to her death by the means of a wound in the throat, produced by some sharp instru- ment, in the hands of some person, or persons, to the jury unknown."

Much of the testimony before the jury tended to show that the guilty party was Orrin A. Carpenter, but still they did not see fit to charge the crime upon him in their verdict. The authorities ar- rested him, however, and held him to await a hearing before a magistrate. He was at this time abont forty-six years old, and stood exceptionally well in the social and business circles of Lin- coln. He came to this county with his parents from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1854, and lived first at Lawndale. A year later the family removed to a farm four or five miles northwest of Lin- coln. About 1878 Mr. Carpenter, in company with Aurelian Esten, of Lawndale, purchased an elevator in Lincoln of W. W. Barrett. He was therefore considered well-to-do, and was thor- onghly well known. He was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and, altogether, seemed one of the very last men who could be thought capable of murder.

Many circumstances, however, pointed to him as the murderer, and at the very beginning of the investigation he employed counsel and refused to testify. His preliminary hearing before Judge Lacey occupied some five days, and another day was devoted to lawyers' arguments. At the conclusion, Carpenter was admitted to bail on a bond for $10,000, for his appearance at the January term of the Circuit Court. The bond was signed by himself and A. Esten, G. W. Edgar, F. C. W. Koehnle, B. F. McCord, S. A. Foley, J. A. Hudson, Paul Smith, Thomas W. Kenyon and T. T. Beach.

At the January term of court, before Judge Herdman, Carpenter was indicted on five counts. When arraigned for trial, February 5, he obtained a change of venue to Menard County, and his trial was set for March 3. The trial came off at the appointed time at Petersburg, and lasted about three weeks. The result was his acquittal, the jury agreeing that there was not sufficient evi- dence to convict. Still public feeling was largely against him. A meeting of the citizens of Lincoln was held, and Carpenter was re- qnested to leave the county for good. He remained but a few months at Lincoln, disposing of what property he had left after paying his heavy bills, and then left Lincoln for the West. He is now at Sioux Falls, Dakota.

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CHAPTER XV.

STATISTICAL.

VALUATION AND TAXATION OF PROPERTY IN 1865, 1875 AND 1885 .- POPULATION OF THE COUNTY BY THE DIFFERENT FEDERAL CEN- SUBES.

For purposes of comparison we here give the valuation and tax- ation of Logan County at three dates ten years apart, and after- ward give the population of the county by each federal census, be- ginning with 1860.

VALUATION AND TAXATION, 1865.

In 1865 the following was the assessed valuation and the taxation of this county: Number of horses, 9,817; valuation, $407,198; num- ber of cattle, 20,275; valuation, $258,608; number of mules and asses, 923; valuation, $41,265; number of sheep, 55,408; valuation, $137,926; number of hogs, 25,896; valuation, $81,303; number of carriages and wagons, 2,592; valuation, $77,554; number of clocks and watches, 2,023; valuation, $9,973; number of pianos, 43; valu- ation, $4,925; goods and merchandise, $234,500; bankers', brokers' and stock jobbers' property, $5, 000; manufactured articles, $21, 965; moneys and credits, $449,456; unenumerated property, $228,855; aggregate, $1,958,628; deductions, $89,421; total value personal property, $1,869,107; railroad property, $171,866; lands, $3,400,- 703; town lots, $526,719; total value of lands, railroad property and town lots, $4,099,288; total value of real and personal prop- erty, $5,968,395; State tax, at 52 cents on the $100, $31,035.65; State school tax at 20 cents on the $100, $11,936.79; State tax and interest remaining due for 1864, $90.71; total State tax, $43, 063.15; county tax at 33 cents on the $100, $19,695.70; county tax and interest remaining due for 1864, $38.22; total county tax, $19,- 733.92; district school tax, $42,517.52; total tax, $105,324.59; acres of wheat in cultivation, 18,752; corn, 63,162; other field products, 10,109.

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VALUATION AND TAXATION, 1875.

Ten years later the assessed valuation had more than doubled, though in the same time the taxation had increased proportionally 30 per cent. faster. The valuation and taxation for 1875 are thus itemized: Equalized valuation, $12,528,245; State tax, $37,746.83; county tax, $25,164.57; town tax, $2,777.53; district school tax, $63,410.30; road tax, $5,410.06; road and bridge tax, $24, 467.56; county bond sinking fund, $12,581.65; bond interest, $16,356.96; town bondfinterest, $13,912.07; city and corporation, $37,290.07; back tax, $4,588.42; total tax, $243,714.02. The equalized valu- ations of the several townships for 1875 was as follows: Atlanta, $782,043; Ætna, $559,997; Broadwell, $626,706; Chester, $654,- 074; Corwin, $592,149; Elkhart, $936,805; East Lincoln, $1,440,- 743; Eminence, $633,401; Hurlbut, $455, 228; Laenna, $690,646; Lake Fork, $313,352; Mt. Pulaski, $1,249,167; Orvil, $756,764; Oran, $631,881; Prairie Creek, $720,985; Sheridan, $612,592; West Lincoln, $925,412.

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History of Logan County, Illinois, Part 37

Author: Inter-State Publishing Co. Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Number of Pages: 989

Author: Inter-State Publishing Co.
Publication date: 1886
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 989