USA > Illinois > DeKalb County > Past and present of DeKalb County, Illinois, Volume I > Part 10
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PAST AND PRESENT OF DE KALB COUNTY.
The county was divided into assessors districts and John Riddle, one of the first settlers of Franklin was appointed assessor of district No. 1, Frederick Love of district No. 2 and Stephen Arnold of district No. 3. It took them six days each to assess the county and as the result a tax of three hundred and thirty-four dollars and seventy cents was collected. Amos Story of Sycamore was collector for the county that year.
The next year the first resident lawyer in the county, Andrew J. Brown, was admitted to prae- tice, the county commissioners court certifying that he was a man of good moral character. He settled in Sycamore but most of his practice at the bar at this time was monopolized by Barry, Dodge, Fridley and Champlin. Andrew J. Brown remained here but a short time and removed to Chicago, where he became quite distinguished. He lived to an advanced age and died in 1906. Crothers Cham- plin was at Coltonville at an earlier day according to the claims of some and remained there until the county seat was removed to Sycamore. He is said to have been a man of considerable ability and well read for one of his age. He afterward became il partner of the famous T. Lisle Dickey and became quite distinguished at the har. The county com- missioners for this year were Sylvanus Holcomb, Martin M. Maek and David Merritt. The duty of the county commissioners still seemed to be the laying out of public roads and occasionally sur- veyed for a school district. The records which are kept quite complete are found to be uninter- esting and perhaps three-fourths of all of their acts were concerned in the matter of road con- struetion. The great state road from Ottawa to Beloit was laid out this summer. It was made eighty feet wide and is described as entering the county at Somanauk, passing Sebree's, Esterbrooks and Lost Grove to the southeast corner of the public square, thence to H. Durham's, to Deer Creek and Genoa and north to the county line.
The year 1841 was also a good year so far as the production of crops was concerned. Houses be- gan to be built over the prairie and everything seemed to take on a rather prosperous air. About this year there was brought into the county a thresher which was considered far in advance of the flail or the threshing floor, which had been a common use. It consisted of a cylinder set in a frame which threshed out the grain but the straw
and the grain came together. A man carried the straw away with a fork and the grain was run through a fanning mill. This was considered a great change in this country, when wheat seemed to be the great money making erop. The cradle was still used for cutting the grain but one or two reapers, which would now be considered very rude in their construction were used in the county. They were drawn by eight oxen, one man driving them and the other raking off the grain. By this means they were able to cut from six to eight acres a day.
BANDITTI.
The history of DeKalb county in those early days is not unlike that of other sections of our country. The lawless element always seeks the frontier, as they are generally freer from detec- tion, and are brought to justice with greater dif- ficulty than in older settlements. In this sec- tion of the country in the later '30s and early '40s all through this state and eastern Iowa were or- ganized bands of thieves. Some of these were desperate men, who were driven from their homes in the east because of crimes committed. As there was but little property in those early days and horses were extremely valuable as a means of travel, and in fact were the only means of com- munication, the desperadoes work partook of the nature of horse stealing. It is due largely to the men of DeKalb, Ogle and Winnebago counties that this rascality was brought to a close east of the Mississippi valley. The story has been frequently told and it is with considerable care and after personal investigation that we state the facts that appear below. Great injustice has been done in the different accounts of the stories of the banditti which has been a severe infliction to those who sur- vive and were entirely innocent of the erimes com- mitted. Mob law is never justifiable and in this case had the law taken its course and the men put on trial their innocence could have easily been es- tablished. As it is, even the excitement of that time when prairie pirates were thirsting for blood, no real proof was ever established against the men, so hastily and eruelly executed at Washington's Grove, June 29, 1841. In Brodie's Grove, which is west of the present township of Malta was a ren-
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dezvous for the banditti. Mr. Benjamin Worden. one of the early pioneers of DeKalb county dis- covered, what was known as the "sink hole," while in search of some cattle. Into this the horses were taken and secured during the day and at night were removed to stations further north. as the horse thieves found an excellent market for their stolen property in the lumber districts of Wiscon- sin. The line of travel was usually from Brodie's Grove to Gleason's at Genoa. HIenpeck now Oll Hampshire in Kane county, thence north through Mellenry county into Wisconsin. Mr. Boise in the history of DeKalb county gives the following : "Walking over the prairie in search of cattle, Mr. Worden suddenly found the ground sink beneath his feet and he precipitated into a large cavity which had been carefully excavated, then covered with planks and soil and carefully turfed over with growing grass and no trace of excavation contd be seen. Although no property was then in the cavern. vet the purpose for which it was destined was evident and its proximity to the residence of the Brodies indicated the origin and ownership of this place of concealment. Mr. Worden had brought a pair of fine horses to this country in 1836 and much against his will felt forced to adopt the prevalent custom of concealing in the barn to guard them. The elder Brodie discovered that he made this practice and innocently asked why. He answered promptly and significantly that there were many thieves and he feared he should have them stolen. The old man answered him that he had taken a fancy to him and that his horses should not be stolen. The old man had the repu- tation of being one of the chiefs of the gang and Worden, confident of his sincerity. considered them safe as if guarded with bars of steel. The Brodies were continually seen going and coming and almost every time were upon a new horse, usually a very fine animal and people were gen- orally suspicious of them. John Brodie's home was situated in the grove that now bears his name. from the fact of his being the first settler in that immediate locality. Ile came there from Franklin county, Ohio, and was about fifty-five years of age when he built his cabin. In physique he was rather under medium size, a very low forehead. stiff black hair, small black eyes, set deep in his head. and in every particular had a very repulsive. pi- ratical Jook. His three sons, John. Stephen and
Hugh, were of romantic, unsettled natures, of wreckless habits and indifferent to all social ameni- ties and void of all respect for the material rela- tions. They were accounted dare devils generally and were both feared and despised. Hugh Brodie was a very large man and had nerves of steel and never knew the sensation of fear, and from all evi- dences that could be collected. it was Hugh Brodie that was one of the two who stood by the side of the assassin of Captain Campbell. It can be said for the Brodies, however, that they were com- panionable and true to their friends and had many admirable qualities. It was sometimes very diffi- cult to detect the parties who were in sympathy with the banditti. In almost every instance when they were brought to trial they had representa- tives who were on the jury and conviction seemed almost impossible. After several trials, with the thefts of horses inereasing, the citizens who were law-abiding organized themselves into what is known as the Regulators or Lynching clubs. One was organized in Sycamore and many of Syca- more's leading citizens were members. There were the Walrods. Watermans, Henry Furness, John R. llamlin. Marshall Stark. Carlos Lattin and many others well-known to this community. Another organization was in the northern part of DeKalb county. There were two or three companies from Ogle, one from the vicinity of Dixon, several in Mellenry and two in Winnebago county. These regulators or lynchers were often injudicious as no doubt every band of persons, organized for that purpose, usually is, even up to the present day. One of their victims, especially a person by the name of Daggett, who resided near Greenongh's Ford, was seized and upon declaring his innocence and begging for leniency was allowed for the mo- ment to escape, but finally the horse for which the Regulators were hunting was found and one of the regulators claimed to have seen Daggett riding it. Daggett was again sought for, eaught. stripped and brutally whipped with ninety-six lashes on his bare back. It was supposed by many that he was entirely innocent and consequently the feeling of hatred increased between the regulators and the banditti. Anonymous letters were frequently re- sorted to and on them were inscribed the skull and cross bones. Such a condition of affairs could not last long without being brought to a head and trouble occurred. A man by the name of Long,
BENJAMIN WORDEN.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, HEMUX TADEL FORMATOA ..
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PAST AND PRESENT OF DE KALB COUNTY.
captain of the White Rock company of regulators county and had been confined in the jail at Ore- gon and tried in the new courthouse thought they would teach the law and order party a lesson and burned the courthouse to the ground. The citi- zens immediately appeared and the jail was saved and the prisoners did not get away. The trial of the suspected parties was proceeded with and the evidence was found to be complete and conclusive but as usual one of their confederates had secured a place upon the jury. He would consent to no verdict of guilt. Then a novel method of securing a verdict was adopted. The eleven honest jurors seized the refractory twelfth and threatened to lynch him in the jury room unless he gave his con- sent to a verdict of guilt. The rascal gave up his opposition, the verdict of guilty was received and the three criminals were sentenced to imprison- ment for a year. With the assistance of the gang they 'all. however, got out of jail and escaped shortly afteryard. From all evidence gathered from the Mulfords they were quite certain that one of the party convicted of arson was an accomplice had a mill near Stillman's Run and was asked anonymously to resign his position. which he refused to do. A few days later the mill was burned to the ground and he immediately resigned his position to a man named Wellington who took his place. Mr. Well- ington was not equal to the emergency and upon' receiving a letter on which the skull and crossbones were inscribed he resigned, and John Campbell, a Scotchman and devout Presbyterian, was chosen as his successor. In the early part of the '40s a challenge was sent to the regulators to meet a com- pany of bandits in a duel at South Grove, and the White Rock Company to the number of one hun- dred and fifty marched to the place chosen and on their approach discovered a number of the ruffians armed as if inviting an attack. When within a half mile they halted to complete arrangements for the duel. Then it was determined to send some members of the hand of regulators to the bandits for a parley. The bandits informed them that if they would give them a little time to go to of the Brodies to secure the seven hundred dollars Sycamore and get other members of their organi- zation they would be ready for the struggle. The regulators immediately camped on the ground awaiting the return of the horse thieves. At three o'clock in the afternoon the party from Sycamore returned but instead of bringing his company of confederates he brought Sheriff Walrod, Esquire Mayo and Judge Lovell. These gentlemen in- quired the nature of the strange gathering and in reply Mr. Campbell made a decided and effective answer, every word of which fell with a powerful force against the dozen men suspected of being guilty of horse stealing. He told why they were there. for what purpose they had come and what they intended to do and perhaps injudiciously iold some of the crimes committed by the Brodies and by the Driscolls. Enough so that he secured their everlasting enmity. Before the party from Syca- more returned they informed the White Rock Reg- ulators that if they needed help to crush the or- ganization that was destroying their property they could rely upon at least a hundred good and will- ing men who belonged to the Regulators here. The White Rock company served notice on the sus- pected horse thieves to at once leave the state. This they refused to do. About this time the bandits, who had been brought to trial in Ogle in gold from the Mulfords shortly after the burn- ing of the courthouse. One of the members of the banditti was severely flogged by orders of Captain Campbell so that the wrath of the element soon broke upon his head. A meeting of the banditti was called in what is now South Grove township and it was there resolved to put Captain Campbell out of the way. In the summer of 1841 Captain Campbell had been in Rockford to attend religious services and had remained over night. He re- turned to his home in White Rock about noon Sunday. During the afternoon he attended church at a schoolhouse a mile west of his resi- dence, from which service he returned about five o'clock. After supper Annas Lucas called on Mr. Campbell, remained about an hour and then start- ed for home. Mr. Campbell was lying down on a lounge to rest when he rose and started for the barn which stood across the lane from the house. In the lane a little south of the crossing between the barn and the house there was a copse or hunch of hazel brush which was in full leaf, thick enough to hide his murderers. His assassin rose up from behind the bunch of hazel brush and said: "We want to go to the burned mill," meaning the "Long's" mill, "but we have lost our way." Mr. Campbell turned toward his inquisitor and said,
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"What did you say ?" at which time David Dris- coll raised his rifle and aimed at the object of his wrath and sworn vengeance. shot Campbell in the body near the heart. After he was shot Campbell re-entered the gate. proceeded fourteen feet, blinded by approaching death occasioned by the shot, and fell a lifeless corpse. The bandits had kept their word. After the shooting the murderers turned and started in a southeasterly direction, leaving the house a little to their left. As Camp- bell fell. his wife ran to him, and as she reached his lifeless remains she called after the assassins and said: "Driscoll, you have murdered John Campbell." As Mrs. Campbell uttered this ex- clamation Ilugh Brodie made a temporary halt and pointed his rifle toward her, but lowered it at the suggestion of David Driscoll without fir- ing and the two resumed their retreat from the scene of blood. In the meantime Martin Camp- bell. aged about thirteen years, ran around the house. seized a double barreled shotgun and aimed at the fleeing murderers, pulled the trigger and both caps snapped. The gun was doubly charged with buckshot, but having been loaded for some time and exposed to damp and wet. failed to go off, and thus the murderers got away. Annas Lucas, who was about one hundred rods from the house at the time of the firing. hearing the report of the gun and suspecting trouble, returned and on his way met three men, whom he recog- nized as Taylor and David Driscoll and Hugh Brodie. The three inen held a hurried conversa- tion and Lucas for a time feared that trouble was in store for him, but it is now surmised that they thought they had made trouble enough and would stop their murderous work by killing simply the captain of the band of Regulators. Mr. Lucas as- sisted Mrs. Campbell in caring for her dead hus- band, and, being a carpenter. made a casket. in which he was buried two days later, June 29. 1841, after the assassination.
News of the murder spread rapidly and the Reg- ulators were roused to fever heat. Upon the burial of Mr. Campbell the Regulators met and were on the lookout for the perpetrators of the crime. The air was full of threats of vengeance against them. and nothing but the lives of the murderous element could pay the penalty. The people from Sycamore. Oregon and Rockford hur- ried to the scene. and it has been stated that Rock-
ford and Sycamore were more like deserted vil- lages than bustling little towns, which they were at that time. A little after sunrise on Monday morning after the murder, John Driscoll, father of David and Taylor Driscoll. was arrested in Ogle county by the sheriff. at the home of his son Da- vid near Lynnville, and during the day he was taken to the jail at Oregon. David had made good his escape. The band of Regulators next ap- peared at the home of William Driscoll in South Grove and arrested him and his younger brother, Pierce. and took them to Campbell's home in White Rock. When William Driscoll was cap- tured at his home in South Grove the Regulators burned the home, and Mrs. Driscoll, who was afterwards known as Aunt Peggy. she being com- pelled to live in one of the outbuildings, and suf- fored greatly in consequence of this rash act. No excuse can be offered for thus depriving this inno- cent woman and her children of a home. The Regulators went to Oregon. and against the pro- testations of the sheriff and the admonitions and warnings of Judge Ford, took John Driscoll from jail and hurried him across the river and started toward Washington Grove. It has been stated that at a meeting of the bandits in South Grove it was decided to kill Phineas Chaney and Captain Campbell, and it is true that the party of bandits visited the home of Chaney the night before the murder of Campbell. but were frightened away by the dogs and Chaney was now ready to meet his premeditated murderers. At Daysville a tem- porary halt was made and there Obed Lindsay and Phineas Chaney interrogated the old man. He ad- mitted that he had led rather a dark career in Ohio, but had been guilty of no crime since coming to Illinois. The night of the murder .John Dris- coll remained all night at the home of Benjamin Worden and said that he wished to be away that night. and from this fact it was supposed he had guilty knowledge of the premeditated murder of Campbell and Chaney. The horse ridden by John Driscoll from Worden's to the home of his son David near Lynnville had a broken shoe. The tracks which it left in the mud made him easily traceable to that point. The Regulators. with William and Pierce Driscoll, soon arrived at. Wash- ington's Grove. About five hundred men were present. John Driscoll has been described to us as a man of considerable height, over six feet.
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slightly inclined to corpulency, and weighed about two hundred pounds. He was all muscle and sinew and in every way the most powerfully built man in all that crowd of a half thousand men. His face was repulsive, this being occasioned by a part of his nose having been bitten off some years before. His hair was heavy and shaggy and his face smooth from recent shaving. He was cool and self-possessed in the face of his executioners. lle was not an ignorant man nor did he avoid generosity and charity. There were many kind acts placed to his credit in the neighborhood where he lived. In one instance he and his sons finished plowing and planting corn for the wife and mother whose husband had died in the midst of planting season. Those who knew him say that he might have been an influential and useful citi- zen in any community, but he chose otherwise, and in the eyes of the people became an outlaw and renegade and met premature death.
William Driscoll, the other victim of the Regu- lators, was one of the first settlers in what is now South Grove township, and for years the grove was called Driscoll's Grove, until after the organization of the township, when it was called South Grove because it was south of the large woods of Frank- lin and Kingston townships. At the time of his death he was about forty-five years of age. rather above the average height of man, of heavy build and very muscular and probably weighed about one hundred and eighty pounds. His features were firm and presented a peculiarly heavy appearance. IIe was of that type of man that could face any ordi- nary danger without the least fear, but in the presence of these five hundred resolute men, de- termined to hold him to an account for the crime of which he was not guilty. and the memory of wife and little children left behind, he was awed into the most terrible fear. and every lineal of his face showed evidence of torture. As soon as the Regulators gathered at Washington Grove a law- ver named E. S. Leland, since a prominent judge and resident of Ottawa, was selected to conduct the trial. The Regulators were ordered to form in a cirele around a large black oak tree. One hundred and twenty of them thus formed, when Mr. Leland suggested that if there were any men that were in that circle that were objectionable on any account that challengers be selected to point them out and have them removed. Under this
ruling the number was reduced to one hundred and eleven men. Chairs were placed within the circle and occupied by the prisoners, justices of the peace, etc. The witnesses were sworn by one of the justices present and the prisoners arraigned for trial. William Driscoll was arraigned first and asked by Leland if he had ever instructed his brother David to go to Captain Campbell's at twilight in the evening, pretend to be lost, then shoot him down as they did in lowa on a certain occasion, and saying "d-n them" (meaning the Regulators). "they will all run as they did there." The accused answered in positive language that he did not. The trial of William Driscoll was a farce in every respect, and had it not been for some hasty language used by him shortly after the murder of Captain Campbell, it is doubtful if he had ever been arrested. The old man Driscoll was next arraigned and questioned. The broken horse shoe track mentioned previously was charged against him, and though he could not explain how the horse got from the home of Benjamin Worden to that of his son David near Lynnville, it must be said to the credit of John Driscoll that no evi- dence in the crime of which these men were charged was substantiated. It was supposed that he had guilty knowledge of the tragedy and that he had gone to the home of Mr. Worden so that he might easily prove an alibi. The men who were in that circle of one hundred and eleven men were mainly from Ogle county and many were unacquainted with the Driscolls. After the trial had lasted about an hour Leland put the question, "What say you, gentlemen ; guilty or not guilty?" Guilty was the unanimous response of the one hundred and eleven men composing the jury be- fore whom John and David Driscoll had been tried, and they were sentenced to be hanged. No evidence could be found against Pierce Driscoll and he was released. When the sentence was an- nounced the condemned men begged that it might be changed, and that they might be shot instead of being hanged like dogs. A motion for change of sentence was submitted to the men who pro- nounced them guilty and the request of the Driscolls was granted with but few dissenting voices. It has been stated by men who were pres- ent and with whom we have conversed on the sub- jeet that a little distillery was not far from the scene of the trial and that a barrel of whisky was
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PAST AND PRESENT OF DE KALB COUNTY.
brought out for the men, and that under its in- fluence to a large extent the hasty verdict was brought about. and in that whisky drinking age it is not improbable that the firewater added largely to the flame of prejudice that turned against the Driscolls. At this point of the proceedings the old man Driscoll was taken aside by Jacob Marsh of Ogle county for consultation and confession. At the end of the conversation Marsh announced that Driscoll had no confession to make. and he urged that the crowd be not too hasty in the premises and that time be allowed the men to prepare for death. A respite of one hour was granted for that purpose, which was prolonged for fully two hours. Two ministers were present and prayed with the convicted men. to one of whom it is said William Driscoll showed signs of peni- tence, but he never made any confession of the erime, and so far as is known died an innocent man. At the expiration of the time granted the Regulators from Sycamore who were well ac- quainted with William Driscoll began to elamor for full remission of the penalty. While some others favored the plan to remand them to the cus- tody of the officers and thus end the responsibility they had taken upon themselves. In the midst of these elamors and suggestions one of the Reg- ulators from Winnebago county made an address, saying that nothing but blood would palliate the crimes that had been committed, and that as long as the outlaws were permitted to remain upon earth the community would not be free from their depredations and crimes. Ile also stated that the Driscolls, if not the centers and instigators of the untold robberies and murders that had been com- mitted in the country, were at least accompliees and shared in the plunder. He maintained that the people were justified in taking the course they had and that their safety demanded it: that the murder of Campbell must be avenged and that those who planned the foul deed must suffer in their stead, and urged the immediate execution of John Driscoll and his son William. As the ma- jority of the Regulators were unacquainted with the men convicted of the crime, and the weak- kneed were overpowered. and finally threats were made to any who dared to express their belief that the Driscolls were not guilty and should not be executed. The party of one hundred and eleven men were divided into two companies. One was
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