The History of Will County, Illinois : containing a history of the county a directory of its real estate owners; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; general and local statistics.history of Illinois history of the Northwest, Part 29

Author:
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Chicago : Wm. Le Baron, jr. & co.
Number of Pages: 980

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After riding on a while longer, his sensations gradually underwent a change. Hot streaks seemed to alternate with the cold ones. The gaping and stretch- ing seemed to moderate, and other sensations took their place. A slight head- ache came on, and he felt a suspicion of nausea. The pallid and puckered ap- pearance of the countenance gave place to flushes. The weather seemed to undergo a change. It grew suddenly warm. Off goes the shawl and blanket overcoat. He asked his wife, presently, if it was not getting hot, and was almost provoked at her cool reply that she did not see much change. But it certainly was getting hot, he knew it was, and off goes his undercoat. He became thirsty, and longed, oh, how he longed, for water. Strange ideas and fancies were passing through his mind, and he began to talk strangely and lo- quaciously, almost, incoherently. The little wife looked more troubled and anxious than ever, and wondered what had come over her sedate and usually. silent husband. Presently he began to feel strangely tired, listless and uneasy, and to long for a good bed and rest and sleep. And now, fortunately, the com- fortable log house of Risley appears in sight. Oh, how welcome! Withı no little exertion he gets out, leaves his wife to look after the horse, and soon occu- pied the whole of Mrs. Risley's lounge, and one or two chairs besides. When he and his wife between them had given an intelligent account of what had been happening on the way, Mrs. Risley says, "Why Hen ! you have got the

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ague ! " Great guns ! here was a revelation indeed. After all his boasted im- munity from the ague, his defiance of it, the enemy had stolen the march upon him, and here he was, lying prostrate and humbled before it. And even yet he was not done with it; another stage of the disease comes on, the nastiest of the three. The half-delirious fever passes off, and he begins to perspire. Per- spire ! that is no name for it ; let us use the more homely but expressive word- he begins to sweat. Ah, how he sweats! It seemed as if all the water in his body-and physiologists say every man has two or three buckets in him, (although we have seen some men we don't believe have a gill of water in them)-it seemed, we say, as if all the water in his body was coming to the surface, and not much sweeter than the Chicago River. And so he continued to sweat, sweat, sweat, for a good hour, saturating towel after towel, until ex- haustion closed the scene and he slept. When the afternoon was well-nigh spent, he awoke, refreshed, and was able to do some little justice to Mrs. Ris- ley's fricasseed chickens and doughnuts, and to start home, an humbler if not a wiser man ; subdued in tone and spirit, a little the worse for the encounter, and with the cheering prospect of a recurrence of the experience in one, or at most, two days. But he invested $1.50 in a box of Sappington's Pills, and thus headed off the fever. This is not an advertisement.

A MURDER STORY.

We are sensible that our history is getting dull, and it is high time that we should enliven it with a murder story. The readers of "Forty Years Ago" will remember that we recorded one there. We were afraid that we could not find one for this history, but, by the aid of the Signal, we are able to record one for the present occasion equally as tragic as that one.

On Thursday, April 30, of the year 1858, some boys, ranging about Hickory Creek near where it enters the Des Planes, came upon the body of a female, partly covered with dirt and stones, lying in a gully about one mile south of the city. It was so much decayed that the features were unrecogniza- ble. The boys gave the authorities notice of what they had found, and the proper officers and many citizens went to the spot. The unanimous conclusion of all who saw the body was that she had been murdered. There was a deep wound in the temple and another in the breast. The hands and feet had been cut entirely off, and were found near the body. An inquest was called, and a verdict was found, in which the public belief was expressed that a foul murder had been committed. Who could it be ? and by whom had the deed been done? were the questions on everybody's lips. The public were not long held in suspense. On Saturday, a woman residing in the outskirts of the city, having heard of the discovery, came forward (after the inquest) and informed the Mar- shal, J. C. Van Auken, that her daughter-a girl of sixteen-had mysteriously disappeared some three weeks previous. The body was taken up again and another inquest was held, at which the woman testified positively that the body .

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was that of her daughter, Mary Cook. Other persons expressed the same belief. The mother also stated that, at the time of her daughter's disappearance, she was enceinte, having fallen a prey to the wiles of a man named David Rich- ardson. One of the physicians who examined the body gave a professional state- ment in respect to it which confirmed that of the mother. The mystery was made plain. Our city had been made the theater of a most foul murder, perpetrated to conceal a crime hardly less diabolical. The public voice was unanimous that the foul perpetrator must be found and brought to justice. Richardson was found and arrested on Sunday morning. He had not been long a resident of the city, but, so far as any one here knew, he had borne a good character, and every one was surprised to find that he was guilty of so foul a crime. But that a crime had been committed, there was no room for doubt, and it seemed equally clear that he was the perpetrator. The Signal said, in its issue of the same week : "We will not prejudge the case; but a young and unprotected girl has been seduced and ruined by a demon in human shape, and murdered to hide her betrayer's guilt. If there is any virtue in law, let it be applied now." The Signal spoke the voice of the public, which was almost ready to string Rich- ardson up to a lamp-post. Indeed, it seemed at one time as though our city would be disgraced by an application of lynch law.

Two days were consumed by the examination of Richardson. The Court House was crowded. State's Attorney Bartleson, assisted by Streeter, con- ducted on the part of the people, with E. C. Fellows for the prisoner. The former testimony of Mrs. Cook and others was brought forward, and the same facts reproduced. The old woman swore positively as to the body being that of her daughter, and the doctor repeated his professional statement. Mean- while the sharp counsel of the prisoner had adopted a theory for the defense. The body had been again examined by four other physicians who came into court and swore positively that the body was that of a woman, and that it had been used to promote the purposes of science, and was partially dissected. They affirmed that the body was that of a much older and larger person than the missing Mary Cook. This testimony produced a ripple in the current of public opinion which had been flowing so strongly in one direction. Was this so, or was this a cunningly devised scheme of Fellows' to get the villain clear ? For a little the question hung in great doubt, each side having earnest advo- cates. When this suspense was at its height and had become truly painful, relief came. In walked Constable John Roberts with a veiled lady upon his arm. The whisper ran around the court-room, " Another witness." She drew aside her veil, and it was indeed another witness, and no less a person than the murdered girl herself-the young and interesting Mary Cook, alive and well !

It only remains to say that it was soon discovered that the body was that of a Mrs. Schemmerhorn, a woman about twice the size of Mary Cook, who had 'died a few weeks before, and who was the wife of a man who tended the lower

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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY.

lock. The body had been, resurrected by some one for the purposes of dissec- tion, as had been alleged by some of the medical gentlemen at the examination ; some of whom well knew that they were speaking the truth. Old Mrs. Cook had trumped up her story to get black-mail out of Richardson. The affair furnished one more warning against hasty judgments founded on circumstances alone. The doctor who gave the professional opinion has never been called to fill the chair of anatomy in Rush Medical College. The parties connected with the case have generally gone elsewhere, although one lingers about here still who is supposed to have had a hand in it.

If any of our readers hanker after a real murder case, we might relate that of Benjamin Pickle, the old blacksmith, who was shot through his shop window on the night of December 6, 1861. Circumstantial evidence fixed the crime upon his brother-in-law, William Zeph. The paper wad found in the ear of Pickle's body was a piece of a German newspaper, the rest of which was found in Zeph's house ; the parts exactly fitted each other. He had a trial, was con- victed ; his lawyers got him two new trials, and he was convicted the third time; then they got a supersedeas, and while the matter was still pending, he escaped jail and was never found.

The first execution in our county was that of George Chase for the murder of Joseph Clark, Deputy Warden at the Penitentiary, in April, 1864. This occurred during the Sheriffalty of John Reid.

OUR WAR RECORD.

We have given some account of the figure our county made in the Black Hawk war, and, in " Forty Years Ago," we related what was done in the Canal- Irish war. As to what Will County did in the Mexican war, there is not much to be told. This is not on account of the politics of our citizens at the time, for the county then, by a considerable majority, sustained the Adminis- tration, and adopted the motto-" Our country, when she is right; aye, and when she is wrong, too !" As is well known, under the earlier calls for volun- teers, our State furnished five regiments. For one of these regiments, a com- pany was organized in Joliet, under the captaincy of Robert Stevens, which reported at Springfield just one day too late to get in, so quickly had the quota of the State been filled. What these men would have done to add luster to the already glorious military record of our county, must be left to conjecture. That their career would have been a brilliant one we may safely conclude, if the men were worthy of their Captain. We are able only to name one of them with certainty, as no muster-roll of the company has been preserved. This one now wears a star, not a general's but a policeman's, and is known as Frank Fellows. He was a mere boy at the time, and had to steal his chance to enlist, as the old Captain, his father, although himself a hero of the Irish war, as we have elsewhere related (see "Forty Years Ago"), was the very embodiment of

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Whiggery, and did not take much stock in the Mexican war. Many public meetings were held, and considerable excitement existed from time to time dur- ing the progress of the war. Companies from other counties passed through Joliet, and the martial spirit was more or less waked up, and, it is believed that some joined these companies. One from Kane County is particularly remembered, which marched up and down Bluff street one Sunday, with fife and drum, not a little disturbing the worshipers in the old stone block. The ladies of Joliet presented this company with a handsome flag, and quite a time was had over it, eloquent speeches being made on both sides. This flag was returned in 1849, twenty months after presentation, by P. R. Norton, Captain of the company, who assured the ladies that it had waved in triumph over the battered walls of Puebla, Tampico Alta, Sierra Madre, Convent of St. Domingo and the Halls of the Montezumas. Uri Osgood received the flag in behalf of the ladies and made an eloquent reply. So we at least had some bunting in the war. Toward the end of the war, our State furnished another (the Sixth) regi- ment, and we find a statement in the history of the State that one company · was from Will and Iroquois Counties. Whether the regiment reached the seat of war, and who of our citizens belonged to it, we have not been able to learn. If any one from Will County fought, bled or died, we should have been glad to record his name.

In the late war of the rebellion, our county has a proud record. First and last, between three and four thousand of our citizens went to the war; and more than five hundred sacrified their lives to preserve the Government and the Union.

Having already, as we think, pretty fully and faithfully told the story of what our county did in this war, we do not think it necessary even to give a summary here. If any of our readers have not a copy of "Fifteen Years Ago, or the Patriotism of Will County," he can easily obtain one either of the author or publisher, for the trifling sum of $4. It ought to be in every man's library, and in every school district in the county. This is not an advertisement, but a piece of disinterested and sound advice-as disinterested as a patent medicine advertisement !

THE PRESS, ETC.

We gave in "Forty Years Ago" some account of the first newspaper started in Joliet, in 1839. This was the premonitory symptom of the well- known Signal. We understand that the township historian, by whom we are to be followed, will "write up" the press, and therefore we shall have little to say on the subject. We wish, however to leave on record our impression of the immense value of the files of county papers as sources of history. If we were to have the privilege of living over the past, we would keep files of each county paper ; not by any means for the sake of reading over the old editorials, but because their pages would give a picture from week to week of both national

Rough Henderson (DECEASED) JOLIET

. .

THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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and local events, which could be found nowhere else. Even the advertisements give much of history. There ought to be provision for keeping such files in our county and city offices ; for the files at the printing offices are liable to be destroyed by fire, as some have been in Joliet, and as all have been in Chicago. And we here record our thanks to the proprietors of our papers for the free access given us to such files as have been preserved. They have afforded us both amusement and instruction, as well as aided us in our efforts to recall per- sons and events. We have noticed that editors are not very reliable as prophets ; for previous to every election we have been told that the fate of the country hung upon the result, and that if the opposite party triumphed, the country would go to universal smash ; and yet the other party often did succeed, and the country went on all the same ! Another thing is very noticeable, and that is that it was always the other party that did all the mean and dishonest things ; and, also, that no sooner did a man who had all along been respectable and reliable, change his way of voting, than he became at once a vagabond and a scoundrel. Perhaps one of the punishments that will be awarded editors in the future world, will be to read ever their old editorials ! At any rate, that is the worst we would inflict upon them. We will give a resume of one number of the Signal of the year 1846, twelve years after our city was born, omitting the editorials. It gives a picture of the early times.

In the way of news, we have Gen. Taylor's early dispatches from Mexico, when he was on the Rio Grande and skirmishing with Gen. Ampudia. We have also accounts of the negotiations with England, when we backed down from the " 54° 40' or fight " position, and took up a more tenable one on º49, and the Strait of San Juan de Fuca. As an interesting item of home news, we are informed that an opposition line of stages has just been put upon the route from Chicago via Joliet to Ottawa. By the way, we have in Joliet a souvenir of those old stage times, in the person of our friend Kipp, now a citizen of Joliet, who in those days held the ribbons for Frink & Walker with a skill and ability that was never surpassed. We have also, in the way of news, the proc- lamation of Gov. Ford against the Mormons, who were threatening to cut up at Nauvoo, and the announcement that a line of telegraph was soon to be opened from Buffalo to Detroit. The citizens of Joliet village were notified, also, to meet at the Court House and organize a wolf-hunt. If you want to know how this was done, read "Forty Years Ago." (We are referring to that great work pretty often, but we can't help it.) By way of advertisements, J. A. Matteson tells the public that he is ready to card the wool and weave the cloth of the people of Will and adjoining counties, and to buy their wool and sell them cloth and other goods. Major Safford announces that he has con- cluded to stop with Matteson another year, and will try to please everybody, especially the ladies. Uncle Billy Hadsall advertises as the administrator of the estate of Philip Scott, deceased. (Uncle Billy's own estate will have to be administered on soon.) Francis J. Nicholson tells the public where he keeps

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the "Emporium of Fashion," and is ready to give the gents the latest styles just received from Paris, London and Philadelphia. (The fashions have changed with "Nick" since that day, and will change still more ere many years.) Alex. McIntosh advertises a select school, in which he proposes to teach on common sense principles-not to cram ; and " Cal." indorses him, and advises parents to send their children to him: (Mack's wife now beats him-we mean at keeping school.) Charles Clement says he has lots of goods that the people can have cheap by calling at his store, opposite Merchants' Row. J. H. Brown offers pure and reliable drugs and medicines, which can be found in the store opposite the old wooden block on Upper Chicago street ; and G. H. Woodruff offers pills and powders to the West Siders at his store, in the old National. Hervy Lowe says he has seventy-five packages of summer goods he wants to get rid of at a very small advance above cost, on the corner of Chicago and Cass streets. M. L. Adams offers to cast anything you want at his steam foundry, on North Bluff street. Norton & Blackstone, of Lockport, advertise large and splendid stocks of everything; and Lane & Weeks, of Lockport, manufacture steel plows. A. W. Bowen, Postmaster, tells who has letters in Joliet Post Office, that have not been called for; among others, Sam Ander- son and Col. Curry. (If they have not been called for before this time, they never will be.) H. N. Marsh says he is ready to sell or manufacture anything you want in the furniture line. (We have got one of his tables, and it's good and strong yet.) A good cook is wanted at the National Hotel. (That's what the boarders thought, too.) Dr. Brownson advertises Sappington pills. Daniel Curtis offers to deal out justice as wanted, and E. C. Fellows and Osgood & Little to superintend its administration. Demmond & Wood advertise dry goods and groceries cheap at the City Cash Store. (That piece of Wood is our old reliable insurance man, and we are glad to get him into this history, for he is a pretty well seasoned piece of timber, although he has lately got more young.) Richard Doolittle says he keeps an auction and commission store. (Dick does a little in the way of administering justice now.) P. Filer adver- tises Jew David's plaster, and tells the people that they can find it both at Brown's and at Woodruff's. (That's the plaster the people used to put on the barn-doors to draw the cows home at night, and it will do it yet.) Etc., etc., etc., etc.

METEOROLOGICAL.

Early settlers in the Northwest used to speak of a great fall of snow which occurred in the Winter of 1830-31, which must have been very remarkable. It is said to have killed off the native game animals to such an extent as to have made them very scarce for several years, and to have been a serious loss to the Indians. It is said to have been four feet deep on a level. We have met with some mention of this remarkable snow in the history of Livingston County. We remember to have heard Mr. Kerchival speak of it when we

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. first came. He warned us who had settled under the bluff on the West Side, that we would some day get snowed in, saying that he had seen the snow one gentle slope from the top of the bluff across the river, completely concealing the river. But we have never had any such visitation up to this day. There was a deep snow which blocked the railroads, as we shall relate further on, a few years ago. We have never been visited in this county by devastating cyclones, although we not unfrequently have had storms of wind and rain and hail, which have been somewhat destructive in limited sections. All our streams are subject to heavy floods, especially upon the breaking-up of Spring, when snow and ice are abundant, and much loss has been experienced at times in mills and bridges, etc. In January, 1849, there was a big flood, especially in the Kankakee. Many families in Wilmington were compelled to leave their houses, and the upper mill was partly carried away by ice, and also the woolen- factory and a saw-mill, and the bridge over Forked Creek. The feeder was also damaged seriously. Another flood in 1867, carried off the railroad bridge landing it within a mile of Morris, and during the ice-gorge below, the water rose several feet in the main street of the city. The damage at this time was estimated as high as $100,000.

Thunder and lightning are often very severe, especially along the rivers, and occasionally both animals and men have been killed. Such a thun- der-storm once struck the city of Wilmington, and produced effects which were startling in the extreme, and at the same time had a ludicrous side. It occurred during a political meeting held at the hall, in which Judge Parks was making a political speech, able, and of course on the right side, for that is where the Judge always means to be, even if he has to take the back track or go across lots to get there. He had just reached one of his sublimest flights of fancy and patriotism, holding out the American eagle with outstretched wings over his attentive audience, who, spell-bound by his eloquence, had taken little note of the approaching storm, until a thunder- bolt struck the building and passing into the crowd, struck about twenty of them to the floor, killing one of the number, and knocking the Judge's spread- eagle into smithereens, closed his speech with a climax which astonished the speaker no less than the auditors. The Judge was accustomed to seeing his audiences electrified, but never before or since in so startling and literal a man- ner. He yielded the floor, and acknowledged himself vanquished with his own weapons.

The most terrific storm of this kind occurred on Sunday, the 31st day of July, 1864. During the morning service at the German Catholic Church in the north part of the city (the small stone church which has since been replaced' by the present large and fine one) the steeple was struck by a thunder-bolt, which startled the entire city. The fluid passed down to the gallery immediately under the steeple, where it separated and passed down to the earth in two cur- rents. For a moment the whole congregation was paralyzed. When conscious-

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ness returned, the scene was beyond description, and without a parallel in Will County. The smoke or vapor of some sort which followed the report, gave the impression that the church was on fire, and an insane rush was made for the doors and windows, which were broken out and torn from their hinges, and but for the presence of mind of the Pastor, a still more frightful loss of life must have resulted. When the terror of the crowd had been calmed, and the fact ascertained that the church was not on fire, the killed and wounded were looked after. They were carried out into the open air, and those who were not fatally injured recovered consciousness in the falling rain. The following persons were found to be dead: Mrs. Hartman, a young mother, 35 years old, leaving three children, one a babe; Mrs. Ingles, age 56; Nicholas Young, a lad of 15; Matthias Engle of the age of 17, and Samuel Weyman of 18 years. About twenty more were seriously, but not dangerously injured. The entire congre- gation were more or less affected. The scene was heart-rending-the moans and cries of the injured and the frightened as well-and the lamentations over the dead, no one who witnessed it will ever forget.

We have had many floods in Joliet, more or less damaging to property, especially to bridges, but the one which was the largest, and which will live longest in the memory of our citizens, occurred on Wednesday, the 9th of August, 1865. On that day, which was a rainy one, there occurred during the afternoon, and again in the evening, two showers, which all who wit- nessed them will say were the heaviest they ever knew. They seemed to be like the cloud-breaks we have read of as occurring in some of the canons of the mountains of the West. Every one, however, went to bed serene, not anticipating that there was to be anything serious, although conscious that it was a big shower and the river had commenced to rise considerably. About midnight, the city was alarmed by the ringing of the bells and the shouts and cries of the people, and a scene of terror was presented in the dim light of the stars, which baffles description. The moving about of people with lanterns and the reflection in the waters, gave a strange and weird aspect to the city, as seen from the bluff. A river of no mean volume was pouring down the R. I. R. R. track from Spring Creek, which was now a mighty stream, covering all the bottom lands in its vicinity. The wall of the upper basin had given way and a Niagara was pouring out, carrying off King's plan- ing-mill and other buildings, and greatly endangering Howk & Hyde's mill. All that part of town known anciently as "the slough," was a second Missis- sippi, the houses were surrounded by water from Scott street to the eastern bluff, and the people were being rescued by boats. Furniture and fences were afloat, and men and women imploring help from the windows of the upper stories of the beleaguered houses. The basements on the east side of Scott street were converted into cisterns, and the provisions and utensils necessary for the morning's breakfast were afloat. The old Des Planes which had often been on the rampage before, outdid all former exploits, and was full to the top of the

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The History of Will County, Illinois : containing a history of the county a directory of its real estate owners; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; general and local statistics.history of Illinois history of the Northwest, Part 29

Author: Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Chicago : Wm. Le Baron, jr. & co. Number of Pages: 980

Author:
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Chicago : Wm. Le Baron, jr. & co.
Number of Pages: 980