USA > Illinois > Menard County > Past and present of Menard County, Illinois > Part 18
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anxious to find some means of reaching the older and more important settlements. Con- sequently they grasped most eagerly at the scheme proposed, and would have grasped at one even more chimerical than this. Beside all this, the rivers, as said above. had a much greater flow of water then than they do now. and the belief was then almost univer-al that they would become practical and profitable ave- nnes of commerce to all the land.
Walking along the banks of "The Raging Sangamo" in the fall of the year especially. one would hardly think that any one would ever have thought of it being a navigable stream. Nor when we look at Clary's creek or Indian creek we would never dream that they had once driven water-mills for nine months of the year. yet such is the fact. In the early settlement of this country these streams carried almost double the amount of water that flows in them now. As early as the year 1832. V. A. Bogue, of Springfield. conceived the idea of navigating the Sangamon with a steamboat. About that time some visionary poet said :
"And we will make our Sangamo. Ont-hine. in verse, the river Po."
Mr. Bogne threw his whole energy into the enterprise and the citizens of Springfield gave him their most hearty support. In a letter to the public Mr. Bogue said. among other thing>: "I shall deliver freight from St. Louis, at the landing on Sangamo river. oppo- site the town of Springfield. for thirty-seven and a half cents per hundred pounds." The Springfield Journal of February 16. 1832. con- tained the following paragraph : "We find the following advertisement in the Cincinnati Ga- cette of the 19th ult. We hope such notices will soon come to be such novelties. We seri- ously believe that the Sangamo river can be made a navigable stream for steamboats for several months in the year. Here is the adver- tisement : . For Sangamo River. Ilinois-The splendid upper-cabin steamer Talisman, .I. M. Pollock, master, will leave for Portland, Spring- field. on the Sangamo river, and all interino- diate ports and landings, say Beardstown. Naples, St. Louis, Louisville, on Thursday. February 2. For freight or pa -- age apply to
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Captain Vincent A. Bogue, at the Broadway Hotel. or to Allison Owen.'" The Talisman was a vessel of one hundred and fifty tons bur- then, and she landed at Portland, on the 230 of March. 1832. Portland was the town on the south side of the Sangamon, situated between where the bridges of the Chicago & Alton and Gilman & Clinton Railroads now are. The Talisman was unable to turn around, and so after a time it backed down the river, never to return, for, getting as far as St. Louis by the latter part of April. that same spring, right opposite that city she burned to the water's
edge. In an early day a subscription was raised among the business men of Petersburg to clear the Sangamo of drifts, etc., in order to render it navigable for small steamboats. In this way five thousand dollars was raised, but the enterprise finally failed. About the 20th of April. 1853. a small steamboat, the Wave. or Ocean Wave. commanded by Captain Mon- roe. Janded at Petersburg but she never went further up the river, nor down it. for that mai- ter. Captain Monroe supposed the distance from Petersburg to the month of the Sanga- mon was about ninety miles. He was firmly of the opinion that a comparatively small ex- penditure would render the river a profitably navigable stream. So little conception did the early settlers have of the effect of culti- vating the land. cutting out the timber. on the rivers and streams that they were led into this absurd opinion. The "Wave" waited for a long time for a rise in the waters of the San- gamon but the wished-for never came and finally the proud conqueror of the "raging San- gamo" was forced to succumb. not to its rag- ing floods but to its logs and sandbars and was dismantled here, and its gorgeous trimmings were used to decorate the dwellings of the citizens of Petersburg. Thus ended Forever the effort to navigate the Sangamon river. Some old citizens, however, aver that another- a third-steamboat came up the Sangamon as far as Petersburg. while others just as strongly deny it. If such a craft ever grated its koel over the sands of the Petersburg "wharf" it's name was never known to the good people of the village or has been entirely forgotten. It is true that the citizens sont Major Hill to
Cincinnati and had a boat built expressly "for Sangamon river ports." It is doubtless true that the boat was built and started to this "port." but it never reached its intended des- tination. But other oll citizens unequivocally assert that it made the voyage to Petersburg but it was too large for this river and after a little while it was sunk in the depths of "The raging Sangamo." They even go so far as to name the buildings which were adorned with the windows, doors, and other parts of the di- mantled steamer. So the facts in the case are lost in the oblivion of the forgotten past. So much for " Navigation."
RAILROADS.
There are three railroads that enter Menard county. Two of them run almost through its center, while the other barely enters the coun- ly on its castern border. The Jacksonville di- vision of the Chicago, Alton & St. Louis runs through the county from the northeast corner to near the southwest corner : and the Chicago. Peoria & St. Louis runs almost centrally through the county from north to south. These two lines cross in Petersburg. In an caily day the navigation of the Sangamon river was seriously considered, and some attempts made. as the reader may see in another chapter, but when this was proven to be a failure another scheme was proposed. That scheme was to open a canal from Beardstown to Decatur. by way of the Illinois and Sangamon rivers. The legislature in its session of 1834-5 actually granted a charter to this enterprise. The next spring a careful survey was made of the route. but after the expenditure of a vast amount of gas and calenlation and suggestion. the schonie was abandoned: but the popular mind was all excitement on the subject of transportation. So in 1852 the legislature granted a charter to the "Springfield & Northwestern Railway Company" to build a road from Springfield to Rock Island, and the route was surveyed crossing Menard county just as the Chicago. Peoria & St. Louis has since been built. This enterprise was pushed so far that Menard county voted fifty thousand dollars to aid in
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it- construction. The people were so enthusi- to mill, and of the conductor's strictness astie that they thought that it could not fail and they went so far as to collect a small per cent of the money voted to pay for the survey. But it is true that
"The best faid schemes of mice an' men Gang aft agley."
and the enterprise went up. The people of this county. after this failure, became alnost despondent, but in 1856 a new enterprise was proposed which aroused them to action, and their hopes revived. The scheme was the build- ing of a railroad from Jacksonville to Tonica. in La Salle county, to intersect the Hennepin & Streator road. Tonica is a village on the last named road. nine miles from the town of La Salle. As this road was to pass through Petersburg the people of the county became wild with enthusiasm. The county as a cor- porate body voted one hundred thousand dol- lars' stock, and thirty thousand dollars' stock was subscribed by individuals. A charter was granted the "Petersburg & Tonica Railroad." and the subscriptions were legalized. Hon. Richard Yates was made president. and John Bennett and Hon. William G. Greene, both of Menard county, were made directors. Work was soon begun on both extremes and a great amount of grading was done, but in spite of the zeal of the people subscriptions ran short and the work came to a dead stop About this time Mr. Yates resigned and W. G. Greene wa- made president and Hon. W. T. Beckman was made a director and superintendent of the road. By almost superhuman efforts funds were raised and the road was completed from Jacksonville to Petersburg, a distance of twen- ty-eight miles, and in the fall of 1861 the whistle was hard for the first time in Peters- hurg. Milton Moore was the first agent in Petersburg and William Bacon, the very prince of conductors, had charge of the first train. Many were the anecdotes told of the speed of this first train. There being one train, and the time-table requiring the round trip every twenty-four hours, of course the train must run. Fifty-iv males in twenty four hours! Think of it ! They still tell of the train waiting for a farmer to shell a "grist" of corn to take
carrying out the time table: so strict that he helped shell the corn. Of the lady who had eleven eggs to send to market on the train. and of Mr. Bacon waiting for the hen to lay the other egg, but they do not say that he hurried the hen. One thing is sure: that is that Mr. Bacon was always a gentleman. About the close of the war the Chicago, Alton & St. Louis road proposed to take this Tonica road and finish it to Bloomington and to Godfrey. This was accepted and the road was built on the old grade as far as Delavan in Tazewell county and thence directly to Bloomington, intersect- ing the main line at that place. Some years later the Kansas City branch was built from Roodhouse to that city. The Jacksonville divi- sion was finished in 1861.
In 1852 the charter was granted to the Springfield & Northwestern company to build a road from Springfield to Rock Island. Aft- er this charter had lain dead for seventeen years. it was revived by the legislature. in 1869. to a new company, however, allowing them to construct a road on the old survey. Menard county voted one hundred thousand dollars stock in this road and the town of Petersburg voted fifteen thousand dollars. There was a vast deal of trouble over these town bonds. as it went into the courts and created no end of personal bad feeling, and as the courts settled it the best thing to do is to let it lie in the oblivion of forgetfulness.
In the latter part of 1820 work began on the line at Havana but it progressed very slowly. During the year ist1 it was completed across Ma-on county and a few miles into Menard. In 1822 the cars began to run as far as from Havana to Petersburg. By late autumnm in 1×13 the road was finished all the way to Can- trall. a distance of no less than thirteen miles from Petersburg! Here another much needed rest was taken and after recuperation from the arduou- summer's work it was at last com- played in 1811. It is now the Chicago. Peoria A. St. Louis Railroad, with a firstclass roadbed. number one rolling stock, and is doing a splen- did business.
The Peoria & Springfield road was built by tle Peoria & Northern Railroad Company and
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was completed in 1898. the list through train running in May of that year. The right of way was paid for liberally and secured with- ont litigation or trouble of any kind. This road runs through the cast edge of Menard county. not being more than a mile from the cast line at any point, and only runs in the county for a distance of live and a half miles. There are two stations in the county, however, Croft and Fancy Prairie. This is one of the best built and equipped roads in the state, and it does an intense freight and passenger busi- ness, especially for as short a line as it is. Two or three years after it was finished it was sold to the Chicago, Alton & St. Louis Railroad Company. and has since been run as a part of that system. And it is a very im- portant part of that system, for two reasons. first. because it connects the important cities. Springfield and Peoria. it being sometimes called the Peoria & Springfield Short Line : and second, because it connects the two branches of the Chicago, Alton & St. Louis Railway. name- ly the main line at Springfield. and the Jack- -onville division at San Jose. This road runs through one of the finest agricultural sections of country in the state of Illinois and it has proved one of the greatest boons to a large section of country that could have been given to a people. Thus it is seen that Menard coun- ty is amply supplied with railroad facilities for the shipment of its products and for the convenience of travel, but the people are not vet satisfied and still clamor for more. bul when the interurban is built from Springfield to Beardstown and running through Peter burg will they be satisfied then ?
CRIME IN MENARD COUNTY (No. 1).
Edward Gibbon said: "History is little more than the register of the crimes. follies and misfortunes of mankind." And Washing- tom Irving says: "History is but a kind of Newgate calendar, a register of the crimes and miseries that man has inflicted on his fellow- man." Take the record of crime out of the annals of the world and there would be but a
very brief paragraph left. For nearly all of history is the record of war and intrigue, and surely these are crimes. Some one has said : "One murder makes a villain : millions, a muro; numbers sanctify the crime." It becomes now my duty to record some of the murders com- mitted in the territory of what is now Menand county.
There has been a large number of crimes committed in this county but only one execu- tion has over taken place. The murder of Mrs. Van Noy. by her husband (sve account in another place) was the first murder on the soil of Menard. for it was while this county was still a part of Sangamon county. Among the most heartless crimes that have disgraced the county were the following: Watkins, shot through his window while holding his infant child in his lap: Robert Carter, of Mason City, murdered in Athens and sunk in an unused well and found a month after; and the murder of Mrs. Charles Houlden, by her husband. Be- side these there have been a number of kill- ings in the county. Three or four at Athens: three at Oakford, two at Tallula, one at Cur- tis and three or four at Petersburg.
In March, 1883. the body of a young lady. Miss Missouri Borus, was found, in the early morning. lying in an unused street. with the throat ent and other evidences of a foul and henious murder. The body had been hauled there in a buggy and dumped out in the street. Evidence pointed to one Carpenter, a grain dealer and prominent citizen. as the murderer. By a change of venue the case came to Menard county for trial and on the morning of the 12th of March. ISSI. the jury brought in a verdict of not guilty. Joe Sutton, living six miles south of Petersburg, on his way home was hailed by Charles Houlden. who inquired what the verdict in the Houlden case was. Ro- ceiving the answer. he went back to his house. which stood some fifteen rods from the road. This was about sunset. Soon after this, scream- ing was heard by neighbors at the Houden home, and on their arrival there they found Mrs. Houlden lying with her head hanging over the doorsill. her throat out from car to car. fifteen or twenty knife-stabs in her body, her
PAST AND PRESENT OF MENARD COUNTY
head crushed with an ax. and the body terribly of age. About nine o'clock at night he was bruised In the bootheel of her murderer. As shot through the window with a shotgun, the load taking effeet in his back. He lived a day or two. While there was no doubt of the identity of the murderer. he was never pun- ished. Through some means he was admitted to bail, forfeited it and ran away, and his s- curities paid the bill and he never returned to this part of the country. there was no question as to who committed the crime, her son and daughter, aged eleven and thirteen years, having been witnesses of it. a search was at once begun for the murderer. All that night the search continued, but he was not found till the following morning. The murdered woman was Houlden's third wife and he was her fourth husband. Their mar- On the 6th of May. 1829. Scott Jndy shot Dr. W. P. Cox on the streets of Petersburg within a block of the latter's home. Two balls struck him, one passing through his lungs. causing his death in two or three hours. Judy was tried, but was not punished. ried life had been a scene of strife and bit- terness from the first. Houlden claimed to the very last that he had no recollection of the crime and always told the same story about it. He said that he remembered about going to the house after inquiring about the result of the On the 26th of October. 1891. Benjamin Ross, of Greenview, killed Albert Stone on the street of Greenview by shooting two load of birdshot into his body from a shotgun. This was done about midnight and Stone lived two days. Ross was never indicted for the murder. On March ith. 1892. Jefferson Lewis killed Frank Luck. in Tallula, by shooting him with a pistol. Lewis was sent to prison for a short term. Carpenter trial. sitting down at the supper table and beginning to drink a glass of milk. Imit after that all was a blank till he came to himself. as they were hauling him to Peter- burg on a sled. Only three minutes before he dropped to eternity be repeated this story to his spiritnal adviser, with all the seeming candor that a man could possess, telling the story just a- he had narrated it a score of times before. During the time he was in jail and while he About ten o'clock at night. on the 18th of July. 1894. Oscar S. Hilton killed George Hohimer at the Lenz Opera House door, almost severing his head from his body with a razor. This was done in a Tray and Hilton was cleared. was awaiting excention ho was as mild and tractable as a child. never showing any irrita- bility or viciousness. On the scaffold he was cahn and collected and withont a tremor he took his place on the trap and in a very few On the 2d of April. 1900. Elmer Clark shot Harry 1 .. Ball, on the public highway, with a repeating rifle, putting live balls into his body. killing him instantly. Clark was tried and cleared. seconds he dropped to the end of the rope and died without a tremor or a struggle, his neck being broken by the fall. Charles Houldon died on the gallows for the murder of his wife. but the conviction of the writer, after days and nights of association with him, in the loneliness of his cell, is that Houlden was of unsound mind when he committed the crime and was of unsound mind at the time of his execution. He was changed in the jail in Petersburg at 12 :10 p. m. on May 15. 1885.
Many awful crime- have been committed in Menard county during its history, but we have not space to relate the particular- here. We will only mention a few of the most serious.
In 1855 Joseph Watkin- shot and killed his consin. David Watkins. The latter was sit- ting by the window in his home, holding in hi- lap his little girl, some two or three years
In February, 1900. Robert Carter of Mason City, Illinois, paid a visit to the town of Athens, Menard county, and spent a number of days in drinking in company with a crowd of miners and other rough fellows. About the last of the month he was missing and search was begun for him. All that could be learned was that the last sơn of him he was in com- pany with a crowd of fellows in the timber southeast of the town, where they had a kog of beer, which they were drinking. The disap- pearance of Carter became a question in every- one's month and all were on the lookout. On the 28th of March. just one month to a day after C'arter was last seen. a gentleman, pass-
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ing an old abandoned well a mile and a half northwest of Athens. noticed that the rails that had been used in covering it were dis- placed. His suspicions being aroused. he at once hegan to investigate. Suffice it to say that the body of Carter was found sunk in the well. a stone weighing eighty pounds being wired to his body. his overcoat and other cloth- ing being all on him. The cold water had pre- served the body perfectly, so that there was no question as to his identification. Four men, Leslie Harvey. Richard Garrison, George Moore and James Dixon, were at once arrested under the charge of murder in the first degree. It developed at the trial that they killed him in the woods southeast of Athens, as they claimed. accidentally and put his body in an abandoned coal shaft near by. A day or two after, some children playing near the shaft, lighting news- papers and dropping them in the shaft. ran home in great terror, telling their mothers that they saw by the light of the burning pa- pers a man's body lying at the bottom of the pit. The mothers, thinking it to be just a wild story of the frightened children, said nothing about it for awhile, but something was said and a day or two after a search of the place was made, but no body was found, but the trial disclosed that the guilty parties, hearing the story of the children, went to the shaft at night with a rope, drew the body out and carried it to the old well and dumped it in. The four young men were tried and convicted and are now serving a long sentence in Chester prison.
Scarcely four months after this awful frag- edy at Athens, the little town of Oakford came in with a less awful sensation. On July 28. 1900. Matthew Thomas killed George Strow with a billet of wood. Thomas escaped punish- ment by some technicality.
On the 5th of March there was a dance at a private house in the town of Athens. Some rough characters were present and bad whiskey being freely used. it is not surprising that in the course of the evening a row began. Soon a fight opened and a shot or two were fired and an innocent party, who had no connection with the trouble, was shot and killed. His name was George Rakestraw. Two men were convicted of the crime and sent to prison for a term of and close this chapter with it.
fifty years. One of those convicted. Frank F. Gilcrease, got out of prison, through pardon or some other way, and not long after he was in a railroad accident and had both legs cut off. but recovered. a cripple for life. The other. Thomas Scantlin, is still in prison at Chester. but Governor Yates has commuted his sentence. so that he will be set free in a few months. The people of the county have always thought that the sentence was too severe, as the deed was done in a general row and the parties had no intention of killing Rakestraw or, perhaps. any one else.
On the 4th of April, 1902, John W. Hare, a saloonkeeper of Dakford, was shot by a pistol in the hands of Harry Colson, of the same place, and instantly killed. Witnesses said there seemed to be little, if any, provocation for the act. Colson is serving a sentence in prison for the crime.
('rimo is not a very entertaining theme, nor is it a kind of literature to put in the hands of the young, but in a history of this kind the bad as well as the good should be told. Such events as those related above are history and will be often sought for in years to come.
Many other killings have occurred in the county in the past. but those given above are the most remarkable. Ninety-five per cent of them may be traced to the inthience of strong drink, directly or indirectly. We are not going to preach a sermon. but just at this point it seems fitting and proper not only to enter a protest against this awful curse, but we can not refrain from denouncing the detestable habit of carrying weapons in this civilized land in this age. Some boys, and some who are men in years and avordupois, will persist in this detestable habit. It is sure evidence of a gross coward to see a great big link of a man with a revolver in his hip pocket or a huge knife in a belt. And some boys think it is the first step to manhood to get a pistol and get out and shoot it off and sell like a wild Indian. It is invariably indicative of cowardice and mental weakness. And this habit has led to the com- mission of hundreds of crimes that would never have been committed but for this practice.
I will relate the first murder in this county
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The first murder committed in the territory of what is now Menard county-and. in fact, in Sangamon was committed in 1826. This was thirteen year- before Menard was organized. A man by the name of VanVoy, or, as some -pelled it. Vay Noy. had settled on what is now the Lonis Campbell place, two miles north of Athens and not far from where the Demas- en- schoolhouse now stands. He had built a log cabin, in which he lived with his wife and a babe, some right or ten months old. Near the cabin he had built a small shop. in which he repaired guns and did other little jobs. On the morning of the 24th of August, 1826. a neighbor, whose name is not remembered. came early to the shop to have a gunlock ro- paired. Nathaniel Van Noy was in the shop. but, it seems, had not yet eaten his breakfast. VanNoy invited the neighbor into the house till he should eat his breakfast. They started into the house and when they entered the wife was in the act of putting corn dongh into an oven on the hearth, bending over for the pur- pose, when VanNoy ingnired in an angry tone if the meal was ready. She replied that it would be ready in a few minutes. Without a word Van Noy picked up a stick, or had it al- ready in his hand, and struck her a blow on the side. When she was struck she fell over the cradle, in which the child lay. dropping the dough on the child in the fall. The neighbor saw at once that she was dead and said to the husband: "You have killed her." He said : "No, she often falls over that way." They picked her up and laid her on the bed and at once saw that she was indeed dead. Van Noy reached up to where his rille hung in the rack and hurriedly left the house. When he first took down the gun the neighbor thought that Van Nay was going to shoot him in order to get rid of the witness who saw him kill his wife. So soon as Van Noy had gone the neigh- bor mounted his horse and started to give the alarm. The nearest neighbors lived near In- dian Point and he rode at full speed to the Williams home, and Mr. Jacob Williams, his sister. Miss Salina Williams, a young lady some vighteen years of age tshe afterward married Mr. Sammel Moorey. mounted their horses and
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