Cairo Daily Bulletin & Cairo Gazette 1875

Obituaries and Death Notices

 

The Cairo Daily Bulletin

 3 Jan 1875-31 Dec 1875

and

Cairo  Gazette

 11 Jan 1875-22 Dec 1875

 

Cairo, Alexander County, Illinois


Transcribed by Darrel Dexter

[email protected]
 

 Sunday, 3 Jan 1875:

Died.

            In Louisville, Kentucky, on the 31st day of December, 1874, Daniel B. Powers, aged 71 years.  Mr. Powers was the father of our townsman, Perry Powers, and a former resident of Cairo.

 

Killed.

            Brighton Wilson, an employee of the Cairo and Vincennes railroad, while coupling a car to an engine at Carmi, Thursday morning, threw a car pin over the car to his brother, Williamson, also employed by that road, which struck him on the head, inflicting a wound from which the unfortunate man died on Friday.  Both parties are residents of Evansville, where their parents are living at present.

 

Tribute of Respect.

            WHEREAS, It has pleased the Almighty God to remove our late brother, Louis H. Jorgensen, from our midst, we feel it our duty to give some expression of our feeling and pay that tribute to his memory he so rightly deserved, therefore be it

            Resolved, That in his death, Cairo Lodge No. 237, and the fraternity in general, have lost a worthy brother and the community a good citizen, the bereaved wife and children an affectionate husband and parent.

            Resolved, That the members of our lodge tender the bereaved family of their deceased brother their most sincere and heartfelt sympathy and condolence.

            Resolved, That the members of this lodge wear the usual badge or mourning for thirty days, and that the furniture of the lodge be draped in mourning.

            Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be spread upon the records of the lodge and a copy forwarded to the family of the deceased, and that they be printed in the Cairo papers.

J. Schlesinger

Jewett Wilcox

H. Wardner, Committee

Cairo, Ill., January 1st, 1875

(Cairo Gazette and Evening Sun please copy and send bill to this office.)

 

Death of Louis Jorgensen.

            The New Orleans Picayune of the 29th ult., speaking of the death of Mr. Jorgensen, says:

            “We regret to learn of the death on the 21st inst., of E. Sir Louis Henry Jorgensen, a member of the Cairo Commandery No. 13, Knights Templar, and Grand Generalissimo of Illinois.  Mr. Jorgensen was in our city during the first days of this month, as a member of the Grand Encampment of the United States, and by his affable and courteous bearing, made many warm friends here.  The funeral services were conducted by Rector Gilbert, at the Church of the Redeemer, and the burial services by the Blue Lodge, the Cairo Commandery acting as an escort.  The ceremonies were very solemn and impressive and the procession and entombment very imposing.  He was a prominent Mason and Knight, whose demise will be greatly regretted by a wide circle of acquaintances and friends.”

 

 

Tuesday, 5 Jan 1875:

HANGED.

            A rumor was going about the city last week that Jack Owens, a boy by the name of Peasley, and a negro man, were hanged the Thursday previous by a Missouri mob.  The offense of the unfortunate men, two of whom are well known in Cairo, was the murder of a widow woman for the paltry sum of eighty dollars.

 

 

Wednesday, 6 Jan 1875:
Small Pox.

We stated and The Sun stated, that the man who was arrested and confined in the pest house some time ago, on the charge of small pox, was getting along very well.  We still assert this, although it has come to our knowledge since making the statement that he died and was buried last Friday.  A man who has the small pox and dies is certainly getting along as well as could be expected.

We learn that another case of small pox is in the Sister’s hospital, and that an infant in the Fourth Ward is down with the disease.  This is but the commencement of our troubles with the loathsome pest, if prompt measures are not taken to stamp it out.  That the authorities will act promptly, we have reason to believe, from the fact that the Board of Health was called together last night to take the matter under advisement.

 


Thursday, 7 Jan 1875:
DIED.

In this city, yesterday, of hip disease, Albert, youngest son of Jacob and Wilhelmina Walters.  A special train will leave the foot of Eighth Street this afternoon at half past 2 o’clock, to convey the remains to Beech Grove Cemetery for interment.  Friends of the family are invited to attend the funeral.
 
The report set in circulation by a colored boy last week, about the hanging of three Cairo boys, below Memphis turns out to be a hoax.  The father of one of the party has returned from the neighborhood of Osceola, Arkansas, and says that he left them working and doing well.  He gives it as his opinion that the colored boy, being at enmity with the party, took this course of revenge.
 


Friday, 8 Jan 1875:
Jack Owens, who was reported to have been hung in
Missouri last week, came to see us yesterday, and convinced us that he had not been hung.  He gave us to understand that he wanted the report corrected, and we herewith inform our readers that we are willing to swear that he is not dead.  We got our information in regard to the hanging from the Gazette, which, it appears, was mistaken.
 

 

Tuesday, 12 Jan 1875:

A man called Newcomb, from Clear Creek Precinct, who was confined in the county jail, was attacked with the small pox Sunday, and was removed to the pest house.  We learn from Jailor Fitzgerald that the case is a bad one, and that in all probability the patient will die.

 


Wednesday, 13 Jan 1875:
The last Marion Monitor, published in
Williamson County, contains the following:

“Felix Henderson was indicted at the sitting of our last grand jury, for the murder of Vincent Hinchcliffe.  On last Monday Deputy Sheriff Edrington and posse, having a capias for his arrest, went to his place of residence, about seven miles northwest of here, for the purpose of taking him in charge.  He saw them coming and went upstairs and when they entered the house he climbed down one of the posts of the porch and took to his heels.  The officers fired five shots at him, and he in turn fired three shots, all of which took no effect.  He escaped and is still at large.”
 
Killed.

Michael Boshler, a German, was killed yesterday afternoon by the falling of the upper floor of Koehler’s ice house, on Seventeenth Street.  The upper story of the house, for convenience, had been filled first with ice, and Boshler and another man were at work storing away the ice, as fast as it was brought to them, in the lower part of the building, when the pressure being too great upon the beams that supported the upper floor, it gave way, precipitating the ice upon Boshler, crushing him to death.  The other party had just stepped outside the door to get a drink, and had not yet returned when the beams gave way, or in all probability he too would have shared the fate of his unfortunate companion. Boshler had a family of two children, his wife being dead, and the children, we are informed, have been living with his sister, Mrs. Lummer, since their mother’s death.
 


Friday, 15 Jan 1875:
Diphtheria is prevailing at Murphysboro.  There have been several deaths among children, and many are dangerously ill.
 
The bloody business of assassination goes on in
Williamson County.  Five of the Henderson banditti, armed with double-barreled shotguns, are scouring the country with the intention of shooting down any of the Bullinger party who may cross their paths.  Where is Sheridan?
 
Bloody Williamson

A few weeks ago, Fielding G. Henderson, one of the parties in the Williamson County Bullinger-Henderson war, was indicted for the murder of Hinchcliff, of that county.  The Deputy Sheriff, with a posse went to his residence and attempted to arrest him, but failed.  He fired upon the officers and his party several times from a navy revolver, and retreated to the woods.  This incident has berated the blood of all the Hendersons and they are out upon the war path.  Five of them armed with double-barreled shotguns got off the cars at Carterville near the old battle fields a day or two ago and acted as if they were very anxious to kill some person.  “Look out for bushwhacking as soon as the snow disappears,” says The Marion Monitor.
 


Saturday, 16 Jan 1875:
We learn from a reliable source that two of the small pox patients now in the pest house cannot recover and their death is momentarily looked for.  The other patient is recovering slowly.
 

 

Tuesday, 19 Jan 1875:
Burned to Death

We learn from Mr. J. G. Bales, of Thebes, that a daughter of Mr. Marsh Buster, of that precinct, aged four months, was burned to death a few days since under the following circumstances:  The head of the family being away from home, his wife discovered some hogs at the corn crib and went out to drive them away, and left two little girls in the house, the older one being about two years old.  While the mother was out looking to the crib, the older one got hold of a shovel, went to the grate and taking out coals of fire, threw them into the cradle in which her little sister was sleeping, setting fire to the cover.  The mother hearing the cries of the little one, hastily ran to the house, but too late to save the little sufferer.  The babe did not live five minutes after the flames were extinguished.

(There is a marriage recorded in Alexander Co., Ill., for a Mr. Buster and Louisa Reed on 12 Feb 1874.—Darrel Dexter)
 


Thursday, 21 Jan 1875:
We learn from Dr. Wood, that Newcomb, the man from Clear Creek, in this county, who was taken from the county jail a week or ten days ago, afflicted with the small pox, and who was put in the pest house, died and was buried last Friday morning.  Dr. Wood tells us that the other patients now in the pest house are getting on very well, and it is hoped they will recover.
 
Mr. Milford, a resident of Dog Tooth and a gentleman well known in Cairo, died Tuesday morning.
 


Friday, 22 Jan 1875:
The Late Tragedy in
Arkansas

In a recent issue of The Bulletin there was a letter published which was received by Mrs. Stewart, of Thebes, informing her of the murder of her two sons, by a mob in Laconia, Arkansas.  We learn from Sheriff Irvin, who received a letter from Laconia since the death of the young men, that they were not killed by a mob, but came to their end in a fight.  Their name was not Stewart, but Harris, their mother having been married to a gentleman by the name of W. W. Stewart, who lives in Thebes, and who is well known in this city.  Sheriff Irvin was personally acquainted with the unfortunate young men, and represents them as very quiet and law-abiding persons.  He also informs us that he received a letter from the elder Harris, some two weeks ago, in which he expressed his intention of returning to this county in a short time.
 


Sunday, 24 Jan 1875:
THE KU KLUX OF
EGYPT.

The spirit of lawlessness now rampant in southern Illinois must be stamped out. The courts and local officers of the law have been overawed by lawless men who have brought disgrace upon this part of the State and are apparently afraid to do their duty.  The Governor has been appealed to, but has not responded either because he lacks authority or disposition.  We must therefore look beyond local officers and the Governor to the General Assembly and demand that steps shall be taken that will put an end to Ku-klux rule in southern Illinois, and make life and property as secure here as in the most orderly portions of the country.  This may be done by following the suggestions of the Plater resolutions.  It will not do to throw aside these resolutions while laughing at or disparaging their author.

We hold up our hands in horror at lawlessness in the South, and when a general of the army calls banditti the citizens of a State because men have been murdered therein by disguised scoundrels, he is applauded.  We forget that within the State of Illinois murders and mobbings as dastardly as any perpetrated in the Ku-klux regions of the South are of very frequent occurrence.

Not long ago a band of disguised men in Williamson County visited in the night time, the residence of old man Vancil, aged about sixty years, and took him from his home and hung him on a tree until he was dead.

Not long ago a band of disguised men, in Williamson County, visited in the night time the residence of a man into whose custody a child of his own had been placed by the court, and informed him that they had recovered Judge Duff’s decision in the case, and that if he did not give the child to the mother—a dissolute woman, it is said—they would hang him.  The man obeyed the decree of the Supreme Court of the Williamson County Ku Klux.

Not long ago a band of disguised men in Williamson County, visited, in the night time, the residence of a citizen who had been ordered to leave the county, and discharged a volley into the house.  They were driven off by the citizen and friends of his, who returned the fire.

Not long ago, in Williamson County, old man Bullinger, was assassinated in the day time on the highway and since then many men have been killed or wounded in this vendetta that had its origin in political differences.

Not long ago—only a few weeks—five or six of the Bullinger assassins, with shotguns in hand, were on the cars between Marion and Carbondale boasting that they were in search of human game.  A great party of hunters!  And this is the nineteenth century, and this the civilized State of Illinois!

Not long ago—only a few weeks ago—one of the Henderson assassins, against whom rumor reported and indictment found armed to the teeth and full of whiskey, went to the county seat of Williamson County, walked into the residence of the State’s Attorney, demanded of him information concerning the action of the grand jury, and that he should have proceedings against him discontinued.

Not long ago—only a few months—a number of Williamson County assassins were at Anna, Union County, on the day the Democratic congressional convention was held.  One of them approached Hon. N. R. Casey with a drawn pistol and proposed to kill him because the would be assassin suspected him of the high crime and misdemeanor of having aided in the defeat of a gentleman who was a candidate for nomination before that convention.  Another would be assassin on the same occasion, with the pistol in hand, was searching for a gentleman—then a member of the General Assembly—to kill him on suspicion of not being a true Democrat!

This, and more to the account of Williamson.

Not long ago, a mob, undisguised, at the town of Carbondale, in Jackson County, led by a prominent citizen—a gentleman who has been since honored by the Governor—attempted to take a prisoner from the sheriff of the county and hang him.

Not long ago, a mob, undisguised, at the town of Murphysboro, in Jackson County, took a negro from the jail and hung him, a woman placing the rope around the rascal’s neck.  If mob law is ever justifiable it was in this case, and we do not much blame the governor for only issuing a little “proclamation” and then letting the affair drop.  The Governor is human and cannot be expected to be very energetic in an effort to punish the summary executors of justice on a negro guilty of the rape and murder of a white woman.

This for Jackson.

Not long ago, disguised men in Randolph County, visited the residence of a negro man in the night time, took him out, stripped his back naked, whipped him and ordered him to leave the county.

This for Randolph.

Not long ago, a mob attempted to take out of the jail of Alexander, a murderer and hang him.  But the officers of the law in Alexander are not fearful men and the mob was “induced” to not execute its intention.

This for Alexander.

Not long ago a band of disguised men, in Saline County, visited in the night time, the residence of a citizen, took him out of his bed and on his own porch with pistols at his head, made him dance for several hours.  The band, on the same night, visited the residence of another citizen, took him out of bed and beat him.  They gave him notice that if he gave the band reason to visit him again, he would be killed.

This for Saline.

Not long ago—on the 15th of the present month—a band of disguised men, twelve in number, visited in the night time, the residence of William Sloan, in Johnson County, and demanded admittance and this followed as related by the Vienna Yeoman.

Sloan opened the door when to his terror he beheld a dozen men, all masked and disguised beyond recognition.  They informed Sloan that they had heard that he was in the habit of abusing his children and had come to see about it.  They then demanded to see a little child of Sloan’s, which was produced, and carefully examined.  No marks of violence being visible on the child’s body, the Ku Klux informed Sloan that it was well for him that the child’s body showed no marks of bad treatment, and admonishing him to be careful as to how he treated his children, for they would call on him again, mounted their horses and rode away.  Before leaving, however, they deposited a bunch of hickory switches in Sloan’s door yard.  We suppose they left the switches to give Sloan to understand the manner of the punishment in store for him if he failed to comply with their mandates.  After leaving Sloan’s house they were met in the road by Mr. Dupont but did not offer to stop or in any way interfere with him.  Mr. Dupont says there were about a dozen of the Ku Klux.  That some rode horses and some mules, but that both horses and men were so completely disguised as to render it utterly impossible to recognize them.

This and more for Johnson.

We have only partially told the story of Egyptian Ku-kluxism.

To these facts we called the attention of the General Assembly, and in the name of the law abiding people of Egypt demand an investigation so that the remedy, “short, sharp and decisive” may be applied.
 
Died.

We regret to announce that Mr. James Flemming is no more.  He died in the city, and called at The Bulletin office yesterday.
 
Murder Near
Castorville, Mo.

Quite an excitement was raised at the depot of the Cairo, Arkansas and Texas railroad depot, at Charleston, a few days ago, by the arrest of a man by the sheriff of that county, charged with the murder of a lady at Castorville, Missouri, a day or two previous.  The man who was arrested, was bareheaded and nearly frozen, having wandered around in the woods all day, in his endeavors to escape the wrath of a vigilance committee who were in search of him.  At two different stations between Castorville and Charleston, the train was boarded by a party of armed men looking for the murderer; they could not find him, but we are told, that not more than twenty minutes after the vigilantes boarded the train at the last station before reaching Charleston, the guilty party put in his appearance.  As soon as the conductor was satisfied that he had the right man, he sent word to the sheriff to Charleston informing him of the fact, and asking him to be at the station to take charge of him upon the arrival of the train.  The sheriff complied with the request, and the murderer is now in safe keeping.  The facts in relation to the murder, as near as we can learn, are as follows:  The victim owned a country store at Castorville, which she attended to herself, dealing out articles to her customers, etc., and on last Monday the man arrested went to the store, purchased some goods, and talked in a very friendly manner with the proprietress, after which he went out but returned in a short time and lingered around the store nearly all day, thus becoming acquainted with the place in which she kept her earnings.  When he was satisfied that he knew all about her affairs, and when the woman was busily engaged, he killed her, robbed the house of everything of value that he could conceal on his person, and left the town.
 


Tuesday, 26 Jan 1875:
Dr. Blanchard and other deceased Murphysboroites have recently appeared to their friends and held conversations with them.  The most interesting item of information these dead people furnished their live relations and friends was that they “are happy in The New Jerusalem,” and have no desire to get back to Murphysboro.
 


Wednesday 27 Jan 1875:
Died.

On the morning of the 25th of January, at the residence of her father, John McEwen, Elizabeth Moore, wife of M. M. Moore, in the 22d year of her age.  Funeral services Thursday afternoon, 2 o’clock, at the Presbyterian church.  The body will be buried at Beech Grove Cemetery.  Train will leave foot of Eighth Street at 3 o’clock.  Friends and relatives invited.  The funeral was to have taken place today, but has been postponed until tomorrow, owing to the non-arrival of Mr. Moore’s mother, who has telegraphed that she will be here this evening.

(Martin M. Moore married Elizabeth S. McEwen on 3 Jun 1874, in Alexander Co., Ill.—Darrel Dexter)
 
Funeral of Mr. Fleming

The funeral of Mr. Fleming will take place today at 1 o’clock p.m., at the Church of the Redeemer, from whence the remains will be conveyed to the Illinois Central railroad train, and taken to Steubenville, Ohio, for interment.  Friends and relatives invited.
 
Obituary

Mr. James Fleming, whose death we recorded a few days ago, was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1816.  At an early age he entered a grocery store in the city of Philadelphia, where he remained until he had attained his eighteenth year, when he removed to Pittsburg.  After remaining at that place a short time as agent for the Western Stage Company, he was sent to Stubenville, Ohio, to represent the company as agent at that point, which position he held for some time.  In 1846, in company with his father-in-law, Capt. M. E. Lucas, built the steamer Zack Taylor, Mr. Fleming acting in the capacity of clerk, the boat running between Cincinnati and Pittsburg, in the express line.  After remaining in the steamboat business for some time, he sold his interest in the Taylor and started in the grocery business at Stubenville.  He shortly after removed to a small town in Pennsylvania where he engaged in the boot and shoe business, which he retired from in 1852, coming to Rockford, in this state and entering the clothing business where he remained until 1860, going thence to Galena, where he resided until coming to Cairo, some three years ago, and has, to the best of our knowledge, been in the employ of Halliday Brothers as bookkeeper since that time.  Mr. Fleming was an Odd Fellow, having joined the order in 1836.  He was a charter member of Winnebago Encampment of Rockford.  He was also a Master Mason, having joined Stubenville Lodge No. 45, in the year 1843, but of late years he has not taken an active part in the orders, but occasionally attended as a visitor.
 


Thursday, 28 Jan 1875:
Funeral of Mr. Fleming

A large number of friends of the family followed the body of John T. Fleming, deceased, from the Church of the Redeemer to the depot of the Illinois Central railroad yesterday.  It was taken to Stubenville for interment.
 
The Martin Suicide

There was much excitement in the city yesterday over the news of the death of Henry Martin by suicide.  The deceased was well known to almost every person in the city, and great curiosity was manifested to learn particulars of the tragedy.  Ever since the resignation of the deceased from the police force he has expressed a determination to take his own life, but did so in a manner so jocular that no person believed he meant anything serious.  At first it was suspected by some that he had been murdered, but when the facts were made public by the inquest, there was no doubt left that he came to his death by his own hand.
 
Martin’s Funeral

The Rough and Ready Fire Company held a meeting yesterday to make arrangements for the funeral of Henry Martin, the suicide.  Messrs. Joseph Verrine, John Koehler, Ferdinand Koehler, Charles Frank and William Campbell, were appointed a committee of arrangements.  The committee telegraphed to his relatives in Philadelphia and received a reply that they were too poor to take charge of his body.  The company will therefore bury the deceased today at Villa Ridge in the Rough and Ready lot.  The body will be taken to the cemetery on the regular train this afternoon.
 
SUICIDE.
Henry T. Martin Bids His Friends Good-Bye, and the Shoots Himself Through the Head.
His Lifeless Body Found on a Chicken Coop.
No Reason Assigned for the Rash Deed.

This city was thrown into a state of excitement yesterday morning by a report to the effect that Officer Henry Martin, who for several years past has figured so conspicuously among the police force of this city, had committed suicide by shooting himself through the head with a revolver.  The act was committed at about fifteen minutes after two o’clock yesterday morning at the corner of Eighth Street and Commercial Avenue.  The particulars of the sad occurrence, as stated by officers Cain and Brown, who were the first parties who came upon the scene, are as follows:  While they were standing on the corner of Eighth Street and Commercial Avenue, about fifteen minutes after two o’clock Wednesday morning, they were startled by the report of a revolver.  They supposed the sound came from the direction of Belford’s saloon, between Fifth and Sixth streets, on Commercial Avenue, whither they directed their steps at a quick pace.  Their search did not bring to light any evidence of mischief, but being anxious to know who had fired the shot they retraced their steps to Sixth Street. Thence up Sixth to the levee, and up Levee Street to Eighth, down Eighth to Commercial, and then back to the corner of Sixth, but still they were in the dark as to who had fired the shot.  The officers state that they remained on the corner for several minutes conversing, when Brown stepped out to the edge of the sidewalk on Sixth Street and turned round to go back where Cain was leaning against a post on Commercial, when his gaze fell upon the form of a man lying on a chicken coop, standing against the side of the building.  The officers, supposing it to be some drunken man, went up and shook him, but seeing that he did not _______ (line missing) find out who it was by turning his face upward.  Brown was shocked when he discovered the dead face of Henry Martin.

The unfortunate man had put a ball through his head from the left temple to the back of the right ear.  Further research brought to light a revolver lying between the dead man’s legs on the chicken coop, with one chamber empty, and the other five loaded.  The weapon had lately been purchased by Officer Martin in New York City, and is known there as one of the most deadly pistols now in use, being called the “New York Bull Dog.”  Martin was lying on his back, with his legs from the knee hanging over the end of the coop.  Officer Cain left Brown to take care of the body, while he went after Coroner Gossman, who was not long in appearing upon the scene, but being unable to find a jury at that hour of the night, the body was covered and allowed to remain where it was found until seven o’clock, when a jury was brought together.  After hearing the evidence of the two officers named above, the same being substantially what we have stated, the jury returned a verdict to the effect that the deceased had come to his death by his own hand.  The corpse was then removed to the Rough and Ready engine house, of which company Martin was an active member.

The cause for the rash act is unknown, even the most intimate friends of the deceased being unable to assign any reason for it.  It is said by gentleman who were very intimate with Martin, that he went to several of his friends and bade them goodbye, saying that he was going away, that he would never see them again.  It is also said that the night before he committed the deed, he was very much under the influence of liquor and seemed to be indisposed to talk.  He was heard to say, while in conversation with friends at the Rough and Ready engine house on Tuesday morning that he did not care a continental for his life.  “I would just as soon die this minute as not.”  He, we are told, signified his intention to kill himself as long as two years ago, but has never made an attempt to do so until his successful one of yesterday morning.  The deceased was a man of twenty-eight or thirty years of age.  He came to this city from Baltimore, and has since his sojourn here been connected with the police force a large portion of the time.  He has relatives living in the east.
 


Friday, 29 Jan 1875:
The funeral of Henry Martin took place yesterday afternoon from the Rough and Ready engine house.
 
The funeral of Mrs. Moore took place from the Presbyterian church yesterday afternoon, and was largely attended.
 
MURDER.
Full Particulars of the Foul Murder of the Harris Boys
Why the Bloody Deed Was Done.

The following letter from Laconta, Arkansas, was received by Sheriff Irvin, in reply to his request asking the particulars of the murder of the two Harris boys, formerly of this county:
Laconia, Ark., Jan. 25, 1875

Mr. Alex. H. Irvin—Dear Sir:  Your letter of the 19th ult., is at hand, asking information in regard to the murder of the young men named Harris.  Sometime since there was a young man shot by the name of Hale Buck while attempting to burn a fence between his storehouse and that of Mr. B. Sellers, which stands some hundred and fifty yards distant.  Mr. Buck, not liking Mr. Sellers, was using every exertion to destroy his property and while attempting to fire the fence was shot by some unknown person.  Mr. Buck was tried and it seems that Mr. Will Harris was the principal witness against him in the burning of the fence, which created a hard feeling between the Bucks and Harrises.  A few days after Hale Buck was shot, one of his brothers challenged Mr. Will Harris to fight a duel, which Mr. Harris declined accepting, but had recourse to the law, and Mr. Buck was fined for violating it.  After that they supposed it all to be settled, until Mr. Will Harris met Buck in the road and he, Buck, knocked Harris down and tried to draw his pistol to shoot him, but Harris being quicker than Buck regained his feet and drew his pistol and would have killed Buck if he had not begged so for his life.  After that occurrence Mr. Harris concluded to have the Buck boys bound over to keep the peace; the day was set and all the parties had gone before the justice of the peace to proceed with the trial.  When the Bucks made their appearance in the court room, they were armed with pistols and double-barreled guns, and Mr. Harris, not thinking of the danger that menaced him, went unarmed.  As soon as Will Harris went into the court room, one of the young Bucks knocked him down and commenced beating him most unmercifully.  The parties in the room attempted to rescue Mr. Harris from Buck, but were driven off by his brother who stood over them and presented a double-barreled gun at every person that attempted to save Harris.  Finally Mr. Charles Buck attempted to shoot the magistrate; they closed with each other and while trying to shoot him, Buck gave his gun a twist and it fired, missing the magistrate and killing Mr. Jim Harris who was standing in the door.  As soon as Albros Buck saw that Charles Buck had killed Jim Harris, he jumped off of Will Harris and shot him two or three times through the body, causing instant death.

While the Bucks were shooting, several other parties procured guns and went to assist the officers, and it seems that after the Harrises were killed, the Bucks intended killing every one that they could, but fortunately they did not hurt anyone else.  Both of the Harrises were wounded so severely that one died that night, and the other the next morning.  The parties who killed them are both dead.  Hale Buck is still living, but wounded severely, and reports say he is awaiting his trial for the attempt to burn Mr. Sellers’ fence.  It is supposed that he was the instigator of his brother in killing the Harrises.

This is all the information that we can give you.  We believe the Harrises were both well attended to and decently buried.  Neither of them fired a shot, and both were killed without a struggle.  If there is anything else you desire to learn, let us know.
Yours, very respectfully,
B. and M. Sellers.
 


Saturday, 30 Jan 1875:
Funeral Notice.

The members of Alexander Lodge No. 224, I. O. O. F., are hereby notified to meet at their lodge room at 11 ½ o’clock, a.m., sharp, Sunday the 31st, for the purpose of attending the funeral of our late brother, William Martin.  Visiting brothers are cordially invited to attend.  By order of the N. G.
C. K. Slack, Secretary
 
Death of County Treasurer William Martin

At 7 o’clock yesterday morning, William Martin, treasurer of Alexander County, breathed his last, and entered upon the realities of the other world, accessive only through the portals of the tomb. 

Although the community was shocked by the announcement of his death, the sad event was scarcely unexpected.  He has for the past two weeks been lingering on the borders of the grave.  His disease was pneumonia, which has been gradually weakening the hold he had upon life, and yesterday morning he passed away calmly and without a struggle.

Mr. Martin was born in Davis County, in this state, in 1821, and in 1845 he removed to this county and settled on a farm near Goose Island Precinct, where he resided until 1864, when he came to Cairo, and opened a boarding house.  In 1872, he entered the contest for the office of county treasurer, and was elected by a large majority.  In this capacity he discharged his duties with such care and accuracy, that he was re-elected to the office without opposition.  He had served one year of the second term, when he was overtaken by death.

Kind-hearted, indulgent and affectionate as a husband and father, his death will strike a deep and lasting sorrow to the hearts of his widow and children, which time may alleviate, but can never remove.  The remains will be buried at Villa Ridge, to which place they will be conveyed by special train Sunday.  The funeral services will take place at the residence.

(There is no Davis Co., Ill.  William Martin was born in Davies Co., Ky.  A marker in Cairo City Cemetery at Villa Ridge reads:  William Martin Died Jan. 29, 1875, Aged 33 Yrs., 8 Mos.—Darrel Dexter)
 
The Commerce (Mo.) Dispatch, in speaking of the murder of the two Harris boys, at Laconia, Arkansas, on the 12th inst., says:  “Both brothers were with Captain Pleasant, on a trading boat during the past two years, and after the death of that gentleman, still continued the business for the widow.  James was partly raised by H. P. Lynch, of this place and is well and favorably known by nearly everyone in the place.  Their mother, Mrs. Stewart, is in delicate health, and this blow of poignant grief nearly kills her.”
 
Resolutions of Respect

At a meeting of the Rough and Ready Fire Company, held Thursday afternoon, the following resolutions on the death of Henry T. Martin, late a member of the company, were proposed and adopted:

WHEREAS, Henry T. Martin, late a member of this company, has been removed from his membership by death,

Resolved, That in the death of Henry T. Martin the Rough and Ready Fire Company has sustained the loss of an efficient, prompt and energetic member, always prompt at the call of duty and self-sacrificing in efforts to advance the efficiency and interest of the fire departments of Cairo,

Resolved, That in the death of our late brother, we recognize the loss of a warm-hearted man, liberal and kind; that we mourn his untimely end, and will cast over his grave the mantle of that charity which bids us to not judge lest we also be judged; and that we will remember the many good traits of character that distinguished him, and in pity often recall the misery that made him.
Mad from life’s history,

Glad to be hurled—
Anywhere, anywhere

Out of the world.
 


Sunday, 31 Jan 1875:
Funeral Notice
The members of Alexander Lodge No. 224, I. O. O. F., are hereby notified to meet at the lodge room at 11 ½ o’clock, a.m., sharp, Sunday, the 31st, for the purpose of attending the funeral of our late brother, William Martin.  Visiting brothers are cordially invited to attend.  By order of the N. G.
C. K. Slack, Secretary.
 
Funeral Notice

The funeral service of the late William Martin will take place today, at one o’clock from the Christian church on Eighteenth Street, in place of his late residence, as stated in our columns on yesterday.
 
Funeral Notice

The members of the Delta City Fire Company are hereby notified to meet at the Engine House in full uniform today (Sunday) at 11:30 a.m., sharp, for the purpose of attending the funeral of our late brother fireman, William Martin.  By order of the company.
M. J. McGauley, Secretary

 

 

Tuesday, 2 Feb 1875:
Mr. George Sisney, ex-sheriff of
Williamson County, who was shot sometime ago by some of the assassins of that county is recovering from his wounds.  He has removed to Carbondale.


MORE KU-KLUX.

The Johnson County Yeoman gives us an additional chapter in the Ku-Kluxism of Egypt.
About four weeks ago a band of ten or a dozen masked men called, in the nighttime, at the house of Mr. Elias McDaniels, who lives just across the Williamson County line and about three miles from New Burnside.  Mr. McDaniels was commanded to get up and come out of the house.  He complied with the command, and as he stepped out of the house was seized by two or three of the gang, while several others proceeded to apply the rod, giving him about one hundred lashes.  He was then released and permitted to return to the house and the K. K. took their departure.

On the night of January 15th, a band of twelve masked men went to the house of William Camden in Williamson County.  Camden was forced to get out of bed and play the violin while a young man who had called to stay all night at Camden’s was made to dance for one full hour and until the soles of his feet were worn raw and became very sore.  The band then left and crossed the line into Johnson County and went to Levi Henderson’s house and called for Henderson to come out.  Fortunately Mr. Henderson was absent from home that night, and no doubt escaped, as he says, a severe lashing.  Leaving Henderson’s the band passed through New Burnside, and went about half a mile south of town to the residence of William Sloan, where they stopped, called Sloan out, and it is said gave him a severe flogging, inflicting about fifty lashes on him.

“These are not the only crimes committed by this band of midnight marauders and cut throats,” said the Yeoman.  “Quite a number of similar outrages might be cited, but the few above referred to will serve our present purpose.”

 

 

Friday, 5 Feb 1875:
The Marion Monitor denies that the troubles in that county had their origin in political differences.  Did not the first fight between the Bullingers and Hendersons occur at the polls?
 
CARD OF THANKS
To the Rough and Ready Fire Company of Cairo, Illinois:

We, the bereaved friends of the lamented Henry T. Martin, return our heartfelt thanks to the members of the Rough and Ready Fire Company, of Cairo, Illinois, for the kind and brotherly respect which they paid to his remains, and sincerely hope that none of them will ever know what it is to want a friend in the land of the stranger.
Respectfully, M. A. Harrisson


The Remains of Henry T. Martin

Wednesday morning, in compliance with the request of the relatives of Henry T. Martin, deceased, Sheriff Irvin, accompanied by Mr. H. Myers, Mr. Beerwart and Mr. Veirun, members of the Rough and Ready Fire Company, went to Beech Grove Cemetery for the purpose of having the remains of Martin disinterred and forwarded to LaSalle, Illinois.  From letters lately received by parties in this city from the friends and relatives of the deceased, there is every proof that he was at one time a very estimable and promising young man, but in the course of human events, he at some time during the earlier part of his existence met with a misfortune which turned the tide of his life into misery and despair.
 
Resolutions of Respect.
Cairo, Ills., Jan. 31, 1875.

At a meeting of the Delta City Fire Company, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:

WHEREAS, We have heard with unfeigned regret of the death of our late fellow member William Martin, who had endeared himself to us all by his many good qualities, therefore be it

Resolved, That while we bow in submission to the will of Him, “who doeth all things well,” we are reminded that our loss is his eternal gain in that home “not made with hands eternal in the heavens.”

Resolved, That we sincerely sympathize with his afflicted family in this their sad bereavement.

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be furnished the family of the deceased, and be also published in the Daily Bulletin.
By order of the company.
 

 

Saturday, 6 Feb 1875:
William Martin—Resolutions of Respect.

At a regular meeting of Alexander Lodge No. 224, I. O. O. F., the following resolutions of respect were adopted:

WHEREAS, William Martin, a member of this lodge has been removed from our fellowship by death.

Resolved, That in the death of our late brother, William Martin, this lodge has sustained the loss of a member of exemplary walk and conversation, kind-hearted, charitable and devoted to good works.

Resolved, That by his death society has been deprived of the example of an honest, modest, and faithful citizen, and his family of a kind husband and father.

Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with the bereaved widow, children and friends of our deplored brother, in their great loss.

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent by the secretary to the widow of the deceased, and a page of the records of the lodge be set apart sacred to the memory of the deceased, and that these resolutions be spread upon it at large.
 
 
Tuesday, 9 Feb 1875:
BLOODY WILLIAMSON.

A Fearful Record of Crime for One of the Southern Illinois Counties.

Complete History of the Family Feuds, Neighborhood Quarrels and Other Causes Leading to Murders, Assassinations, and Affrays.

The Families Involved and Their Histories—The Bulliners—The Hendersons—Sisneys—Russels—Norris—Clifford—Hinchcliffe—The Cranes, &c.

(From the St. Louis Democrat, 6th inst.)

The following families and persons were engaged in the feud:

BULLINER.

George Bulliner, aged sixth-three years, single; Monroe, twenty-five years, married; John, twenty-three, single; and a younger one named Emanuel, who was not mixed up in the troubles.  This family are all of ordinary size, and did not have the appearance of being cruel or blood thirsty.

David Bulliner, about sixty-one years of age, and his son George, some thirty years old.  These like the above, were of ordinary size and appearance.

Both families of Bulliners came from McNairy County, Tennessee, in 1864, during the war, and were Union refugees, though they managed to save considerable of their property, and were accounted worth near $40,000 each.  Old David Bulliner did much toward developing Williamson and Jackson counties, having erected cotton gins, saw mills, and a woolen mill.  They were all looked upon as among the best citizens of that section of country.  Old George Bulliner bought and carried on an extensive farm.

HENDERSON.

This family was composed of three brothers and their sons, and came from Western Kentucky, to Massac County, Ill., during the war, and from thence to Williamson County, Ill., during the latter part of 1864, or the early part of 1865.  Shortly after their arrival, a man named Hendricks came from Paducah, Ky., and replevined a horse from Jim Henderson, alleging that Jim had gobbled the horse during the war; but Henderson, on the other hand, claimed that the horse had been taken by the United States troops, and that he bought it at a government sale of condemned horses and mules.  Stories are in circulation that the Hendersons led a rather free and roving life in Kentucky, and were sometimes engaged in bushwhacking, if there was money to be made, but of the truth of these reports no reliable foundation could be obtained, everything being merely hearsay.  One thing, however, is certain, and that is that Jim beat the Paducah man in the suit about the horse.  The families were as follows:

Joseph Henderson, aged 62 years, and sons, James, aged 30, Fielding, 27, and Thaddeus, 25—all married.

William Henderson, aged 60 years, and son Samuel, 27 years, married.

James Henderson, about 35 years of age, had no sons.

The three Hendersons and their respective families, though not wealthy, were considered well to do in the world, and were engaged in farming.  They were all large, athletic men, a portion of them being raw-boned, though old James was very heavy set and remarkably strong and quick.

SISNEY.

            Col. George W. Sisney is about 48 years of age, and has a son, John, 25 years old, who is married.  Col. Sisney also has two other younger sons, who were not mixed up in the difficulties.  The old gentleman was a captain in the Union Army during the war, but since its close has been dubbed Colonel, by which title he is now exclusively known.  He was raised in Williamson County, and has a fine farm of 300 acres, 200 of which are under cultivation.  He is a man of ordinary size, with black hair and whiskers, somewhat mixed with gray, has sharp black eyes, and, although possessing a rather pleasant countenance, has the appearance of a man it would not be said to trifle with.

RUSSEL.

            There are several families of this name, all of whom are old residents of Williamson County, and own and cultivate extensive farms; but Tom, a young man of twenty-five years, is the only one that has actively been mixed up in the troubles.  He is a heavy-set, spare-built man, and possesses extraordinary strength.  The cause of his becoming involved in the feud, and consequent troubles, was a girl named Sarah Stock, of whom subsequent mention will be made.

DR. VINCENT HINCHCLIFFE

was raised in Williamson County, near Carterville, and was quite a prominent citizen, being a Mason in good standing, and for some time Postmaster at Fredonia, where he had a store, the post office being subsequently removed to Carterville.  He was a man rather above the ordinary size and had a family.

            All of the above parties were Republicans at the beginning of the troubles, though some time afterward the Bulliners and some others seceded and joined the Democratic Party, and this fact probably served to still further embitter the feelings of both sides.

NORRIS.

            Like the Russels, there are several families of this name, all old settlers and all well-to-do farmers.  James Norris, twenty-four years of age, unmarried, was the only one of this name that was engaged in the turmoil.  He is of common size, though rather slender.

CAGLE.

            There are also several families of Cagles, raised in Williamson County, all of whom, with the exception of Timothy, a youth of eighteen years, have long been engaged in the peaceful pursuits of husbandry, but Tim, is considered a wild, reckless youngster, fond of adventure and unwilling to engage in manual labor.  He is somewhat under the ordinary size.

GORDON CLIFFORD,

alias Texas Jack, is a man about twenty-six years of age, unmarried and of medium size.  He came from Moscow, Rush County, Indiana, but nothing is known of his family except that he once had a father who is now supposed to be living in Kansas.  He has only been living in the neighborhood of Carterville, in the edge of Jackson County, with a family named Baxter, about one year, who after becoming thoroughly acquainted with him, were very anxious to rid themselves of his presence, as in the short time he had been there he had acquired an exceedingly bad reputation for drinking, carousing, fighting, gambling and wickedness generally; in fact, he was considered a terribly rough customer.
STOCK.

There are two families of Stocks living in the vicinity of Carterville, both respectable farmers, and raised in that neighborhood, but it does not appear that any of the male members of the family had anything to do with the troubles, though the female portion, or at least two them played quite a conspicuous part.  The Stocks, it must be borne in mind, were relatives of the Russels, and one of the girls, Sarah Stock, was reputed to be very intimate with Tom Russel, her cousin, while at the same time she was also intimate with John Bulliner.  Sarah it is well established, was in the habit of keeping company with both the young men, who naturally left some jealousy toward each other, and Sarah fell into the very bad habit of repeating to each what they had said concerning one another, adding, of course, the usual coloring and embellishments which are natural to fickle-minded persons under such circumstances.  This was kept up for some time, and resulted in creating an intense animosity between the young men.  Meantime young David Bulliner had been paying his addresses to Miss Ellen Stock, a very worthy young lady, and a sister of Sarah.  It is presumed that Tom Russel’s animosity extended to the whole Bulliner tribe, and hence the killing of David, which occurred some time afterward.  When the fiery feud was openly made manifest, Sarah at first sided with the Russels, but subsequently she took up for the Bulliners, no doubt being impressed with the idea that John Bulliner would marry her, which hopes it is needless to say, were never realized, and after her babe was born she swore its fathership on him.  Sarah is about twenty years of age, not handsome, but possessing a certain sort of dash, and style about her which most people denominate as brazen sort of air.

Martha Stock, a cousin of the other Stock girls, and also of Tom Russel, who figured in the alibi case mentioned below, is a young lady of good reputation and standing, as far as is known.

THE ORIGINAL TROUBLE BEGAN

at a game of cards in a grocery, near Carbondale, several years ago.  Young George Bulliner and Fielding Henderson fought, and young Henderson was pretty badly beaten by his antagonist.  Henderson retired discomfited, but being of a bitter and vindictive nature, swore he would have revenge, and it is said threatened unless Bulliner left that part of the country to shoot him in his field if he went there to work.  Rumor has it that he also concealed himself in a tree on the Bulliner farm where George Bulliner was plowing, and as he approached leveled his gun at him and ordered him to sing, whistle, and dance, on pain of death.  Young George complied through necessity, and Henderson, after repeating his order to George to leave, departed.

This statement is not perhaps reliable, but it is certain that young George and his father, David, from this or some other cause, soon after returned to Tennessee, where they have since been living.  The old man returned to Williamson County once or twice after his brother old George was assassinated, but young George has never placed his foot on the farm since.

THE SECOND DIFFICULTY
was between David, son of old George Bulliner, and Col. George Sisney, who lived on his farm, which joined that of old George.  The trouble began about a law suit, which arose from the fact that Col. Sisney had purchased some oats, which the Bulliners claimed to have bought and paid for.  Sisney had the oats in his possession, and was sustained by the court.  Young David, soon after the suit, visited a blacksmith shop on Sisney’s farm, and finding Sisney there, intimated that S. got a judgment through hard swearing.  S. caught up a spade and struck at Bulliner, cutting his arm quite severely.  B. immediately left and proceeding to his house, about half a mile distant, informed his father, three brothers, and another man of what had taken place, at the same time exhibiting his wound.

            The result of this was a raid made by the whole party on Sisney, who was then at his house.  The assailants, five in number, were armed with shotguns and pistols, and Sisney knowing that he could not cope with them single handed, executed a flank movement from the rear door of the house.  He had reached the fence about one hundred yards distant, when he was fired on and badly wounded in the legs and back with buckshot.  He fell from the fence, but managed to reach a tree, behind which he took refuge, and bringing up his rifle threatened instant death to the first who approached or made any further hostile demonstration.  His nerve probably saved his life, as a parley was held and the Bulliner family retired.  Sisney managed to reach the house, and after suffering intensely for some time with his wounds, recovered, principally through the careful attention of his wife, who is an estimable lady and well known for her many acts of kindness to the poor in that neighborhood.

            The statement that old George Bulliner ordered the younger men to desist and assisted Sisney into the house, although current in the neighborhood, is deemed by parties concerned in the affray, and the account above is undoubtedly true.

            Several indictments followed this preliminary skirmish—Sisney, as well as the other being charged with an assault with a deadly weapon.  The matter was compromised, however, the charges changed and the parties, by consent, were fined $100 each.  This affray, it may be mentioned, was in the spring of 1869.  Three years before that time Col. Sisney was elected sheriff of Williamson County.

THE NEXT TROUBLE

in which the Crane family became involved in the feud, was at Carterville in 1871.  A fight occurred between the Sisney and Crane families, in which Col. Sisney and his son John were very roughly handled by the Cranes, the latter being the friends of the Bulliners.

            All the parties engaged were taken before a justice at Craneville (sic), and the case was set for trial about a week later.  On the day of the trial the clans gathered in force at Craneville (sic).  There were present the Cranes and Bulliners, and the Sisneys, Hendersons, and Russels.  During the day a fight occurred between Tom Russel and young Dave Bulliner about Sarah Stock.  The Hendersons and Sisneys supported Russel, while the Cranes backed Bulliner.

            A general row ensued, which was called the “Craneville riot.”  No one was shot or cut, although several were badly beaten.  Several indictments for riot were found, but the defendants beat them, and were discharged, and nothing further was done by the authorities.

            Soon after old James Henderson and old George Bulliner met on the road while driving in their wagons and bitter words passed.  Beyond threats to shoot, nothing came of this quarrel, none of the boys being present.

            The next trouble occurred at the Presidential election in Eight Mile Precinct in the fall of 1872.  There John Sisney and Tom Russel, on one side, met David Bulliner and James Norris on the other and another quarrel ensued.  Most if not all of them were armed and Norris was particularly violent, threatening and endeavoring to use a large shotgun he carried.  The men were restrained by the by standers and no one was injured.
THE ASSASSINATION OF OLD GEORGE BULLINER.

On December 13, 1873, George Bulliner was foully murdered in broad daylight while on his way to Carbondale on horseback.  He was within two miles of the town, totally unsuspicious of danger and riding quietly along his horse walking, when he was fired upon from ambush made in a tree top at the side of the road. A number of buckshot entered his body from the effects of which he died soon after being discovered by some one passing.

The dastardly murder seemed to arouse the inhabitants of Jackson County, on the border of which it was committed, and some action was demanded.

Tom Russel was indicted by the grand jury, and the warrant was given Deputy Sheriff James Conners to serve.  For some unexplained reason Russel was not at once arrested, although he remained in the neighborhood until a day or two after, when he took his departure, and the warrant has, according to our informant, never been executed.

MURDER OF BRUSH.

It may here be mentioned, although not in connection with this feud, that the day following the murder of Bulliner, Isaac W. McDonald, proprietor of the Planters’ House in Carbondale, shot and killed George M. Brush, a young Texan, with whom he had had some previous difficulty.  The murder was committed in front of the Planters’ House, out of the door of which Brush had stepped after eating his supper, and is said to have been a cold-blooded affair.  McDonald was indicted, tried and sentenced to three years in the penitentiary, where he now is.

MURDER OF DAVID BULLINER.

During the spring of 1874, Mrs. Stancil, David Bulliner and a party of others were returning from church one evening, and when in a lane leading from the Bulliner farm to the church, which was about half a mile distant, were fired upon by several men armed with double-barreled guns loaded with buckshot.  Dave was mortally wounded at the first fire, being struck by several balls, two of which passed clear through his body from the back to breast, and from the effects of which he died two days after.

Mrs. Stancil was struck in the abdomen by one ball, but recovered.  At the first fire Monroe Bulliner, who was in the party, drew his pistol and shot into the fence corner, but without effect, and as another volley was returned from the ambush, the party in the lane fled.

On an examination of the spot the next day, some curious evidence was obtained, which resulted afterwards, probably in the death of another victim.  It was found on visiting the fence corner that a blind shot had been constructed in the briers, which had, it was evident, concealed two men.  The wadding from one of the guns was out, proved to be a portion of the Weekly Globe, of St. Louis, and dated July 1873.

It was known that old man Russel was the only man in the neighborhood who subscribed for that paper, and as Davie Bulliner testified before his death to recognizing Tom Russel as one of the parties who shot him, Russel was arrested.  The officers, when making the arrest, drew the charges then in Russel’s shotgun, and found the wadding was from the same paper, and matched for torn edges of that picked up in the lane.  At the examination held the same week before ‘Squire Stover, of Marion, several witnesses testified that while at church on the evening of the murder, they saw Gordon Clifford (“Texas Jack”), Russel’s constant companion, looking through the church window, and one witness declared that he also saw Tom Russel looking in.  In spite of all this testimony, Russel was discharged on the ground that

AN ALIBI WAS PROVEN

in the following remarkable manner:  On the afternoon of the Saturday night on which young David Bulliner was killed, Martha Stock, living about a mile distant was sent for to visit at old Mr. Russel’s house.  She came and the afternoon and evening until about 8 o’clock was pleasantly spent in various kinds of recreations.  This young lady was a material witness at the examination of Tom Russel, and besides testifying to the above facts swore that about 8 o’clock on that evening Tom Russel bade them all good night and went upstairs to bed, and that she saw nothing more of him till the next day.

            Upon this evidence, mainly, the alibi was sustained and Tom discharged.  But a large number of people profess to believe that the sending of Martha Stock and Tom’s retiring at such an early hour was a put up job to clear him from a contemplated crime.  It is said there was a porch to the Russel residence, and that Tom could have easily slid down one of the posts, noiselessly, and have plenty of time to commit the heinous crime.  If he so desired.

            Another brutal assault was made a few days after Russel was discharged by ‘Squire Strover.  A young man named Rodd and a companion were on horseback riding past an old field near Henderson’s farm, when Rodd’s attention was attracted to some one in a brier patch not far from the fence.  The man was standing in the midst of the briers, and had a blanket wrapped around him.  When Rodd caught sight of him, he either fell or threw himself down, and Ross, supposing that he was sick, or perhaps another victim of the feud, determined to assist him.  Handing the reins of his horse to his companion, he told him to hold the animal while he went to the relief of the sufferer.  He accordingly climbed the fence and made his way to the thicket.  When within a few yards of the spot where the man disappeared, the ruffian rose to his feet, and drawing a large revolver, fired at Rodd.  The latter fled, but was pursued, and shot and severely wounded, before he could get into the road.  Rodd at last managed to mount his horse, and, with his companion, escaped without further injury.  Rodd, it is believed, recognized his assailant but, when questioned, firmly refused to tell who he was, probably for the reason that had he done so, his life would not have been safe in that neighborhood.  The only cause that can be assigned for the assault is that the man was in hiding in the field, and was afraid that Rodd, if he recognized him, would lodge information against him.  Rodd had had no connection with the feud, and had taken no interest in the thing.

THE NEXT ASSASSINATION

occurred in or about May, 1874.  James Henderson was plowing in his field one day, suspecting no danger, when three men crawled up behind a log heap and patiently waited for him until he turned the furrow and returned to the vicinity of the log heap.  They then opened fire on him with double-barreled shot guns and buckshot, and he dropped at the first volley.  The men crawled back from the log heap, gained the fence and entered the woods without Henderson being able to positively identify any of them.  The wounded man was found in the field, taken home and died a week or ten days afterwards.  Before his death, however, he stated it as his belief that the parties who fired on him were John Bulliner, James Norris and Monroe or Emanuel Bulliner.  John Bulliner and James Norris were indicted, but that it was evident that Monroe and Emanuel Bulliner could have had nothing to do with the murder, the grand jury ignored the charges made against them.  John Bulliner was arrested and is now under bonds, but Norris never was taken.  The defense takes the ground that Bulliner and Norris were in Tennessee at the time of the shooting, but it is whispered that both were seen lurking in the neighborhood for the previous day, and that the previously announced visit to Tennessee was merely a blind.

The next record to be made in the long calendar of crime is that of the shooting of Mr. Ditmore, a peaceable and quiet farmer living near the Hendersons.  Mr. Ditmore was plowing in his corn field a few days after Henderson was shot, when two men crept up on him and saluted him with a volley of buckshot with their double-barrel shotguns.  Ditmore was dangerously wounded in the side and arm, but finally recovered.  He had not had the slightest connection with the feud and could not tell who shot him, as the firing was made from the brush near the fence.  The supposition is that he was mistaken for another man or that some remark had been attributed to him which he never made.

THE NEXT, AND MOST HORRIBLE MURDER

ended the career of Dr. Vincent Hinchcliff, a resident of Eight Mile Township, in the following fall.  Dr. Hinchcliff, it will be remembered, was postmaster at Fredonia, and testified that old man Russel was the only one in the neighborhood who took the weekly Globe, pieces of which were used as wadding in the guns from which the shots were fired that killed young David Bulliner in the lane.

In addition to giving in his testimony, one faction had another spite against him.  Gordon Clifford, alias Texas Jack, had one day while drunk boasted of numerous crimes, such as murder and horse stealing, and Dr. Hinchcliff, who heard him, determined that Jack, if guilty, as he said he was, should suffer for it.  He accordingly placed a pistol to Clifford’s head and marched him to the nearest magistrate, where he was placed under bonds.  The bond, our informant thought, was forfeited, but at any rate the case never came to trial.  Jack was an adherent of the Russels and Hendersons, and the statement may perhaps explain what followed.

One fine fall day Dr. Hinchcliff, who was returning from a visit to a patient, rode along the highway near his residence.  Country physicians are often called to go long distances, and frequently remain over night in the houses of their patients.  This has been the case with Dr. Hinchcliff, and he was doubtless thinking of his wife and family (to whom he was devotedly attached), and his pleasant greeting on reaching his home, but a short distance ahead, when death suddenly ended his pleasant meditations.

A volley of buck shot was fired at him from a fence corner at the side of the road.  Sixteen balls struck the doctor, many of them passing entirely through his body, and as many more struck the horse.  Both of course fell, and, from appearances, neither lived one minute.

This dastardly murder raised the greatest excitement and indignation, and inquires were at once made for the perpetrators of the foul deed.  One of the neighbors affirmed that he met three disguised men in the woods shortly after the supposed time of the murder, but he recognized none of them.  All of them were armed with shotguns, and he did not care to address them.

Circumstantial evidence, however, pointed to Tom Russel, Gordon Clifford and Field Henderson, and all were indicted when the grand jury met last October.  The men are supposed to have been in the neighborhood since, but from some cause none of them have been arrested.

ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF COLONEL SISNEY.

            About two weeks after the murder of Dr. Hinchcliff, Col. George Sisney rose early one morning and went to his barn, a short distance from the house, to look after his stock.  On the opposite side of the fence along which he had a pass grew a thicket of weeds, and as Sisney was opposite this patch he heard the ominous click of gun locks.  The Colonel sprang to one side as the hammers came down on the caps, but the latter failed to explode, probably having been saturated by a dew while the would-be assassins were lying in wait for their victim.  Col. Sisney at once ran to shelter, and from his retreat was able to watch the couple in the weeds as they stole away.  One of them he recognized as James Cagle.

            Colonel Sisney at once took steps towards having Cagle indicted, and Cagle, it is said, openly threatened to have Sisney’s life should he persevere in this designs.  In spite of these threats Sisney went on with the matter, and an indictment was procured.

            After the tall session of court the election occurred, and Col. Sisney, who is and always has been a Republican, was candidate for sheriff, but was defeated.  The election passed off quietly, no trouble being raised, and Sisney had almost forgotten the threats of Cagle.

            Six weeks ago Sisney was sitting at home, playing dominoes with George Hindman, the half brother of his first wife, (he has, by the way, been married twice), when he received as unpleasant as it was unexpected shock.  The players sat at the corner of a table, about six feet from the curtained window, on the ground floor, but the position of the light was such that their shadows were occasionally thrown on the curtain.  They heard no sound outside to warn them of danger, and one of them was anxiously waiting the play of the other, when a charge of squirrel shot, fired from a double-barreled shot gun, placed almost against the window, came crashing through the glass ad curtain.  Without waiting for a second salute both men sprang to their feet, and rushed towards their guns.  Hasty footsteps were heard running from the window, and before either could reach the door all trace of the would-be assassin was lost in the darkness.

            On taking an inventory of the effects of the assault, it was found that almost the entire charge had lodged in or passed through Col. Sisney’s right arm, tearing and mutilating it in a frightful manner.  His arm probably saved his life, as the charge was doubtless intended for his side.  Hindman was also seriously shot in his neck, side and arm.  Both recovered, although it was at first thought that Col. Sisney would lose his arm, which he still carries in a sling, where it will probably remains for some months yet.

            Brave as he was, Sisney did not care to take chance on the third trial, doubtless believing the old adage, “The third time’s the charm,” and having been shot twice, and another attempt having been made upon his life, he concluded to move his family to Carbondale, and placed a tenant upon his farm.  He did so, and now rests in comparative security, although he is doubtless expecting that, sooner or later, the animosity shown toward him will extend to his tenant, and that the latter will be driven away.

            A number of people living in the vicinity of Carterville and Craneville (sic) have according to our informant, moved away in consequence of these troubles, and the most respected residents say that the feud, if carried further, cannot but depreciate the value of property, which it has already commenced to do.

            For the information of our readers, we present the following rough

Diagram, Showing the Location of the Farms of the Various Families Engaged in the Feud, Taking Carterville as a Centre.

 

                                                1                                              2          3

 

11                                                                    0                                              4

 

                                    10

                                                                                                            5

                                       9                   7

                                                8                                  6         

 

  1. James Henderson
  2. William Henderson
  3. Joseph Henderson
  4. Fielding Henderson
  5. George Sisney
  6. George Bulliner
  7. Tom Russel and father
  8. Sarah Stocks’ family
  9. Dr. Vincent Hinchcliff
  10. Martha Stocks’ family
  11. Texas Jack lived at Baxter’s, 7 miles west of Carterville

KU-KLUX.

Williamson County has, in addition to the above, for the past three years been more or less infested by gangs of disguised men, going about at night-time, committing various depredations, and occasionally killing a victim of their enmity.  About three years ago, twelve disguised men waited on a Mr. Vancil, sixty-three years old, living in the western part of the county, who had had some trouble with his wife, and who left him in consequence.  Mr. V. had procured another woman to keep house for him, and the gang ordered him to drive this woman away, and to get his old wife back to his house and live with her.  Several other minor orders were also given him.  The penalty for refusing to obey these mandates was death.  Mr. V. accordingly complied with all the demands excepting that concerning his wife, which he was unable to do, because she refused to go with him.  The band visited Mr. Vancil a few nights afterward, and, because he had failed in this particular took him out and hung him to a neighboring tree, where he was afterward found, dead.

Some of the gang were recognized by a neighbor named Stewart Culp, who met them as they were going to or returning from Vancil’s and the result was that two or three of them were indicted.  Mr. Culp being the principal witness against them.  Before the cases came on for trial, as Mr. Culp was returning home in his wagon from the mill at DeSoto, he was ambushed, shot and killed, his body falling backward in the wagon bed.  The horses, apparently unconscious that they no longer had a driver, proceeded home, and on their arrival there, Mr. Culp’s dead body was found as above described.  No arrest followed this second crime, and no clue was ever obtained as to the individuals who did the killing, though it was naturally supposed that some of the gang took this method of ridding themselves of a troublesome witness.

Since then there have been a number of smaller outrages perpetrated, but matters had in a great measure quieted down until a few months since, when a regular organized band of Ku-Klux was organized in the southern part of the county, and since then another band has organized in the northern portion of the county.  Precisely what name they have chosen has not yet transpired, but it is known that they have signs, grips, a password and a regular initiation ceremony.  It is also confidently asserted that two county officials are members, though it is understood that one of them was weakened and is now only a passive brother.  These bands go out on predatory excursions occasionally, but so far, have contented themselves with taking people out of bed at night and whipping them, burning barns and grain stacks, cutting the throats of valuable horses, cattle, and other stock, and notifying people to leave that section of country under penalty of death.  How long this present mild course will be pursued is, of course, only a matter of guesswork, but it is more than probable that, emboldened by their successes and immunity from punishment, they will soon be hanging and shooting all those who are unfortunate enough to incur their displeasure.  The Marion Democrat lately contained a stirring appeal for a mass meeting of law-abiding citizens to devise measures to put down these Ku-Klux bands, but, although two weeks have escaped since the call was made,  no meeting has been held, and affairs are growing worse every day.  Either the people are afraid to show their hands, side with the outlaws, or are extremely apathetic.

As far as the officers of the law are concerned as to making arrests and prosecuting criminals, Williamson County might as well be without them.  Even the county court refused to appropriate a single dollar to the use of the sheriff, to enable him to mount and arm a sufficient posse to make the arrests, and as he is a poor man, he cannot afford the expense from his own slender salary.

As mentioned above, the legislature of Illinois has appointed a committee to visit and enquire into the troubles existing in Williamson County, but it is very doubtful whether they will accomplish anything, as legislative committees generally do not do much besides drawing their mileage and salary.
 
Dr. Honnard, formerly of this city, has been convicted of manslaughter, having caused the death of a patient by malpractice, and sentenced to the penitentiary for four years.
 
 
Friday, 12 Feb 1875:
Miss Ella Traverse, the young lady who died of small pox at the Convent, last Tuesday, was buried yesterday morning.
 


Saturday, 13 Feb 1875:
John Joice, at Quincy, Ills., in jail for the murder of James McGuire, last December, attempted suicide by cutting his throat with a razor on Tuesday.  He will recover.
 
Two little boys of Dan Clifford, a section boss on the
St. Louis & Little Rock Railroad, wandered off from their father’s house, near Salem, Wis., last Saturday, and great excitement was caused by their disappearance.  At noon on Sunday, the oldest was found, frozen to death.  The search for the youngest still continues.
 
Murder.

We learn of a murder that took place at Charleston, Missouri, Thursday morning, but the particulars are still a mystery to us, with this exception:  We are told that Bill King and Sam Grace, two negroes, had an altercation some time ago, that was not settled in a satisfactory manner to either, and that Thursday morning, while Grace was in a house, the wife of King came into the room where he was and said that her husband wanted him to come out doors, Grace did not know what King wanted of him, but went to the door, where he was met by King, who without uttering a word, plunged a huge knife into the heart of Grace, who fell to the floor and died within five minutes.  King ran as soon as the deed as committed and succeeded in making good his escape, and up to late Friday night nothing had been seen or heard of him.
 


Sunday, 14 Feb 1875:
Not True.

We learn from a reliable source that the report which has been going rounds of the city to the effect that Miss Lucy Bugg, daughter of a prominent lawyer in Blandville, Kentucky, had died at the Convent with the small pox is utterly untrue.  There has been but two deaths at that place since the breaking out of the disease, both of which have been made known to the public, through the columns of The Bulletin.
 
Small Pox.

There are now, since the death of Miss Mary Slack, five sick persons left in the Convent, two of whom have had the small pox, but are now convalescent, and three with varioloid, all of whom are getting on as well as could be expected, and those who have charge of the institution are confident that before many days the disease will have entirely disappeared.
 
Died.

Miss Mary Slack, who has been attending the Convent in this city for some time past, and who was among the number lately stricken with small pox died Friday night.  The young lady’s home was in Belmont, Missouri.  The father of the unfortunate young lady is in the city making arrangements for the removal of the body to Belmont.
 
Small Pox

Some time ago we published an item in The Bulletin that one Mrs. Maron, living in the upper part of this city, has been attacked with small pox, and was lying at the point of death.  Yesterday we learned that the lady died and was buried some two weeks ago, and that now a daughter, a young girl, about fourteen years of age, is confined to her bed with the same disease, but that there are hopes of her recovery.
 
Death from Dropsy.

Last Friday night an old lady named Sanderson, accompanied by her son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, came to this city on board the steamer Cherokee, from New Orleans, and had intended to take the night train at this point for St. Louis, where they reside, but the old lady being afflicted with dropsy felt very much fatigued and the son thinking that a little rest would refresh her and fit her for the remainder of the journey, procured rooms at the Arlington House, where the old lady was taken.  Saturday morning they had proposed to resume the trip, but finding that his mother was no better, the son concluded to remain longer.  The old lady began to sink rapidly Saturday afternoon, and that night she died, and was buried yesterday morning at Beech Grove Cemetery.  The son and his family left on the two o’clock train yesterday afternoon for St. Louis.
 


Wednesday, 17 Feb 1875:
The Carbondale Observer, as a racy item, gives the following:  “A few nights ago a child was born near Makanda in
Jackson County.  It was wrapped up and laid under the bed, and the wants of the mother attended to.  When the child was looked for shortly afterward, it was ascertained that the hounds belonging to the father had devoured it.
 
Funeral Notice.

The funeral of little Maggie Careher, will take place from the residence of her father, Peter Careher, on Third Street, between Washington and Commercial avenues this afternoon at 2 o’clock.
 


Thursday, 18 Feb 1875:
A Card.

I desire in this public manner to express my sincere thanks to those gentlemen who so kindly and liberally assisted me with means and personal assistance in burying my late husband, Robert Gunsher, who died last Sunday, and to assure them that their kindness will never be forgotten.
Lydia Gunsher
 
The small pox, which has been raging in Clear Creek Precinct, in this county, is, we are informed, rapidly dying out.  There were thirteen persons attacked in that place in one week, three of whom died.
 


Friday, 19 Feb 1875:
Gupton, the murderer of Eschbach, swears that he intends to get out of prison before the time arrives for his trial, which will take place at the next term of the
Johnson County circuit court,.
 
 
Wednesday, 24 Feb 1875:
Died.

Mrs. Thomas Wilson died at the residence of her husband on Seventh Street, yesterday morning.
 
Funeral Notice.

The funeral of the late deceased, Mrs. Thomas Wilson, will take place from the family residence on Seventh Street between Commercial and Washington avenues, this afternoon at half past 2 o’clock precisely.  Funeral services will be conducted by the Rev. J. L. Wallar—special train leaving the foot of Sixth Street immediately after the same.  Relatives, friends, and acquaintances of the family are respectfully invited to attend.
 


Friday, 26 Feb 1875:
The Funeral of Mrs. Wilson

The funeral of Mrs. Thomas Wilson took place from their family residence on Seventh Street, between Washington and Commercial avenues, yesterday afternoon, at two o’clock.  The funeral services were conducted by the Rev. Mr. Wallar.  The remains were conveyed by special train to the place of burial.  A large number of friends and acquaintances were in attendance.
 
 
Tuesday, 2 Mar 1875:
MURDER.
A Negro Wench Stabs Jack Ross in the Neck with a Razor.

Ross Follows His Victim and Shoots Her Three Times.

The Third Shot Enters the Heart and Ends the Bloody Scene.

The Murderer Safely Lodged in the County Jail.

What the Coroner’s Inquest Revealed.

The Jury’s Verdict, Etc.

            Between one and two o’clock Sunday afternoon the portion of this city which surrounds Fourth Street was aroused by the cry of murder, issuing from a small beer shop known as the Howard Saloon.  Soon the grocery was filled with people, when it was ascertained that Jack Ross, a desperado hailing from Pulaski County, and formerly marshal of Mound City, had shot and killed a negro wench named Alice Gibbs.

            The particulars of the shooting, as gleaned from various persons, who were in the vicinity of the saloon when the tragedy was enacted, are as follows:

            Ross was in the saloon conversing with the proprietor, when Alice Gibbs, accompanied by a white woman named Emma Button, came in and called for a glass of beer.  After the beer had been drunk and paid for, and the two women had left the saloon, Ross accosted the black woman, using the most profane language, calling her a d—n b---h.  She became angry and in return called Ross a d—n son of a b---h, and said, “If I’m a b---h, your mother is one.”  Ross immediately dealt the woman a blow with his fist, whereupon she drew a razor from her pocket, and rushing at him, cut two ugly gashes in the left side of his neck, just below the ear.  Ross, after receiving the wounds from the razor, deliberately drew a revolver from his pocket and started towards the wench, who was a few feet from him, and fired.  The ball took effect in the left arm, just above the elbow.  The black woman started to run toward the saloon, when Ross again fired at her and again the ball entered the left arm.  By this time the wench was near the door of the saloon and was about to run through the door, when her pursuer leveled his weapon and fired the shot which put an end to her life.  The ball entered the left side and passed through the lower portion of the heart.  The wretched wench fell inside the door of the saloon upon the floor, where she expired almost instantly.

            Ross, as we understand, did not make any effort to escape arrest, but remained near the spot where the murder was committed until he was taken in charge by Deputy Sheriff John Cain, who, after Dr. Wardner had attended to the wounds which he had received at the hand of the murdered negro woman, lodged him in the county jail.

            Dr. Wardner held a post mortem examination on the body and found that she came to her death by a pistol ball entering the right side, and passing through the chest, opening the right side of the heart.

            Six men and women, who were in the neighborhood of the scene when the bloody deed was enacted, were summoned as witnesses at the coroner’s inquest, the testimony of all being precisely the same.

            The following is the testimony of the witnesses:

            James Delany, being duly sworn, said:  I came across the street; he called her an old w----; she called him an old son of a b---h; they called her away; she said, “If I am an old b---h, you are an old son of a b---h; If I am an old w----, your mother is an old whore;” he struck her first; she pulled out a razor and struck him on the left side of the neck; he pulled a pistol; she run; three shots were fired; on this side of the street when commenced.

            The testimony of J. Leroy, Capt. Jinks and C. Cox was substantially the same.

            Lizzie Howard was put under oath and said:  Ross followed her; they met on the street and exchanged a few hard words; she pulled out her razor; he struck her and then she struck him with the razor; and then he walked up and pointed the revolver at her and fired; he shot three times.

            Emma Button, a white woman, was sworn and testified as follows:  We went in to get a glass of beer; he came in after us; they got to quarreling in the saloon; he had his hand in his pocket; he struck her first; this was on the outside of the saloon; she cut him with a razor; and then he pulled out his revolver and fired at her.

            Mary Valentine was sworn and testified:  They had a quarrel; he hit her first; then he struck him with the razor; then he fired three shots at her.

            This was all the testimony, and the coroner’s jury returned a verdict as follows:

            We, the undersigned jurors, sworn to inquire into the death of Alice Gibbs, on oath, do find that she came to her death by a pistol shot, fired from the hands of J. Ross, alias Jack Ross, without apparent justification.

            Sol A. Silver, fore., John W. Corneal, Ed. Dezonia, John Towers, Patrick Collins, Patrick Mahony, F. S. Kent, John Hyland, Harry Walker, John McEwen, Jr., James Ryan, William Schatz.

 


Wednesday, 3 Mar 1875:
A Denial.

The following communication was received at this office yesterday, and was written by an indignant citizen of Mound City, who, we presume, read the account of the murder of the negro woman by Ross in this city on Sunday, in which it was stated that Ross hailed from Pulaski County:
Mound City, March 2, 1875.

Ed. Bulletin—As one of the citizens of Mound City, allow me to say that the Ross who killed a “nigger” in your city on last Sunday evening, is not a citizen of Pulaski County, and has not been for a number of months past, but has been in the employ of Messrs. Hess & Chapman, of Forman, in Johnson County.  We, of Pulaski, once had him to afflict us, but cheerfully pass him over to the kind treatment of our Alexander County friends.
 
Jack Ross, the man who shot and killed the negro woman, Alice Gibbs, last Sunday, is not so seriously injured as it was reported.
 
 
Friday, 5 Mar 1875:
Trial of Ross

The preliminary trial of Jack Ross, who murdered Alice Gibbs, a negro woman, in this city last Sunday morning, was to have taken place before Judge Bross at the court house yesterday afternoon, but owing to the nonappearance of the witnesses, the examination was postponed until today at two o’clock.
 


Saturday, 6 Mar 1875:
Free Again

The following concerning Mr. J. M. Gay, a citizen of Pulaski County and a gentleman known to a great many of our people, we copy from the St. Louis Democrat of yesterday:  “J.M. Gay, formerly a citizen of Pulaski County, Ill., was in the city yesterday, on his return home from the Joliet Penitentiary, where he has been incarcerated since 1867, and from which he was pardoned by Governor Beveridge a few days since.  Mr. Gay had been regarded as a peaceable and well disposed man up to the time when his misfortune began, in 1867.  A man named Farley provoked him to quarrel, and, as he says, endeavored to kill him.  Once night Farley followed Gay some distance on the road leading to his house, and made hostile demonstrations towards him.  They came together in a personal combat, and Farley lost his life.  Gay was taken to Cairo, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to the penitentiary for life.  Upon the representations of his old neighbors and friends and in consideration of his correct deportment in prison, the Governor has pardoned him.  Mr. Gay is quite happy on regaining his freedom, and feels very grateful to those who were instrumental in bringing it about.  He says the discipline at Joliet is excellent, and that Col. R. M. McClaughry, the warden, is held in high esteem by all.  There are over 1,200 prisoners in the institution, but no complaints are heard, and no severe bodily punishment is needed.
 
Pneumonia is taking off people at a very uncomfortable rate in the upper portion of this county.  We are told that five persons died with the disease last week.
 
Jack Ross, the man who shot and killed the negro woman Alice Gibbs last Sunday, lost his arm when a boy, by fooling around the cars at Mound City.


 
Sunday, 7 Mar 1875:
Jack Ross’ Examination.

Jack Ross, who was given a preliminary examination before Judge Bross last Friday afternoon, charged with the murder of a negro woman Alice Gibbs, was held to bail in the sum of two thousand dollars, to answer the charge at the ensuing term of the circuit court.  He is still in the county jail.
 


Tuesday, 9 Mar 1875:
Drowned.

While the steamer H. S. Turner was lying at the wharf last Saturday night, the wheel was tied up in order to let the carpenter of the boat repair her.  While on the wheel a piece of driftwood struck it, turning it enough to cause the unfortunate man to lose his balance, and fall off, who has not since been seen or heard of.
 
Funeral Notice.

All the friends of Mrs. Margretha Klein are requested to attend her funeral from her residence at the brickyard to the German Catholic church, at 11 o’clock sharp, today, for services at the church, and from there to the I.C.R.R. Depot.
Jacob Klein
 


Wednesday, 10 Mar 1875:
The funeral of Mrs. Margretha Klein took place from her late residence yesterday morning at
11 o’clock.

 

SWEET WILLIAMSON

Williamson County continues to enjoy and observe its notoriety as the most lawless portion of the State of Illinois.  The editor of the Marion Democrat, Mr. Brown, is courageously denouncing the Ku-Klux and endeavoring to arouse the law-abiding people of his county to the necessity of suppressing the lawless element that is ruining the future prospects of that part of southern Illinois.  He deserves praise for his bravery.  He is the only editor of a paper published in that county since the Ku-Klux began their operations who has had the courage to say a word in denunciation of them.  The Marion Monitor, the Republican paper, appears to be the organ of the Klan, and apologizes for it by pooh-poohing the outrages committed by it.

We learn from the Democrat that a row occurred outside of the office of Mr. Anderson, justice of the peace in Williamson, just as he was about to proceed with a case last week.  The justice hastened out, and was just in time to twice knock up a pistol in the hands of William Pulley, who was attempting to fire it at Mr. Weeks, who had fired just a moment before at PulleyPulley’s shots would have been fatal says the Democrat, if Mr. Anderson had not interfered.  The fight became general.  Eight shots were fired, but luckily no person was killed.

From the Democrat we copy the following:

Ku-klux are again at work in Williamson County.  This time they called out two men, to get them water, and after they had all drunk, one of the clan informed the two men that he had been praying for them and asked his companions to spare their lives, and that they had agreed to do so, but they would have to give them twenty-five lashes on their bare backs—which was done.  They did not even tell these poor fellows what they were whipped for.  Let all law-abiding citizens denounce such lawlessness, and it will soon stop.

It should be remembered that this event occurred in the northern state of Illinois within two weeks!—that the General Assembly will not interfere, and the governor declares his inability to enforce the laws!  What is to be done?  It seems to us that the advice of the Marion Democrat must be taken.  The law-abiding people must become lawless, and organizing into a committee must punish the rascals who have brought disgrace upon Williamson and stained its soil with blood.

 


Thursday, 11 Mar 1875:
Drowned.

Yesterday afternoon we received information of the drowning of a negro man named Mark Jackson, near Mound City, the particulars of which, as near as we could learn them are these:  Jackson, who was a negro teamster, made an attempt to cross a slough with a team of mules and a load of wood, and when near the centre of the slough the team got mired, and, before assistance could reach them, the driver and mules were drowned.
 


Friday, 12 Mar 1875:
Died.

Tim Coyle, an old and well-known citizen of this place, died at the Vicksburg House Wednesday night, about 10 o’clock after being confined to his bed for three days.
            (The Saturday,
20 Mar 1875, Jonesboro Gazette reported that Tim Coyle, formerly of Villa Ridge, was injured in a fall and died at Cairo on Wednesday, 10 Mar 1875.  A marker in Calvary Cemetery in Villa Ridge reads:  Timothy Coyle Died March 10, 1875, Aged 38 Years.—Darrel Dexter)

 


Saturday, 13 Mar 1875:
The Proof.

If those of our citizens who had the unkindness to doubt the truth of the statement made by the Bulletin in regard to the drowning of Mark Jackson, the colored teamster in Hess’ Bayou, a few days ago, will but read the following they will see that we told the truth sure that time.  The Pulaski Patriot says:  “On Tuesday morning Mark Jackson, an estimable colored man, went up the country with his mules and wagon for a load of wood, and the next known of him was he and his mules were found yesterday morning drowned in Hess’ Bayou, some two or three miles up the river.  Jackson was a man of more than ordinary natural ability, a good manager, sober, industrious, and a class leader in the colored Methodist church.  It is generally supposed that the accident must have occurred after dark.”
 


Sunday, 14 Mar 1875:
Collision.

Two freight trains on the Illinois Central railroad, drawn by engines No. 116 and No. 68, collided near Dongola, wrecking both engines fearfully, smashing up a number of cars, and killing one of the firemen named Usher.  James Johnson, agent for the company, at this point, left yesterday with a special train, for the scene of the wreck, intending to use the train for a transfer of the passengers who may be on board the passenger trains running on the road, until the wreck is removed.

(The Saturday, 20 Mar 1875, Jonesboro Gazette reported that John Wisher, a fireman, was killed in an Illinois Central railroad accident a mile north of Dongola on Saturday, 13 Mar 1875.—Darrel Dexter)
 


Tuesday, 16 Mar 1875:
A man named Travis Harris was sentenced to be hung at Commerce,
Missouri, on the 16th of next month by the Scott County court a few days ago.  Harris, it is said, murdered his father-in-law without a cause whatever.
 
SUPPOSED MURDER AT DOG TOOTH.

A Bloody Transaction Just Come to Light.

The Parties Now Confined in Jail.

The following facts, in regard to what is supposed to be a black deed, were gleaned from a gentleman yesterday, who is acquainted with the affair:

On the 30th of January last, a young man named J. S. Delany went to work for a farmer named F. M. Wade, residing in Dog Tooth Island, and on the 4th of February, he died very suddenly. The evening of the death of Delany, John R. Roberts, a brother-in-law of Wade, who lives on a tow-head near the Missouri shore, which is separated from the island by a slough, went to a man named J. H. Foster, who resides about eight miles from the house of Wade, and told him that Delany was dead, that he wanted lumber to make a coffin in which to bury him, and that he would get a gentleman named J. H. Davis to make it.

Foster had known Delany from childhood, and thought it rather strange that he was not invited to go and see his remains.  Roberts went home, and word got around the neighborhood that Delany was dead, but none of the neighbors were asked to the house where he died; but Mr. and Mrs. Simons, hearing of his death, went to Wade’s house to sit up with the remains.  No one except Mr. and Mrs. Simons saw the body from the time of the death of Delany until he was buried.  About sundown on the day after his death, Wade went to Foster’s house with the coffin, saying that he was taking the corpse to be buried.  Foster told him it was too late, and that he should wait and that he would help him in the morning.  The sister and brother-in-law were at the house of Foster at the time.  Wade consented and took the body into the house.

Delaney’s sister remarked to Wade:  “John had a silver watch which was given to him by his father, and on that account he wanted it buried with him.”  Wade answered:  “Yes, I have often heard him say that, and have put the watch in the coffin.”  She then expressed a desire to see him, to which Wade objected, saying that he could not take off the lid of the coffin without breaking it.  Foster said that was a small matter, and that he could get the lid off easy enough.  Wade said:  “Well, he is about falling to pieces, and I wouldn’t do it.”  Foster said:  “If she wants the coffin opened, it shall be opened, and if he is not in a condition to be seen, she need not look at him.”  Foster then proceeded to open the coffin, when Wade said:  “He has been bleeding at the mouth, and I have put cloths over his face to keep the blood off his clothes.”  When the coffin was opened it was found that the watch was missing, when Foster remarked to Wade:  “The watch is not here, and you have it.”  Wade took the watch from his pocket and remarked with reluctance:  “Here it is.  I forgot to put it in.”  The watch was then placed upon the body and the coffin closed.

Wade spoke up several times saying:  “I cannot stay all night; I ought to be at home.”  He was told he might go, but it was observed by the persons present that he wished to remain.  The next morning Delany was buried.  It was subsequently found that Roberts had told conflicting stories in regard to the death of Delany, saying at one time that he had choked to death in his bed, and at another, that he had died while sitting in a chair by the fire.  These circumstances induced the people of the neighborhood to send for Sheriff Irvin, who, in company with Coroner Gossman, went to the grave of Delany, taking with them Drs. Sullivan, of this city, and Lawrence, of Goose Island.  The remains were disinterred and a post mortem examination held, when it was discovered that he had come to his death by being struck on the back of the head with some blunt instrument which, had fractured the skull.

As soon as Sheriff Irvin had made this discovery he left Coroner Gossman and the balance of the party at the grave, and made his way toward the house of Wade, and on his way came in contact with a party of hunters.  Fearing that if Wade should see him approaching, he would surmise his intentions, he asked John Gates, of this city, who happened to be one of the party, and a young man named Henry Hunsaker to go over and detain him until he came, which they did.  The party then made their way to the house of Roberts, who showed some inclination to resist for awhile, but seeing that he could not get away, after a few minutes quietly gave himself up, and the two were brought in this city and placed in the county jail, where they now are.
 


Wednesday, 17 Mar 1875:
Small Pox.
(Murphysboro Independent)

Several days ago there appeared among the citizens of Fiddler’s Ridge in Mt. Carbon a disease resembling the chicken pox.  A physician was called in and up to Tuesday nothing transpired to create alarm.  One case, Mrs. Davis, it was evident was in a dying condition.  Drs. Mahony and O’Hara were called, but too late to render any assistance.  The woman died during the evening.  An examination into the cases of the affected and the one that had died established in the minds of Mahoney and O’Hara the positive fact of the existence of small pox in a virulent and aggravated state.  As soon as the true nature of the disease was known the alarm spread, and assistance could not be had to bury the woman.  Drs. Mahoney and O’Hara reported the case to the Board of County Commissioners then in session, and a team and assistance were promptly forwarded.  Steps have been taken to prevent the spreading of the disease; the public schools at Mt. Carbon have been closed and it is hoped the disease will be controlled before it spreads over the county.
 
Travis Harris, the man who was sentenced to be hung at Commerce, Missouri, last week, for killing his father-in-law, has been granted a new trial.

 

A Man Jumps from a Second Story Window.

Last Saturday night, about 12 o’clock an old citizen of these parts named A. C. Ingraham (who is known to nearly everybody in Cairo, and who for some years past has made his living by gardening) while under the influence of liquor, jumped from a second story window in the upper part of the city, breaking his collar bone and several of his ribs.  He was picked up by a gentleman who happened to be passing by a few minutes after the deed was done, who carried him into the house and procured the services of Dr. Wood; he attended to the wounds of the man and made him as comfortable as possible under the circumstances, but all hopes of his recovery were despaired of, his wounds being such that death was unavoidable, and yesterday morning between twelve and one o’clock he died from his injuries.  We are informed that for several days past Mr. Ingraham had been drinking to excess and that when he was taken into his sleeping apartment after being found lying on the walk Saturday night, several whiskey bottles and also three empty laudanum bottles were found lying about the bed.  The deceased leaves a wife and one child, who at the time of the death of Ingraham were at Anna visiting friends and relatives.  When she was informed of the accident which had befallen her husband, she replied that she had a presentment that “things were not going right at home.”

(Augustus C. Ingraham married Mary Jane Dougherty on 17 Jan 1874, in Alexander Co., Ill.—Darrel Dexter)

 


Thursday, 18 Mar 1875:
BURNING OF THE W. J. LEWIS.

The following particulars of the burning of the W. J. Lewis, we copy from the St. Louis Globe of yesterday:

CHESTER, ILL., March 16.—Between 1 and 2 o’clock p.m. today, the W. J. Lewis from Vicksburg, landed here to coal and put off passengers, and was burned to the water’s edge, in front of this city, and nothing now remains to be seen of the boat but the smouldering ruins of the blackened hulk.  The wind has been blowing a perfect gale since Sunday night, and as the Lewis made the landing, she came up
WITH A CRASH,
upsetting the blacksmith’s forge, and the fire was at once picked up by the wind and carried under the cook house where it ignited and fanned by the fierce blasts of the driving wind, spread and enveloped the whole frame work of the boat in almost an instant.  Captain Cartwright ordered his men to make fast, but by some misunderstanding the boat was not secured to the shore, and swung out, from the coal barges and drifted down opposite A. J. White’s cooper shop, where the wind drove her hard aground, and the fire demon licked up the last morsel of his victim.  Besides the officers and crew there were between
eight to ten cabin passengers and some twelve deck passengers on board.  All were saved but five deckers.  The baggage was all consumed in the flames.
The Lost
are as follows:  David Warboy, watchman, who was asleep in his room at the time of the fire; Charles Pritchard, colored fireman, and report says three to five deck passengers whose names cannot be ascertained were drowned.  Ed. McGwigan, a deck passenger, was seriously, and it is believed fatally, scalded.  Sim Sayers, first mate, James Cunningham, second mate, Nick Burps, striker, and James Daniels, first engineer, stepped on board the burning boat to fight the fire, but had to jump into the river, and all four made the shore in safety.  Sol. Smith, second clerk, and J. R. Gaunt, first clerk, saved most of the money and books, but in doing so came near being caught by the flames.
 


Friday, 19 Mar 1875:
Preliminary Examination.

The preliminary examination of Roberts and Wade, now in the county jail, charged with having killed a young man by the name of Delany some six weeks ago, took place yesterday, but was not yet concluded when the court adjourned.  The proceedings in the case will be concluded today.
 
Notice.

The unknown person who wrote and sent to Mrs. J. McEwen the lines on the death of her daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Moore, is earnestly requested to furnish a copy of the same to Mrs. McEwen, or the editor of The Bulletin.  The copy sent to Mrs. McEwen was unfortunately lost after it reached the hands of the printer.
 


Saturday, 20 Mar 1875:
The preliminary examination of Roberts and Wade, charged with murder, was proceeded with yesterday, but was not concluded.  It is likely it will be brought to a close today.
 
 
Tuesday, 23 Mar 1875:
WADE AND ROBERTS
Their Examination and Acquittal

The following is the evidence in the case brought by the People of the State of Illinois against James M. Wade and John R. Roberts, charged with the murder of John Delany.

John Foster, the first witness examined on the side of the prosecution, was sworn, and testified as follows:  Have been acquainted with the defendants about three years; I was acquainted with the deceased; knew him about twelve years; the deceased was at John S. Riles’ the most of January 1875, who resides about one mile from my house; the last time I saw him alive was the last of January or the first of February; I live about three miles below Goose Island and sixteen miles above Cairo; he had been at Cairo to look for a job; never saw him at Wade’s; Wade brought the body of the deceased to my house about the first of February; Thomas Ellis and wife were with Wade when he was brought there, and I was out at work.  It was near sundown when I first saw them, or a little before or after sundown; I have had conversation with both the defendants.  Mr. Roberts came down and told me that John Delany was dead.  I asked him what was the matter with him, and he said that he had some kind of choking in the throat; that is what he told me he died with.  He told me about his coming over to Mr. Wade’s the day that he died; that Mr. Wade’s wife told him that John D. was in the room very sick.  He said she went to the room door and saw that he was choking and could not speak to him.  He said he then went to the door and called Mr. Wade, where he was out at work; and that he then went back to the room again and spoke to him (Delany) and asked him how he felt and he said he felt very badly, or something to that amount.  He said that he then commenced choking again, and died, and that those were the last words Delany spoke.  He told me that he had come up to get me to get some lumber to make a coffin for him.  I told him Mr. Delany was nothing to me, but that I had some plank there that he could have to make a box for him.  He said he had no way of getting the plank down, and I told him if he would stay till morning, he could have my wagon and one of my horses and took the plank down.  He was riding one of Wade’s horses and he put it in with my horse; he got ready to start, and said to me to have the grave dug and let Delany’s stepmother and other of his folks know about it, and I told him I would; he said they would be up next morning as soon as they could get up with the corpse, I told him that if they had no lining or covering for the coffin to come up and I would go to Atherton’s store and get it; he then went off.  This was all the conversation I had with him concerning the death of Delany.  I saw the corpse that same evening, but did not see Mr. Roberts; when the corpse got there we took it into the house; Mr. Ellis came there and asked me if the corpse could stay there all night; I told him it could; they came up to the house and we took the corpse out of the wagon and into the house; Wade was driving the team, and Ellis and wife were in a separate wagon.  After the corpse was taken in the house, Mr. Ellis’ wife (sister of Delany) wanted to see the corpse; Mr. Wade said, “The lid is nailed on with nails, and it will be a hard matter to get it off;” I said to him “That is a small matter; I have a chisel here and can just cut the nails;” I got the chisel and handed it to Mr. Ellis, and he opened the box.  When he opened the box I was in the same room, but not near the box and discovered that his face looked red, and nothing looked natural except from his forehead up; that he looked like flesh; Wade said blood was running out of his mouth, and he put a wet rag over it to keep the blood from running out and soiling his clothes.  After supper I had a conversation with Mr. Wade about the death of Delany; he said the day before he died, he was complaining of being chilly; they were at work and he tried to get him to go to the house; I think he said he did go to the house, to the best of my recollection; won’t be certain; I know he said that after he (Wade) went in the evening, Mr. Delany was cutting stove wood, and he told him to go in the house out of the cold, and he made him go in the house; he said that night Mr. Delany did not eat any supper, but sat up and talked until bed time; he said he was complaining of his throat being sore; Mr. Wade said he made a gargle of something (don’t recollect what it was) and tried to get him to gargle his throat with it; he said he gave him a dose of pills sometime that night, don’t recollect what time he said it was; next morning, sometime, he said Delany was groaning terribly and that he got up and made a fire; he said Mr. Delany got up then and came in to the fire; that he (Wade) asked him if he wanted a doctor or wanted him to go after his step-mother; he said no, that he did not think he was that bad off.  Wade said he went out that morning to his work and did not come in until Mr. Roberts called him to come to the house.  He said when he came to the house, Mr. Delany was getting up out of bed and putting on his breeches, and coming in the sitting room where the family was, sat down in an arm chair by the fire; that he picked up the cup that the gargle was made in for him the night before, like as he was going to gargle his throat, but before he got any of it in his mouth, Wade said, he saw he was dying and fell back in the chair, and he caught him in his arms and he died there in the chair and in his arms.  This was about the amount of the conversation concerning his death; I understood Roberts to say that Delany died in the bed; he did not say that he died in the bed, but that was what I conclude from what he said; he did not say what room he (D.) was in. This took place in Alexander County and State of Illinois.  After D. was buried, I had a conversation with Wade; I was at Mr. Hunsacker’s about two weeks after D. was buried.  Mr. Wade came to Mr. H.’s while I was there; he said he wanted to speak to me and Mr. H. about something Mr. Mulcahy had told him; he said that Mr. Mulcahy had told him it was reported that he had killed Delany or that he (Delany) was murdered; I told him that that was the report which I had heard too, and that I was going the Sunday before, to tell him about it, but that I was unwell and could not go; that I thought if he was innocent of it, he ought to know it and have a chance to clear himself of it; he took me off to one side and we had a conversation about it and he asked me what I thought he ought to do about it; I told him that if it was a case of mine, I would go and have him taken up and examined by a doctor.  He said that it would cost him something to have a doctor examine him and he did not like to pay out anything for nothing.  He said that he knew in reason how the thing started; that he had some enemies down there who were trying to break him up; that he knew the reason that they had started the report.  I told him that if there were enemies enough down there to start that report, there were enough to come before the grand jury here at the next term of court and find a bill against him; that it would be cheaper for him to pay a doctor to examine him than to pay a lawyer here to get rid of an indictment.  Then he asked me if I would go with him to help take him up; I told him I would.  Then he said:  “I will be at your house soon in the morning” and for me to stay there until he came.  He said I will go and get Lawrence and we will go and take him up.  He went off and that was the last I saw him until the day we arrested him.  I won’t be positive who it was that spoke of it; but it was said that Delany had a watch that belonged to his father in his life time that he wanted buried with him.

            Next morning Wade and I were in the kitchen—went in to get some water, and Mrs. Ellis came in and asked Mr. Wade for the watch, and Mr. Wade pulled the watch out of his pocket and gave it to her and said he had “liked to have forgotten it.”  I was talking with Mr. Wade after he was arrested; after he had been brought across the schute; Mr. Irvin put him (Wade) on Irvin’s mare and put him in my charge.  I and John Gates were with him, Gates riding along behind us, and Wade said, “If I have to suffer for this thing, it will be just to shield some other person.”  It was between the 1st and 10th of February, near the first, and on Thursday evening I think that Roberts came to my house.

            Cross-examined:—He said he was innocent of the charge, but that if he had to suffer for it, it would be to shield somebody else.

            Foster replied—From Wade’s house to mine it’s some six or seven miles; to the graveyard as much as three miles.  The roads were frozen and rough.

            Henry Hunsacker sworn:—I am acquainted with the parties; have known them four years; the deceased the same; have had a conversation at my place with Mr. Wade; don’t know the day of the month; I told him if I were him I would get Dr. Lawrence and have him (the Doctor) take Delany up and examine him; Wade promised him he would attend to that; he told Foster to be at home, he would be there early next morning; he went with Foster to the gate; don’t know what they said; was at Foster’s house the night the corpse was brought there by Wade; while he was there we got to talking; he told me the particulars of his death.  Delany was taken sick with a sore throat; was taken sick in the evening; Wade told Delany to go to the house and he would come there himself directly; I understood him to say Delany went to the house and took sick and was sick all night; he made him a gargle; he said he was better next morning, and he went out to work without him.  Roberts came over in the morning to Wade’s house and asked Wade’s wife how the folks were; she said all were well except John Delany and he was pretty sick; Roberts looked at him and became alarmed and went out and called him (Wade) from his work; he (Wade) went into the house, and just as he went into the house Delany was getting up; he put on his pants and sat down in a chair before the fire and reached after a gargle he had made him to gargle his throat with; he saw John struggling and caught him in his arms, and Delany died in his arms and in the chair; that was all in that conversation; was at Foster’s house when they set up with the corpse.

            Eliza Ann Porter sworn:—Was at Wade’s late in the evening with my brother; he (Mr. Delany) seemed to be well and hearty; heard of his death next day; don’t know the day or month; was late in the evening; looked well as common; had never seen him before to know him.

            Cross-examination:—Dr. A.—told us of his death; had never seen him before; Wade was at the house; there when Delany came in; Wade was there giving my brother tobacco.

            Leander Wright sworn:—I was there the two evening before; the young man (D.) was well and hearty; the first evening I went after a broad ax; the second for tobacco, he was well the first evening I went there, also the second; he was well and hearty when I was there; deviled with him a few minutes there; I asked him “How was he fixed?” he said:  “As well as usual;” his hands were cold; he felt pretty chilly; it was a cool day; he (D.) was cutting cord wood when I went there; that was the first evening; he came in with his ax the second evening from where he was cutting; I cannot tell where it was; I heard he was dead a short while after; I did not believe it; I think it was in February.

            Cross-examined—He was cutting cord wood on the first evening; do not know what he said to D.; I was there fifteen or twenty minutes before he came there; he was not in the house when I was there; I may be mistaken about him being in the house; I have lived there since I have been in the army; except when I was in that skirmish with the cattle; I went to the State’s prison and served my time out.

            Dr. Lawrence:—I assisted in examining the body of the deceased on last Saturday, in company with Drs. Sullivan and Davis; I am a doctor; have practiced near nineteen years; still practice; we found a contused wound upon the left side of the head, and one upon the right posterior to the right; did not measure the wound on the left; the wound was two inches and a half in diameter as near as I could judge; the wound on the right was, as near as I can tell, near the same as the one on the left; after examining the head, we examined the heart, throat, stomach, &c.; we then examined the brain; it was blanched and bloodless, this is owing to a failure of the heart to send blood to the brain; all other parts were in a healthy condition, except the spleen; his death was caused by concussion of the brain, in my opinion; I can’t state positively; to the best of my knowledge, there would certainly be some violence to cause concussion of the brain; from the character of the wounds I cannot state that violence would be necessary to cause such wounds; they were caused by some blunt instrument; there was no break in the scalp.

            Cross-examined:—He was in a wooden coffin; nothing was under his head; the wounds could have been produced by bringing him over a rough road; I think hauling him over a rough road ten miles would produce such bruises as these; the skull was not fractured; the scalp was not broken; if a person was struck upon the head with a blunt instrument, the effects will be upon the opposite side of the brain; there was no blood upon the brain at all; a person dying of heart disease, the brain frequently presents a bloodless condition; these wounds were not of such a nature as to cause death.

            Re-direct:—The wounds were in my opinion produced before death, for these reasons:  from the force of the heart sending the blood through the arteries into the capillary system; bringing him over the road spoken of would be likely to produce wounds upon the back of his head.  The difference between a wound made before death and one made after would be, in one made before the blood would be forced into the blood vessels; after death, unless the blood is coagulated, it will remain there after death.  If a wound is made after death, there would be no swelling and effusion.

            Dr. Sullivan sworn (direct):—I have practiced since April, 1872.  I assisted in the post mortem examination.  I found two contused wounds; one was posterior of the left side—that was the greater.  The other was near the first; there was no wound on the right. The body appeared as though someone hit him in the pit of the stomach, and he fell and hit his head on the floor.  The reason for thinking that he was hit in the stomach is because of the black and blue from the nipple down. If he had fallen upon a field it would have caused a lacerated wound.  The wounds may have been caused by a blunt instrument, but not sufficient to cause death.  I examined the heart, and found it void of blood; I think it was caused by a hit in the stomach; the brain was blanched, with no blood in it.

            Cross-examined:—Wounds on the head did not produce death.  

            Thomas Ellis sworn:I don’t know anything about it, except that a darkey came to my house and told me Delany was dead, and said Wade had sent him; met Wade going to Foster’s; it was some time in February; don’t recollect the day of the month; he told me he was taken sick the night before and was up next morning, and wanted to go to work; and he (Wade) asked him if he wanted a doctor, or his stepmother, the widow Delany; he asked him if he should not send for her; he said not; he didn’t think he was sick or anything; he had a little sore throat; Wade said he then went to his work, and Roberts came over and seeing that he (Delany) was sick, called him (Wade); he (Wade) came in and he saw that he was choking in a chair by the fire; he took hold of him, and he died in a few moments.  This conversation took place before we got to Foster’s.  The same thing was repeated over at Foster’s.  Mr. Wade told me that he (Delany) requested his watch to be buried with him; and he had put it with him; this was as we went up to Foster’s; the coffin was opened that night; Hunsacker and wife, myself and wife, Foster and his wife and Mr. Wade were present; I think my wife spoke of opening the coffin; she is a sister of the deceased; the coffin was just opened and the corpse looked at that night; myself and H. Hunsacker opened the coffin; I think the coffin was nailed; we cut the nails; no remarks were made when the coffin was opened; I think Wade said not to open the coffin, as it would be a bad sight, or something of that kind; he spoke to some one of us, I do not know who; we opened the coffin that night; we looked at the coffin next morning; the next day my wife looked at the corpse, and said she did not see the watch on it, and asked me to go to Wade and ask him about the watch; I told her I would not do it, to let it go; she stepped to the door and asked Mr. Wade if he had put the watch on him; he said not; but he had brought it along with him; I put the watch in his pocket; I got it from my wife; she got it from Wade; Wade said he had brought the watch along, so if requested by his friends to put it with him, he could do it.

            Cross-examination:—The watch was worth about two dollars and a half I think; the body when at Foster’s was not swelled; I am coroner; went to hold an inquest over the body of deceased; his face was covered with something white; the body was otherwise sound; the coffin was made of rough boards; I saw the wounds on deceased’s head; I saw the wounds on deceased’s head; I saw the wounds; they were slightly swollen and full of black blood; I can’t say where the wounds were; don’t know whether there were any on the back of his head or not; I have disinterred bodies before that; I took up Breese; I took him up in summer; he (Delany) appeared to have been buried about six weeks.

            Monroe Stacy examined—Wade told me that he died, or the breath had not quite left him as he got him on the bed; that he was sitting in an arm chair near the fire; the conversation was at his own house. 

            This closed the evidence for the prosecution.

Evidence for Defense

A. W. Simons sworn:—Am acquainted with defendants; with Roberts since he was a small boy; been acquainted with Wade six or seven years; the day Delany died Roberts came to me between 1 and 2 o’clock in the day, and told me he wanted to borrow a saddle; that he wanted to go up the country.  I said, where are you going, to Goose Island?  He said no.  I want to borrow a saddle to go to John Davis’s to see if he would make a coffin for John Delany; he said John died about 11 o’clock; that he wanted to go to Davis’ to get a coffin made and go on up and see his (Delany’s) friends.  I said is anyone at Wade’s with their folks?  He said no.  I said, I suppose there will be.  He said, I don’t know. I said, I will go down there after awhile, myself and wife.  He said, “I wish you would.”  About dark my wife and myself went down there to sit up awhile; neither of us were very well, and did not feel like sitting up long; we found body laid out in back room very cleanly and decently, with a sheet over it in the usual form; we staid there till a little after 11 o’clock; my wife complained of smell of the body; the night was very cold; large fire in the room, to keep his family warm; body smelled very bad.

Mrs. Wade sworn:—Am sister of Roberts’, and wife of Mr. Wade; R. came there about half an hour before he died, and I asked him to fix the fire and told him that D. was very sick, and to stop in and see him; he did, and remarked that he believed he was dying; he asked me then where Mr. W. was; I told him he was about fifty yards from the house; he stepped to the door and called him; Mr. W. came in as soon as he could get there; Mr. D. was then getting up to go in to the fire, and they assisted him in going in; he sat down in a large arm chair and took some throat wash that Mr. W. had fixed for him, and undertook to wash his throat; seeing that he was too far gone, he set it down, and expired almost instantly.  R. went over to my mother’s (his home) and got a negro man to help lay him out; it is about 200 yards from our home to my mother’s; he died at between 11 and 12 o’clock.

Cross-examined:—I hired a negro woman to wash the clothes, Cally Croften; very little stain on bed clothes; there was no blood on the bed clothes.

Re-direct:—John D. had been complaining ever since he had been there—not seriously until very recently.  The stains were bloody froth, and were over his nose and on the sheet that lay over him and had run down the side of his face.

Louis Jones sworn—Know nothing about the death of Delany; R. came over for me to help him lay him out; I went and assisted him and laid him out; saw no bruises on him.

John H. Davis sworn for People—R. came up (to my mother-in-law’s) the evening after the morning the young man died, on his way up to Foster’s to get him to make a coffin; R. said he had come from Cairo the night before; that Wade was out attending to something about feeding when he called him to the house to see Delany.

Cross-examined—R. came between 3 and 5 o’clock; it is a little over one mile from Wade’s to where Roberts came to me; my hearing is not the best—just tolerably good.

Thomas Clark (colored) sworn—Have known W. and R. four years; knew D. about one year; I helped put D. in coffin; R. came after me at Croften’s to help put him in coffin; saw no wounds on Delany; everything natural; saw nothing wrong with the body, except he bled a little at the nose; frothy blood.

Cross-examined—Was not looking for bruises; was not expecting any.

The testimony of Wade and Roberts was not taken down, but their statements corresponded with those of Foster, Hunsaker, Ellis and others in every substantial particular, and the prisoners were allowed to depart.

(Leander Wright married Temperance Porter on 25 Dec 1871, in Alexander Co., Ill.  Thomas J. Ellis married Jane Delaney on 12 Aug 1866, in Alexander Co., Ill.  John H. Foster married Melissa Davis on 15 Nov 1865, in Alexander Co., Ill.  Henry Harrison Hunsaker married Elza Catharine Martin on 8 Jan 1873, in Alexander Co., Ill.—Darrel Dexter)
 


Wednesday, 24 Mar 1875:
Killed by a Fall.

Last Sunday, one of the hands employed by Mr. Nash, a section boss on the Cairo & Vincennes railroad, while attempting to wheel a barrow load of stone across a deep chasm, about forty miles above this city, became overbalanced and fell from the plank, which was laid across the chasm, down a precipice of nearly forty feet, among a pile of jagged rocks, mangling and crushing his body fearfully.  He was picked up by his companions and carried into the caboose of the train, where he expired in a few moments.  The remains were brought to this city on Sunday evening, and were buried on Monday.
 


Thursday, 25 Mar 1875:
Coroner’s Inquest

Coroner Gossman yesterday morning went to the trestlework where the body of a man supposed to have died the day previous, was found, and held an inquest on the same.  The coroner informs us that no papers or other articles were found upon his person that would lead to the discovery of his name or home.  The remains were in a perfect state of preservation and no marks of violence were found.  The manner of his death remains a mystery,

 

 

Saturday, 27 Mar 1875:
SUICIDE.

We are told that a young lady residing in the upper part of the city lately became very much infatuated with a young man, an employee of the Cairo and Vincennes railroad company, who, it is said, did not return the affection.  The girl became so depressed and melancholy over the matter that a few days ago she took a dose of arsenic and on Thursday at 12 o’clock she died, despite the efforts of the physicians to save her life.
 
Died.

Mrs. Charles O. Wood, late of this city, died recently in St. Louis.
 


Sunday, 28 Mar 1875:
Williamson County.

The Farmers’ Advocate, Williamson County, relates the details of the recent discovery in Bainbridge Precinct in that county, of the body of a woman supposed to have been murdered near Cartersville in the summer of 1873.  The body of the unfortunate woman was found in the forks of a fallen tree and from its appearance when discovered, it is supposed that it had been partly removed from its original position by hogs and dogs.  At the coroner’s inquest, bullet holes were found in the clothing that remained on the body and the fatal shot was found to have penetrated the bowels.  The woman was about thirty years of age, with light hair and small in person.  Who or what she was is a mystery.  The Advocate supplements its account of the discovery of the body of the woman by asking the question:  “Will our Representatives dare to adjourn without making appropriations to ferret out the numerous murderers and other outlaws of Williamson County, and to bring them to justice?”  We very much fear that our General Assembly will dare, and intend to adjourn without meeting one of the gravest and most important questions before it; namely, the suppression of the lawlessness and crime peculiar to Williamson County.  The time of the General Assembly appears to be wholly taken up with purposeless wrangling and jangling about nothing.  Williamson County must wait, and when all the reputable people have deserted it and it is given over to moral and material degeneracy, the State authorities will, maybe, do something.  Now is not the day of salvation for Williamson County.
 
Died

In St. Louis, Mo., Wednesday, March 24th, Mrs. Charles O. Wood, aged 37 years.
 
Annie Woods—Her Death.

In yesterday morning’s issue of The Bulletin we published a short item concerning the death of a young girl by an overdose of arsenic, and set forth as the cause for the rash deed, the infidelity of a young man, an employee on the Cairo and Vincennes Railroad Company.  Since the publication of that item, we learn from a reliable source that this was not the cause, but that the girl had been for a long time downhearted and melancholy and was, as she had remarked on more than one occasion, “totally disgusted with the world.”  Her real name, we are told, was Lizzie Johnson.  She came to this city over a year ago from Paducah, where she has relatives and entered a house of ill fame, under the assumed name of Annie Woods, and since her arrival here, has been an inmate, at various times, of nearly every “high toned house of ill repute” in town.  At the time of her death, she was living in a house on Twenty-Seventh Street.  On Wednesday, we are told, she came down town to one of the drug stores, bought five cents worth of morphine, returned to her home, and that evening took it.  She was taken very sick and lay in a critical condition until Thursday at twelve o’clock, when she died.  Coroner Gossman was called, and held a post mortem examination.  He found pinned upon the breast of her under garment the paper in which the morphine had been wrapped, with the word “morphine” written upon it.  There was nothing found among her personal effects giving any reason for the act.  The remains were buried at Beech Grove Cemetery on Friday afternoon.
 


Tuesday, 30 Mar 1875:
Drowned

It is with deep regret that we are compelled to chronicle the death of little Johnny McCarthy, who came to an untimely death last Sunday evening by drowning.  The particulars of his sad death as told us by Mr. James Ryan, who was standing on the levee near the spot where the mishap occurred, are, that Johnny, who was ten years and eight months of age, in company with a companion named Christy Hyland, were on a flat boat loaded with stoves, lying just opposite Mr. Albert Susanka’s saloon, playing, when Johnny attempted to walk from one end of the barge to the other, on the stoves.  He had not taken more than one or two steps when the stoves gave way beneath his feet and he was precipitated into the water.  The current being very strong, the unfortunate lad was carried down the river several hundred feet, crying for help.  The tug boat Cache started to his rescue, and it was thought he would be saved, but when within a few yards of him he disappeared from sight and has not since been seen.  Mr. McCarthy, the father, authorized us to state that he will pay twenty-five dollars to anyone who will return the remains of his son to him.

Passed to Higher Life
(From the
Cairo Gazette)

From St. Louis, Mo., on the 23rd inst., Mrs. Maria Wood, wife of Charles O. Wood, of that city, and mother of Mrs. C. M. Howe and Henry Wood, of this.  Her remains were interred at Terre Haute, Ind., where her other child, a son of seven or eight is at school.

Mrs. Wood was a citizen of Cairo for several years, and in our short acquaintance with her, we found her a beautiful woman, of fine address; warm impulses, high culture; and much charity.  She possessed a powerful and laudable moral courage, and was brave and determined in doing that which presented itself to her as right.  She was a staunch and active infidel, and an earnest investigator of Spiritualism, and passed away in the realization of the truths and comforts of those convictions.

She remembered her friends in her last hours and spoke of her future with a calmness and confidence, desiring to the last no clerical consolations.

Ere this she is doubtless possessed of the grand mysteries of immortality and knows, what she has believed, that life is continuous beyond the grave.  That the freed spirit, the individualism, is liberated from its corporeal casket and expands into broader capacity of understanding and action.  That such life may realize as facts, those finer and nobler sentiments of our hungry souls, which in earth-life, are only hopes and aspirations.  Mrs. Wood’s last conscious hours (which are honest hours to every soul) were in accordance with her infidel belief, lighted by a hope of Divine Love, sufficient to embrace humanity.  In such hope, peace be to her memory!
 
 
Thursday, 1 Apr 1875:
Last Saturday morning, while the Carroll was lying at Vancil’s Landing, 16 miles above this city, a man by the name of Thomas Jones, who had shipped as deck hand at Long Reach, fell overboard and was drowned.  He leaves a wife at Long Reach, to whom he had been married only three weeks.
 
 
Sunday, 4 Apr 1875:
DEAD.

The death of Mr. Lawson A. Parks, of Alton, in this State, is announced.  He was the oldest editor in Illinois and had acted a prominent part in the politics of the State. He was an Abolitionist, and a friend of Elijah P. Lovejoy, who was murdered by the Alton Democrats of “long ago.”

 

 

Wednesday, 7 Apr 1875:

DESPERATE ENCOUNTER.

A Cutting Scrape Between Two River Pilots.

Between ten and eleven yesterday morning, two well-known river pilots, named Jim Dougherty and Angelo McBride, had one of the most desperate encounters that has ever taken place in this city, and which came near terminating in the death of Dougherty.  The row is said to have grown out of an old difficulty that the parties engaged in over a year ago, and which Dougherty has been nursing since the time the trouble first began.  The particulars of the fuss yesterday, as told us by parties who witnessed the fight, are that Dougherty, McBride, and another pilot named Tom Seymour, were sitting on some barrels near the Delmonico saloon, talking, when Dougherty, in reply to a remark made by Seymour, in regard to his paying visits to certain persons who did not care about seeing him, said:  “Yes, I know.  There are a good many people in this town who don’t like me, who are always talking about me, and I’ll make some of them swallow their words before I’m done with them yet.”

He then turned to McBride and said:  “You have been talking about me, and I want to know what you did it for?”  McBride answered: “I have not said anything about you at all.”  Dougherty declared that he had and the two had some high words, when Dougherty said:  “You are a lying s-n of a b---h;” and reached out his hand to seize McBride, who stepped back, thus evading him, and exclaimed:  “Keep away Jim, I don’t want anything to do with you,” but Dougherty did not heed the warning and followed McBride as he walked backward, finally grabbing hold of his coat collar, and striking him on the head, just above the forehead.  This was the signal for the fight to begin in earnest.  McBride, who had a small pocket knife in his hand while the conversation had been progressing, thrust it at the neck of his antagonist, striking him just below the ear, and drew the knife around until it had reached the middle of the chin, laying the flesh back as the knife went, making a horrible and sickening sight to look at.

This wound alone would have been sufficient to have conquered almost any man, but Dougherty did not place any stain upon his character as a desperate man by quitting, but again went into the battle with renewed vigor.  McBride whose temper is none of the best when aroused, was now fully awake to the work before him and again made a wicked lunge at his man, this time the knife entering the right side of Dougherty’s jaw, inflicting a deep and ugly wound three inches long; but this even did not deter him from still fighting like a demon.  The blood was pouring from the wounded man’s neck and face in perfect streams, and the men who were in close proximity to the combatants stood with blanched cheeks and failing hearts, none being willing to risk their lives in making an attempt to separate them.  Again Dougherty made an attempt to get at McBride, and again he received the knife blade, this time in the stomach.

By this time, a large crowd had gathered around the spot, but none made a move toward stopping the desperate encounter except Chief of Police McHale, who caught Dougherty just in time to save him from another thrust of the knife, which McBride was about to administer to him.  Dougherty was placed in the hands of a couple of gentlemen who took him to the office of Dr. Wardner, where his wounds were dressed, while Chief McHale took McBride in charge.  Dr. Wardner in his examination of the wounds of Dougherty found none of them to be dangerous, though the one in the stomach is said to be two inches deep and nearly an inch long.  Those on the face and neck are ugly looking cuts, the lower one being nearly five and the upper one three inches long, and both pretty deep, but neither is said to be dangerous, though very ugly wounds.

McBride declares that he did not want to have any words with Dougherty, and that he walked backward at least fifty feet in order to get a chance to turn and run away, knowing full well that if Dougherty succeeded in getting hold of him he would beat him terribly, Dougherty being a much larger man and a man also who would have no mercy, provided he once got hold of him.  Dougherty is now at the Planters’ House, confined to his room, and McBride is in the county jail, awaiting a hearing which it is thought will take place today before Judge Bross.

 

The Latest from Williamson

Another Williamson County outrage is thus recorded by the Marion Democrat of the 3d inst.:
“William Eason, residing near Scoharry Prairie in Williamson County received notice on last Sunday night in the shape of a hickory withe left at his door, with forty notches cut on it, which means, so our informant says, the number of stripes Eason is to receive.  Eason has left the county.  Sometime ago, Eason had a similar notice of it, and was taken out after night by the Ku- Klux Klan and whipped.”

We have ceased to ask “How long, oh Lord, how long?”  From present appearances, the correct answer to this interrogatory is:  “Just as long as there is anybody left in Williamson County who can be frightened out of it by the base and cowardly assassins who own that portion of southern Illinois!
 
 
Thursday, 8 Apr 1875:
Resolutions of Respect.

Cairo, Ill., April 4th, 1875

At a meeting of the Cairo St. Patrick’s Benevolent Society held in their hall on this evening, the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted:

WHEREAS, We learn with profound regret that John Mitchel has passed the threshold of this world, into the realm of eternity,

Resolved, That in his death Ireland has lost a son whose devotion to her cause was never surpassed, a patriot who sacrificed home, friends, and all worldly fortune for her sake, and who amid all the sufferings and disappointments endured in exile, never wavered in his abiding faith in this country’s resurrection.

Resolved, That while in common with the Irish race, all over the world we give expression to our feelings of regret at the loss of our late cherished countryman, we cannot refrain from expressing the consolation it affords us that his last utterance to his countrymen was profest against the oppression of his native land, thus yielding up with his spirit to heaven the faith for which he lived, and bequeathing to his countrymen, the legacy of resistance to tyranny.

Resolved, That the foregoing preamble and resolutions be entered on the minutes of this meeting and published in the Cairo papers.
P. O. Loughlin
J. M. Hogan
M. J. Howley
L. J. Byrne, Committee on Resolutions
 
 
Saturday, 10 Apr 1875:
Died.

At five o’clock last evening, at the residence of her parents, on Sixth Street, between Walnut and Cedar, Anna, daughter of Morris and Ellen Sullivan, aged 7 years and 2 months.  The funeral will take place at 2:30 o’clock today, April 10th.  Friends of the family invited to attend.
 


Sunday, 11 Apr 1875:
Daugherty

James Daugherty, the pilot who was so badly cut by McBride, another pilot, in this city a few days ago, is at the Planters’ House and is doing very well under the treatment of Dr. Wardner, though he is very sick and suffers much pain.  His wounds are not considered to be dangerous and it is hoped he will be all right in due time.
 


Tuesday, 13 Apr 1875:
DEAD

The Death of James Dougherty at the Planters’ House Sunday Night.

The Coroner’s Inquest and the Evidence in the Case.

            James Dougherty, the river pilot who was so fearfully slashed with a knife, while in a difficulty with Angelo McBride, also a pilot, in this city last Tuesday morning, died from the effects of the wounds inflicted upon his persons, at the Planters’ House Sunday night.  Dougherty was a citizen of New Orleans, where his wife and family reside, and was on his way home when the difficulty took place.  Coroner Gossman held an inquest on Sunday morning at the request of Sheriff Irvin, when the following evidence was given by the several witnesses examined:

A. J. Baumgardner, after being duly sworn, testified as follows:  On last Tuesday, about 10 or 11 o’clock, Dougherty called McBride to one side and said he wanted to speak to him.  McBride stepped off a few steps from him and said:  “Jim, don’t you strike me; I have not said anything about you.”  McBride backed out to the railroad track from the Delmonico Hotel, and back again; Dougherty followed him up; Dougherty called him names—a s-n of a b---h, etc.; McBride said to us:  “Gentlemen, you all see what he (Dougherty) is doing to me” and then Dougherty struck at him.  They then got together; did not see the knife until I saw the blood running from the side of his face.

William McHale, upon being sworn, testified:  I was standing at the corner of Sixth and Levee streets; when I saw two men, quarreling in front of Walder’s corner; saw a knife in McBride’s hand; saw from where I stood that Dougherty was cut; I hallooed at them to prevent them from doing anything more; I then went to them as soon as I could, and separated them, and took the knife away from McBride; the knife was bloody, and I handed it to a drayman.

William Gearling was sworn and said:  I was sitting at Thomas’s store; saw Dougherty and McBride talking together; McBride backed and Dougherty followed him up.  McBride said:  “Jim, I want no quarrel with you.  I deny everything you have said.”  Saw Dougherty follow McBride up and strike him; they then got together; I then saw the blood, and that he was cut; saw McBride have the knife in his hand.

Horace Wardner, M. D., being duly sworn, said:  I dressed the wounds on the person of James Dougherty, on Tuesday, April 6, 1875; he had one wound on the right side of the face, and one wound on the right side of the neck, from a little behind the ear to the middle of the chin, evidently made with two strikes of the knife; also one wound or stab in the left side of the abdomen, a little above the naval, which penetrated the cavity of the abdomen, and through which a small portion of omentum was protruding; this was carefully pressed back into the cavity of the abdomen, and the wound closed.  This would have origin to the inflammation which caused his death.

Jessie McHaffie, upon being sworn, testified:  I was standing on the corner of Sixth and Levee streets; heard Dougherty say to McBride, “You are a s-n of a b---h.”  McBride said:  “I ain’t no more of a s-n of a b---h than you are.”  Dougherty jumped toward him; looked to me as though he was going to grab him.  McBride then stepped away from him; they then got together, and McBride reached his arm around Dougherty’s neck and cut him on the neck, and then took his arm down and stabbed him in the abdomen.

William Smedley was sworn and said:  I heard McBride say in the latter part of March last that if the d—n big beef eating s-n of a b---h gave him provocation, he would cut him with a knife, and if he couldn’t do it with a knife, he would get a double barreled shotgun and shoot him.

This was all the evidence taken in the case, and the jury returned the following verdict:

We, the undersigned jurors, sworn to inquire into the death of James Dougherty, on oath, do find that he came to his death by a wound in the abdomen, inflicted with a knife in the hands of Angelo McBride, with apparent justification.

Charles A. Scofield, foreman; James Mallory, John H. Mallory, F. Gaebel, John T. Gwathney, Rudolph Hebsacker, Gus Helm, Robert Smyth, James Edwards, John P. Broderick, John Johnson, P. W. Allen.

The wife of the unfortunate man will arrive in this city from New Orleans this evening, and it is said the remains will be taken to Lawrenceburg, Indiana, the former home of Dougherty for interment.

 

           
Wednesday, 14 Apr 1875:
FOUL MURDER

Charles Daniels Killed by Al. Morgan, Near Hickman, Ky.

            The following is the testimony of the several witnesses examined by Coroner Gossman in the inquest held by him on the body of a negro named Charles Daniels, who was murdered on board the steamer John Kyle, by another negro named Al. Morgan, near Hickman, Kentucky.  Morgan, it has been brought to light, is a bad man, having been implicated in one or two other criminal acts, and will, it is thought, be severely dealt with by the law when once he has been captured.

            Richard Curtice, of St. Louis, being duly sworn, said that all he saw of the affair was that Morgan and Daniels were disputing and quarreling.

            Edward Caldwell was then sworn and said:  The boat made a heavy lunge, and Morgan went to Daniels and shook him, and told him to get up, Daniels said, “Let me alone, I don’t belong to the boat.”  I then heard a lick, but did not see it.

            James Bell, of Shawneetown, was sworn and said:  I was lying with Daniels; Morgan said, “Get up.”  Charley said, “Go to hell; I don’t belong to the boat.  Go and wake up your own men.”  Morgan then said, “Who are you talking to?  I will put this dagger into you.”  Daniels said, “No, you won’t.”  I then heard a lick struck, and Daniels hallooed, “What are you doing?”  Morgan went out, and then came back with a lantern, and looked at him, and found Daniels dead.  Morgan left the boat at Hickman.

            William Hill, of St. Louis, was sworn and testified:  Morgan asked me to take the knife, and take care of it, and then took it back and said:  “No, I will keep it myself.”

            Edward Bailey, of Baltimore, Md., was then sworn and said:  I heard Morgan say he had it in for Daniels, and intended to get it out of him, if it took him a year, and that he was going to try to kill him.

 


Thursday, 15 Apr 1875:
Gupton’s Trial

            The trial of William Gupton, who killed Andrew Eschbach in this city a year ago, will take place on the first Monday of next month, at Vienna, Johnson County.  Deputy Sheriff Sheehan was employed in hunting up witnesses in the case yesterday.
 


Friday, 15 Apr 1875:
Found.

            The body of little Johnny McCarty, who was drowned over two weeks ago, was found near this city on the Kentucky shore, yesterday afternoon.  The remains of the little boy will be brought to this city today for burial.
 
Died.

            We are pained to announce the sudden death of young Thomas Sullivan.  Though for the past year or more the young man has been severely afflicted with the asthma, this was an unlooked for and painful occurrence to all connected with him, as his disease was not considered to be of a nature that would take him from among them without warning.  We learn from various sources that yesterday morning, the deceased arose at the usual hour, dressed and went to his breakfast, and after drinking a cup of hot coffee, the first that he had indulged in for some time past, was asked, “How do you feel this morning?”  He replied:  “First rate; I have not felt as well for a long time.”  With this he stepped into an adjoining room and laid down upon the bed.  A few minutes after, one of the inmates of the house having occasion to go into the room where he was lying, found him lying very still, and upon going nearer, found he was dead.
 
 
Sunday, 18 Apr 1875:
THE HANGING AT COMMERCE, MO.

            Trav Harris was hanged at Commerce, Scott County, Missouri, on Friday.  In last November, on Election Day, he murdered his father-in-law, Squire Masterson.  There had been bad blood between the two men and on the day of Masterson’s death they met at the polls.  A dispute grew up between them during which Masterson put his right hand into his pocket, when Harris said to him:  “You intend to shoot me, but I’ll kill you if you make the attempt.”  “You are a coward, and dare not shoot at me,” was Masterson’s retort, when Harris drew his pistol and shot Masterson dead.  Harris then fled, but after a week’s absence returned and gave himself up to the sheriff.  He was tried at the last term of court in Commerce, was found guilty and sentenced to be hung.  This sentence was executed on Friday in the presence of a great multitude.  The doomed man ascended the scaffold with a firm step, and died without exhibiting any evidence of fear.  An attempt to rescue the prisoner was feared, and the town was patrolled by men armed with shotguns, but the execution passed off without trouble.  This was the only execution in Scott County during the past fifty years.

            (Travis Harris married Mary Masterson on 17 May 1868, in Scott Co., Mo.—Darrel Dexter)
 
Funeral Notice

The funeral of the late Thomas E. Sullivan will take place on Sunday afternoon at 1 o’clock, from St. Patrick’s Church.  Friends of the family invited.
 
Harris’ Execution

The execution of Travis Harris, at Commerce, Missouri, who was sentenced by the Scott County, Missouri, circuit court some four weeks ago to be hung on the 16th of this month, for the murder of his father-in-law, took place on Friday.  From Mr. Breese, a gentleman who was present at the execution, we learn that this is not the first man who suffered death at the hands of Harris, but that he was accused of killing another person, and had been in some way allowed to go without punishment for it.  Mr. Breese says that while on the scaffold the doomed man was perfectly cool and collected, evincing in no manner any dread of the horrible fate which was in store for him.  He maintained the same stolid indifference throughout, until the drop fell and he was launched into eternity.  It is said that there was a very strong effort brought to bear upon the governor of Missouri to reprieve Harris, but it was of no avail, in consequence of which, the throng in attendance at the execution was very boisterous, and it was feared that serious trouble would ensue.  Harris is said to have many wealthy friends and relatives in Scott County, who also made every effort to have his punishment changed from death to imprisonment, but they could not save him.
 
The funeral of Thomas E. Sullivan, who died so suddenly on last Thursday, will take place today at one o’clock.
 
 
Wednesday, 21 Apr 1875:
Travis Harris

From the Cape Girardeau Press we learn that some of the friends of Travis Harris hung at Commerce, Mo., last Friday conceived the idea of rendering him assistance that would enable him to escape from the jail at Jackson, where he was confined until Thursday last.  Finding this would be impossible, they endeavored to carry poison to him and a married sister, Mrs. Kate Doom, undertook to carry it into the prison to Harris.  When she presented herself at the jail for an interview with her brother, she refused to be searched and was not permitted to enter.  A week ago, this sister wrote the following letter to Harris:
Commerce,
Mo., March 29 (?) 1875
Dear Brother,

Dond Bee uneasy about yo troble for god is too good to sufer yo to Bee punish eny more then yo hav Bin for whot yo wer Jestifie in doing who yo did do.  And god nose it and he nose allso that yo ought to hav kill him years ago and yo did not do eny more the eny man wold hav do and that why I say yo need not Bee un easy, rite soon
Your sister
truly Kate Doom

About an hour before the execution the prisoner, in the presence of his sister, his children and his wife, the daughter of the man he killed, said he “had done a good thing in ridding the world of such a man as Masterson and did not feel sorry for having killed him.”  His children, too young to appreciate the terrible significance of the occasion, are described as being “laughing and happy, playing with his handcuffs.”  From first to last, Harris exhibited neither feeling nor fear, took no part in the religious ceremonies on the scaffold, and died without a sign of trepidation.
 
 
Sunday, 25 Apr 1875:
Destroyed by Fire
Burning of the Steamers Charles Rodmann, John Kyle and Exporter
Several Lives Lost

The following graphic description of the burning of the three well known steamers, Charles Rodmann, John Kyle and Exporter, we clip from the St. Louis Democrat of yesterday, believing as we do that it will prove of interest to many of our readers, as many on board the unfortunate boats—including Dyas T. Parker, Jr., of this city, who as an invited guest of Capt. Shinkle of the Charles Rodmann, had gone to New Orleans on a pleasure trip—are known, no doubt, to many of our readers.

Upon the Exporter were the following named persons, all of whom were saved:  From Pittsburg; Captain James Rees, Sr., wife and two daughters, Florence and Clementine, James Reese, Jr.; Mrs. James Ives, Mrs. O. H. Allerton, Lizzie Honland, Mrs. Thomas Rees and Col. A. Brown.  From New Harmony, Indiana:  Mrs. John Pulley, Mrs. John Carter, Mrs. Vandergrift, Mrs. Collins, Miss Mattie E. Robison, Mrs. Bolton, Miss Eliza Lichtenberger and Miss Kate Dransfield.  From Madison, Indiana:  Miss Emma Vamter.  Lost:  Mrs. Bettie Musgrove, of Pittsburg, the daughter of Captain J. Rees, Sr..  Saved:  Mr. Dawling, of Memphis, Tenn.; Cliff Worsham, Memphis, Tenn.; W. Floyd, clerk; Messrs. Tenby and Carroll, pilots; Mr. Smith, steward; Captain Conley, and a full band from Louisville, all of whom are at the City Hotel.

On the John Kyle:  Saved—Captain Abe Hutchinson, wife and two daughters; Mrs. Metcalf, Miss Metcalf, Miss Hawk and Miss Dennis, of St. Louis.  None of the officers and crew were lost, and but few were injured, Captain Hutchinson being burned slightly in the face and on the right hand, and Clerk William Brown severely, but not fatally, about his head and hands.

On the Charles Rodmann, so far as is known, the only person missing is Mr. Joe Case, the engineer.  The list of saved is as follows:  Captain Shinkle, slightly burned; Alf. Stein, slightly burned about the head; Eugene Shinkle, slightly burned; Pilots Hinkle and Owens; Ferrard, second engineer; Fitzpatrick and Butler, strikers; both mates, the watchman, carpenter, barkeeper, and steward.

Among the passengers are the following:  Mrs. Captain W. P. Walker, Mrs. George Hafer, Mrs. Thomas Peters, Mrs. Traves, Florence Hunt, Mrs. Hoover, Mrs. Ward, Mrs. Charles Owens, Mrs. Shinkle, of Cincinnati and Newport; Mrs. Smith of Milford; Mr. and Mrs. Stahl, of Memphis; Dyas Parker, of Cairo; H. Viol, Paducah, Ky.; Lieut. Guthrie, Thirteenth Infantry; Dr. Allen and wife, Mrs. Farr and Miss Branningham, of Wheeling, W.Va., and Mrs. Hoffman, of Cumberland, Md.

Captain W. P. Walker arrived from Galveston just as the boats were burning and was glad enough to find his family safe.
 
 
Thursday, 29 Apr 1875:
ATTEMPTED MURDER
Pat Cavanaugh Shot by Charles Pendergast alias Coffee, at Murphysboro, on Tuesday Morning

Deputy Sheriff Smith Albright, of Jackson County, passed through Cairo yesterday on the trail of Charles Pendergast, better known as Charles Coffee, charged with an attempt to murder Pat Cavanaugh, at Murphysboro, on last Tuesday morning.

The facts of the case are about as follows:

Mr. Cavanaugh was the marshal of the Murphysboro and Mount Carbon Odd Fellows who attended the celebration at Jonesboro last Monday.  After returning from Jonesboro, he and other friends made arrangements to enjoy a dance in the evening.  Coffee, who was a bartender in one of the Murphysboro saloons, attended the dance, and was observed to be somewhat under the influence of liquor.  During the evening he remarked that Cavanaugh had “put upon him” often, and he would get even with him, but no attention was paid to the threat. 

At about 3 o’clock, when the dance was about adjourning, Cavanaugh and a friend were standing together on a street corner near the dance hall, conversing, when Coffee approached them, and without warning fired upon him five shots, one of which took effect in his neck, the ball passing from the front and lodging in the back of the head.

Coffee then fled, and at about 6 o’clock was taken on locomotive No. 4, by engineer Hartzell, who knew him.  He was let off near Quetel Gap, in Union County, and when last heard of was making his way toward the Mississippi River.  He is about 5 feet 6 inches tall, heavyset, has dark curly hair and is about 23 years of age.

Cavanaugh was in critical condition yesterday morning, but it is not known to a certainty whether the wound will prove fatal.

LATER.

A dispatch in the St. Louis papers of yesterday, states that Coffee was captured at Grand Tower and taken back to Murphysboro and lodged in jail.  An attempt was made to lynch him, but was unsuccessful.

(The 15 May 1875, 11 Dec 1875, and 18 Dec 1875, issues of the Jonesboro Gazette reported that Patrick Kavanaugh died from his wounds.—Darrel Dexter)
 
 
Friday, 30 Apr 1875:
On Monday last, in the vicinity of Augusta, Kentucky, Mr. Samuel Brogan, engineer on the ferry boat Dr. Mackey, fell into the fly-wheel pit, and was so badly torn to pieces that he died in a few hours.  The deceased was 35 years of age, and leaves a wife and family at
Newport, Kentucky.
 
 
Sunday, 2 May 1875:
Boss Smith shot and instantly killed a man by the name of Merritt, at Skillet Fork,
White County, last Friday.  The Carmi Courier refused to give any of the particulars.
 
To Punish Gupton

The friends of the late Andrew Eschbach, who was killed by Gupton, are raising money for the purpose of retaining Judge William J. Allen, to assist in the prosecution of his slayer.
 
GUPTON

The Johnson County circuit court will commence tomorrow and the first trial upon the docket that will demand the attention of the court will be that of the steamboat pilot, William Gupton, who killed Andrew Eschbach, a German barber in this city, over a year ago.  For the past four weeks, Deputy Sheriff John Sheehan has been subpoenaing witnesses in the case, and a large number of persons will leave this city for Vienna today.
 


Tuesday, 4 May 1875:
FOUND DEAD.

On Sunday morning Coroner Gossman was informed by several different parties that a dead man had been found in the Mississippi River just west of this city, and he at once procured a skiff, went to where the body was reported to have been seen and after a few minutes search, succeeded in finding the body.  His clothes were all removed, with the exception of a flannel shirt, which was pulled over his head.  His boots were also on his feet.  The coroner, after considerable trouble, managed to get the remains into the skiff and rowed around Bird’s point and up the Ohio to the levee, where a jury was impaneled and an inquest held.  After the deliberation a verdict was rendered to the effect that the man had come to his death by drowning.  The name of the man is unknown as no papers or articles that would lead to his identification were found upon his person.
 
Gupton.

Gupton’s attorneys have asked and obtained a postponement of his trial until next Thursday and Gupton still remains in the county jail in this city
 


Wednesday, 5 May 1875:
Drowned.

Yesterday afternoon about four o’clock a little negro girl was taken out of the river near Halliday Bros. warehouse, who had fallen into the water, while trying to get a bucket of water, and drowned.
 
The steamer St. Luke, belonging to the Missouri River Packet Company, while coming down that turbulent river at 10 o’clock Sunday night, struck the pier of the bridge at St. Charles broadside and sunk, after drifting about three miles.  The disaster was caused by the great force of the current, which kept pulling the boat out of her course in spite of the efforts of the pilot, Mr. Townsend, to keep her in the marks.  The following is a list of the lost and missing:  Mrs. James Dinan and two children, lost; C. Lantz, deck passenger, lost; Bill Brooks, fireman, lost; Donnelly, deck sweeper, missing; John Thomas, roustabout, lost; George Washing (colored), roustabout, missing; Casper, a German roustabout, missing.  The officers of the St. Luke were as follows:  George Keith, master; James B. White and Barry Brannick, clerks; Thomas Thownsend and Carr Waddel, pilots; John Pennybaker, mate; Hiram Anderson, carpenter; Thomas Nelson and John Fitzsimmons, engineers; Mike Weil, steward.  All who had the presence of mind to go to the hurricane roof, and many who were washed overboard were saved.  A ferryboat rendered valuable assistance and saved the boat’s safe, books and papers, but the baggage of the officers and passengers was all lost.  The St. Luke was valued at $30,000 and insured for $17,000.  Her cargo consisted in 175 hogs, 500 sacks wheat, 192 sewing machines and a few small lots of other freight.
 


Thursday, 6 May 1875:
Gupton.

According to the arrangement made by Gupton’s attorneys, he will be taken from the Alexander County jail this morning to Vienna, Johnson County, where he will be given a trial before the Johnson County circuit court, which is now in session.
 
Drowned.

The name of the little negro girl, who was taken out of the Ohio River near Halliday Brothers’ warehouse, on Tuesday evening, was Saddler.  It seems that the little unfortunate, in company with an older sister and brother, went to the river about 3 o’clock on Tuesday evening for the purpose of getting a bucket of water when the larger of the three children, in her attempt to dip the bucket in the river, became overbalanced and fell into the water.  The girl’s brother, who is a lad of about ten years of age, sprang into the stream and had succeeded in bringing his sister within a few feet of the shore, while the little girl, who was much younger than the boy and who up to this time had remained on the shore, attempted to assist her brother in rescuing her sister, by running to them, and fell into the stream, and was carried away by the strong current before help could reach her.
 


Friday, 7 May 1875:
Gupton.

            Sheriff Carter, of Johnson County, came to Cairo on Wednesday evening, and yesterday morning in company with Deputy Sheriff John Cain, of this city, left with Alfred and Dallas Bridges, and William Gupton for Vienna.  The former prisoners will be tried at the present term of the Johnson County circuit court now in session for burglary and Gupton will received his trial for the killing of Andrew Eschbach, in this place, about ten months ago.
 
From
Vienna—The Gupton Trial.
Vienna, May 7, 1875

            EDITOR BULLETIN—The trial of Gupton for the murder of Andrew Eschbach, the Cairo barber, will commence in the Johnson County circuit court tomorrow (Friday) morning.  Gupton was brought into court this morning, when it was announced that Judge J. H. Mulkey, who was to defend him, was sick and would not appear in the trial.  The court, Judge D. J. Baker, thereupon appointed H. B. Hardy, of Vienna, and John P. McCartney, of Metropolis, to conduct the defense of the prisoner.  It is understood that Judge William J. Allen and D. T. Linegar will assist our county attorney in the prosecution.  It is also probable that in case Judge Mulkey is not able to take part in the defense that O. A. Barker, Esq., will be called in to assist Messrs. Hardy and McCartney.

            Nearly all the witnesses for the prosecution are here.  Those for the defense have not yet arrived.
I will send you daily reports while the trial lasts.
S. X.

 

 
Sunday, 9 May 1875:
Died.

            Yesterday at 10 o’clock, a.m., Katie, daughter of Dennis and Mary Coleman, aged 6 months.  Funeral notice in another column.

            (Dennis and Mary Coleman were married on 11 Feb 1872, in Alexander Co., Ill.—Darrel Dexter)
 
Postponed.

            The trial of William Gupton, which was to have taken place at the present session of the Johnson County circuit court, as may be seen by referring to the communication in this issue of the Bulletin, from Vienna, has been postponed until July or August, when Judge Baker has signified his intention of holding a special term of court, for the purpose of giving Gupton a trial.
 
Funeral Notice.

            The funeral of the child of Dennis Coleman will leave the house on Division Street at one o’clock today.  Special train will leave foot of Eighth Street for Villa Ridge at 2 o’clock.  The friends of the family are invited.
 
FROM
VIENNA, ILLINOIS.
The Gupton Trial Postponed—Affidavits Filed by his Counsel—A Special Session of Court to Be Called in July or August to Try His Case.
Vienna, Ills., May 8, 1875.

The Gupton murder trial was up in the circuit court this morning, when counsel for defense—John F. McCartney and H. B. Hardy—filed two affidavits, one sworn to by themselves and the other by the prisoner, asking a continuous of the case to the next term of the court.  That of the lawyers sets forth that they have not had time to look into the case, but from what they have been able to learn, there is evidence, which, if they are given time to get it in proper shape to go to the jury, will do much to mitigate the punishment of the prisoner, and probably be the means of his acquittal.  At the close of the affidavit, the counsel say, that with the little time they have had to prepare for the defense in this case, they felt that they cannot do the prisoner justice; that the case is one of unusual importance, and one in which the public are taking great interest; that unable as they are to go into the case fully prepared, they say to the court that if it is determined to go on with it at this time, they desire to be excused from conducting the defense, not that they desire to evade the labor that will necessarily devolve upon them as defendants, but because they feel they cannot do the prisoner that justice which his case demands.

Gupton swears that he had employed Judge Mulkey to conduct his defense in this case; that the Judge had spent much time in getting up the evidence and preparing for the trial, which he (Gupton) desired to have come off at this term of the court; but that, week before last, Judge Mulkey, who was then in attendance at the Massac County circuit court, was taken seriously ill, and it was found necessary to send him to his home in Cairo, where he has been ever since confined to his room, and consequently unable to be present at this term of the court.  Further, that there has lately come to his knowledge facts which are of great importance to him, and without which he will be unable to have a fair and full hearing when his case comes up for trial.  Gupton says those facts are known to but one person, a negro named Spencer, who is now a porter on an upper Cumberland river steamboat, and that he has not had time to get Spencer here, at this term of court.  He further says, that he is not willing to go to trial now, because the counsel assigned to him by the court are not well enough acquainted with the facts of this case, and could not under these circumstances do him the justice which his case demands.

When the affidavits had been made, Judge Baker took all the papers in the case, and announced that he would announce his decision as to whether he would grant the continuance of the case this evening.
At the re-assembling of court this afternoon, Judge Baker reviewed the affidavits at some length, and announced that the case would stand continued until some time in July or August, when he would call a special term of the court for the special purpose of trying this case.  Tomorrow, I will send you copies of the affidavits on which the continuance was granted.
SX
 
 
Wednesday, 12 May 1875:
Dead.

By the accounts conveyed to us by the newspapers of the various cities, we learn that Joseph Schlitz, the great brewer, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the manufacturer of Schlitz’s Milwaukee lager beer, which is sold by a number of the saloonkeepers of this city, was drowned by the sinking of the steamer Schiller, a few days ago.
 


Thursday, 13 May 1875:
Gupton has again been brought to
Cairo and lodged in the county jail, where he will be compelled to linger until July or August, when a special term of the Johnson County circuit court will be held for the purpose of giving him a trial.
 
 
Wednesday, 19 May 1875:
DEATH OF CAVANAUGH

On the evening of the 26th of April, Marshal Cavanaugh was shot by a drunken man at Murphysboro. He lingered until Wednesday night last, when he died.  On Friday he was buried by the Odd Fellows of which order he had been a member for years.  Three lodges, the Egyptian Fire Company, the City Council, and ministers of the locality, and the citizens generally, followed him to his last resting place.  When the news that all hopes of the wounded man’s recovery had been dissipated became known in the community, his assailant, Pendergast, was removed to the Union County jail by Sheriff Kimball and Deputy Albright, who feared that he would be lynched.
 


Thursday, 20 May 1875:
A WILLIAMSON
COUNTY VENDETTA

Marion, Williamson County, Ills., May 18.—Captain James Murray, of Johnson County, was shot and mortally wounded at 11 o’clock this forenoon by Mr. Ferrel, who lives in the southeastern part of Williamson County.  The shooting was very deliberate.  There was an old grudge, of about one year’s standing, existing between the parties.  Murray had come to Marion on business, and was sitting on a box in front of a store on the public square, when Ferrel approached, drawing a concealed revolver from his sleeve, as he came up.  Murray immediately pulled out his pistol, and five shots were exchanged, one ball entered Murray’s side above the hip joint, and passed through the bladder, inflicting injuries from which he cannot recover.  Three hours later he had made his will, and was sinking fast.  Ferrel was unhurt, although one of Murray’s balls cut a piece out of his coat sleeve.  Ferrel gave himself up at once.
LATER.

Captain Murray, who was shot yesterday by Esquire Ferrel, died at 1 o’clock this morning.

            (The 22 May 1875, Jonesboro Gazette stated that James Murray was shot by Leander Ferrill in Williamson County.—Darrel Dexter)
 


Friday, 21 May 1875:
Man Killed.

The passenger train ran over and killed a man at Charleston, Mo., one day this week.  We could not learn his name.
 


Tuesday, 25 May 1875:
Small Pox.

Sergeant of Police Wooten, who has for some time past been principally employed in looking to the welfare of the small pox patients, tells us that the pest house is now inhabited by eight individuals who are afflicted with the disease, four of whom are convalescent, and will be allowed to take their departure in a few days.  He also informs us that a new case was reported to him, a child by the name of Hudson, living with her parents on Twentieth Street, between Commercial Avenue and Poplar Street.  The Rev. Mr. Caldwell has also been sick for several days past, with a very light attack of varioloid.  He resides on Washington Avenue, near the corner of Fourteenth Street.  Information of another case which has but recently broke out on Walnut Street, was given Mayor Winter yesterday morning, who gave Sergeant Wooten orders to look to it immediately.  The three cases mentioned are the sum of total of cases existing within the city limits.  The negro named Bob Gibson, who was attacked with the disease while residing in the Pilot House, on Washington Avenue, died on Sunday morning, we are told, and was buried during the afternoon of the same day.
 


Wednesday, 26 May 1875:
On Sunday morning last, when the Charles Morgan was just below
Memphis, a deck passenger named Tom Gilbert, who was suffering from the effects of a drunken spree, jumped overboard and was drowned.  On the same day above Osceola, another deck passenger a French man named Clestiers Thevenot, in a fit of insanity, brought on by sickness, sprang overboard and before the yawl could reach him, drowned. 
 


Thursday, 27 May 1875:
Attending Court.

James Anderson, of Mound City, who will act as counsel for the defense in the murder trial of Jack Ross, is in the city, and spends much time with his client.
 
Jack Ross.

Jack Ross, the man who was arrested for killing a negro woman in this city some time ago, was in the court room yesterday, looking exceedingly well.  He seems in the best of spirits, and does not look as if he was at all troubled about being cleared by his council.
 


Friday, 28 May 1875:
Yesterday was occupied by the trial of Andrew J. Ross upon the charge of killing, last March, a woman named Alice Gibb.  At the close of the day all the testimony had been heard and William C. Mulkey, state’s attorney, had opened the argument.  The case will be closed today.

 

 
Saturday, 29 May 1875:
The jury in the case of the People vs. Andrew J. Ross, after listening to a very able argument by Mr. Anderson in the defense of Ross and the reply of the state’s attorney, retired, and in a few minutes returned a verdict of not guilty.
 

 

Tuesday, 1 Jun 1875:
Broke His Neck

A negro man, name unknown, got on the Illinois Central train that left Cairo Sunday afternoon.  He was put off at Mounds Junction, and Villa Ridge and Pulaski, but managed to get on again as the train started.  After the train left Pulaski, when he saw the conductor, he ran to the platform and jumped off and broke his neck.
 


Wednesday, 2 Jun 1875:
Found.

Coroner Gossman was informed by a negro man on Monday afternoon that a child had been seen in the Ohio River, in the upper part of the city.  Upon going to the spot designated a white child was found, which was taken in charge by the officer and buried.  No particulars could be ascertained in regard to the little unfortunate.
 


Friday, 4 Jun 1875:
Very Sick.

A little stepdaughter of Mr. P. Corcoron, who resides in the upper part of the town, near Thirty-fourth Street, is so seriously ill that her life is despaired of, and her death is momentarily looked for.

(Patrick Corcoran married Rosanna Smith on 10 Jul 1873, in Alexander Co., Ill.—Darrel Dexter)
 
Dead Child Found.

Chief of Police Williams was yesterday notified by one of the laborers digging dirt on the Mississippi levee that they had dug out the coffin of a young child.  The chief went to look at the correctness of the statements, and found that a metallic coffin about three feet long, of fine make, containing the body of a little child, supposed to be about two years of age, was the source of the workmen’s excitement.  The clothes of the child were very neatly made and embroidered.  The body is in a very good state of preservation, although it has been buried, undoubtedly, for many months.


Diver John T. Guyre has finished wrecking the steamer St. Luke at St. Charles, Missouri.  While engaged in his work he found the body of one of the Dinan children, and had it decently buried.  He also found the chest and other effects of Mr. Dinan, and notified the owner that they were subject to his order, free of charge.  So says the St. Louis Times.
 


Saturday, 5 Jun 1875:
Suicide by Drowning.

Yesterday about 12 o’clock, a man named James H. Morse, jumped from Phillips’ wharfboat into the Ohio River and was drowned.  From papers left by him, it was rendered very certain that he committed suicide.  One letter was addressed to “Whoever Shall Find This” in which he gave his name and said he had two brothers, one living in Cincinnati and the other near that city.  He requested that a letter enclosed and directed to his brother at Cincinnati should not be interfered with but be forwarded to its address.  In a passbook was a lot of unimportant papers and some railroad passes, several poems clipped from newspapers, one of which was called “Flat Broke.”  Before he committed the act, he took off his coat and hat, which he threw down on the boat.  The poem “Flat Broke” suggests the cause of the act.
 


Sunday, 6 Jun 1875:
Reward.

A liberal reward will be paid for the recovery of the body of John H. Morse, who suicided by throwing himself in the river from Phillips wharfboat on Friday, 4th inst. 
W. M. Williams, C. of P.
 
THE LATE SUICIDE
“Worry of Life”

The suicide of John H. Morse, of Cincinnati, at this city, from the outside guard of Phillips’ wharfboat will be sad news to his mother and brothers residing in Cincinnati.  No one here, save the two colored men who saw him jump overboard, recollects to have seen him in the city.  He came to the outside guard of the boat just after noon and asked these colored men to take him across the river.  They had no skiff and told him they could not do so.  He then very deliberately took off his coat and hat and laid them on the coal box under the steps and saying, “Well, goodbye, George,” sprang far out into the stream and never rose again.  The two negroes were horrified and shouted for help, bringing quite a number of people to the spot.  But they were of no help.  Poor Morse was already drowned.

Chief of Police Capt. Billy Williams, took charge of his coat and hat.  In the pockets of the coat were found a letter directed to Henry C. Morse, No. 82 Pearl Street, Cincinnati, of which the following is a copy:
“Cairo, Ills., June 3, 1875.

To the family Mother and Brothers—You must forgive me.  I don’t try or labor under any aberration of the mind.  I just do it because I am tired of life.  You can look for my body as I shall leave a tag on my person. Give me as cheap a burial as you can.  My love to all, and ask your forgiveness.  From your son and to my brothers,

John H. Morse, 237 Hopkins Street, Cincinnati.”
“P.S.—Keep it for a couple of days before you show it, as I may show up.
John”

In his pocket, also, was an open note which read as follows:

“My name is John H. Morse.  I live at 237 Hopkins Street, below Baymiller.  Also have a brother at Weatherby’s store, at Fifth and Vine streets, and one at Bustion’s 82 Pearl Street.
John H. Morse

I have some clothes around on the levee at Herbert’s saloon.  Whoever gets them can keep them, as they as of little use to me now.
John H. Morse
237
Hopkins street, Cincinnati.”

Capt. Williams made inquiry at Herbert’s Saloon but no clothes had been left there and no one recollects the young man.  He also wrote to Mr. Henry C. Morse, enclosing the letter referred to above.
The colored men who saw the young man, say that he was not under the influence of liquor, nor did he look as though he had been of dissipated habits, and the cause of his desperate act is wrapped in mystery.
 


Tuesday, 8 Jun 1875:
Found.

The body of the man Morse, who committed suicide in this city last Thursday, by jumping into the Ohio River off one of the wharfboats was found at about sunrise yesterday morning, a few yards from where the deed was committed, by a fisherman named John Harrison.  An inquest was held, and the remains given into the care of Chief of Police Williams, who had them embalmed and sent to his brother at Cincinnati.
 
Arrested for Murder

On Saturday afternoon, Sheriff Irvin arrested in this city, a man who is known to many of our citizens by the name of Dick MartinMartin has lived in Cairo for some time past and earned a livelihood by working at the carpenter trade.  When sober, he is said to be a very quiet and peaceable man, but when under the influence of liquor, he is just the reverse.  While in a state of intoxication, a few weeks ago, he went into the tin and stove depot of A. Hally, in this city, and demanded of the shop boy some money, saying that he wanted whisky.  The boy refused to give it to him, when Martin drew a revolver from his pocket, and shot at him, for which offenses he was arrested and tried, but was allowed for some cause to go at liberty.  At another time, within a short time since this little episode, while drunk, Martin made his brags to parties in this city that he had killed his man in his time.  This was reported to Sheriff Irvin, who immediately went to working up Martin’s former history, and fond that there was good reason to believe that he was a murderer, and that his name is not Martin, but Richard Martin Shackleford.  He arrested him on a charge of murdering the marshal of Logan County, Kentucky, by shooting him off of his horse.  Sheriff Irvin left with the prisoner in charge of Deerville, Kentucky, where the deed was done, Sunday afternoon.
 
SELF-DESTRUCTION.
A Prominent Merchant of
Jackson, Tennessee, Kills Himself at the St. Charles.
The Most Mysterious Case of Suicide on Record.
No Reasons Whatever Assigned for the Deed.
Laudanum and Chloroform the Means of Death.
A Thoroughly Premeditated Case of Self-Murder.

Mr. H. S. Brazelton, a prominent citizen and worthy merchant of Jackson, Tennessee, who arrived in this city on Saturday night, committed suicide at the St. Charles Hotel, by taking laudanum and chloroform.  He took the poison on Saturday night, but did not die till yesterday morning at three o’clock.
The whole case is shrouded in the deepest mystery, and is certainly one of the most strange and unaccountable misfortunes that has ever been recorded.

The deceased was a man of about forty-two years of age, sandy complexion, whiskers and mustache and of a fine personal appearance.

Mrs. Brazelton, the wife of the unfortunate man, a lady of refinement and culture, who was sent for on Sunday morning, and arrived in Cairo Sunday night at half past ten o’clock, declares the act of her husband an entirely unaccountable one to her.  To the best of her knowledge his business affairs were in a most flourishing and encouraging condition and nothing so far as domestic affairs are concerned, has ever transpired that would prompt the deceased to such a deed, their married life having proven one of harmony and quietude since their union.  This assertion is fully reiterated by a prominent gentleman of Jackson, who accompanied the lady to this city, a friend of the deceased, who is fully as much as a loss in defining the cause of the suicide.

The particulars of the journey and death of Mr. Brazelton, who started from his home on Saturday morning for this city, as gleaned from those conversant with the whole affair, as are follows:

Mrs. Brazelton states that her husband told her the he intended to come to Cairo to transact some business, a day or two before he started, and that he would be absent for several days, and that when he left home she felt perfectly at ease, believing that all was right.

Capt. Matt. Booker, a passenger conductor on the Mississippi Central railroad, states that Mr. Brazelton got on board his train at Jackson and when he called on him for his ticket the deceased told him he had neglected to buy one at the station, and that he would pay him the fare in money, which he did.  Mr. Booker noticed nothing unusual in the manner of the deceased, and passed on through the car collecting tickets.

When the train arrived at the Illinois Central passenger depot in this city, at half past ten o’clock Saturday night, Mr. Booker got off of the car with the deceased, who asked him where he stopped.  The conductor replied, “at the St. Charles,” and recommended Brazelton to go there, which he promised to do, saying that he would be in Cairo several days, and left Booker on the platform of the station house, going in the direction of the hotel.

Before going to the hotel, however, and after he had the conversation alluded to above with the conductor, he met an attaché of the railroad company, and inquired of him where he could find a drug store.  The attaché referred him to Barclay Brothers’ establishment, and turning around went to that place, where he procured of one of the clerks two ounces of laudanum and an ounce and half of chloroform, and went out.  From here, it is supposed he went straight to the hotel, where he registered his name in a very firm and legible hand, and asked for a room.  The clerk assigned him room No.37, to which he immediately repaired and was not again heard of that night and did not make his appearance for breakfast.

At about eleven o’clock Sunday morning one of the chambermaids went to the door of Brazelton’s room, and tried to open it, to clean the apartment, but found the door fastened on the inside, and heard the deceased groaning.  She at once reported the fact to Mr. Dean, the clerk, who in company with Capt. Booker, went to the room and finding their efforts to get in fruitless, they called one of the negro servants who they put over the transom, and by this means effected an entrance.

When the door was opened, Brazelton was found lying on the bed, with the covers pulled closely over his head.  They were removed and he was found to be insensible, with a handkerchief, saturated with chloroform, held tight against his face.

Upon going to the bureau, the two men discovered a small vial, about half full of chloroform, and a new nickel-plated five-chamber revolver, heavily loaded, which had never been discharged.

Dr. Parker was sent for and immediately went to the hotel and used every possible effort to bring the deceased to life, remaining with him until six o’clock, but failed in his labor.  At six-o’clock Dr. Smith was called in and the two physicians held a consultation, after which they again made fruitless attempts to bring back life, working from that time on until between three and four o’clock yesterday morning, when Brazelton died.

It being known that the deceased purchased two ounces of laudanum, at the same time that he did the chloroform, it is generally supposed that he drank the former on his way from the drug store to the hotel and disposed of the bottle, as the chloroform was the only liquid found in the room.  The label usually put upon the bottles contain poison and sold by druggists had been torn off, and about half of the contents of the bottle were gone when it was found.

The affair has created much talk about the city.  Dr. Smith, who was with the deceased from six o’clock Sunday night until he died, declares that he could not have prescribed a system by which a man could more effectually take his own life than that adopted by Brazelton, and that, in his opinion, the deed was cool planned and premeditated, and that he came to his city for the purpose of carrying out his plan.

The sorrow exhibited by the poor grief-stricken wife is indeed heartrending to witness, notwithstanding the unceasing efforts to pacify and the kindness bestowed upon her by Mrs. Wilcox and other ladies of the St. Charles.  The remains were embalmed and sent by express yesterday to Jackson where they will be interred.
 


Wednesday, 9 Jun 1875:
Lived in
Cairo.

Sometime ago a man of the name of G. K. Hall was killed at Quincy.  We learn from the Macomb Eagle, that in 1861 he arrived in Cairo with a military band, and leaving it here, engaged in business in this city.
 


Thursday, 10 Jun 1875:
From the New Orleans Times we learn with regret of the death of Capt. Thomas N. Jacobs, of
Shreveport, La., which occurred at Moscow, Polk County, Texas, on the 30th of last months.  Captain Jacobs was a steamboat clerk well known on the rivers.
 


Friday, 11 Jun 1875:
Returned.

Officer John Sheehan, who took Dick Martin alias Richard Martin Shackleford, to Deerville, Kentucky, returned on Wednesday afternoon.  He says Martin is the right man, and that he left him in the charge of the authorities at Russelville.
 
The body of a woman is reported to have been found in the river several miles below this city, Wednesday afternoon.  From a ring and other jewelry, it is thought to be the body of a woman of the town named Mollie Wood, who has been missing for several days.
 


Wednesday, 16 Jun 1875:
ILLINOIS WIFE MURDERING

Wife-killing has been no uncommon amusement in Illinois for some time past.  Several husbands have been hung in the state at recent periods, for anticipating the course of nature in the case of their wives and sending them to eternity in advance of their time.  Next Friday, Paris, Illinois, will punish, by hanging a man named Casey for murdering his wife, and Joliet will probably do the same thing.

Henry Jacobs is now an inmate of the county jail at Joliet.  Henry has been placed in jail for chopping his wife into several pieces, putting her into a box and burying the box in one of his own cornfields.  Mrs. Jacobs had been missing for some days, and the discovery of her body was the result of a search instituted by the neighbors of the family.  The murdered woman was the second wife of Jacobs and their domestic life had been stormy.
 
Drowned.

We learn from a letter received in this city yesterday morning, that on Saturday evening, while two men were crossing the Ohio River at a point just opposite Mound City, the skiff in which they were seated turned over, throwing them both into the stream, and, before assistance could be rendered one of them, whose name we could not learn was drowned.  He was employed, it is said, on a snag boat lying at the Mound City wharf.  A liberal reward will be paid by the captain of the boat for the recovery of the body,
 
 
Thursday, 17 Jun 1875:
Died.

In this city, on the 16th inst., of rheumatism of the heart, Maggie Nash, aged ten years.  Funeral today from the residence of her father, Thomas Nash, Nineteenth Street and Commercial Avenue.  Friends of the family invited to attend.
 


Friday, 18 Jun 1875:
A Reward.

By a telegram received at 6:45 p.m., the 16th last, I am authorized to offer a large reward for the recovery of the body of the man who was drowned, or supposed to have been drowned, near Mound City, on Monday, the 14th inst.  For further information enquire of W. M. Williams, Chief of Police.
 


Sunday, 20 Jun 1875:
John Casey was hung at
Paris, in this state on Friday for the murder of his wife.  Gov. Beveridge declined to interfere.  A few days before his death Casey wrote a letter to his son and daughter, protesting his innocence.  He warned them against the evils of strong drink, and wound up his letter by asserting his conviction that they would all meet in heaven around the throne of God.
 
Drowned.

One of the saddest occurrences that has fallen to our lot to chronicle happened yesterday afternoon about four o’clock.  A little seven-year-old daughter of Mr. Thomas Foley, who resides on Twentieth Street, took a bucket and went to the cistern to fill it with water.  While attempting to draw the water, she lost her balance and fell into the cistern, and drowned before assistance could reach her.
 
Recovered.

Chief of Police Williams informs us that the remains of Charles Eckbaum, the young man who was drowned near Mound City, at the foot of Cache Island, last Saturday, was recovered on Friday evening, near Belmont, about twenty miles below this city.
 
Small Pox in Anna

The small pox, which has disappeared from among the people of Cairo, has found its way to Anna, and is said to be prevailing to an alarming extent in that village.  It was carried to that city by a party of movers, who camped in the woods bordering the town, and who went among the citizens daily to buy provisions.  Mr. James J. Toler, the City Marshal of Anna, was in Cairo, on Friday, for the purpose of hiring nurses who understand taking care of small pox patients, to go with him to Anna, and take charge of those who needed attention, and took with him three persons to fill that capacity.  Several deaths have occurred within the past week.

(The 26 Jun 1875, Jonesboro Gazette reported that Mrs. Kesterson died of small pox at Anna on 23 Jun 1875.  The 3 Jul 1875, Jonesboro Gazette reported that Mr. Wrayburn, of Anna, died of small pox on 31 Jun 1875.—Darrel Dexter)
 


Tuesday, 22 Jun 1875:
Funerals.

The funeral of Mrs. Louisa Wetzel, wife of Mr. William Wetzel, proprietor of the Grand Central Hotel, took place yesterday morning, and was largely attended. 

The funeral of Mr. Elliot took place from the Methodist church yesterday morning, and was attended by a large number of friends and acquaintances.
 


Wednesday, 23 Jun 1875:
Funeral Notice.

Died, yesterday, aged 1 year and 16 days, Rose, infant daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. M. McGauley.  The funeral will take place today from the residence on Division Street at 10:30 a.m.  The remains will be buried at Villa Ridge.  Train will leave foot of Twentieth Street at 11 a.m.  Friends and acquaintances of the parents respectfully invited to attend.
 
OBITUARY.
Mrs. William Wetzel.

On Sunday last, Louisa, wife of William Wetzel, one of our most highly esteemed citizens, died in childbirth.

Mrs. Wetzel was a marked woman.  She had in her character more of the elements of true womanhood than many of her sex.  Not masculine in thought or manner, an affectionate wife and most tender mother, yet she was equal to all the emergencies of life, and in difficulties of business rose with the occasion, displaying as much tact and ability as is ever seen in man.  Without losing the peculiarities that make her sex attractive, she walked abreast with the world, and won prosperity for her family by being indeed a helpmeet to her husband in all the relations of life.  The allurement of fashion and society never won her from domestic duty and yet there was never a more cheerful-hearted woman born.  She was at once the supporter and the encourager of those about her.  When impediments were obtruded into her path, she did not complain, she removed them; when clouds were above, she spoke words of hope and told of the sunshine that was behind and that would finally drive them away.  In distress she was cheerful, in prosperity retiring.

At Mound City, where she was most intimately known, her loss is mourned by everybody.  There, during her long residence, she was to many a stricken household an angel of kindness.  Where distress was, there shone the smile of this kind woman and was heard her encouraging voice.  Where sickness was, her kind hand ministered at the bedside.  Poverty blessed her also, and contentment and wealth respected her for her goodness.

To herself her death was not unexpected.  Sunday before last, there was a wedding at her house, and she said—not complainingly, but in a tone that left the impression she believed her own words:  “Today, you have a wedding here; next Sunday you will have a funeral.”  And, before her death, with all the calmness of health and assured long life, she gave directions respecting the disposure of her remains and her house and family.  She died without a reproach in eye or upon lip, as she had lived, a dutiful wife, affectionate mother and true woman

Upon her husband, who worshipped her, the event of her death has fallen like a lightning stroke.  Himself one of the most tenderhearted and best of men, he was happily mated in this good woman; and now, almost instantly, he is deprived of her support and love—left alone in the world, with a young daughter and son.  At present, he is prostrated upon a bed of sickness and anguish.  He has in his misery the sympathy of his many friends, who mourn with him over his great loss.  But not in such prostration is the memory of such a woman most honored, but in that earnest work, acting of body and mind, which so eminently distinguished her.  She believed that life was real and earnest, and those who would praise her best, will thus regard life, and by active work in society, help, as she did, to make those about her contented and happy, and those whole world better and bigger-hearted.
 
 
Friday, 25 Jun 1875:
MURDER IN
MASSAC COUNTY.

A ruffian named Smith, who has kept Pope County in fear for a year or two, murdered, in cold blood, a young man named Littlemeyer, at a “house-warming” which took place about twelve miles east of Metropolis, near the Pope County line, a few days ago.  Smith had interrupted the dancing by throwing a piece of plank among the dancers; Littlemeyer had walked up to him and laid his hand on Smith’s shoulder, in a remonstrative manner.  Smith said:  “Do you know who you are fooling with?” and Littlemeyer replied, “Why Charlie Smith, of course,” and walked away.  A few moments after, Smith went up to Littlemeyer, and holding out his hand said:  “Amos, I have nothing against you; let’s shake hands and be friends.”  Littlemeyer proffered his right hand to Smith and the dastard, taking hold of it with a firm grip, stabbed his victim to death with a ten-inch bowie knife.

In the excitement which followed, Smith made good his escape.  But the people of the vicinity are engaged in a vigorous search for him, and threats are made that if found, there will be no complaints of the law’s delay in his case.  Smith has killed several men, and cutting with a knife is a favorite amusement with him.
 
Called Home.

Capt. Atkins, who will take charge of the new transfer steamer Junius S. Morgan, was called to his home in St. Charles, Missouri, yesterday, by the sudden death of his child.
 


Saturday, 26 Jun 1875:
To Be Hung.

The negro King, who has been on trial at Charleston, Missouri, for the murder of another negro, sometime during last winter, was sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead.  The evidence in the case is said to have been very one-sided, showing that the murder was a coolly planned premeditated one from beginning to end.  It seems that King and his victim during the day of the murder, had engaged in a quarrel, and that King, after the quarrel had been settled, and on the night of the same day it occurred, sent a woman to the murdered man’s house to tell him to come out, and when he appeared in the door King plunged a large knife into his heart, killing him instantly.  King will expiate his crime on the 13th of August.
 
We regret to learn that Mr. E. P. Haines, Jr., a son of Mr. E. P. Haines at Smithland, met with an accident day before yesterday, which, it is feared, will prove fatal.  He was thrown from a horse, and falling upon his head, received terrible injuries.  His brother, Mr. John Haines, a clerk in the house of Capt. G. D. Williamson and Miss Mattie Williamson left for Smithland on the Thompson Dean being called thither by the sad news.
 


Sunday 27 Jun 1875:
Suicide.

Last night at 11 o’clock, a tall German dressed in dark clothes, jumped into the river from the stern of the Cairo city wharfboat, and was drowned.  Several parties, hearing the plunge in the water, ran to his assistance; one man held an oar to him, and another shoved out a ladder, but he would not accept the proffered help and after floating to the ferry dock sank to rise no more.  He had been heard to enquire for a boat going to St. Louis several times, and was twice warned by the watchman on the wharfboat to keep off the guard as his actions were a little suspicious, but owing to the darkness a close description could not be obtained.

 

 

Friday, 2 Jul 1875:
Died.

Yesterday at ten o’clock a.m., Margaretta, youngest child of Valentine and Elizabeth Resch, aged eighteen months.  Funeral notice in another column.

(Valentine Resch married Elizabeth Klein on 26 Dec 1870, in Alexander Co., Ill.—Darrel Dexter)
 
Funeral Notice.

The funeral services of the child of Valentine Resch will be held in St. Patrick’s Church, corner Ninth Street, at 1 o’clock p.m., today.  The remains will be taken to Villa Ridge on the passenger train at 2:30 p.m.  Extra cars will be provided and all friends of the family and others are invited to attend the funeral.  The funeral train will return at 6:30.
 


Wednesday, 7 Jul 1875:
FROM
VIENNA, ILL.
A Quarrel and Its Fatal Results

Vienna, Ills., July 5, 1875

ED. BULLETIN—Virgil Brook, engineer at Chapman & Hess’ mill at Forman, in this (Johnson) county, and a man named D. Y. Davis, an employee at Crain & Bush’s stave factory, quarreled on Saturday last.  Davis left after the first round, and after arming himself with a huge butcher knife, returned to where Brook was, and renewed the fight.  Some high words passed, when Davis drew the knife and plunged it into Brook’s side the full length of the blade, inflicting a mortal wound.  Davis was arrested and brought before Esquire Boyd at Vienna today for a preliminary hearing.  The case, however, was continued until Monday next to wait the result of Brook’s wound.  Davis is said to boast that this is not his first victim—that he has killed two men and one woman before.  While in court today he did not seem much concerned about his future.  He is a villainous looking rascal, and from all the surroundings of the case stands a good chance of hanging.

I will send full particulars when the preliminary examination has been held.
SCX.
 
DIABOLISM.
A Fiendish Crime Perpetrated at O’Fallon.
The Ravisher and Murderer Likely to Meet a Speedy Doom.

One of the most diabolical and fiendish crimes that has ever been chronicled in the State of Illinois, was perpetrated at O’Fallon, on Sunday morning about one o’clock, the intelligence of which cast a gloom over that usually quiet place, at which there were a great number in attendance, both old and young.  Among the party were Jacob Schmidt, wife and little daughter, seven years of age.  Attached to the hotel where the ball was given is a garden, and the children were allowed to enjoy themselves while the older people were dancing.

At about one o’clock, Mr. Schmidt and wife prepared to go home and went into the garden for their daughter.  One of the children stated that little Lizzie has gone off a little time before with a man.  This aroused the fears of the parents and with the assistance of others they immediately began a search for the child.  About one hundred yards from the hotel and in the yard of Dr. Bates, was found the body of the unfortunate little Lizzie, her person having been brutally outraged.

From what could be gleaned, it would appear that the brute in human form enticed the child away from the ball and after carrying out his hellish designs strangled her to death and threw her body over the fence into the yard of Dr. Bates, with the intention that it should fall into a pond close by.

When the news became known the excitement and wrath of the people was intense.  A man who had made himself obnoxious during the evening to several ladies, and who all at once was missing, was immediately suspected of the horrible crime; and if he could have been caught a speedy death would have been his.  A search was made through the town but with no success.  Telegrams were sent to East St. Louis, giving a description of the suspected fiend.

Yesterday morning, Edward Oatman, of O’Fallon, came down to East St. Louis on the Ohio and Mississippi train, and when he arrived at Caseyville he saw a man get aboard whom he at once suspected as being the perpetrator of the crime.  Arriving at East St. Louis, the man jumped off before getting to the depot.  When the depot was reached, Oatman informed Officer Coffey of the circumstance, and pointed out the man, and he was immediately arrested.  He gave his name as James Hogan, and though first denying having been at O’Fallon, he at last admitted that he was there.  His shirt was bloody on the right shoulder, a circumstance that he could not explain away.

Last night Constable Evans came down and took him to O’Fallon, where the excitement was so great that it was with great difficulty that the officers could prevent the populace from taking the law into their own hands.  The last intelligence from there was that the man was being examined before the coroner’s jury and the probability was that he would be shown to be the fiend who had committed this horrible crime.
 
Died.

On the morning of the 5th instant, Samuel P. Wheeler, Jr., aged eight months.  Funeral from the residence, corner Eleventh and Walnut streets, at 9 o’clock a.m., Wednesday, July 7th. Train will leave the foot of Tenth Street for Beech Grove Cemetery at 10 a.m.
 


Thursday, 8 Jul 1875:
They have a
Williamson County in Kentucky which aspires to be as bad as ours.  On the 3d of July, at the Cross Roads, in that county, David Knox emptied two loads of buckshot at the Cross brothers, missing them.  They returned the fire and killed him.  The telegram to the Courier Journal says:  “This is the third violent death at that point within the past three months.  Altogether twenty persons, first and last, have been killed there.”
 
 
Friday, 9 Jul 1875:
Funeral Notice.

Died, yesterday, Ellen Augusta Gorman, infant daughter of Timothy and Annie Gorman, aged 11 months.  The funeral will take place from the residence of her parents on Twenty-first Street, near Walnut, at 9 o’clock, and proceed from there to St. Patrick’s Church, at 10 o’clock.  A special train will leave the foot of Eighth Street to carry the remains to Villa Ridge.  Friends and acquaintances are respectfully invited to attend.

(A marker in Calvary Cemetery at Villa Ridge reads:  Ellen A. Gorman 1874-1875 Daughter.—Darrel Dexter)
 


Saturday, 10 Jul 1875:
Drowned.

From Mr. A. F. Hallerbury, of Mound City, we learn that on Thursday evening, about four o’clock, little Charlie Nenninger, aged ten years, a son of Mrs. Nenninger, who keeps an ice-cream saloon in that place, was drowned in Trinity slough.  The particulars of the unfortunate occurrence as related to us by Mr. Hallerbury are, that the lad, who has been in the habit of going out to drive home the cow in the evening, started out as usual, found the cow, and was on his way home with her.  When he arrived at Trinity slough, a pond or creek, a short distance from Mound City, he sat down to fish and left the cow to go home alone, where she was attended to as usual by one of the member of the family.  Night came, but nothing was seen or heard of the lad, and at ten o’clock he was still absent.  A number of citizens were apprised of the boy’s nonappearance, and went in search of him.  When the party arrived at Trinity slough, his hat was discovered lying on the shore, and the truth soon made itself manifest, when upon dragging the slough, the remains of the boy were found.  The supposition is that he slipped into the water and was unable to again reach the shore.
 


Sunday, 11 Jul 1875:
We regret to learn that Pilot Mike Kelly of this city, a most estimable young man, has got into serious trouble, and we hope that his action may prove to have been in self-defense.  If the injured man dies, it will be only another life sacrificed on the altar of whisky.  Mike, who is pilot of the Nail City, and another pilot named John Sullivan, of the steamer Barnard, had some words on the streets in Cincinnati, last Thursday, as to the handling of their respective boats, during which Sullivan caught hold of Kelly with the intention of doing him harm.  Kelly drew a knife and cut Sullivan several times, inflicting, it is feared, dangerous wounds.  Kelly was arrested and lodged in jail on the charge of malicious cutting.  He claims that he did the cutting in self-defense.
 
 
Tuesday, 13 Jul 1875:
To Hang.

One month from today, on the thirteenth of August, Bill King, the negro murderer of Charleston, Missouri, will expiate his crime on the gallows for the murder of a negro man named Sam Grace.

 
Wednesday, 14 Jul 1875:
Small Pox

According to the report made to the city council by the board of health, at their last regular meeting, there have been, since the breaking out of small pox, over thirty cases, fifteen of whom were taken care of at the hospital.  Five of these died at the hospital and ten were discharged having been cured.
 
 
Thursday, 15 Jul 1875:
HAD HIS TRIAL.

Davis, the man who stabbed Virgil Brook, at Forman on Saturday, July 3d, had a preliminary hearing before Justice of the Peace Buyt, today, and was held to bail in the sum of $1,500 for his appearance at the next term of the circuit court.  He could not give the required bond and was sent to jail.  Brook is still alive, but it is impossible for him to recover.  I am told by Col. Miller of Forman, that Squire Davidson, of that place, received a letter a day or two ago from the sheriff of Shelby County, Indiana, inquiring for Davis, and stating that he is wanted there for the murder of his mother-in-law.  Davis is a hard man, and deserves hanging as much as any man in the world.
 
Resolutions of Respect.

At a special meeting of the Cairo St. Patrick’s Benevolent Society, the following resolutions were adopted, viz:

WHEREAS, It has pleased Almighty God to remove from our midst, by the unsparing hand of death, our worthy and beloved brother Lawrence J. Byrne; therefore be it

Resolved, It has pleased Almighty God to remove from our midst, by the unsparing hand of death, our worthy and beloved brother, Lawrence J. Byrne, therefore be it

Resolved, That while bending in heartfelt submission to the ways of the Almighty, we are led to hope that our departed brother has found a place in heaven, through the mercy of God.

Resolved, That by his death this Society has lost one of its most faithful and devoted members, whose whole object was the welfare and propagation of the Cairo St. Patrick’s Benevolent Society, and whose guiding star has always been devotedness to his now widow and orphans, duty to God, friendship, unity and true Christian charity to his brother members and fellowmen.

Resolved, That to the family of our deceased brother we extend our deepest sympathy, and while we know that their loss on earth is irreparable indeed, they have at least the consoling hope that he has gone to a better and happier world.

Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing resolutions be presented to the family of the deceased, and entered at large on the minutes of this Society, and also published in the I. C. B. Union Journal and the Cairo Bulletin.
P. Mockler,
Robert West,
John M. Hogan, Committee on Resolutions

(Lawrence J. Byrne married Mary Ann Bradey on 2 Jun 1863, in Alexander Co., Ill.—Darrel Dexter)
 
 
Saturday, 17 Jul 1875:
Funeral Notice.

Died, yesterday, Katinka, infant daughter of Louis and Eliza Herbert.  Funeral will take place at 3 o’clock p.m.  Train will leave foot of Eighth Street at 3 o’clock, sharp.  Friends of the family invited.
 


Tuesday, 20 Jul 1875:
DEAD.

Mr. Henry Dinkel, the well-known saloon proprietor of this city, who for some months past has been very sick, died yesterday morning at two o’clock.
 
Bailed Out.

Smith, the man who was on trial at Charleston, Missouri, recently, charged with having murdered his illegitimate child, and who narrowly escaped hanging—the jury standing eleven to one in favor of hanging him—has been released from the Mississippi County jail on ten thousand dollars bail.  Mr. T. Bird, a gentleman well known in this city, going on his bond for that amount.
 


Wednesday, 21 Jul 1875:
Died.

In this city yesterday at 3 p.m., Jacob Lehning, father of Jacob and Phillip Lehning, aged 73 years.  The friends of the family are invited to meet at the house of Phillip Lehning, No. 104 Commercial Avenue, at half past two p.m. today (Wednesday).  Funeral train will leave foot of Sixth Street at 3 p.m. for Villa Ridge, where the remains will be interred.
 
Buried.

The remains of Henry Dinkel were interred at Beech Grove Cemetery, yesterday afternoon.  The funeral services were attended by the Delta City Cornet Band and a large number of friends.
 
Resolutions of Respect.

At a meeting of Arab Fire Company No. 2, held at their hall July 20th, 1875, the following preambles and resolutions were unanimously adopted:

WHEREAS, It has pleased the Supreme Ruler of the Universe to summon from his labors upon earth, our beloved brother, Henry Dinkel, calling him by His omnipotent will to that judgment which awaits all who are toiling on this world below; and

WHEREAS, The brotherly ties which have so long bound us in mutual friendship and enjoyment to our departed friend, are severed, no more to be united until the day the grave shall yield up its dead; therefore

Resolved, That we earnestly sympathize with the relatives and friends of our deceased brothers, and ender them that consolation which the world can neither give nor take away; and that we will wear the usual badge and wrap our hall in mourning for the space of thirty days.

Resolved, That a copy of this preamble and resolutions be sent to the family of our deceased brother and inserted in the city papers.
J. C. Huels,
Wood Rittenhouse,
Z. D. Mathuss, Committee on Resolutions


 
Thursday, 22 Jul 1875:
Card of Thanks.

Mr. Editor—Permit me, through your columns, to return my heartfelt thanks to the members of the Arab Fire Company, the Cairo Casino, and the citizens of Cairo, for the noble and generous assistance they rendered to me in the burial of my late husband, Henry Dinkel, and let me assure them that I shall ever remember them with a grateful heart.  Respectfully,
Mrs. Elizabeth Dinkel
 
Thanks.

Mr. Editor—We desire to return our sincere thanks to the numerous citizens of Cairo for the kind and generous assistance rendered us during the sickness, death and burial of our father, Jacob Lehning, and to assure them that their many kindnesses will never be forgotten.
Jacob Lehning
Phillip Lehning
 
A Sorrowing Parent.

Judge Alexander C. Hodges, of Unity, is mourning the loss of his youngest son, Robert L., aged four years and ten months.  A bright, intelligent little lad, obedient and affectionate, he was the idol of his home and the pet of the neighborhood.  The old gentleman, utterly bowed down with grief, commands the sympathy of all who are cognizant of the cause of his sorrow.  The little fellow died on the 15th inst., of a congestive chill.

 

 

Sunday, 25 Jul 1875:
Engineer Shot.

The engineer of the 13, on the Narrow Gauge, was shot by an unknown person last night, about 9 o’clock.  The ball entered his left breast and came out behind.  We could learn no particulars.  The man was still alive at last accounts.
 
Died.

In this city, on Friday afternoon at 3 o’clock, of convulsions, Willie, son of Mr. and Mrs. Al. Sloo, aged 19 months.  Little Willie was a most interesting and loveable child, the pride and joy of his parents and his death will leave a void in their hearts, which will take long years to fill.  His death was very sudden, as he had only been ailing since Tuesday morning.  Mrs. Sloo was absent at Hot Springs, and was notified by telegraph of her son’s illness on Friday, but was unable to reach here before his death.  We sincerely sympathize with the parents and trust that time, the healer of all sorrows, will assuage their grief, especially when they know that in that bright world to which little Willie’s soul has winged its flight, he is much better off than in their world of care and trouble.
 
Funeral Notice.

Died, on Friday afternoon, Willie A., son of W. A. and Abbie M. Sloo, aged eighteen months.  Funeral services at the residence on Washington Avenue, near corner of Seventh Street, Sunday morning at 9 o’clock.  Train will leave foot of Sixth Street for Beech Grove Cemetery at 10 o’clock.
 
We regret to learn that the infant son of George and Elizabeth Lohr died on Friday afternoon and was buried yesterday.  The parents have the sympathy of their many friends and acquaintances in their bereavement.

(George Lohr married Catherine E. Rayman on 27 May 1866, in Alexander Co., Ill.—Darrel Dexter)

 

ATTEMPTED MURDER

Jacob Suttar, a Railroad Engineer, Mistook by John Hutchinson for Another Party and Is Seriously Wounded—The Would-Be Murderer Makes Good His Escape.

            Last Saturday night, between nine and ten o’clock, John Suttar, engineer of No. 13, on the Cairo and St. Louis narrow gauge railroad, was shot and it is supposed fatally wounded by a young man named John Hutchinson, near the turntable of the narrow gauge road in this city.

            The particulars of the bloody tragedy are, as we gleaned them from parties most concerned with the facts in the case, as follows:

            For some time past, a sister of Hutchinson, has been receiving attention of another employee of the narrow gauge company, for whom her brother has a great dislike.  Young Hutchinson was not at all backward in making known to the party his ill will toward him, and told him some three weeks ago, we are informed, that he would kill him if he ever saw him in his sister’s company again.

            It seems that Nellie, Hutchinson’s sister, has been in the habit of going to the neighborhood of the turntable, where the deed was committed, to meet her friend, whose name is Miller, and chat with him, and on Saturday night, as she had done before, she went to the trysting place, and it so happened Suttar was there engaged in working on his engine.  He had completed his task and sat down on the railing to rest, just as the girl came up, and she, thinking it was Miller, sat down beside him and began talking.
They had not been together but a few moments, when her bother made his appearance and said:  “Is that you, Nellie?”  The girl answered, “Yes” and John, thinking as his sister had, that it was Miller who was sitting beside her, began using offensive and profane language to him, when Suttar, wholly ignorant of the intention of
Hutchinson, made a movement as if to get up.  Hutchinson immediately raised an old style Colt’s revolver and fired, the ball striking Suttar between the right breastbone and the collarbone, passing entirely through him and coming out of his back.

            Suttar, notwithstanding his wound, rushed at Hutchinson, grappled with him and knocked him down, and secured the revolver, when he became very weak from the loss of blood and the pain of the wound, and fell across the railing of the tracks, where he was found.

            Hutchinson fled, and has not, up to this time, been seen or heard of, though it is supposed that he is in the neighborhood of Island No. 1, below this city.

            Suttar, who has a wife and child residing in Murphysboro, and who were expected to arrive in this city yesterday, was taken to the Mechanics’ Hotel, in the lower part of town, where he now lies in a critical condition.  He is spoken of by his acquaintances as a quiet, inoffensive man, who attended solely to his own business, and was devoted to his family.  He is about twenty-seven years of age.

            Hutchinson, his would-be murderer, is a mere boy, being but eighteen years old, and is well known in this city.


 
Thursday, 29 Jul 1875:
Died.

Yesterday morning, at 4 o’clock, Charlie, son of Louis and Margaret Blattau, aged nine months.  Funeral today at half past 3 o’clock, sharp.  Funeral train will leave corner Eighth Street at 3 o’clock.  Friends of the family invited.
 


Friday, 30 Jul 1875:
Card of Thanks.

Mr. and Mrs. Blattau return heartfelt thanks to their friends in Cairo for the assistance and sympathy extended them during their late misfortune in the loss and burial of their little son, and to assure them they will ever be remembered with gratitude.
 
THE WILLIAMSON VENDETTA.
Another Victim of the Most Bloody Business.
Cold-Blooded Assassination of Capt. Sisney at
Carbondale.

Carbondale, Ill., July 29, 1875

Editor Bulletin—Another victim of the Bulliner-Russell feud has been hurried into eternity, and the sense of the butchery has been transferred from the bloody fields of Williamson County to the quiet and peaceful village of Carbondale.  Last night, about 10 o’clock, Capt. George W. Sisney was shot and instantly killed in the parlor of his dwelling, situated on the northeast corner of the public square, in this place.  The circumstances of the murder I will try to detail after a few explanatory lines.

You heretofore published to your readers that Capt. Sisney was identified with the Russels in this seeming war of extermination.  He had trouble with the Bulliners several years ago, and in a fight struck one of them with a spade, injuring him instantly.  The Bulliners rallied, followed him home, where another fight ensued, in which the latter was wounded by a rifle bullet.  In September or October last an attempt was made on the life of Sisney by men secreted in a cornfield near his barn.  It was early morning and Sisney was going to his barn, to attend to his horses.  The men attempted to fire on him, but the caps on their guns were damp and did not explode.  His life seemed providentially saved.  I think it was on Christmas Eve last, that another attempt was made, and was nearly successful.  Sisney was entertaining young Mr. Hindman at his residence.  The two men were engaged in a game of dominoes when the assassin fired on them through the window.  Hindman was severely wounded, and Sisney almost fatally.  Sisney partially recovered, but lost the use of one arm.  He listened to the advice of his friends, put a tenant on his farm and removed to Carbondale.  Here he opened a grocery and provision store at the place above indicated, a storehouse and dwelling combined.  He had been in business for several months, did a fair trade, and seemed to feel entirely safe.  His age was forty-five years.  He was the captain of Company G, 81st Illinois Infantry, and wounded at the famous charge of McClernand’s corps on the works of Vicksburg, May 22d, 1863.

Last evening was dark and wet.  Capt. Sisney was not feeling well.  He closed his store early and retired to bed.  The train on the I. C. R. R., due here at 5:45 p.m. was delayed until about 8.  On this train came a Mr. Oberly Stanley, a resident of the southeast part of Williamson County.  Some years ago a brother of Mr. Stanley was killed at the polls on Election Day in Williamson County.  The gentleman of whom I now speak is the administrator on his brother’s estate, with Capt. Sisney as one of his bondsmen.  He came upon the train, but on arriving found Sisney’s store closed.  He talked with a number of parties, explained his business and ascertained that Sisney lived in the building adjoining the store.  He proceeded thither and called Sisney up.  While the two men were talking a charge of buckshot was fired and Sisney was killed instantly.

I have been to considerable pains to trace up the connection Mr. Stanley had with the murder.  At first a strong feeling was against him, but at this writing he is generally believed to be innocent of any complicity.  He and Sisney have been friends for twenty years.  The muzzle of the gun was not more than ten or twelve feet from the victim when the shot was fired.  The assassin did his work completely, and up to this time no clue is had to the perpetrator.  Our town is paralyzed.  That a cold-blooded, premeditated murder should be perpetrated in our midst at so early an hour in the evening, and that the murderer should escape, is astonishing.  However, all that could or can be has been or is now being done.  As I write the coroner’s inquest is being held, but I presume nothing more than I have recited will be disclosed.  Should anything be developed I will inform you.
B
 


Saturday, 31 Jul 1875:
ONCE MORE!
WILLIAMSON COUNTY ON THE WARPATH AGAIN
George W. Cisney Assassinated at
Carbondale.
Full and Correct Account of the Bloody Deed.

(From the
Jonesboro Gazette)
Carbondale, July 29, 1875

            Ed. Gazette:  Your readers are familiar with the name of George W. Cisney, as this is the third time I have reported his attempted assassination within the past twelve months.  This time they completed their hellish design as the following statements show:

Mr. Cisney, for his own safety, was compelled to abandon his farm in Williamson County, and left there as soon as he had sufficiently recovered from wounds he received from would-be assassins last fall.  He moved his family to this place in January last, and opened a grocery and provision store.  Last night he closed his store at about 8 o’clock and went into his house, which was a part of the building occupied by the store.  He retired about half past 8, the family going to bed at the same time.  About 9 o’clock an old friend from Johnson County, by the name of Stanly, called him up to transact some important business.  They were seated in the front room and had conversed for about half an hour, when Mr. Cisney informed his friend that they had better retire.  Those words had scarcely passed his lips when the assassin fired, it is supposed with a double-barreled shotgun, through the wire screen which occupied the lower half of the sash.  The entire charge of shot took effect in Cisney’s right side, severing the 5th and 6th ribs, leaving a ghastly wound of at least four inches in diameter, the right lung and liver being visible and particles protruding through the wound.

The effect of the shot extinguished the only light burning in the house.  Mr. Stanly says that he was very much shocked by the shot, and that Cisney spoke but once, saying, “Oh Lord, I am shot!”  He (Stanley) remained quiet for about five minutes expecting every moment that the parties would break into the house.  It being very dark in the room, and he a stranger in the house, he dare not move for some time.  When he informed the daughter that her father was shot, she at once shrieked and gave the alarm.  The neighbors began to gather as fast as possible, but it was at least twenty minutes before they had sufficient force to assist the family to look after the assassins.

It is evident that at least two persons were engaged in the murder, as there were fresh and plain tracks leaving the house—one in sock feet and the other barefooted.  They separated at an alley, one going north and the other south.  They kept the alleys for some distance and were tracked until they met again near Graham’s Mill, in the east part of the city.  There all traces of the parties were lost, and up to the present moment all is enveloped in mystery.  There will be an inquest held this morning at 9 o’clock, and if any important developments are made, I will telegraph you. 

Mr. Cisney was highly respected by our citizens.  All who had the pleasure of making his acquaintance since he came among us, looked upon him as one of our best citizens, and join their sympathy with his family, in this their dark and sad hour of bereavement.
Whiz.
 
The Murder of Capt. Cisney

The murder of Capt. Cisney, which was committed in such a bold manner at Carbondale, on Wednesday evening, by some member of the Williamson County bandits, has created considerable talk in this city.  It is considered here as a lasting disgrace upon the whole of Southern Illinois, and the question asked by all is, how long are these outrages to be perpetrated upon the citizens of his portion of the state, without some action being taken by the State authorities to put a stop to them?  Even the most innocent are not safe while the perpetrators of these cruel crimes are at large.
 


Tuesday, 3 Aug 1875:
STILL ANOTHER

Our Carbondale correspondent gives us the particulars of the assassination of Spence, another victim of Williamson County bloodthirstiness. Gov. Beveridge will probably continue to sleep.
 
BLOODY
WORK AGAIN.
Another Murder in
Williamson County, and Another Attempted Assassination.
Spence of Crainville Killed and Baker, a Desperado Shot and Missed.
How Long Will The Bloody Work Go On?

Carbondale, Ill., August 2, 1875

EDITOR BULLETIN—The horror produced upon the public mind by the bloody taking off of Capt. Sisney had scarcely begun to abate, when the news was received that Mr. William Spence, living at Crainville, had been assassinated.  Mr. Spence has been a resident of Williamson County for about eight years.  For a time he was an extensive farmer, owning several large tracts of land, and largely engaged in raising stock.  Without doubt he was quite wealthy.  He was a Scotsman by birth, and was believed to have come from Canada.  He has a brother now living in Montreal.  He is an unmarried man.  Sometime since he disposed of his stock and most of his land and farming equipments, and engaged in a general mercantile business at Crainville station, on the railroad, about midway between Carbondale and Marion.
Mr. Spence usually boarded and lodged at a boarding house near the store.  But on Saturday night he concluded to remain at the store during the night.  Between nine and ten, after he had retired, he was called up, and while in the act of putting on his shoes, was shot dead.  As usual, the shooting was done through a window.  After completing their bloody work, the assassins broke through the door into the store.  Whether they carried off anything of value is not yet known.  It is not believed that the murder was for the purpose of robbery, but that the breaking in was simply to leave the impression that money or booty was the object.  Although two or three persons heard the voices of the men while calling for Mr. Spence, and the firing of the gun was heard by many, nothing apparently was thought of the circumstances, and the murder was not discovered until after daylight yesterday morning.  Some of his neighbors passed the store at
six o’clock.  Seeing the doors and window broken open they at once proceeded to ascertain the cause.  Mr. Spence was found sitting in the chair with one shoe on and the other lying at his feet.  In all probability he was killed instantly.

Mr. Spence was a quiet, inoffensive gentleman.  It is not known that he took part with either the Bulliner or Russel (line missing) assassination can only be conjectured.  The funeral of Sisney occurred on Friday.  A special train carried the family and friends to Crainville whence they proceeded to the burying grounds by other conveyances.  Mr. Spence showed the funeral party every civility.  Some think this led to his murder; if so, God have mercy on this community.  My own belief is that the victim had come into possession of knowledge concerning the murdering clans, and that his death was considered necessary to their safety.

It is also reported that the life of Allen Baker was attempted last (Sunday) night.  Baker lives at Purdy’s Mill, three miles east.  He was out until between ten and eleven o’clock, and just after he entered his house he was fired at through a window.  Fortunately the shot missed its mark.  Baker is a desperado, a large powerful fellow, and one of those who are eternally engaged in fights and crawls.  It is said that he and John Bulliner had a difficulty on Saturday, in which their pistols were drawn.

Mr. Oberly, it is now high time the press of southern Illinois unites as one man and compels the state authorities to take action in this matter.  If something is not done at once, what is past is only the beginning of what may be looked for.  To say that a reign of terror exists does not express the feeling.  The local authorities cannot now enforce the law if they would.  As a community we have appealed to Governor Beveridge, but he seems to have no sympathy or care for us.  We may reach him through the public prints, and to this end I hope there will be a united effort.  If this should accomplish nothing, then Governor Beveridge stands before the outraged people of this part of the state as either an incompetent imbecile officer, or as a second Nero, “fiddling” while the people of his State are being butchered by organized bands of assassins.

Abe H Morgan, well known to the saloon men of this part of the state, died at his residence here (Carbondale) last night.  His disease was consumption.  His age was thirty-six years.  His death will be mourned universally, as he was well known to every one as a pleasant, sociable man.
B.
 
Died.

In this city, Sunday night, Mrs. Missouri I., wife of J. E. Spiller, aged 32 years.  Funeral services at the Methodist church, at 2 p.m. today.  A special train will leave foot of Eighth Street for Villa Ridge at 3:15.  Friends and acquaintances of the family are invited to attend the funeral.
 
Found.

It is said that the body of an unknown man, supposed to be a Frenchman, was found in a freight car belonging to the Mississippi Central railroad company, on Sunday.  The body is reported being much decomposed, and it is thought the unfortunate man, whoever he was, died several days ago.

 

 

Wednesday, 4 Aug 1875:

“As a community,” says our Carbondale correspondent speaking of the Williamson County murders, “we have appealed to Governor Beveridge, but he seems to have no sympathy or care for us.”  The Governor is a praying man, and has not time to waste upon Williamson; or maybe he can’t afford to take notice of Williamson County lawlessness.  It will be remembered, that when an officer of the penitentiary was removed for dishonesty, our honest Governor had him reinstated saying:  “I can’t afford to quarrel with him.”  It may be, as we have said, that Gov. Beveridge can’t afford to do anything to stop the murdering business in Williamson County.”

 

The attention of the Governor is called to the fact that Sisney and Spence, the two last victims of the Williamson County vendetta were Republicans.  This should arouse him into action.  Dr. Hinchcliff, who was killed sometime ago, was a Democrat, and it didn’t matter; but Sisney was a Republican, and the Governor should now interfere.

 

Sisney was assassinated by one of the Williamson County murdering factions.  His remains were buried at Crainville.  Mr. William Spence, then a citizen of Crainville, entertained some of the mourners, and in this way gave evidence of sympathy with the Sisney side.  He was accordingly assassinated.  Well?

 

OUR KINGDOM FOR A DEAD NIGGER IN WILLIAMSON COUNTY.

            Sixteen white men have been assassinated in Williamson County, and yet the Governor has done nothing to bring to justice the murderers, and the Republican papers of the State have made no loud demands that the dignity of the law shall be vindicated.

            The Governor has been appealed to, but has calmly pursued the even tenor of his way.  He cannot spare time to consider the bloody business of Williamson.  (line missing) in two years, sixteen negroes had been assassinated in Williamson County, the Governor would have been at this time in a state of virtuous indignation.  He would long ago have taken the responsibility of declaring martial law in the county; the President would have been appealed to for troops; the Radical press would have by this time howled itself hoarse, every Radical in the land would have been shouting:  “Horror!” and the bodies of Democrats hung on suspicion would have been dangling by this time at the end of ropes!  But only sixteen white men have been assassinated within two years; the KuKlux have whipped only white people; only white people have been driven out of Williamson by tear and threats!  Why therefore should the Governor agitate himself?—why should Radicalism howl?  Let the murdering go on!

            A dead nigger is the hope of Williamson County.  If the people of Williamson will raise a purse and give it to some negro upon condition that he will go to Williamson County and permit himself to be assassinated—shot through the window as Sisney was, or hung to a tree as was old man Vancil, the problem will be solved.  As soon as his stark body is found, the devil will be to pay all over the country, and somebody will be arrested on suspicion even if all the arms of the United Sates is necessary to make arrest.  Dead white men don’t have the effect on Radical governors and other office holders; it takes dead niggers to arouse them into law-enforcing action.

            The long and short of it is, we must have a dead nigger in Williamson to stop the lawlessness in that county, and we appeal to the patriotic colored men of southern Illinois to come forward and in the interest of law and order offer themselves up as victims.  Come without delay—give us just one dead nigger, and all will be well!  One dead nigger in Williamson County will wake Gov. Beveridge, will arouse the Radicals of the State to the importance of enforcing the law, and result in the suppression of assassination and Kukluxism in southern Illinois.  Our kingdom for a dead nigger—a willing victim—in Williamson.

 

WHO IS TO BLAME?

            In an article on the assassination of Sisney and the Williamson County vendetta, the State Journal says that “this circumstance is another vindication of the policy of those who asked such legislation from the Twenty-ninth General Assembly as would enable the authorities to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice.  And yet, strange to say, the proposition was treated with ridicule, and nothing practical was accomplished, the people being left at the mercy of the high-minded criminals who have so far gone unwhipt of justice.  It is high time that every individual connected with this bloody feud were arrested and subjected to a searching examination, and those in any way found guilty punished to the full extent of the law.

 

We were an advocate of the proposed Williamson County legislation, and believe that responsibility for the blood that has been shed by the murderers of the county since the defeat of that legislation is upon the shoulders of those who defeated it.  But while this is true, will the State Journal tell us why Governor Beveridge is so apathetic in regard to Williamson County affairs?  He has lately issued a proclamation offering a reward of $500 for the apprehension of a murderer in Massac County, and not unfrequently he offers such rewards.  He seems to be anxious to bring to justice the bloody rascals of every county but those of Williamson.  Some time ago, the county officers appealed to him, and he replied by telling them to do their duty!  What does he mean?  Does he not know that the officers of the county cannot do their duty?  Why does he not, at least, give to them a moral support?  Is he asleep?  Cannot somebody, will not the Journal, tell him that murder and Kukluxism are disgracing one of the counties of the State of which he is the governor?—that therein no man’s life is safe?—that a reign of terror prevails there?—that the officers of the law are powerless?—that witnesses dare not testify and juries cannot convict?  He ought to know these things, and he ought to do something to provide a remedy for the evils complained of.  Will the Journal wake him?

 

After Them.

Sheriff Carter of Johnson County is on the track of the Shelby County murderers and it is believed will succeed in capturing them.  Of the fact that both the murderers passed through Vienna a week ago today there is no doubt.

 

 

Thursday, 5 Aug 1875:

Suttar.

            Mr. Jacob Suttar is still lingering at the Mechanics’ House in the lower part of town, with the wounds received at the hands of John Hutchinson.  During the past week a slight change for the worse has taken place, the wounded man having taken cold, but hopes are yet entertained that he will recover.

 

Still at Large

            John Hutchinson, the man who shot and so seriously wounded Jacob Suttar, who now lies very low at the Mechanics’ House, is still at large, and, we presume, enjoying himself.

 

 

Friday, 6 Aug 1875:

Dead.

            We regret to learn that Mr. Trammel J. Parker, of this county, lost a promising little son, aged 4 years, by congestive chills, on Tuesday last.

            (Trammel Parker married Siserana Berry on 25 Feb 1866, in Alexander Co., Ill.—Darrel Dexter)

 

He Must Die.

            For the last few days, the condition of Suttar has been growing worse, and on yesterday morning the physicians decided that the unfortunate man’s lease of life was about run out.  He was so informed, and began to set his house in order, his first wish being to see a minister of the Catholic Church, Suttar being a member of that church.

 

 

Saturday, 7 Aug 1875:

WILLIAMSON AROUSED.

            The county commissioners of Williamson County, it will astonish the public to learn, have at last offered a reward for the apprehension of some of the assassins of that county.  Enclosed with the Marion Monitor, of the 5th inst., was the following:

$4,000 REWARD.

            A reward of One Thousand Dollars each will be paid by the county court of Williamson County, Illinois, for the arrest of the parties that murdered the following named gentlemen:  David Bullener, James Henderson, Dr. Vincent Hinchcliff, and William Spence.  Said murderers to be delivered to the proper authorities at Marion, Illinois.

M. S. Strike,

R. H. Wise,

C. M. Bidwell, Com’rs of Williamson County

            As a note to this offer is the following:

            It will be seen from the above that the names of Capt. G. W. Sisney and George Bullener (who fell by the assassin’s hand) do not appear upon the list.  They being murdered in Jackson County, our court has no authority to offer a reward for the arrest of the murderers.  We deeply regret their loss, and trust that our neighbors in Jackson will put forth some effort to bring the criminals to justice, and end the fearful state of affairs that has long existed in this and Jackson County.

            They have mixed things somewhat in the above.  What the county court has to do with the rewards offered by the Board of County Commissioners, we cannot see; but probably the commissioners are in earnest.  If they are, they must now either bring the assassins of their county to the halter or go to their long home.  If they have not made the above offer simply for the purpose of satisfying the public clamor, they have made an issue with the assassins that means war to the death.  If they don’t hang the assassins, the assassins will shoot them.

 

Death of Mrs. Christiana Harman.

            From the Dayton (Ohio) Journal we extract the following notice of the death of Mrs. Christiana Harman, the aged mother of our esteemed fellow citizen, John Q. Harman, Esq.:

            “Mrs. Christiana Harman, the venerable mother of our fellow citizens G. B. Harman, Esq., and Capt. P. M. Harman, died in her seventy-ninth year at her home on the Lebanon pike near this city, early Wednesday morning, the 28th inst.  She was the mother of eight worthy children—seven of whom survive her—four boys and four girls, as follows:  G. B. Harman, banker, of Gebhart, Harman & Co.; Captain Phillip M. Harman, of Van Ausdal, Harman & Co., Dayton; John Q. Harman, of Cairo, Illinois; W. F. Harman, of Palmyra, Pa.; Catharine and Mary, who resided with their mother; Mrs. Christiana Foltz, of Mansfield, Ohio; and Barbara, elder daughter, who died many years ago.  The excellence of the mother may be inferred from the worthiness of her children, all of whom deserve and command the respect of their acquaintances.  The deceased was a native of Campbelltown, Lebanon County, Pa., where she resided until after the death of her husband in 1864.  She removed to the homestead of her son G. B. Harman in 1865, where she remained until her death.  She was a consistent member of the Lutheran Church, a good mother, and an estimable neighbor.”

 

 

Sunday, 8 Aug 1875:

Ben Allen, of Jacksonville, shot and mortally wounded his father, Isaac Allen, on the 6th inst.  The elder Allen, who was intoxicated, was making an assault on his wife with a carving knife, when the son interfered in the protection of his mother; the boy surrendered himself to the authorities, but his act was regarded as justifiable, and it is not likely anything will be done with him.

 

 

Tuesday, 10 Aug 1875:
Died.

Monday, August 9th, 1875, William Charles, aged 7 months and 18 days, son of Frank and Phoebe Klier.  Funeral from residence on Cedar, between Eighth and Ninth streets, Tuesday, August 10th, at 12:30 p.m.  Friends and acquaintances cordially invited.
 
Dead.

Jacob Suttar, who for two weeks past has been suffering from the wounds received at the hands of John Hutchinson, died on Sunday afternoon.  His remains were taken to Murphysboro over the Cairo & St. Louis road yesterday morning, where they will be interred.  Suttar leaves a young wife and a little child to mourn his untimely death.
 
Card.

I beg leave thus publicly to return to the citizens of Cairo and Hickman, Ky., my heartfelt thanks for their disinterested kindness manifested in their endeavors to recover the body of my good and affectionate daughter, Elizabeth—drowned in the Mississippi River on the 31st ult.  I desire particularly, in this connection, to mention the names of Miles W. Parker, and A. H. Irvin, of Cairo; R. R. Dolman, Robert Dolman, Joseph Stigler and Peter George, coroner, of Hickman.  Although I had offered a suitable reward for the recovery of the body, these gentlemen declined receiving any compensation for the noble efforts in my behalf; all I can say to them is:  “God bless you,” and hoping that you may never meet with the dire bereavement with which I have been afflicted, I am your friend, J. Q. Stancil.
Cairo, Ills., August 10, 1875
(Hickman Courier please copy)
 
Floater Found.

Henderson Downing and Tom Easley, a couple of fishermen, while on their way to Mound City in a skiff on Sunday morning, discovered the body of a negro woman near what is known as “Goose Pond.”  They brought the body to Cairo.  Coroner Gossman was notified, and a jury was summoned, who returned a verdict to the effect that the deceased came to her death by drowning, or by other means unknown to the jury.  The body was that of a young colored woman, aged probably 21 or 22 years.  She was dressed in a blue striped dress and black overshirt with red spots, and had around her neck a string of common white glass beads, and also in her ears a pair of common imitation coral earrings.  There was nothing else on her person by which she could be identified.  There was a cut over her left eye, caused wither by a blunt instrument or by coming in contact with the drift since the body has been in the water.  The wound was probed and was found to be only skin deep and not sufficient to cause her death.  The body, from its appearance, had not been in the water above three or four days.  It is thought that it could not have come from a greater distance than Caledonia or that neighborhood.
 
A Mystery Cleared Up

On Friday about one o’clock, a negro woman named Ellen Wadkins—for some time past a chambermaid at the Delmonico Hotel, but who, on Friday morning, was discharged by Mr. Harry Walker, proprietor of the house, he having detected her in stealing towels, handkerchiefs, etc. from the rooms of boarders—went to the livery stable of Mr. Perry Powers, and asked for a horse and saddle.  Upon being asked where she wished to go, she replied, “to her mother’s, eight miles in the country.”  The horse was given her, saying she would return the next (Saturday) afternoon; but up to this time nothing has been seen or heard of her.  When the horse was given the woman, Mr. Powers was not acquainted with her transactions at the Delmonico, but after learning them, and hearing that Mr. Walker had told her that she need not attempt to work for any family in this city, as he would expose her wherever she went, the owner of the horse has come to the conclusion that she made an effort to ride to Mound City, and while crossing the pond near the trestle work of the Cairo & Vincennes Railroad, both horse and rider were drowned.  He says that the description given him of the floater found on Sunday answers precisely that of the woman Wadkins and that it was her body over which Coroner Gossman held the inquest Sunday afternoon.
 
DIDN’T COME OFF.
Bill King, the Murderer at
Charleston, Mo., Given a Stay.

Bill King, the negro who murdered Sam Grace, and who was indicted at the April term of the Mississippi County (Missouri) circuit court, tried at an adjourned term in the month of June following, convicted of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to be hung on the 13th of this month, has been given a stay of execution, of judgment, and, it is probable, will be granted a new trial.

King’s attorney, G. N. Hatcher, being in possession of knowledge in regard to the employing of counsel to prosecute King, the summoning of the jury, and other matters pertaining to the trial, prepared a bill of exceptions and presented them to the Hon. W. P. Napton, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, who after an examination of the record, deemed it expedient to take the opinion of the Supreme Court upon the case, and therefore awarded a stay of execution until such opinion could be obtained.

The Supreme Court of Missouri does not meet till January, and King’s lease of life is therefore lengthened until that time at least.

The murder at the time it was committed, created much excitement in Charleston, the circumstances being about as follows:

The deceased, Samuel Grace, became intimate with the wife of King, and prevailed upon her to leave King, and take up her home with him, which she did.  This led to a quarrel between the two men, which ended in King’s stabbing Grace and killing him instantly.

King made an effort to escape, but was captured and tried with the above results.

Many citizens of Mississippi County think and express their belief that the judgment of the circuit court is just, while others are of the opposite opinion and express their wish to see the prisoner more gently dealt with.

We visited Charleston on Saturday for the purpose of learning what we could in regard to the prisoner’s case, and were shown through the Mississippi County jail, a small but strongly built structure, by Deputy Sheriff G. C. Randal, who is a clever and courteous gentleman, as well as a most efficient officer.

King’s cell was pointed out to us, the bars thrown back and the prisoner told to come out.  He was, it is said, before the stay of execution was procured for him, sullen and obstinate and spent much of his time in seeming deep thought.  On Sunday, however, he seemed in the best of spirits and conversed freely about his chances for a new trial, etc., and expressed his belief that another trial would set matters straight with him.

When asked his age, he replied that he did not know just how old he was; that he was born in Alabama, but that was about all he knew about himself.  He is a man about five feet eleven inches high, of slender, but wiry build, mild countenance, and we would suppose, about 27 or 28 years of age.  He says his character has heretofore been good; that he is not in the habit of quarreling, and that he is not given to drink, never having been under the influence of liquor but once in his life.

What his fate will be remains to be seen, though many seem to be of the opinion that his chances are good for a long term of imprisonment, if nothing more, provided he is given a new trial.
 


Thursday, 12 Aug 1875:
Disappointed.

Many of the citizens of Cairo, who had contemplated a holiday and a visit to Charleston, Missouri, next Friday, are disappointed.  The decision of Judge Napton of the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri in the King murder case, has upset their anticipated pleasure, and they will stay at home.  King won’t be hung.
 
Gupton Trial.

A special term of the Johnson County Circuit Court will be held, commencing on Monday, the 30th inst., for the purpose of trying the Gupton case.  It will be remembered that owing to the illness of Judge Mulkey, Gupton’s attorney, this case was postponed at the May term of the court, it being announced at the same time that a special term would be held for the purpose of trying it.
 
Not Returned Yet.

The fine grey mare hired to the negro woman, Ellen Wadkins, by Mr. Perry Powers, on Friday, and who is supposed to be the woman found in the Ohio River on Sunday, has not yet returned, and all hopes of recovering the animal have been given up.  The mare, saddle and bridle were valued by Mr. Powers at one hundred and fifty dollars.
 


Friday, 13 Aug 1875:
The Wrong
Man.

The man arrested at Forman, Illinois, a few days ago by Jack Ross, supposed to be Hutchinson, the murderer of Suttar, and who was brought to Cairo on Monday for identification, was not the man, and was immediately discharged from custody.

 
Sunday, 15 Aug 1875:
LIFE FOR LIFE
Such Is the Precept in Practical Operation in
Williamson County.

Bloody Vendetta Between Four Prominent Families

Five Men Have Turned Their Toes Up to the Daisies.

Others Are Carrying Loads of Buckshot under Their Skin.

Complete History of the Origin and Progress of the Feud.

With Biographical Sketches of the Prominent Actors.

“No More Bulliners in Boxes.”

THE VENDETTA

Details of the Murders.

(Special Correspondence of the Chicago Times.)

MARION, Williamson County, Ill., August 10.—Almost every southern state has had its vendetta, prominent among them being the Bolton-Dickens chapter of murder and desperate assaults, which lasted 20 years, in Shelby County, Tennessee; and the Sutton-Taylor fights, forays and assassinations, in DeWitt County, Texas.  Notwithstanding the magnitude and fearful results of these southern vendettas, extending through a series of years, the one in Williamson County, in this state, called the Bulliner-Henderson-Russell-Sisney vendetta, overshadows them all.  Men are shot upon the public highway, in their fields, and in their houses, and the most sanguinary threats are sternly and remorsely put into execution.

THE BLOODY FINGER-MARKS

are upon Jackson County, and a feeling of depression and fear is in every household in Carbondale, where Sisney, a victim to revenge, was but recently cruelly murdered in his parlor.  Men of known nerve and courage fear to give expression to their feelings and listlessly move about and say, “We cannot mix in this business; we dread the consequences.”  It is pitiful to see brave men so subdued—almost cowering in expectation of a warning missive or a relentless bullet.

THAT MAJESTIC INSTITUTION

the law, in Williamson County, has gone into its shell, and will there remain until the good people of Jackson and Williamson counties take from it the high prerogatives with which it is invested, and use them in self defense.  That they will soon do it there is no doubt, unless the governor of Illinois bolsters up the imbecile courts and incites their officers to action.

THE BULLINERS AND HENDERSONS

are the prominent families in the vendetta, and seem to have inherited, through their southern origin, the fiercer traits of that people.  Old George Bulliner and four sons—David, Munroe, John, Manuel, two sons-in-law, and David Bulliner, Sr. emigrated from the state of Tennessee, McNairy County, during the year 1863 or 1864, and settled in Williamson County, on the Marion and Carbondale road, ten miles west of Marion.  The sons-in-law settled in the same neighborhood.  Old man Bulliner was a man of large means, and an enterprising and extensive farmer and planter, raising and ginning considerable quantities of cotton.  In his agricultural operations he was very successful.  His gin was large and of great capacity.  At the close of the war this gin was burnt to the ground, the supposition being that enemies from Tennessee had fired it.

            The Henderson family is numerous.  There was old Joe, Old Jim and Old Bill.  Old Bill was the father of three boys; Old Joe, two; Old Jim, none.  They came from Kentucky and located in the adjoining settlement to the Bulliners, about the close of the war, entering upon farming pursuits.

            Both the Bulliners and Hendersons were loyal refugees, belonging to the Republican Party.

THE FIRST TROUBLE

between the Hendersons and the Bulliners was caused by some of the Bulliner boys taking advantage of one of old Bill Henderson’s boys, at a grocery in the neighborhood.  Field Henderson was the one misused.  He became enraged at the treatment, and one day visited David Bulliner, Sr., in his field, and gave him notice to leave the state or he would kill him.  Henderson said he did not wish to take advantage of Bulliner, and offered to settle the difficulty on the spot, producing two pistols, and extending one to Bulliner.  This the latter refused to accept, and the affair there rested, nothing more of a hostile nature taking place.  A short time after this event, old Dave went back to McNairy County, Tennessee.  These occurrences were in 1864 or 1865.

            No positive or dangerous animosity appeared until the winter of 1873, when a crowd composed of Crains, Bulliners, and a man named Council, got full of railroad whisky at Carterville and precipitated a quarrel with Elijah Peterson, a weak and crippled man.  The treatment put upon Peterson was of rather a rough nature, and aroused the sympathies of old Jim Henderson, who interposed in behalf of the victim.  Old Jim was a powerful man, considered the best physically in the county, being six feet four inches tall, and weighing 230 pounds, raw-boned, and heavy muscled. Henderson’s interposition drew the ire of the carousing crowd upon him; they used epithets of a harsh character, and seemed desirous of pressing a difficulty.  He was on his way home at the time and did not show a disposition to engage in a fracas.  He left for his home, the scurrilous and abusive threats continuing.  This had a tendency to ruffle the feelings of the old man, and cause him to seek satisfaction.

A short time after the foregoing occurrence, Capt. George W. Sisney and one of his boys, living in the Bulliner settlement, and a few of their neighbors, were at Carterville, when an old difficulty culminated between Sisney and the Crains.  The Crains took advantage of Sisney and beat him with brass knuckles and pound weights.  Sisney’s friends interfered, and a rough-and-tumble fight ensued, the Sisney crowd getting the worst of the battle.  A number of them were arrested and taken before Squire George F. Crain.  The trial was put off three days, and the persons arrested went home.  During the interim the Hendersons heard of the trouble.  Three of them, old Jim, Sam and Pad, one of old Jim’s hands, and Bennett H. Stotlar, went to the trial,

ALL ARMED WITH PISTOLS,

and one double-barreled shotgun, which was kept under cover in the wagon.  The trial brought five bad elements together, viz:  Thomas Russell, the Bulliners, the Hendersons, the Crains, and the Sisneys.  A strong and bitter feeling existed between John Bulliner and Tom Russell on account of the seduction, by John Bulliner, of Sarah Stocks, Russell’s cousin; and the bad blood between Sisney and the Crains originated during the war, growing out of politics—the Crains, a numerous family, being Democrats, and Sisney, a Republican; and the quarrel of three days previous intensified the feeling between them.

THE OLD DIFFICULTY

between David Bulliner, Sr., and Field Henderson, heretofore spoken of, affected all of the Henderson family, and the whole of the Bulliner family; and the feelings engendered by this quarrel were revived by the treatment old Jim received a few days previous from the Crains, Bulliners, and Council.  All these men, burning for revenge, were preparing to fire the pile that would scatter them, and infuse into their hearts the seeds of deadly hate—seeds that have brought forth the bitter fruit we are now tasting in Williamson and Jackson counties.  These were the men who congregated at ‘Squire Crain’s on the day that the Sisney and Crain rioters were to be tried.  Early in the day Tom Russell and Munroe Bulliner got into a fight, Bulliner using a club and Russel his fists.  Bulliner retired into the back room of Spence & Crain’s store, in which ‘Squire Crain and all the Crains and Bulliners were collected.

THIS FIRED THE PILE.

The Hendersons demanded that the Bulliners should come out, and the Sisneys called upon the Crains to leave the house, assuring them that they should have a fair fight, offering to lay down weapons and pair off for the fray.  Old Jim proposed to fight any two of the opposite faction, which was declined.  Although the quarrel had culminated and the lines been drawn between the contending parties, who stood face to face, armed with pistols and knives, wise counsel prevailed, and through the advice of old George Bulliner and George Sisney, the hostile factions separated, and that affair was stopped without bloodshed or loss of life, and the exciting events of the day were ended.  The Bulliners and Hendersons, with their adherents, retired to their respective settlements.  The scenes of that trial day were only the prelude to all the dark and bloody acts that have hedged in the best portions of two counties, composed of industrious and law-abiding people.  Nothing of a

TRAGIC NATURE

occurred for some time.  The State’s Attorney (who since fled the county of Williamson) made an attempt to being the offending parties to trial in the courts.  The State’s Attorney was a moral and physical failure, being a fiddler, doctor, brass-horn blower, sub-editor, bummer and fraud—in fact a little of everything except a lawyer.  He did manage to have two of the Crains tried, convicted, and fined $25 each; but after three unsuccessful attempts to get indictments sufficient to put the Sisneys on trial, the prosecution was abandoned, it being generally admitted that the State’s Attorney did not have enough sense to write an indictment.  The time in which the State’s Attorney was at work on the Crains, Sisneys, and Hendersons, was in January, February and March, 1874.  About the 15th of March, 1874, while old George Bulliner was going from his house to Carbondale, and when just across the Jackson county line, he was fired at with a double-barreled gun, from an old tree top, and

MORTALLY WOUNDED.

            The shot was fired near ten o’clock in the forenoon.  He died that evening.  The assassin fled across a field leaving his hat upon the ground, and it is now in the possession of John Bulliner.  The ground about where the assassin lay in ambush showed that he had been there for a long time awaiting the old man.  Suspicion rested on no particular one sufficiently strong to warrant an arrest.  The remains of Bulliner were sent to the old burial ground in McNairy County, Tennessee; he was the first victim of the vendetta of Williamson County.

            On Saturday night the 29th day of March, 1874, as David Bulliner was on his way in company with others from church, he was fired on by two unknown parties, from behind a fencerow.  A number of shots were fired between the assassins and David and Munroe Bulliner.  David was mortally wounded, and died two days afterward.  His remains were also sent down in McNairy among the quiet Bulliner farmers, to be placed beside the first victim, and marked number two of the vendetta.  To an unprejudiced mind this would look a little like deadly persecution of the Bulliners, and would certainly appear so to the industrious and plodding Bulliners in the clever old county of McNairy, adjoining Tishomingo, and if they did send back word, “We do not want to see any more Bulliners sent to McNairy County in boxes,” it could only be attributed to a realization that something was decidedly wrong among their blood relations in Williamson County, in the loyal north.

TWO MURDERED BULLINERS

sent to McNairy in coffins, their bodies riddled with bullets, looked rather queer, and argued that at the rate of two a month, the Bulliners would fatten the earth before the verdure of spring had matured in the summer time.

            In the deadly affray in the road on Sunday night, a lady named Mrs. Stancil was shot in the abdomen, but recovered from the wounds.

TOM RUSSELL AND DAVE PLEASANT

were arrested for the murder of David Bulliner.  The Bulliners put forth every exertion to have these men promptly tried.  They hired horses and scoured the county for witnesses and facts.  They seemed determined to uphold the law, but the case was erased from the dockets of the court as to Dave Pleasant, and Tom Russell was tried and discharged by a justice of the peace.  The result of the trial exasperated the Illinois and Tennessee Bulliners, and then came the warning from McNairy not to send any more

BULLINERS IN BOXES.

In a few days after the trial old Jim Henderson was shot down in his field.  He lingered eight days.  His dying declarations were that he knew who shot him, and identified Jim Norris, John Bulliner, and one of the other Bulliners—Mun or Man.  These declarations were admitted as evidence in court, on trial of John Bulliner, who was indicted for the murder of Henderson.  Jim Norris was also indicted, but has never been caught.  In the death of Henderson we have the third victim to the vendetta, and it was not a Bulliner this time, either, and the old family burying ground in McNairy remained undisturbed.  On trial John Bulliner proved an alibi, showing that he was in Tennessee when the murder took place.

That the classifications of events may be perfect and the dramatic groupings distinct, I will go back in the sanguinary calendar, so that in the analysis of this intricate vendetta the reader may have a clear and unobstructed field.

SISNEY AND THE BULLINERS.

Some years before the killing of old man Bulliner and his son, David engaged in a fight that almost proved fatal to Sisney.  David Bulliner and Sisney had a dispute about some oats, the details of which would be uninteresting.  David Bulliner, desiring a final settlement with Sisney, visited that personage in a blacksmith shop.  Bulliner was in his shirtsleeves and unarmed, and did not anticipate a difficulty with Sisney.  In the course of the conversation Bulliner made a few caustic allusions to the swearing abilities of Sisney.  Suddenly the latter picked up a spade and struck a fearful blow at Bulliner, who, in warding it off, caught it on his hand, when another blow descended on his arm.  Bulliner, fearing that Sisney would take his life, fled precipitatingly from his shop and went to his house, secured a shotgun and pistol, and again returned to his shop, followed by old man Bulliner and his sons.  David Bulliner was bleeding profusely from the wounds inflicted by Sisney.  The latter had left the shop and hurried to his house, in the front yard of which he was found with a Henry rifle.  Seeing the approach of the Bulliners he retreated through his house hotly pursued by the Bulliners, who overtook him in a field.  Being brought to bay he raised his rifle to fire, when John Bulliner shot with a pistol, missing him purposely (as John Bulliner personally told your correspondent).  Old man Bulliner desired his capture, and as they closed in on Sisney, David Bulliner, seeking revenge, shot him in the leg.  That ended the fight.  While Sisney was suffering from his wounds, Mrs. Bulliner the mother of the boys, visited him regularly, until she saw that her calls were obnoxious to the wounded man, when she discontinued them.  It is claimed that this fight had nothing to do with the commencement of the vendetta, but all the tragic scenes that have occurred since then, the conspicuous part played by Sisney in connection with the Hendersons and lastly

THE DEAD MAN IN THE CHAIR

at Carbondale, dispute this conclusion.  Sisney had all along played a prominent part in the difficulty.  For the shooting of Sisney, the Bulliners were arrested and fined $100, while their other expenses of the trial amounted to about $1,000.

I will now return to the time of the acquittal of John Bulliner for the murder of old Jim Henderson.

In June following, Sisney, one morning at daybreak, when a heavy dew was falling, went to his barn to feed his horses, as was his usual custom.  While in his barn lot two men rose from the weeds and snapped caps at him, then disappeared in

THE GRAY OF THE MORNING.

Sisney recognized the men as neighbors of his, but refused to give their names at that time, but finally revealed the secret, which will be related hereafter.

A new character now comes on the boards to play his brief part and die, a victim to the devouring vendetta.

DR. VINCENT HINCHCLIFF,

a firm friend of the Bulliners, suspected that Russell and a man from Texas named Clifford, were the murderers of David Bulliner.  He was so strong in this belief that on meeting Clifford at a roadside drinking house, he drew his pistol and arrested Clifford without authority of law, striking him repeatedly over the head with his pistol.  After the arrest he took Clifford to Bulliner’s house, guarded him during the night, and in the morning he and the Bulliners took him to jail at Marion.  There he was bound over in the sum of $500, the bonds being furnished by Baxter, owner of a sawmill where Clifford worked.  Baxter had the utmost confidence in the honesty of Clifford, but Clifford suddenly disappeared and forfeited the bonds.  While Vince Hinchcliffe was beating Clifford over the head with his pistol, the latter threatened him, swearing that he would have revenge.  From what followed we are inclined to the belief, based upon a reasonable theory, that

HE GOT HIS REVENGE,

for the October following, on the 4th of the month, Hinchcliff was killed, at 12 o’clock Sunday, within 200 yards of his house, while riding home.  He was fired on by two men secreted in a hazel thicket on the side of the road.  Two double-barreled shotguns were emptied into him, killing both him and his horse.  Suspicion immediately pointed to Russell and Clifford, but owing to their absence they were not arrested.  In the death of Hinchcliff the Bulliner side of the faction lost a firm friend, thereby swelling the list of their dead men.

In the latter part of 1874, while Sisney and a young man named Hindman were sitting in the former’s house.  In the country, playing dominoes, near a window, with the curtain down,

TWO MEN IN STOCKING-FEET

slipped up on the back porch, took aim at their shadows and fired, the shots taking effect in Sisney’s arm and in Hindman’s body.  The muscles of Sisney’s right arm were torn entirely off.  Both the wounded men recovered.  Sisney went before the grand jury at Marion, Williamson County, and made oath that a man named Cagle and also Norris, were the men who snapped the gun at him in his horse lot.  They were indicted, Cagle being arrested and confined in jail, where he yet is, and Norris making his escape.  He afterward attended an election, with a shotgun on his shoulder.  The trial of Cagle was set for this term of court, and Sisney being the only witness, and Norris roaming at large, another victim was added to the dead list on the Henderson side.

ASSASSINATION OF SISNEY.

After the last attempt on the life of Sisney, that personage felt that to live any longer in Williamson County would eventually end in his assassination, so he packed up his household furniture, and traveled to the beautiful little town of Carbondale, in Jackson County, on the Illinois Central Railroad, in January 1875.  On the northeast corner of the square he established a store, and lived in a building adjoining it, on the east side.  Here he built up a prosperous trade, and seemed contented, yet watchful of himself, as the previous attempts on his life had filled him with dread apprehensions.  The house he lived in is a two-story frame, with a roof that extends over a long porch from the bottoms of the top windows.  In the side fronting the street, on the porch, are three windows and a door, the door opening into a parlor, and two of the windows giving light to the room—these being west of the door.  A slender railing extends around the entire porch.  On the 28th of last July a storm had passed over Carbondale, ceasing in the evening, leaving a dank, heavy atmosphere.  Rain dripped from house eaves, and the streets and alleys were extremely muddy.  Sisney retired early to his house and went to bed before 8 o’clock.  The train on the Illinois Central railroad was behind time, and much the pity it had not remained behind time all that night.  At length it came

BRINGING A MAN NAMED STANLEY

to Carbondale.  Stanley made an inquiry as to where Sisney’s residence was.  He was informed where, and soon again accosted another citizen to whom he applied the same question; and rumor—a very positive rumor, which, if sorely pressed, would take shape as important circumstantial evidence—says that he made the same inquiries of more citizens, and finally was taken to the door of the house by a gentleman of Carbondale, who left him there, and where he was afterward found—

WITH A DEAD MAN.

Rather a poor memory for a man well advanced in years, and who, by the fine business tact, had accumulated considerable wealth and property.  Well, Stanley, the gentleman of bad memory, entered the house, saw Sisney’s daughter, an interesting young lady, and requested an interview with Sisney.  She went to her father’s room, and he called to Stanley, telling him that he would rather see him in the morning.  But the gentleman of bad memory, and late of the train, insisted on an interview.  Sisney went to the parlor, and, after the usual salutations, took a seat in a small rocking chair directly in front of the window, and Stanley seated himself along side of the window with back to the wall.  The lower sash was out, or raised, and the opening covered with a wire screen, over which hung a curtain.  A lamp stood off at some distance.  As the conversation progressed, Sisney asked Stanley if someone was not on the porch.  The man of bad memory raised the corner of the curtain and looked out, and replied that no one was there.  Just then a loud report took place, the frail screen was torn into atoms and unfortunate, scarred and perhaps betrayed Sisney, a good citizen of Carbondale, and a Mason, lay back in his chair with

A HOLE IN HIS BREAST,

a hole large enough to let out his life after he exclaimed that he was shot, and the gentleman with the treacherous memory was in a parlor, alone with a dead man.  When the shot was fired the light went out.  The man from the railroad who had so much trouble in finding Sisney’s house said the concussion (good word) put it out.  It was concussion that put out the light of the lamp, he said; but did he explain through what agency the light of the citizen of Carbondale was put out?

A TRIVIAL EXAMINATION

and Stanley was let off; and while I was on the down train from Marion, my fellow-passenger, John Bulliner, said that he heard that Stanley had left his home—in fact run away.

            When Sisney was shot, the neighbors gathered in.  Pursuit was decided upon, but the ugly night, and the fearful knowledge that Sisney was a victim to the vendetta, deterred them from the attempt.  An individual rode away in the night to notify Sisney’s relatives of the awful deed, and while on his way saw a man crouching behind a log.  This time the murderers were in their stocking feet, and they were in their stocking feet when they wounded Sisney and young Hindman.  He did not live to testify against Cagle.  This ends the positive chapter of the vendetta, but it seems that all men, even if recently connected with the actors, are in danger, for on the heels of the Carbondale tragedy

WILLIAM SPENCE WAS MURDERED

in Crainville, on the night of the 31st of August.  It is supposed he was called up about 8 o’clock at night, and when he attempted to open the door, a load of buckshot was fired into his abdomen, as about fifty rounds shot and slugs were found in his body.  Some think that the first load did not kill him, when the work was finished by a pistol shot in the head.  The store was ransacked as though a search had been made for money, as a large sum was to have been paid Spence that day, but owing to his being in a stupefied state from the use of liquor, the money was not paid him.  Many persons say that this murder had nothing to do with the vendetta, while others assert that it had.  Let the reader who is forming a theory, as he reads the tragic acts, remember that Crainville is near Carterville, and on the railroad between Carbondale and Marion, and that it is as much a resort and rendezvous for the factions as Carterville, and that Spence mingled freely with both parties, and had been drinking in excess for some time before he was killed.  Liquor causes the tongue to wag, and who knows, but that the dreadful end of Sisney induced remarks from Spence that were queer to men outside the vendetta ring, but plain to those in it.  Nevertheless, Spence, a companion to both factions, was killed in his little store in Crainville, and is now under ground in Hurricane graveyard.

THE VENDETTA HAS BEEN A SUCCESS

so far, and the law a failure, in Williamson County, and the reaction has not yet taken place—the reaction that will cause the makers of the law, the people, to say that nineteen thousand inhabitants will not be bullied and murdered by a factious crowd; nor shall the law-abiding people of Williamson go to their beds at night with fear and trembling.

ALLEN BAKER

a hand working at Purdy’s mill, two miles east of Carbondale, was shot at through the window of his house, the second of this month.  The shot was intended for the bed in which he usually slept, but the charge entered bed clothing that was stacked up in the room.  Baker had been ordered by letter to leave Purdy’s mill.

A THREATENING LETTER

was sent to Purdy, the proprietor of an extensive mill, ordering him to leave his place of business on June 1, dated at Marion.  On a log in his mill they left a charge of powder, buckshot, and a cap.  These were emblematic of death.

CARTERVILLE

is a small settlement on the railroad between Carbondale and Marion, and is in the immediate vicinity of the settlements of the Bulliners and the Hendersons.  It has a barren, scraggy, desolate look, and the small buildings that lie scattered over the level and weed-covered ground seem as sentinels guarding the hiding places of the assassins of the vendetta.  While your correspondent was en route for Marion, two of the Bulliners—John and Munroe—and an individual called Doc Macarty, boarded the train.  They shook hands familiarly with Josh Allen, Judge Crawford and the majority of the men in the car.  John Bulliner addressing Allen as “Bill.”  Their eyes speedily took in all persons in the car seeming by their quick and furtive glances to divine the business of every man in it.

JOHN BULLINER

is almost six feet, slender build, dark hair, eyes of a peculiar gray, pale face, dark moustache, and one tooth out in his upper haw, and about 28 years old.  He had on a slouch hat, faded blue coat, dark pants, and vest, and was armed with a six-shooter, the belt being hid beneath his vest, and the pistol concealed under his coat and carried on the right hip.  When in conversation an agreeable smile rested on his face, and frequently he would wink good-naturedly.  One could hardly realize while looking at this rather handsome fellow that he is considered the ruling spirit of one of the factions in the bloody vendetta.

MUNROE BULLINER

is almost as tall as his brother John, about 25 years old, brown gray eyes, and mustache and chin whiskers of a reddish brown.  Complexion of a sallow pale.  At Crainville he left the train and was soon after reported in Carbondale.

DOC MACARTY

is a low-set man, with bald head, red mustache, and steel-colored eyes; wore a small light, felt hat, and had little to say, but kept his eyes in constant use.

IN DOC HUNDLEY’S DRUG STORE

I met John Bulliner, and was there introduced to him.  The conversation turned on the troubled condition of the county.  He told me that he regretted it very much, and was of the opinion that there were bad men who passed for good citizens, and who took advantage of the trouble existing between his family and the Hendersons, and committed crimes for which the leaders of the factions were blamed.  I then told him that I was there as a correspondent of the Times, and proposed to write the truth as to the condition of the affairs in Williamson County, and a full history of the vendetta.  He smiled and told me to write the truth and said that the other correspondents had misrepresented the Bulliners.  We left the store together, took a seat in the car, and conversed until the train reached Carterville, his station.  In the car he gave me a full statement of their difficulty with Sisney, which is as previously stated.  In the course of conversation I told him that my first intention was to visit him on his plantation, but people had said there was danger in it.  He seemed provoked at this and said that whenever myself and friends desired to call on him at his home, we would be received with pleasure and hospitably entertained; that his mother, a very timid woman, was living, and on their home place.  I asked him why the Bulliners and Hendersons did not compromise.  This he thought a huge joke; said there were about eighteen Hendersons, and that they were rather rough.  In answer to a question as to whether he and the Hendersons often met, he said that just before the train left he saw Field Henderson in a wagon shop in Marion, and the Field certainly saw him.  I told him that the people in both Jackson and Williamson counties were aroused, and that there was much talk of a vigilance committee, and when that event took place it might possibly result in the hanging and killing of many men—and that the leaders of the factions would surely suffer or be driven off.  He answered this by saying that he had been advised to leave, and threatened; that all his interests were in Williamson County, and all he desired was to be let alone; that he had many bushels of wheat which he was told would be burnt the same as their gin had been burnt.  As the train reached Carterville he shook hands with me as he said good-by, and wished me success in my investigations.

NOT A BAD FELLOW

after all to a friend, but perhaps terrible to an enemy.
THE PRIME CAUSE

seemingly, of the continuation of these difficulties is the lack of confidence the people have in the courts of justice.  Under the present organization of the courts, the administration of justice is thrown into the hands of an inferior and uneducated class of people, who compose the juries and know nothing about justice or law.  When this is remedied, and fearless officers are at the head of affairs—officers who will not fear to summons citizens to execute the laws—then Williamson County will be at peace and no longer stained with the blood of murdered men.

OCELOT.


Funeral.

The funeral of Mrs. Wise, who died on Thursday night of asthma, took place at half past two o’clock yesterday afternoon, and was largely attended.
 


Tuesday, 17 Aug 1875:
JACKSON COUNTY LAWLESSNESS.

The Jackson County papers of last week contain an account of the operations of the Ku-Klux in that county lately which shows that in some respects Jackson County is not far behind its sister county of Williamson.  With not much embellishment, the revelations of the Jackson County papers might be transferred to the pages of a blood and thunder novel, where they would compare favorably with the thrilling accounts of the daredevil adventures of a Murrill or a Duval.

About a week ago, two farmers, Reuben Jenkins and William Anderson, living near Ava, in Jackson County, went to that village and disposed of a load of wheat.  On their return, as they were driving along the country road, they were confronted by two men “wearing black suits, all made in one piece, with a white stripe down the outside of each leg, a large white star on each breast, with cap and mask all in one piece, the only opening being eye holes.”  One of these men stopped the team, the other, in approved highwayman style, drew a revolver and demanded of the farmers their money.  The farmers denied having any, the robbers were inexorable, and after a little parley, fourteen dollars and a watch which one of the farmers had, passed into the possession of the robbers.  After this the transactions were brought to a close and the robbers permitted the farmers to move on.

The next victim was Mr. Andrew Chew, whom the highwaymen relieved of a few dollars.  They then made their way to the farm house of a Mr. Morgan compelled him to sit down in a chair while they searched the house, but found nothing they cared to take.  An old man working in a field next claimed their attention.  They went to him and demanded money.  He told them he had none, but if they would go with him to the house, he would give them some.  They went, the old man entering in advance of them, but when they saw him in the doorway, not with a purse but with a shotgun in hand, they ran away.
Subsequently, these two men were arrested and lodged in
Jackson County jail at Murphysboro where they are now.  The name of one is Montgomery Stevens, who has served a term of three years in the state penitentiary for horse stealing and who has been home from Joliet only about three months.  The identity of the other one appears to be not well established.  Reports conflict as to whether he is one Brown who stands indicted for the murder of his father-in-law in 1872, or William Flood, who lives near Ava.

The arrest of the two men was brought about by the operations of a vigilance committee to which the people of Jackson County, in the neighborhood of Ava, have at last resorted as a more efficient protection against Ku-kluxism and lawlessness than the slow and uncertain working of the law.  Twenty disguised men went to Stevens’ house, made him get up and go before them to a cornfield, and there, by order of the captain or leader, he was shot until he was wounded in both arms and otherwise crippled.  He then, according to a statement made afterward by himself, sought Flood, his companion in crime—both made their way to Murphysboro where they were arrested by the sheriff of Jackson County.

This last Ku-Klux operation in Jackson County is of a piece with many similar outrages, which have been committed in Jackson, Saline and Williamson counties.  Robbing men, whipping them, compelling them to dance and sing on their own porches, &c., &c., are old-time amusements with the Ku-klux of southern Illinois.  In no one instance has a single one of them been brought to justice.  The vigilance committee of Jackson County apparently means business.  Since legitimate means have either failed or have never been applied to the wiping out of the disgrace of southern Illinois, not even law-abiding citizens will complain at the irregular manner in which punishment is inflicted upon the lawless.
 
Hutchinson.

Sheriff Irvin received a dispatch on Sunday from Fulton, Kentucky, stating that Hutchinson, who has caused the officers considerable trouble since he shot Suttar, had been arrested in that city, and that he should come and take charge of him.  Deputy Sheriff John Cain took the train yesterday morning for Fulton, and was expected to return with the prisoner in charge this morning.  It has been surmised for some time that Hutchinson was in the neighborhood where he was caught, but up to the time of his capture he remained very quiet.
 
 
Wednesday, 18 Aug 1875:
Southern Illinois.
The Reign of Terror and Lawlessness in Williamson and Other Counties

Chester, Ill., Aug. 16—It appears that the county of Williamson is itself unable to contain all the iniquity centered there.  It seems to be spreading out, as it were, in order to contaminate more peaceable communities, and thus, degree after degree, submerge other localities in a reign of blood equal to their own.

On yesterday two men and a woman in a wagon passed through the town of Steeleville, not disclosing their destination, but telling the people who had curiosity enough to inquire, that they hailed from Williamson County.

Thus they journeyed along until got to the hamlet called Blair, when the two men got into an altercation which was terminated by one of the men shooting the other with a shotgun.  The shot took effect directly under the shoulder in the side tearing a terrible hole, the gun being loaded with slugs.
The murderer instantly fled the scene of his crime, and the whole country is now searching for him.
The man that was shot did not instantly die and from murmurings he let fall it is understood his name is Henry Norman.

The woman took the team and turned back, wending her lonely way no one appeared to care where.
Were this little trio taken in charge there is no doubt that a solution of some of these murders in
Williamson County might be arrived at, especially if a little old fashioned persuasion were used.
 
Funeral.

The remains of Joseph E. Kendall will be taken to Villa Ridge on the regular passenger train, this afternoon for interment.
 
Drowned.

We learn that a little colored girl named Harris living between Cairo and Mound City, while gathering wood near the shore of the Ohio River on Monday afternoon, fell into the river and was drowned.
 
Funeral Notice.

Funeral services of the later Joseph E. Kendall, conducted by Rev. J. L. Wallar, will be held at the house on Sixth Street, at 2 p.m. today.  The remains will be taken to Villa Ridge for interment, on the regular passenger train this afternoon.  Friends and acquaintances of the family are invited to attend the funeral.
 
Another False Alarm.

We yesterday stated upon reliable authority, that Hutchinson, the murderer of Suttar, had been arrested at Fulton, and that Deputy Sheriff John Cain had gone after and was expected to return with the prisoner yesterday morning.  Upon arriving at Fulton, the officer found that the wrong man had been caged again, and he returned yesterday alone.  Hutchinson, though some say he is “not very bright,” seems to know how to keep out of reach of those who are after him, if he don’t know much of anything else.
 
Sad Accident.

From a letter received at this office from Ullin, we learn that on Monday morning, about two o’clock, as the north bound passenger train on the Cairo & Vincennes railroad neared that station, the fireman of the engine discovered a man lying on the track.  He warned the engineer, who, upon looking thought it was a calf, but it proved to be the body of a man named Joel Lackey, a man of about thirty years of age.  The remains were horribly mangled, and the largest part of them found was the head.
 
The steamer Hugh Martin, running between London and Knoxville, Tennessee, exploded her boilers and demolished herself at Washington landing last Saturday.  Capt. Frytze, one passenger, a boy and a man standing on the bank were killed, and the pilot, mate and several deck passengers were injured.  Edward Meade, of
Cincinnati, civil engineer, was seriously injured.  The wounded are Isaac Benton, of Montgomery, leg broken; Benjamin Hightower, of Dalton, dangerously injured internally, probably fatal; John Black, of Ingston, bruised and leg broken; Thomas Weaver, of Knoxville, leg broken; Benjamin Surdarth of Roane County, broken thigh; Daniel Bistins, Chattanooga, severely bruised. About fourteen persons altogether were maimed and wounded.
 


Thursday, 19 Aug 1875:
A PUBLIC SPIRITED CITIZEN.

Col. D. H. Brush, of Carbondale, has for himself offered a reward of five hundred dollars for the arrest of the parties who murdered Capt. G. W. Sisney.  Whatever may be said of Col. Brush, no one can deny that he is a public spirited and courageous citizen.  The murder having been committed in Carbondale, and the authorities failing to offer a reward for the apprehension of the assassins, Col. Brush felt it his duty, as a citizen having at heart the reputation of the town, to offer the reward—a liberal one—on his own responsibility.  If Jackson and Williamson counties had more citizens like Col. Brush, outlawry would have a shorter reign in both of them than it has had.
 
AT LAST!
The Tables Turned on the
Illinois Kuklux.
They Go on a Mission of Blood and Get Bled.
ONE OF THEIR NUMBER KILLED.
Before Dying He Reveals the Names of His Accomplices.

SPRINGFIELD, ILL., August 17.—This evening Governor Beveridge sent word to the resident newspaper correspondents that he had just received important information from Franklin County in regard to the Ku-Klux who had been infesting that part of the State for some time, which he would

GLADLY MAKE PUBLIC.

He began by giving a brief history of the transactions of the outlaws and what action he had taken in the premises.  Late last fall or early in the winter the Governor had some intimations that a few lawless men, near the line between Franklin and Williamson counties, were riding around nights masked, alarming the citizens and committing depredations, but no specific charges were made.  He heard nothing more of such lawlessness until last Friday afternoon, when a gentleman from Franklin County called on him with a letter of introduction from some leading citizens of Benton.  This gentleman advised the Governor of the existence of such

A CLASS OF MEN

in that section of the State, that he knew some fifteen or twenty of them, and knew where they kept their masks; that they had arranged to call upon a neighbor of his on Monday night, and upon him a few nights later in the week; that the country was a good deal excited and no attempt had been made by the citizens or authorities to put a stop to such lawlessness, and that it was either to leave the country, fight or be whipped.  As an old soldier, he did not propose to run, but would resist all such attempts

AND DEFEND HIMSELF

and family if he had the means wherewith, assuring the Governor that he ought to organize a sufficient force to capture their fellows, if he had the means.  The Governor told him he would furnish him with one hundred stand of arms, and ammunition, and authorized him to organize a militia company, and also advised him to get such a force together as he could by Monday night, and meet these desperadoes; and he was ordered to capture them, and, if necessary to protect themselves,

SHOOT ALL MEN IN DISGUISE.

The gentleman returned home by DuQuoin and Benton, and it is presumed that he had a conference with the sheriff of Franklin County.  The arms and ammunition were immediately shipped, as agreed upon.  On Saturday the Governor wrote to the sheriff of Franklin County the following letter:

“To Hon. Joseph T. Mason, sheriff of Franklin County

SIR—In view of the recent disturbances in Williamson County and your proximity thereto, I would suggest the propriety of organizing an independent militia company at Benton.  An organization without any reference to affairs in Williamson, and composed of good, reliable men, would always be ready to aid you in any emergency, and would give strength to the civil authorities of the county in

PRESERVING PUBLIC ORDER
and enforcing the laws.  The expense would be small, as uniforms would not be required.  Arms, etc., can be furnished by the State.  Suppose you confer with some of the prominent citizens of your county, and advise me of your determination in the premises.

Your, very respectfully,

John L. Beveridge.”

On yesterday the Governor received the following dispatch from the said gentleman:

To Governor J. L. Beveridge, Springfield:

I am here and have just received the guns.  Things are somewhat excited; will let you hear from me again tomorrow; will raise a company at Benton tomorrow; answer immediately.

To this the Governor replied.

To Captain, etc.

Raise a company as soon as possible and send the muster roll.  I wrote to the sheriff and have suggested the organizing of the company at Benton.

[Signed]  John L. Beveridge.

This evening the governor received the following telegram from the state’s attorney of Franklin County, from

Benton, via DuQuoin, Aug. 17, 1875.

To Governor John L. Beveridge:  The sheriff of Franklin County and posse had a desperate fight with fourteen Ku-Klux last night.  They were all disguised in the regular Ku-Klux uniform.  One of them was mortally wounded and five others severely injured.  I will call upon you tomorrow.  A militia company is being organized.  Some thirty are known and the sheriff, with a force of fifty men, are now hunting them out.

[Signed] W. R. Barr, State’s Attorney for Franklin County,

A FEARLESS MAN.

The Governor does not think best to disclose the name of the party who called upon him at present.  This man was of the opinion that there was a large organization of Ku-Klux in the two said counties, and their disguise consisted of a white robe, with a dark face, and composed of men who were determined not to submit to the civil authorities; and if attacked, they might rally and give the people trouble.  But this fearless man was willing, with the approval of the authorities and furnished with arms, to make the fight.  The Governor thinks this gentleman communicated his action and all the facts to the sheriff, and that the sheriff determined to capture these fellows.  He approves highly of the speedy and effective action of the sheriff, and has not doubt that with a well-organized force he will be able to arrest them and bring them to justice, and that

LAW AND ORDER will be eventual.  From numerous inquires made, the governor is of the opinion that the Ku-klux have no connection with the Bulliner-Russell-Henderson feud of Williamson County, though doubtless one gives strength to the other.  He expects a full report tomorrow on the arrival of the state’s attorney, and will await all action until fully advised by Mr. Barr.

THE FIGHT DETAILED.

BENTON, Ill., Via DuQuoin, Ill., August 17—A terrible fight occurred last night in Franklin County between the sheriff of the county and his posse and the Ku-Klux.  For some time a body of men disguised in true Southern Ku-Klux style have been traveling over the county shipping peaceable citizens and compelling them to perform any act they dictated.  Up to this time, in both Williamson and Franklin counties, citizens have tamely submitted to these outrages, but upon yesterday J. B. Maddox, one of the County Commissioners, received information that they would visit his house and whip him

FOR NOT OBEYING

some orders they had previously given him.  Maddox informed Sheriff J. T. Mason.  The sheriff summoned a posse of twenty men, who secreted themselves at Maddox’s house, well armed.  About 2 o’clock in the morning the Ku-Klux, fourteen in number, made their appearance on horseback, disguised in large white robes, high white hat, and masked, and armed with shotguns and pistols.

The sheriff stepped out when they came to the house, and ordered them to surrender.  The leader of the band drew his pistol and fired at the sheriff, missing him.  The sheriff and posse then cried

“HALT!”
when the band shot at them, whirled their horses and attempted to run.  The posse fired, and one man was killed and five others wounded.  They all succeeded in getting away and in carrying off their wounded, except the man who was mortally hurt.  The names of the others were revealed by the wounded man who was captured, and the sheriff and posse are after them today.  Great excitement prevails, and the citizens are determined to rid the county of these

MIDNIGHT MARAUDERS.

A meeting was held by the citizens today, and strong resolutions were adopted.  Active measures are being taken to bring the fugitives to justice.  They are said to be some 400 strong in the county.  The Governor has sent 100 stand of arms, and a militia company is being formed.  Bloody results may be expected.

 
Funeral.

The remains of Joseph E. Kendall, who died on Tuesday morning, were taken to Villa Ridge for interment yesterday afternoon.  The funeral was largely attended.
 
Wants to Be a Vigilant.

Hearing that a vigilance committee is about to be formed in Williamson County, Jim Orange wants a position as leader of the band, and swears that if he is made chief he will kill every man in Williamson County but what he gets the right man.  He wants to do all the shooting himself.
 
Reported Murder.

Mayor Winter informed us yesterday that a murder on the steamer Alice Brown had been reported to him, but that nothing of the victim or the murderer could be learned, further than that they were rousters on the boat, had got into a quarrel, in which one was badly beaten, when a friend of the worsted party drew a revolver and shot his friend’s antagonist, killing him.  The murderer left the boat at one of the way landings between this city and Memphis, and has not been heard of since.
 
Two colored roustabouts on the City of Alton quarreled about a hat just below Baton Rouge, and one shot the other, whose name was Lew Robinson, through the abdomen, killing him almost instantly.  The murderer escaped at West Baton Rouge.
 


Friday, 20 Aug 1875:
EGYPT’S CURSE.
The “Times” Correspondent in the Land of the Vendetta.

The Curtain Lifted—A Flash—Sisney Dead—”Damn Him, Sir, He Should Have Been Arrested.”

A VISIT TO THE MYSTERIOUS DRUG STORE OF THE “BLUE TAILED FLY.”

John Bulliner Talks in the Rear Room Where Cholera Medicine Is Kept.

Frightful Scenes of Blood Witnessed in Franklin, Randolph and Williamson Counties.

WANDERING PARTIES OF YOUNG MEN AND OLD DEALING OUT DEATH AT NIGHT.

Gov. Beveridge’s Impromptu Military Organization Receives Its Baptism of Gore.

And A Party of Would-Be Lynchers Are Riddled with Lawful Bullets.

Probability that Many of the Ku-Klux Will Soon Be Fit Fodder for Worms.

Miscellaneous Criminal Record.

THE VENDETTA.

Among the Assassins.

(Special correspondence of the Chicago Times.)

            CARBONDALE, Ill., Aug. 16.—My letter from Marion, Williamson County, was devoted exclusively to the origin and progress of the bloody vendetta that has raged with steady ferocity and fatality for years, between the Bulliners, Hendersons, Sisneys, and Russells.  The

SCENES AND INCIDENTS

of the trip were not added to the report, fearing that, owing to the complicated nature of the difficulties, the reader would be embarrassed by material unnecessary for an analysis that would lead to a correct theory of the mysterious assassinations of men connected with the various factions.  When I

ARRIVED AT CARBONDALE,

10 miles from the theatre of action, and 20 from Marion, and stepped from the train, I was met by genial Joe Robarts, editor and proprietor of the Murphysboro Era, who exclaimed, as he took me by the hand,

            “How are you?  Where to?”

            “To Williamson.”

            “Oh, the devil.  Not to Williamson?”

            “Yes, propose to write your disorderly neighbors up for the Times.”

            “Them fellows will take the top of your head off.  They sent a letter to me a few weeks ago, warning me to stop writing articles about them, saying my body was a good target for a load of buckshot—meaning, no doubt, to settle my earthly accounts as they did those of the man who lived across the square,” pointing to the house occupied by Sisney when living.

            “Did you stop writing?”

            “Hell, no.  Poured it into them harder than ever.”

            The train reached Carbondale late in the evening.  In company with Joe Robarts, I went to a hotel, and after registering walked to the house where Sisney was murdered, while conversing with Stanley, the man of bad memory, and doubtful record, who reached Carbondale on the night of the murder, on a delayed train of cars.  The doors of the store were closed and fastened.  We stepped upon the porch of the residence, and stood, perhaps on the very spot where the assassin stood when he fired the fatal shot.  The wire screen had disappeared no doubt laid away to act some day as a mute witness against the murderer; the sash had been lowered, and the room was bare of furniture, and nothing remained to denote former occupancy except a parlor stove in the opposite part of the room.

            “He was killed in this room?” I asked.

            “Right on that spot,” said Robarts, pointing to a visible speck on the floor.  “It was an ugly night, a heavy storm of wind and rain having passed over the town.  It is supposed that three men engaged in it—two at this window, and the other—”

            “Where was the other?”

            “Can’t express any positive opinion on that subject, but it is now generally conceded that he was in Carbondale.  Over there,” and he extended his hand northeast diagonally, toward a brick house on a corner of a street and alley, “a short time before the murder, a man was seen standing with a gun in his hands.  No particular notice was taken of this incident until the death-dealing shot startled this portion of Carbondale.  A few nights prior to the assassination, two good watchdogs disappeared from the immediate vicinity of Sisney’s house.  Based upon this fact, I should argue that the murderers came up the alley east, slipped along the fence, got upon the porch, and—well, you know the rest—we had a coroner’s inquest and a funeral.”

            By this time the shadows of evening commenced to gather over the little town, around the porch and the house, and the tragedy developed before me in all its horrible details—the parlor lighted up; Sisney seated in a rocking chair; his daughter in another room, within hearing distance; Stanley with his back to the front wall next to the porch; the assassins in the darkness outside, attempting to peer through the wire screen and curtain, and perhaps agitating the victim’s attention, so that he said—“Is there not someone on the porch, Stanley?” the lifting of the curtain by that personage (whose memory was bad before, and eye-sight treacherous then); a flash—transient and luminous—and a loud report, a dark room and a corpse—mangled and bloody; the flight of two men down the road and through alleys, in their stocking feet, past Graham’s mills, in the direction of Crab Orchard Creek, through the mud and gloom and rain drops from dripping trees, on into the settlements in Williamson County—perhaps west of Carterville, and perhaps east of Carterville.  No matter—it was out into the settlements where the vendetta was born.

AT THE HOTEL

kept by Charles Gager, I met a young man whose personnetic manners denoted city life.  He was preparing to leave Carterville owing to implication in acts that were obnoxious to the nightriders who hover around that small, disagreeable and scraggy place.

“Are you afraid to live out there?” was my question, in response to a short narrative as to the condition of things at Carterville.

“No—not in the daytime, but when night comes on, a resident of Carterville who has had any disagreement with any of these fellows, feels a little lonesome, and sleeps uncomfortable.  It has been demonstrated that they mean business.  A dark night, a good gun, and a shadow of an enemy to shoot at, and murder is committed unless a special Providence protects the intended victim.”

The hotelkeeper, a good-natured German, said that he was the first man who reached Sisney after he received the fatal shot.  He found him in a rocking chair, dead; blood covered his body, his head was thrown back, hands rested upon his knees, and a ghastly wound was visible in his breast.

“It was a fearful sight, Mr. Ocelot,” remarked Mr. Gager, the landlord.

“Do you think the concussion put out the lamp?”

“No sir; the lamp was too far away.”

“What about the man Stanley?”

Here a tall, dark-featured individual, wearing a red necktie, beaver hat, and box-toed boots, joined in the conversation.

“D—n him, sir; he should have been arrested and made to tell all about it.”

“You suspicion Mr. Stanley?” I said.

“Suspicion him?  I seldom swear—but d—n him; he should have been swung up by the neck until he confessed all about it.  He has a bad record—a d----d bad record, sir.”

ON SUNDAY EVENING

I visited, in company with Mr. Robarts, an old resident of Williamson County, living between Carbondale and Murphysboro.  After a general conversation as to his crops, I remarked:

“Lively times in Jackson and Williamson counties.”

“Very unfortunate.  Knew both Sisney and Spence.  Clever men.  Expected to hear of the assassination of Sisney.”

“Why—and by whom?”

A smile answered this bold question.

“Now,” I said, “you know as much about these troubles as any man in the county.  I want a history of these things.”

“You can’t get them from me; I tell you that right here.  I have never been mixed up in that feud and will not run the risk of getting in it now.”

We left the gentleman and drove to Murphysboro.  Gained no information there that was worthy to note, and in the dusk of the evening returned to Carbondale, and that night, in the hotel heard at least six different versions of the vendetta.

BOARDED THE TRAIN

destined to Marion on Monday morning early.  Among the passengers found the Hon. William J. Allen, Judge Crawford, and Messrs. Washburn.  The train moved away from the depot at Carbondale and entered a country where the soil appeared rich and productive.  Occasionally we would dash through little strips of forest, suggestive of ambuscades and deadly shots, for we were fast getting

AMONG THE ASSASSINS

or into that precinct where they had become a terror.  A short, nervous whistle, a few jolts, and the train was in Carterville.  At this point three men entered the car where I sat.  A gentleman seated close to me tapped my shoulders, whispering,

            “The Bulliners!”

            “Three of them?”

            “No, the tall ones.  The other—the little fellow—is Doc Macarty, the landlord of that house,” pointing out a dingy, two-story frame.  “He is the right bower of the Bulliners, and those faces at the upper window belong to the Bulliner crowd.”

            “These, then, are some of the desperadoes of the vendetta?”

            “Tennesseans—all of them—except Doc Macarty.  Believe he is an Illinoisan, and once practiced medicine in this region of the country; but, since the trouble began he has kept a sort of hotel and drinking place, and is well patronized by John Bulliner and his crowd.”

            “At that moment we reached Crainville, almost a duplicate of Carterville in appearance—an uncouth, patched-up town, the very spot for a grand carouse and fight among reckless men—and for a midnight murder.

            “There—there,” said my communicative companion, pointing to a two-story house with end fronting railroad, “is where Spence was murdered.”

            “Did he belong to the vendetta?” I asked.

            “No; he was friendly to both parties.  The day before he was assassinated Bill Lemma, of Carbondale, was to have given him a large sum of money; but, owing to Spence’s excessive drinking, Bill retained it.  Some say he was killed for money.”

            “What is your opinion?”

            “You see (I must speak lower—those fellows may hear me), Sisney was buried out here, and the people in attendance stopped at Spence’s store.  He was drinking at the time, and spoke rather plain about the shooting of Sisney—for a great friendship existed between him and Sisney.  That night Spence was riddled with bullets, and the next day they planted him in Hurricane graveyard.”

            The train was now underway for Marion, its destination.  Stepping over to the Hon. W. J. Allen, I entered into a conversation with him in reference to court matters.  He said that the court at Marion was an adjourned one, owing to a failure on the part of the sheriff or clerk to summon a jury, each contending that it was the duty of the other.  The records of two of the most important chancery cases have been lost in the recent fire.  These he considered an important loss.

“Do you think Cagel will be tried this term, judge?”

“He should be—but it is said he will make some important revelations in reference to the troubles of the county that will alter his position materially.”

Marion was reached; a village seeming to rest on a knoll.  It is composed of a public square, around which brick and frame buildings have been erected.  Thence streets branch out in the suburbs that feather down to the shrubbery and underbrush margining the timberlands.  It is the county seat of Williamson, and has about 1,200 inhabitants.

THE BLUE TAIL FLY.

Here I commenced my duties of investigation and research, and before long assembled upon a character—Marion’s popular druggist, Hundley, brother-in-law of Josh Allen, a wit, fine judge of whiskey, a voluble talker, and a true type of the western genius.  Tall, portly, with a rubicund face, rubious nose, a serio-comic expression of countenance, an assumed swagger—just to keep one impressed—and you have Hundley.

“You’re one of them paper fellows, are you?  Go light with us.  You never write the truth anyhow.  Had a paper here myself; Brown was its editor.  Wanted to drink more whiskey than myself.  Shut down on him.  Drunk now as I ever get.  There’s Washburn—you know Washburn, the editor, don’t you?  Good fellow, but not Democratic—sorter Grangy—not the true blue Democrat.  Made a speech down at Shake Rag against old man Washburn, and tore him all to pieces.  Felt my way; saw it took; then put the blue-tail fly on him.  Going to start my paper again.”

“What will you call it?” I asked.

“The Blue –Tail Fly, sir; don’t want any of your fancy names.  Won’t sting, but will breed a worm.  Know Oberly, John?  Why certainly.  Met him at the Anna convention.  Asked Josh Allen before he was put in nomination for Congress, how matters stood down in Alexander between him and Tom Wilson, Judge Green and Oberly.  Josh said, “That’s my affair; talked short about it.  Knew that it wouldn’t do to force a nomination, and have Oberly, with the Bulletin after his tail.  Watched Tom Wilson and Oberly like a blue-tail fly.  Hartzell was withdrawn.  Then Tom Wilson rose up, with his rotund paunch shoved out, and thumbs in his suspenders, and looked worse than a blue-tail fly.  He just clapped Hartzell back into nomination, and I saw that the blue-tail fly was after Josh, and I took the liberty to withdraw Josh’s name from before the convention.  Couldn’t afford to have him slaughtered after getting the nomination.  A fellow from Mound City, a lawyer—Watkins—rose up in that convention and went for me worse than a blue-tail fly.”

While this amusing conversation was taking place and I was about to broach the vendetta subject, John Bulliner entered the drug store.  I was introduced to him, and the party adjourned to a little room in the rear of the store, and all took cholera medicine.  That’s what Bulliner called it.  During conversation, I told Bulliner my business and chatted undisturbed with him for some time.  Hundley had been out, and on returning, and overhearing a portion of the talk said:

“See here, Mr. Ocelot, it is said people are afraid to say here what they think for fear of assassination.  I say what I think and what I please—don’t I, John?” addressing Bulliner; “and what are they going to do about it?”

“You are not afraid of bullets then, Mr. Hundley?” I said.

“We?  No Sir!  Put the blue-tail fly on them.  Why, Bulliner and the Hendersons and the Sisneys and Russells, are doing no harm.  It’s only a matter of time.  Dog eat dog.  They are killing each other off as fast as they can.  Afraid of them?  No, sir!”

“Have you ever received any letters threatening your life, Mr. Hundley?” In inquired.

“I’ve got one in my safe that you would like to have for the Times.  I’d give a fifty-dollar bill to find the man who wrote it.”

“Well, you did steal the $1,000,” said Bulliner, jestingly.

“Don’t deny that; but I’d give fifty dollars to know who wrote that letter.”

“Sure you didn’t steal the $10,000?” continued Bulliner.

“No, sir!  Perhaps the blue-tail fly took it.  Just fifty dollars gentleman, for the author of that little scurrilous, contemptible letter.

We took more cholera medicine, then left the jovial Hundley to his iron safe, his cholera medicine, and his blue-tail fly.  I received no vendetta news from the

EXCESSIVELY VOLUBLE HUNDLEY.

The next personage I met was a gentleman who claimed Marion as his birthplace.

“You know all the circumstances relating to the troubles in Williamson?”

“Yes; know all the parties.  There’s John Bulliner,” pointing toward him; “his family has been persecuted.  Now, I will tell you something that may alter your opinion in this affair—if you have any.

PREVIOUS TO THE VENDETTA

Old Isaac Vancil, a man aged about 70 years, was taken from his home by about eighteen or nineteen disguised men, and hung.  The cause attributed for this terrible deed was ‘harboring a woman who had separated from her husband.’  He was first notified by letter to discard the woman, but failed to do so.  This was in the fall of 1872, before the commencement of the vendetta.  Six men were arrested for this crime, and old Jim Henderson and a man named Stewart Culp were witnesses.  Those tried were discharged by the lower courts.  The United States marshal arrested some of the number and took them to Springfield and while the trial was pending Henderson and Culp were both assassinated.  Henderson was killed first.  He was shot in the field.  In the fall, Stewart Culp, aged 60, was returning from DeSoto to his home in Franklin County, in a wagon, and, while yet inside of Williamson County was shot from the bush by an assassin, and instantly killed.  The team took the wagon and dead body home.  These murders were certainly the result of hanging of Vancil.  Yet John Bulliner, who was in Tennessee when Jim Henderson was killed, is generally considered guilty of his murder.  I for one do not believe it.”

“What do you think of the Hendersons?”

“Think that they are good men, but too much on the knockdown and drag.  The Bulliners fight, but in self-defense.  The Hendersons always did hate the Bulliners, because that family would not acknowledge their superiority.”

“But how about all this killing?”

“Two Bulliners—father and son—were brutally murdered.  After that Henderson was killed; and is it not reasonable to suppose that the same agency that destroyed Culp killed him also?  Culp had nothing to do with the troubles existing between the Bulliners and Hendersons; yet he was killed and I think by the men who hung old man Vancil—simply because he was a witness against them.”

I left this gentleman with different views concerning the Bulliners, and commenced to think they had been wronged to a great extent.

At 3 o’clock I was again on the train, ready to return to Carbondale.

IN COMPANY WITH BULLINER.

            He freely conversed with me in reference to the troubles his family had figured in so prominently during their sojourn in Williamson County, and, as I stated in my correspondence of the 19th, gave me a graphic description of their difficulty with Sisney.

            “That was the first fight of that character I had ever engaged in, and when I shot at Sisney, it was not with the intention to kill him, but only to keep him from shooting my brother, Dave.  Dave was bleeding from his wounds made by Sisney with the spade in the blacksmith shop, and I feared that in his rage, he would rush on Sisney and get shot.  The old man ordered us to capture Sisney, and when we closed in Sisney fired his rifle, and Dave then shot him in the leg.”

            “Old Jim Henderson was killed in his field.”

            “That is the common report.  I was accused of killing him, but I didn’t.  When the killing took place I was in McNairy County, Tennessee.  When old Jim Henderson  knew his end was near, he declared that I, in company with others, shot him, not because he knew it, but because he thought it must have been me who led and directed the party.  He could think of no one else.  I cannot blame him.  Bad blood was between our families and it was natural for him to say just what he did.”

            This was said earnestly with logical conclusions surrounding it, sufficiently strong to convince me that John Bulliner is innocent of the murder of old Jim Henderson.

WE REACHED THE RENDEZVOUS,

Carterville, and Bulliner rose from is seat by my side and extended his hand, saying in a modest manner:

            “Good-by, sir; send me the Times containing your correspondence, if you please, to Carterville.”

            He left the car, and also left on my mind a good impression—an impression that if he has committed the crimes attributed to him it was brought about by mental torture at the loss of his father and brother.  That he has good elements to him no one who meets and converses with him can deny.

THE PEOPLE

of Williamson say that the courts are powerless, that Norris, now under indictment for the murder of Henderson, is at large and has appeared in public with arms, defying arrest, because, they assert, he is closely related to the sheriff of the county; that Judge Crawford, and the other officers, seem to sleep in the midst of all this lawlessness, because they look to their political future—the families embraced in the feud being influential at nominating conventions and elections; that a secret organization, of some character, ramities throughout the whole county its headquarters being either in or near Marion, for purposes best known to its members, and that the numerous offshoots have become entangled in a deadly broil, and that to extricate the members of the secret organization, law is trampled upon and good citizens intimidated.

GOV. BEVERIDGE’S ATTITUDE

is severely criticized, the citizens of the county claiming that he should visit that section of the state in person, and by his powers as governor, put a stop to the reign of terror now existing and save Williamson from the loss of her best producers and workers.

OCELOT.

 
The Franklin KuKlux

The KuKlux Klan of Franklin County met a merited chastisement at the hands of the sheriff a few days ago, and it is to be regretted that his posse did not aim better and kill more of them.  A few more lessons of this kind, and the organization will be broken up.  The organization was called “the Regulators,” and has many members in Williamson.  It is to be hoped that the discoveries in Franklin will lead to the detection of the rascals in Williamson.
 
Franklin.
More Particulars of the Battle with the Kuklux.
Aaron Neal, the Leader, Under Arrest.
Green Cantrell Found Wounded and Dying

            The following account of the Franklin County fight is furnished by a deputy sheriff who participated in it:

            BENTON, ILL., August 18.—The posse consisting of twenty men, arrived at the residence of Mr. Maddox at 10 o’clock, and were secreted in the garden adjoining the yard.  They were armed with double-barreled shotguns.  After waiting patiently for two hours a party of horsemen were heard passing through a lane a half mile from where they were located, but passed on, and were soon out of hearing.  Supposing that they had got wind of the fact that the residence of Mr. Maddox was guarded, half of the posse concluded to get their horses and give them chase.  While catching their horses, and before starting, the alarm was given that they were coming.  They dismounted hastily, fastened their horses, and by the time they were secreted a party of men, completely disguised, wearing masks and white coats, and numbering fourteen men, rode directly in front of Mr. Maddox’s residence.  When within twenty feet of the gate they were ordered by the sheriff to halt.  They made

TEMPORARY HALT,

but seeing no one, again advanced.  The sheriff, stepping out, called to them in the name of the People of the State of Illinois, and by virtue of his authority as sheriff of Franklin County, to surrender.  They replied, “No, sir, we’ll not,” and immediately fired at the sheriff, who had luckily stepped behind a fence corner.  The posse commenced firing at them, whereupon they fled, leaving one of their number mortally wounded and badly demoralized.  Had the posse followed up their advantage by pursuing them, they would doubtless have captured several of them.  As shown next morning by going over the ground, they threw away their masks and coats as they ran.  Thirteen masks were found within a mile of the engagement, six badly riddled with bullets and bloody, showing that the shots effected something.  One of their horses was found dead in the road, about a mile from the scene of the fight.  Four other horses have been found slightly wounded.  The wounded Ku-klux was brought to Benton, and has given the names of several of the party.  The sheriff and posse are now out in search of them.  One of the men, Aaron Neal, supposed to be the

LEADER OF THE BAND,

has been arrested and is now in jail.  Our usually quiet town is ablaze with excitement.  A meeting of the citizens was called today, and the following resolutions passed:

            Whereas, secret bands of outlaws are now in existence in this county, calling themselves Ku-klux, who are bound together by oaths, and traverse the country in complete disguise, and in the night time take peaceable citizens out of the beds, whip them and order them to perform actions under penalty of death, which are inconsistent with the rights and privileges of freeman and citizens of the county, and

            Whereas, James F. Mason, the sheriff of this county, having learned that a body of these Ku-klux disguised and armed, would visit John B. Maddox upon last night for the purpose of terrifying him into the performance of certain things which they were desirous he should do, summoned a posse of men with arms, secreted themselves at the residence of John B. Maddox, and when the Ku-klux, fourteen in number, made their appearance about 2 o’clock—the sheriff in the name and by authority of the people of the State of Illinois, demanded their surrender—to which they responded by immediately firing upon the sheriff and his posse, and afterwards attempting to flee, whereupon the sheriff and posse commenced firing upon them, fatally wounding one man and seriously wounding others; therefore, be it

            Resolved, That we, as law-abiding citizens of Franklin County, determined to uphold the laws of our country and protect our citizens from outrage, do hereby cordially endorse the action of the sheriff and his posse in their actions last night, and that we condemn in the strongest manner these armed and

DISGUISED MURDERERS,

and that to their suppression and the maintenance of the law and liberties of our citizens we hereby pledge our lives and money.

            The above resolution was unanimously passed and also a resolution requesting the state’s attorney, W. W. Barr, Esq., to proceed immediately to Springfield to confer with the governor for his advice in regard to the matter.  Our county is in a deplorable state of affairs.  Sufficient evidence has been obtained to warrant the statement that there are not less than one hundred of these men banded together.  Our citizens are determined.  If attacked by this force we are powerless to defend ourselves.  We demand protection.

ANOTHER OF THE BAND DYING.

            DuQuoin, Ills., August 18.—The latest news from the seat of war in Franklin County was brought in by a hack driver who arrived here from Benton this afternoon.  Two arrests have been made since the fight of night before last.  The names of the parties arrested are Green Cantrell and Aaron Neal.  Both men live in Franklin County in the vicinity of Benton.  Suspicion was first aroused, which led to the arrest of Cantrell, by attention being attracted by parties going to and from his house carrying ice and by seeing the doctor visit his residence.  These facts were made known to some officials, who, upon entering the house, found Cantrell in bed, seriously, if not mortally wounded.  The wounds, no doubt, are the fruits of his last encounters with the sheriff and his party.  The other man, Neal, is rather an important member of the Ku-klux band.  Cantrell is supposed to be an active Ku-klux, and a member of some importance.  His arrest causes great excitement, as no one suspected him being connected with these white-robed men.  Great excitement still prevails in and around Benton.  The sheriff is still in close pursuit of the remainder of the band, and hopes are entertained that he will succeed in capturing and bringing them all to justice.

 

“It is said,” says the Carbondale Observer, “that the bushwhackers control too many votes.”  Therefore the laws are not enforced in Williamson County.  It would seem so.  Sheriff Norris told the Governor the other day that the murderers were known, and that the evidence to convict them was sufficient.  Why, then, does he not arrest the murderers?
 

 

Saturday, 21 Aug 1875:
TREPIDATION IN
FRANKLIN COUNTY

            The arrest of Mr. Green Cantrell, of Franklin County, for Kukluxing, will create a profound sensation. This was a man well to do in the world. He had seen service in the field and had distinguished himself as a brave officer. In Franklin he was much respected, and no one suspected him of fellowship with the lawless Regulators who, in disguise and with whips and pistols in hand carried terror through all the neighborhood in which they operated. But a few nights ago, a band of lawless men approached the house of a Mr. Maddox, in and near which the sheriff of Franklin with a posse were concealed.

“In the name of the People of Illinois, halt and surrender,” commanded the sheriff.

“Go to hell,” and a pistol shot from the leader was the response.

Then a scattering fire. The Regulators turn and fly. One is left mortally wounded. Others are known to be wounded.

A doctor is called from Benton, and is seen to go into the house of Cantrell the morning after the fight of Maddox’s house. People observe that ice is being carried into it, and that something mysterious is happening in it. At once the public imagination couples the fight at Maddox’s house with the mystery at Cantrell’s and the officers soon ascertain that Cantrell is in bed mortally wounded, and that the wound was inflicted by a gunshot. He will not tell when or how he was wounded. Those about him are dumb. This makes active the suspicion that Cantrell was one of the Maddox-attacking Kuklux, and investigation proves the suspicion is to be well founded!

Then the question arises: “If Cantrell is one of these men, who is not of them?” and trepidation takes possession of Benton, and each citizen looks askance at his neighbor and his look is an interrogation: “Are you, too, one of the night riders?”

Of course there is great uneasiness in Franklin, and it is believed the exposure sure to follow the events of the last few days, will make the country open its eyes and exhibit to the public some of the reputed best men of Franklin as the meanest of the Kuklux leaders.

BENTON’S BRAVERY
Gratifying Accounts of the Recent Battle
Thirteen of the Fourteen Marauders Wounded
Williamson County Patterns by Franklin’s Example
ON THE WATCH

BENTON, Ill., August 19.—Great excitement still prevails throughout the community.  Captain G. M. Cantrell has been brought in and is severely, but not fatally, wounded.  Upward of forty shot were taken out of his body.  One Wilson Summers is reported killed, but we have no positive proof of the fact.  Scouting parties are now out in the country, and will probably return before morning.  Our town is thoroughly guarded tonight, and men are stationed at every corner.  We are all on the qui vive.  We expect an attack tonight, and if they come we will endeavor to make it red hot for them.  Green H. Cantrell is a nephew of Colonel Cantrell, late of Benton, deceased.  He is a man that stood high in the estimation of the citizens at one time.  He was the reputed captain of the clan.  He was also a captain in the Union army during the late war.

“ON GUARD TONIGHT.”

             A private letter to a gentleman in St. Louis says:  BENTON, ILL.—August 17, 1875.—Yours received.  Am in no condition to write—deep troubles hover around us at this time.  The Kuklux have been giving trouble for some weeks.  Last night, the sheriff collected a posse of about twenty men—twelve from here, of which I was one—and stationed us in Crawford’s Prairie.  About two o’clock this morning fourteen Kuklux made their appearance and were commanded to surrender by the sheriff and others, when they began to fire.  The first indication was given by the leader bursting a cap at me, who was immediately in front of them; the next, a pistol shot at the sheriff, when the general shooting began on both sides, and lead flew thick and fast.  The Kuklux retrograded, leaving one man on the field mortally wounded.  Others fell on the way and were carried away by the Klan.  Indications and report show one horse killed near the scene, and four others badly shot—riders missed.  The supposition is that all the Kuklux received shot.  About seventy or eighty shots were fired by the sheriff’s men, mostly with shotguns.  One man was arrested this evening.  A company of substitute militia will start in the morning.  I am on guard tonight in a room with the prisoners.  More anon.

Yours, ----------.

WELL-SPENT BULLETS.

            DU QUOIN, ILL., August 19th.—Reliable information was received this evening from a party just from Benton, Franklin County, of the discovery of a man named Summers, one of the Kuklux band, who was found in the woods badly wounded, and another man, also named Summers, who has since died and is buried.  John Moore, Williford Briley and a man whose name is said to be unknown, are said to be badly wounded.  James Brown, whom the Kuklux called upon before going to Maddox’s house, is dead.  Cantrell and Duckworth are still alive, but the last named cannot live long.  Thirteen out of the fourteen Kuklux, who were in the bloody encounter with Sheriff Mason’s party, are said to be wounded.  The town of Benton is guarded day and night with a sufficient force to resist any attempt by the Kuklux to rescue the prisoners.  Sheriff Mason and posse are still on the warpath, and will no doubt ere long succeed in capturing the entire party.

WILLIAMSON MEANS “BUSINESS.”

            SPRINGFIELD, ILL., August 19.—Williamson County is waking up from the reign of terror which the better class of people of that county have been suffering for so long, and has taken courage from the brave work of the Franklin County men, and propose to follow their noble example.  Today the Governor received the following letter from the sheriff of Williamson County:

            MARION, ILL., August 17.—His Excellency, Governor Beveridge:  SIR—In accordance with your suggestions, I have been making an effort to raise a company here by Saturday.  I wish you to write what I shall do.  We want guns and ammunition and horses.  I also wish you to write me at once, and let me know all about our outfit.  I can get good men to take this matter in hand if they are furnished with the equipment and horses.  Please write at once, and send on the

GUNS AND AMMUNITION, ETC.

            Any instructions you may be pleased to give me will be gratefully received.  I have selected the good and responsible citizens of our county for officers.  For Captain, Zachariah Hudgins, ex-sheriff; for First Lieutenant, William J. Pully; Second Lieutenant, William Henderson.  For non-commissioned officers it can be satisfactorily arranged.

(Signed)            W. E. Morris, Sheriff

            The governor replied as follows:

Hon. W. E. Morris, Sheriff of Williamson County, Marion, Ill.

            SIR—Yours of the 17th inst. is received.  I am gratified to know that you and your citizens are determined to organize a military company.  One hundred Enfields, with accoutrements complete, will be shipped tomorrow morning by express, charges paid, to you at Carbondale, and will reach Carbondale by Saturday noon.

THE ADJUTANT GENERAL

will send you the muster rolls, etc.  When the rolls are completed, send them to the Adjutant General, with a certificate of organization and officers to be commissioned, and their commissions will be forwarded to them.  These forces need not wait for full organization, but may render any needed service.  Such force and the persons commanding is hereby authorized and commanded to give all possible aid when called upon by the sheriff of Williamson County to help him in

SUPPRESSING VIOLENCE

executing the laws and maintaining public order, and all such acts will be in strict subordination to the civil authorities.  The State will furnish horses, should horses be needed.  I would suggest that your citizens then furnish the same for any special occasion.

Yours truly,

John L. Beveridge, Governor.

            The governor also wrote the sheriff of Jackson County, urging the necessity of forming military companies in that county at once.

HON. W. W. BARR

prosecuting attorney of Franklin County, has been in consultation with the governor nearly all day in regard to the Kuklux troubles, but neither of them will give any information in regard to the conclusions arrived at or plans agreed upon.

 


Sunday, 22 Aug 1875:
THE
ILLINOIS TROUBLE.
Shipment of Arms and Ammunition to the Militia Companies.
The Outlaws to Be Dealt with Under the Kuklux Act.
U. S. District Attorney Preparing for the Prosecution.

(Special to the
St. Louis Republican)

            SPRINGFIELD, Ills., Aug. 20.—Hon. W. W. Barr, state’s attorney for Franklin County, left town this morning for his home at Benton.  The arms and ammunition for the sheriff of Williamson County left town by express early this morning, and will be at Carbondale this evening.

            The readers of the Republican will remember that one week ago a gentleman from Franklin County visited Governor Beveridge and held a consultation with him, and that the name of this person was withheld at that time.  It is now known that he is Capt. John H. Hogan, who was an officer in Company C, 15th Illinois Cavalry.  It appears that he had some time ago prosecuted one of the gang for selling liquor to his son, and had succeeded in having the dealer fined.  The Kuklux had notified him of their intention to visit him and make him pay over the amounts collected from the dealer.  Capt. Hogan was also advised of the intention of the Kuklux to visit Mr. Maddox, and he, therefore, after consulting some the leading citizens of Benton came here and consulted with the governor.  The result was the shipment of one hundred Enfield rifles and ammunition to Capt. Hogan’s order at McLeansboro.  He returned to Benton and took the arms there on Monday from McLeansboro, and was present at the public meeting on Tuesday.  It was at that meeting that it was decided Mr. Barr should come here.  His visit here has been fully reported except that the policy agreed upon between him and the governor has not been divulged.  It’s pretty certain, however, that a telegram was sent to Hon. John P. Van Dorsten, United States Attorney for the southern district of this state, asking him to come here.  He arrived this morning and has begun to prepare papers for the arrest and trial of the villains under the Kuklux laws of the United States.  Capt. Hogan has been sent for also and will probably be here tomorrow.  There seems no doubt the plan of action agreed upon is that the local authorities shall break up the gang and then they shall be tried under the United States law.

            The governor received today from G. J. Burr, treasurer of Jackson County, a telegram stating that a militia company had been organized in that county and asking for arms and ammunition.  The governor ordered one hundred breech-loaders and five thousand cartridges shipped to him at once, and these means of peace and persuasion left here tonight.  It is also noteworthy that the governor directed that the muster rolls of the company be sent here at once, so that the organization might be regular, and those rules of red tape so much admired by that respected public functionary, the late James Buchanan, be duly respected.

            There is now a company organized in each of the Kuklux counties and they will doubtless have a happy effect, especially if the governor should direct a battalion organization and put them under the orders of an active major.

 


Wednesday, 25 Aug 1875:
The Gupton Trial.

            One week from next Monday, a special term of the Johnson County Circuit Court will be commenced at Vienna, for the purpose of giving Gupton, who is now confined in the county jail in this city, charged with killing of Anthony Eschbach, a trial.

 


Thursday, 26 Aug 1875:
THE KU-KLUX
The Latest from
Franklin County
(Special to the
Chicago Times)

BENTON, Ill., Aug, 23.—The excitement continues unabated, but new developments in the Ku-Klux matter are being made very slowly.  It is believed, however, tomorrow and next day important information will be given to the public.  This morning County Commissioners Richeson, Dawson, and Maddox, the latter being owner of the lane in which the Kuklux were so badly defeated by Sheriff Mason, came into town.  Maddox being escorted by two mounted militiamen, armed with muskets.  They have been all day in close consultation with officers and citizens and are evidently determining upon

A COURSE OF ACTION.

From the best sources I learn that the militia will be discharged, subject to call on Wednesday or Thursday, and the commissioners will offer a reward of $200 for arrest and delivery to the sheriff of each of all the Kuklux not arrested by that time, whose names will be published in the notice of reward to be printed and scattered over the country.

ONLY FOUR OF THE BAND

have been thus far arrested, viz:  Neal, Cantrell, Duckworth, and BrileyBriley was arrested Saturday morning and brought into Benton Saturday evening.  He was at the time of his arrest concealed in the loft of his rude log cabin.  When ordered to surrender, he cried, “Don’t shoot me in the loft; let me come down first.”  He evidently believed his days were numbered, and made a full confession.  His statement sustained Duckworth in every particular.  He charged Neal with being the leader, and gave the obligation, grips, and signs of the order, and the names of members.  He was

INITIATED THE SATURDAY BEFORE THE FIGHT

in Maddox’s lane, in a low, bushy ravine, on the place of one of the Summers, and he was told there was fun and money in it.  During the initiatory ceremony the uniform of the order was taken out of a sack carried by a member, and when it was handed him to be put on he was told:  “These are the clothes that hid the men who hung old man Vancil.”  Briley resides at Sneakout in this county.  He is 45 years old, is hunchbacked, and one of his legs is about four inches shorter than the other.  He is cross-eyed, badly marked by small pox, has a heavy crop of coarse red hair, is six feet high, when standing on his long leg, and is generally

A BAD-LOOKING MAN.

Yesterday evening, the gun of one of the guards stationed at the hotel, where three outlaws are being tenderly cared for the by sheriff, was accidentally discharged with the result of nearly terminating Briley’s life.  The ball passed up through the porch, missing Briley only about one inch, and out of the roof of the house.

BANDITS ON THE WARPATH.

I have just learned from Commissioner Maddox that Dr. Ward visited his house yesterday and told him that Saturday night, while riding toward Frankfort on Crawford’s Prairie, six miles from Benton, he met six Ku-Klux on foot.  They were disguised and were marching two in front, then one, then two, then one bringing up the rear.  Each carried a gun.  They did not attempt to interfere with him.  This news has created considerable excitement and a squad of militia are now searching the prairie.

Jackson County Meets and Resolves

The Jackson County people are indignant.  The late developments of the feud in Williamson County and the Ku-klux operations in Franklin, in connection with the fact that Sisney was killed in Carbondale, have conspired to give Jackson County a reputation somewhat similar to that borne by Williamson and Franklin.  But the Jacksonians do not lie quietly under the soft impeachment.  On the 23d inst., an indignation mass meeting was held at Murphysboro in the courthouse.  The meeting was presided over by Hon. Hiram Swartz, of Elkville, one of the county commissioners.  Addresses were made by Hon. J. Banks, Mayham, Hon. F. E. Albright, Gill J. Burr, M. C. White, D. T. Garrett, and others.

Resolutions were passed to the effect that whereas the press of the country has been led to associate Jackson with Franklin and Williamson as one of the turbulent counties whose law could not be executed through her citizens and county officials, and that an emergency existed to invoke the aid of the governor of the state to that end; therefore it was resolved, that Jackson is not one of the turbulent counties; that its law-abiding citizens regret the unenviable notoriety, reckless newspapers and individuals have given it; that the application to the Governor to arm and equip a company of militia at the present time was unwise and calculated to injure the good name of the county; that they recognize the county officers as men willing and able to arrest and punish all criminals who do not get away from them; that they do not want the arms until called for, and that “as law-abiding citizens of Jackson County, in mass meeting assembled respectfully and kindly request the press of the country to correct the false and unwarranted reports which have recently emblazoned the columns of papers throughout the country, and beg of them to place us in a proper light before the world.”

 


Friday, 27 Aug 1875:
ILLINOIS KU-KLUX
Their Prosecution by the United States District Attorney

SPRINGFIELD, Ills., Aug. 25—From the assistant U.S. attorney here the following information is had tonight:

The district attorney, Mr. Van Dorston, went on Monday to Carbondale for the purpose of holding temporary examinations of the Southern Illinois Ku-klux before the U.S. commissioners there, but the citizens declined or refused to their (line missing) they might be threatened or intimidated or marked for future vengeance.

He then went to Centralia and proposed to hold proceedings there, but Mr. Costee, the U.S. commissioner, refused to have anything to do with the proceedings.  For what reason is not stated.

Mr. Van Dorston then telegraphed these facts here to his assistant, asking him to request Judge Treat to appoint another commissioner.  The judge refused to appoint another commissioner for the reason that he did not believe the United States law applied to such cases.  He is reported to have said the Ku-klux law applied only to such cases in which an attempt was made or conspiracy existed to deprive citizens of the rights specially guaranteed by the amendments to the Constitution.  This reply being telegraphed to Mr. Van Dorston, he sent to Tamaroa for Mr. Costee, United States Commissioner, to Centralia, and the examination has been pending before him at that place today.

A WORD OR TWO WITH MR. MILO ERWIN.

Mr. Milo Erwin, editor of the Marion Monitor, occupies two columns of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat of Wednesday in giving a statement of the “true condition of affairs in Williamson County with the public sentiment there.”  But instead of confining himself to his subject, Mr. Erwin engages in a labored attempt to prove that Williamson County is a quiet, peaceable and law-abiding section, “whose foibles have been multiplied into crimes, and crimes into battles,” and whose reputation for lawlessness is not the result of the outrages practiced there, but “on account of the storm of odium heaped on our county by a few reckless editors.”  “Among the editors who have libeled Williamson County,” writes Mr. Erwin, “none have taken a livelier interest in giving it an infamous name that John H. Oberly of the Cairo Bulletin and R. F. Brown of the Marion Advocate,” and thereupon Mr. Erwin devotes two columns to solid matter to abuse of Mr. Oberly.

Why Mr. Erwin should single out Mr. Oberly as being a denouncer of the atrocities perpetrated in Williamson County (line missing) list of reckless editors, the editor of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, itself, which has indulged in unsparing denunciation of the Williamson County outrages, has harshly criticized Governor Beveridge for his inaction, and boldly advised the people of Williamson to take the law into their own hands, form vigilance committees and with the aid of Judge Lynch, teach the outlaws a lesson that they would remember.  So persistent has the Globe Democrat been in this source that the editor has been threatened, in anonymous letters written from law-abiding Williamson County, with violence to himself if it did not cease.  The following is a sample of one of the letter received by the Globe-Democrat and published in its columns:

CARTERSVILLE, ILL., Aug. 15, 1875, Editor of Globe Democrat:

Yore putting in so many things ginst us that we intend to hev yore scalp and sum yore damd hirelings at Carbondale.  Your thritning us with vigilants committees.  The people darsent do it theyd git thare body full of shot and slugs.

We will ketch some of you some night and kill you and you wont no it.  You stop that there work of yores and take all back or else we will put you on our dead list.

We hev found out the man what wrote that damd lie in your paper long ago, we hev spotted him.  Look out for death hell and the grave.

ONE OF THE BOYS.

All of us is going to do what we say.

If you git Bevridge to send his hirelings down here we will send you and them to hell.  We hearn you set 8 Sept. to hev all the devils to meet at Carbondale and Marion to go for us.  Let me come.

Mr. Erwin might and should have included in his list of “reckless editors” the editor of the Chicago Tribune, who has not been economical of space in commenting on the events which have made Williamson County notorious, nor gentle in his censure of Gov. Beveridge for his supine acquiescence in the disgraceful condition of affairs there.  The Tribune editors sent a special correspondent to Williamson, and in addition to daily denunciatory editorials, devoted four columns of the paper to a detailed history of the assassinations and lesser outrages.

And Mr. Irwin might have included in his list of “reckless editors” nearly every editor in the state and a countless number out of it, who class “the Williamson County outrages” as among the important news of the day, and few of whom fail to stigmatize these crimes and their perpetrators as a disgrace and a stain to this whole section of country.

Mr. Oberly is willing to be classed among the editors who have drawn attention to the outrages in Williamson County and who have asked and demanded their suppression.  He has done this, not alone in the interest of law and order, and for the sake of the good name and the material welfare of the whole of Southern Illinois, both of which have suffered largely from the continuance of the troubles, but also for the peace and prosperity of the law-abiding and intelligent people of Williamson County itself, many of whom Mr. Oberly has met under circumstances of a most pleasant and suspicious nature.

 

AN INDIANA OUTRAGE.

A Man Whipped and Horribly Mutilated.

NEW ALBANY, Ind., Aug. 25.—The Ledger-Standard this evening gives the particulars of a dastardly outrage perpetrated in Crawford County in this state on Sunday night last:  A man named Houghton who with some other men about one year ago visited the house of a man named Saltgiver and lynched him, made up his mind to turn state’s evidence and inform on his comrades.  He visited the town of Leavenworth and gave an attorney all the facts and the names of those engaged in the outrage on Saltgiver. This came to the ears of his old companions and they organized a band of about twenty-five, who visited his house on Sunday night disguised and forced open the door of his sleeping room.  Houghton resisted their attacks and knocked two of his assailants down.  They finally overpowered him in the presence of his wife, administered to him fifty or sixty lashes with hickory wythes, lacerating his body in a most shocking manner.  In addition these scoundrels wounded and lacerated his sexual organs in a horrible manner.  After these the Ku-klux left.  Physicians were called, and they found Houghton in a terribly exhausted condition, his bed saturated with blood and suffering intensely.  Houghton, fearing further outrage, had himself removed to the county jail on Monday night and locked up by the sheriff.  He recognized seven or eight of his assailants and has given their names to the authorities.  There is a good deal of feeling in Crawford County in regard to the affair, and it is probable that some of the parties will be arrested and punished unless they leave that section.

Funeral Notice.

            Died, on Thursday, August 26th, at 11:15 a.m., James H. Wild, aged 28 years, a native of England. Funeral services will be held at the Church of the Redeemer today at 10 o’clock. A special train will leave Fourteenth Street at 10:30 for Villa Ridge.

 


Sunday, 28 Aug 1875:
The Funeral of Mr. Wild.

The last solemn rites were paid to the remains of the late Mr. J. H. Wild yesterday morning. A large number of friends followed the corpse to Villa Ridge, where it was buried.

We learn that William Shoemaker, the mate of the Blue Lodge, who was taken to the Hospital sick with fever, died yesterday forenoon.

 

 

Sunday, 29 Aug 1875:
MILO ERWIN’S QUIET COUNTY.

The following is extracted from the Marion Monitor, Williamson County, where Milo Erwin lives:

Monroe Jack found the following notice at the draw-bars on his farm on Wolf Creek, in the west part of this county, last Monday morning.  We give it as near like copy as possible.  It is not necessary to comment on this matter as such warnings are generally understood in this county of late, and need only to be seen to be hated and dreaded:

“Mr. Jack, we hereby give you Twenty days to Leve this county and if you don’t do it we will shoot you as full of holes as the bottom of a sifter.

KU-KLUX.”

Here is another opportunity for Milo to introduce at least two more columns in his Shakespearian style, in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, a paper that has advocated lynch law as a means of stopping the bloodshed in Williamson County.  “It is not necessary to comment on this matter, as such warnings are generally understood in this county, of late, and need only to be seen to be hated and dreaded,” is the mild, yet meaning language of the editor of the Monitor.  Why do not the editors of Williamson speak out boldly and make a crusade against the assassins and agitators?  Because they fear to do it.  The terrible warnings in the death of the victims of the vendetta and the Ku-Klux are sufficient to cause any man who values his life to keep his mouth shut.  We know this to be a fact, for we have been among and conversed with people of Williamson County—good citizens, and those directly connected with the troubles.  They all acknowledge the state of affairs to be such that would warrant the interference of the governor, as the officers of the law were unable, or afraid, to act fearlessly in the prosecution of the criminals.  Editors and correspondents who tell the people of the state that murder after murder has been committed in Williamson, and adjacent to it—through its feuds—are stigmatized as slanderers and enemies.  Such slanderers and enemies would not come to the surface if Milo Erwin and other prominent citizens of Williamson County would assist the officers of the law in the suppression of crime by advising and strengthening them in their positions.

THE FRANKLIN KU-KLUX
More Important Arrests—Resolutions by the People of
Franklin
(Special to the
Chicago Times)

BENTON, ILL., Aug. 26.—Information reaching Sheriff Mason that a wounded Ku-Klux named Summers was at the house of a relation in Williamson County, a squad of militiamen was sent to arrest him.  Arriving at the house of Peter Summers they found the nightbird had flown, but they found Jim Lannins, of Franklin County, and arrested him on the charge of Ku-kluxing.  He was brought into this place and placed on the hotel porch with his fellows of the band.  He was not in the raid on Maddox, but is known to be a member of the band.  He is about five feet eight inches in height, with sandy complexion and reddish hair.  He is a saucy-looking fellow, and takes his arrest as a good joke.

Today at noon another of the band was arrested on the public square, while making signals to the prisoners under guard on the hotel porch.  His name is James Abshear.  He lives in Cave Precinct, about three miles from Sneakout, the headquarters of the Ku-klux band.  He is a worthless fellow, about thirty years of age.

Yesterday morning John Mulkey arrived in town from a scout, and reported that he and another man, seeing footprints leading into a cornfield near the house of one of the Summers’ had followed them, and in the middle of the field had found a place where about 20 men had camped.  A squad of 40 militiamen under command of Lieut. Hubbard, was sent down into the infested region yesterday and got back this morning.  They found the signs reported by Mulkey and the place where the horses of the band had been reported, but found none of the Ku-Klux in the woods.  Not far from the house they came upon a horse badly wounded.  It had been ridden by one of the Summers’ boys, who also is badly wounded, and is believed to be concealed in the woods, guarded by his friends, armed with shotguns, rifles, and revolvers.  It is now the opinion of well-informed citizens that most of the Ku-klux engaged in the fight in Maddox’s lane have deserted the county and also many of the band who were not in that affair.  Calvin Moore and J. Riley Moore, neighbors of Commissioner Maddox, the former of whom was in the fight, left yesterday morning for Kansas.  The father of J. Riley Moore give him to aid him in his flight $300 of the school fund of his district, which he had in his hands to pay on a new schoolhouse, intending to replace it out of the proceeds of a sale of his wheat.

Capt. John M. Hogan, of the county militia, who has been absent at Springfield with William Jacobs, the Ku-klux informer, obtaining

WRITS FOR THE ARREST

of the band under the Ku-klux Act, arrived in town about 10 o’clock and at once executed writs upon the prisoners in the custody of the sheriff, and took charge of them as United States deputy marshal.  He will leave with them tomorrow morning for Centralia, for a preliminary examination before United States Commissioner Seebadee Curlee.  State’s Attorney W. W. Barr, of this county, will accompany Capt. Hogan and Assistant United States District Attorney Vandorston in the prosecution.  Messrs. Payne and Williams, of this place, have been retained for Aaron Neal and James Lannins and Hon. F. W. Youngblood and William S. Cantrell, Esq., for Capt. Green M. Cantrell, John Duckworth, the Ku-klux who was so badly wounded in Maddox lane, and William Jacobs, the betrayer of the band, will be used as witnesses, and all the rest be put upon trial.  Capt. Hogan brought with him writs for the arrest of 40 persons, some of whom have heretofore been

REGARDED AS RESPECTABLE CITIZENS.

            Among these is Dr. Randall Poindexter, who lives in Cave Precinct, and has been acting as surgeon of Neal’s band.  He has been attending the wounded Summers boys, and has refused to tell their hiding places.  Poindexter is a good physician, and his arrest will create a sensation.  This afternoon Capt. Hogan called his militia company together, and discharged the members from any further service at this time.  In the brief address he made to them, he informed them that he might need them again, and advised them to be in readiness to respond promptly to any call he might make upon them.  He directed them to

CARRY THEIR MUSKETS

with them, and commended them for the efficient service they had rendered.

            Several days ago posters were scattered over the county announcing that on today Richard Richeson, chairman of the board of county commissioners, would address a public meeting in Benton in behalf of the officers of the county, and show what the Ku-klux had done in Franklin, and what had been done to suppress them.  At an early hour people began to come in from the country, and by noon quite a large number were moving about the square, and gathered into knots discussing the prevailing topic.  After dinner the bell of the Missionary Baptist church was rung, and soon the room was filled by countrymen and ladies.  Mr. Peter Phillips, of the Northern Precinct was called to the chair and Messrs. Barr of the Standard, and Garner, of the Courier, elected secretaries.  Chairman Phillips then introduced Mr. Richeson, who made a calm and very sensible speech of about an hour’s duration.  His remarks seemed to give satisfaction to his audience, although he was not received with any demonstration of applause, and no manifestation of approval was made by his hearers during all the time he held them attentive.  He spoke of

THE INJURIOUS REPORTS

of the conditions of affairs in Franklin that had been published in the public prints.  It had been said that in this community lawlessness was the rule, and that neither life nor property was safe; that the people were at the mercy of bad men, who robbed and murdered at will.  He spoke from a varied experience with the condition of society in many other parts of the world, and would say that he did not know a more peaceful, quiet and order-loving community than Franklin County.  True, trouble had come and men and boys had transgressed the laws, but what community is exempt from such misfortunes.  Not one in all the land, and certainly suppression had followed lawlessness as promptly in Franklin as it could have done elsewhere, even in communities that boast the best government.  He then sketched the character of this Ku-Klux Klan of Franklin, describing it as being in its inception a band of mischievous young men, who in sport had ridden over the country, playing practical jokes, laughing at them at their leisure.  This man did not pay attention to his crops, and the band, fearful in the moonlight, in solemn tones bade him weed his corn; this man to build a fence or stop an evil practice.  Naturally bad men got hold of the organization for the purpose of gain, and

COMMITTED SOME OUTRAGES.

They were tried and acquitted, because they could not be identified.  He then gave a history of the Maddox difficulty and the raising of the militia company, the usefulness of which he questioned, and expressed his belief that it ought to be discharged from further service.  He rapped some of the people of Benton on the action of the sheriff in the

MADDOX LANE AFFAIR.

The sheriff had not taken with him enough men, in his opinion. Every one of the nightriders might have been arrested without the shedding of any blood.  In concluding, he again referred to the correspondents as slanderers of the people of Franklin, and advised them to publicly denounce the falsehood that had been circulated broadcast in the land by them, and moved that a mass meeting be held next Saturday for that purpose.  The motion was carried by a unanimous vote.  C. C. M. V. B. Payne, Esq., of the firm of Payne & Williams, attorneys at law then offered the following resolutions:

            Whereas, On Monday, August 16, the sheriff of Franklin County, with a posse of about twenty men met a band of disguised men on Crawford’s Prairie, and had a conflict with said band which resulted in the capture of one of them on the ground, and the wounding of the entire party more or less, and also the killing and wounding of several horses; and

            Whereas, On account of the disturbance and the apprehensions of some of the citizens of our county caused by said disguised band riding over the county in the nighttime, ordering certain parties to do certain acts, or to cease certain practices, a citizen of our county went to Springfield and the governor authorized him as captain to organize a militia company to assist the sheriff in arresting the members of said band; and

            Whereas, The governor after he had shipped 100 stands of arms to this county, wrote to the sheriff advising the propriety of raising a military company to assist him in making such arrests; and

            Whereas, said military company is now in active service subject to the orders of the sheriff, and

            Whereas, said company is now costing $260 per day, and

            Whereas, There are now no hostile demonstrations by said band; therefore

            Resolved, By this meeting, that in our opinion said military company is too unwieldy for effective service in arresting the members of said band.

            Resolved, Further, that in our opinion the sheriff and his posse are fully able to arrest all parties who violate the public peace, and that said military organization is not necessary at present time to preserve the same.

            Resolved, Further, that the sheriff be requested to notify the governor that he has not further use for said military company, and to discharge same, in which event we hereby pledge ourselves to stand by and assist him in arresting any and all violators of the peace.

            Resolved, Further, that we denounce any attempt to quarter United States soldiers on the citizens of this county, because of recent difficulties.

            The resolutions were adopted by a unanimous vote, and the meeting adjourned to meet next Saturday afternoon at 2 o’clock.

THE BETRAYER

            The betrayer of the Ku-klux in Franklin County is a blacksmith named William Jacobs.  Circumstances forced him to become a member of the Klan, but suddenly he revealed all to the fearless Hogan, and the result of that revelation has not yet fully culminated.  Jacobs lived on the edge of Crawford’s Prairie; had heard of the weird-looking men who rode through that neighborhood, but being an industrious and quiet man, kept close to his home and forge, night and day, much work had accumulated on his hands, and one night he was blowing his bellows industriously, when in the broad glare of the two white lights that stretched fan-like from the door of his shop he saw what he dreaded—the white robed Ku-klux, mounted and drawn up in line before his shop.  A deep sonorous voice said—

            “William Jacobs, come forth.”

            He walked out of his shop and stood before them, a dim light yet flickering from the forge.

            “William Jacobs, dance.”

            He protested that he did not know how to dance, and trembling asked to be excused—saying he would do anything else to please them.

            “Dance, William Jacobs!” again sternly spoke the leader.

            The modest, sooty smith, with leather apron encasing his form from shoulders to knees, commenced a shuffle that, in its grotesqueness, rivaled Dan Bryant’s tamed essence of old Virginia.

            “Stop!  William Jacobs, you are a bad dancer.  Return to your bellows.”

            With perspiration rolling down his cheeks, and fear deepened on his face, he returned to the forge, and again sparks flew high, and with every pulsation of the bellows the weird forms of the motionless Ku-klux were vividly revealed.

            “Stop!  William Jacobs, you are a better dancer than a blacksmith.  Come forth!”

            And Jacobs stood before his persecutors.

            “Dance!”

            This time he did not hesitate; but with a look of fear and evident mortification commenced a double shuffle, saying—”Now boys—this ain’t right—no how.”

            At this point, a recollection of his boyhood frolics evidently came upon him, for he folded his arms and glided into a waltz.

            You know I couldn’t dance—and I’ve been—wanting to jine—you.”

            Here he cavorted off into a highland fling, talking all the time.

            “Men owe me—money—and I can’t get it from them—and I tell—you I—want to jine—you.”

            Leaving the highland fling he took a position in front of the gang, with the uncertain light from his forge playing on his back, and executed a jig.

            “You—you—are sensible men—and know—this thing ain’t right.  I like you fellows—and want to jine you.  I can make—these men who owe—me pay up.”

            “Stop!” came the order, in stern, heavy tones from the leader.

            Holding a short consultation the party informed William Jacobs that they would make him a member, and right there in front of his shop, and in the glare of the light from his bellows fire, he was sworn in and received the garb of the klan, with necessary signs and password.

All that was very funny to the robed and laughing Ku-Klux, whose masks hid evidences of mirth, but it proved a dear dance to the blacksmith's audience.  William Jacobs remained true to them for a short time and made other people dance, but at length he proved traitor to the gang, and with young Duckworth will be an important witness in the prosecution.

 

“OCELOT” AND THE “GUVNER.”
Their Arrival among the Ku Klux and the Eleven Lawyers.
And How Dacus, of the
St. Louis Republican Was Taken for the Governor.
Captain Hogan Orders His Militia to Dress Up.
A Conversation with Duckworth and Aaron Neal—The Lawyer Ku-Klux
Takes Iced Tea with a Strange Man—Who Is a Lawyer

(Special Correspondence
Chicago Times)

DUQUOIN, ILL., Aug. 25.—This section of the State, fertile and productive, yielding all the known cereals, fruits, the most delicious and of delicate flavor, tobacco and cotton, and abounding in forests of valuable timber, lies between two vast rivers of this continent, the Mississippi and Ohio, and pushes like a great wedge into the southern states—having on one side Kentucky with its corn, wheat, and tobacco fields, and Missouri with her rich mines of ore and yielding vineyards of juicy grapes.

NEAR CAIRO

the ground is low and black, the finest in the state; and when the broad rivers run high and overleap their banks, Cairo, surrounded by strong levees with the outer and speeding waters, and along the route of the Illinois Central and Cairo and St. Louis railroads is a forest of cypress and cottonwood trees, interlaced with tangled vines and washed by gurgling waters.  This is Alexander County, of which the fearless Ham Irvin is sheriff, and adjoining it is Union, with Alexander J. Nimmo, sheriff; and Pulaski with H. H. Spencer as its sheriff.  During the troubles in Williamson, Jackson, and Franklin, these counties, owing to

GOOD OFFICERS AND FEARLESS JUDGES,

have been clear of feuds and Ku-klux, and are quietly witnessing the dreadful midnight murders in Williamson, the results of its bloody vendetta, and the ravishing of women and whipping and murdering of men in Franklin.  In this portion of the state are families from Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas.  Many of them settled here 50 years ago, and have grown to be rich and prosperous; and during the war, when the spirit of desolation hovered over the south, many refugees and deserters from the southern states and armies fled across the rivers and made their homes in Jackson, Franklin, and Williamson counties.  Some of these families were rich, but the majority, with all their habits of southern life clinging to hem, were poor and shiftless, and commenced to live over again the life they had led in Tennessee, of along the edges of the marshy bottoms of Cache Swamp, which hem in Crawley’s Ridge in Arkansas.

FROM THIS CLASS OF PEOPLE

Came the Ku Klux of Franklin County, and from the latter classes of southern people we have the Vendetta of Williamson County.  This may seem like prejudice to the inhabitants of the South.  But, it is not so, as the writer was reared in that land of brave and hospitable people, and retains a love for it that cannot be effaced by time.  These conclusions have been arrived at through close scrutiny and investigation in the immediate neighborhood of the scenes of the troubles.

            In my letter describing the battle of Maddox Lane, owing to a lack of time and direct telegraphic communication, I could not give all the particulars of the

JOURNEY TO BENTON.

            I arrived at DuQuoin on the evening of the 18th inst., at six o’clock.  A train had passed over the town, and toward Benton a mass of dark clouds told the story of a terrible hurricane and rainstorm in the region of the troubles.  Knowing that the bottom between Benton and Duquoin would be dangerous to travel, I concluded to rest until the next morning.

            At the breakfast table I met the talented and loquacious Dacus, of the St. Louis Republican.

            “Good morning, Mr. Dacus,” was my salutation.

            “Good morning.  You have the advantage of me, sir.”

            “My name is Ocelot.  We knew each in the south during the war.”

            “Tennessee?”

            I answered in the affirmative, when the old acquaintance of the days of fortifications, signal rockets, booming guns, and marches was renewed.  We concluded to travel together, and glean whatever information we could from the people of Benton as to their troubles for our respective papers.

            A road of twenty miles lay before us, through a swamp belonging to Little and Big Muddy rivers.  As we traveled toward the bottom, broad fields of buckwheat lined the road and tobacco spread its green, narcotic leaves over the ground, and in the distance could be seen fields of castor beans gleaming in silvery brightness under the rays of the sun.  Crossing a long bridge over Little Muddy we entered the bottom—a narrow corduroy road running though it, linked by small bridges.  On each side was a broad swamp, out of which soft soil trees grew to a great height, the flowing waters in spasmodic whirlings, having cut loose the soil around their base, leaving guarded and crooked toots resembling the fingers of the uncouth devil fish, which grasped the earth with sufficient strength to keep their given and umbrageous heads in the air.  At length we reached Big Muddy, crossing a long bridge, and soon came to New Orleans, which consists of a deserted frame house, made of heavy oak boards.  The door was open and

SWUNG FROM RUSTY HINGES,

and all around it tall weeds had grown, encumbering the well beaten path that formerly led to it.

            “That is one of the historic places,” said Dacus.  “Women and men met there once; but Sneak-out took the lead, and New Orleans is now in weeds.”

            “Very likely the people who lived there are now dead.”

            “Not all of them,” replied Dacus.  “One lives in St. Louis and is well known there.”

            “A mystery!” I replied.

            “No particular mystery; but that’s about all you will learn from me in reference to it.”

On the route Dacus had developed to me some very pretty botanical ideas in reference to the wild flowers that margined the roadside, the water lilies in swamps, the violets, peeping from under broad white flowers, golden rods, and the aster; and told of his wild trip to Fort Sill in a graphic manner; but he would not tell the mystery that surrounded decayed weed-grown, and quiet New Orleans.

THE CHURCH SPIRES

of Benton looked over a hill we were ascending, and in a fast trot we drove down by the hotel where the Ku-Klux prisoners were guarded, and into a livery stable, located in a corner of the square.

In my other letter I said that Benton was composed of 700 inhabitants and eleven lawyers.  When my friend Dacus and myself drove into the stable at least three of the eleven lawyers and an odd-looking small boy entered.  The latter gazed at Dacus for a moment, then walked up to me and took me by the coat sleeve, saying:

“See here!”

I stooped down so that he could speak to me, as he seemed to have caught a severe cold.

“Are he the guvnur?”

“He is—“

I was about to say, “He is Mr. Dacus, of the Republican,” when the small boy disappeared between the three lawyers, and sped away to when the prisoners ruminated over their fully, and reported the

ARRIVAL OF THE GOVERNOR.

Leaving the livery stable we walked to the hotel, and presently a very handsome man (and they certainly have handsome men in Benton) one of the three lawyers, approached me, saying:

“Pardon me—are you gentlemen reporters?”

I equivocated, as Dacus and myself had determined to keep quiet—in fact, reticent and mysterious, and take all kinds of items, and write them up in a grand medley, and astonish the good people of Benton.  Here was a formidable obstacle to a pursuance of that line of policy in the shape of a man weighing two hundred pounds—and a lawyer.

“You see, we have been expecting you,” he said persuasively, as he buttonholed my duster.

“We are, sir,” I reluctantly replied.

The “guvnur” was the center of attraction, face and hands dripping water, and looking maliciously at the small boy who gazed with undisguised admiration into his face.

“My name is Cantrell, sir.  What paper do you represent?”

“The Chicago Times.”

“Ah, indeed!  Your name, sir?”

Ocelot.”

Ocelot!  Oh, ho!—blue-tail fly correspondent.  Wrote up Hundley and the Williamson County vendetta!” he said in an undertone.

“Mr. Dacus, correspondent of the St. Louis Republican,” I said, introducing the “guvnur.”

The remaining two lawyers were introduced to us—they being the Hon. F. M. Youngblood and Judge D. M. Browning.

As is customary in cases of an introduction, we looked for the bar, but were informed that Franklin was a temperance county; and then we considered ourselves very foolish for not knowing that fact, as just such places are always filled with lawless men, and murders are frequent, as in Williamson County, the towns of Carbondale and Benton,--because drinking men will have liquor, and those who get it by stealth become drunkards—and then the step to crime is short and rapid.

“TAKE YOUR DINNERS, GENTLEMAN,”

said the affable Mr. Cantrell, “then meet us in yonder brick building.  We will give all the information necessary for your special dispatches.”

            Dacus and myself sat down to a Benton dinner, and gossiped with a beautiful and interesting young lady; and with Henry D. Carter, who had whipped the Ku-Klux from his house last winter.  After dinner we went to the place designated, where we were introduced to Mr. Frank Mason, sheriff of the county; and J. B. Maddox, the gentleman who owns the land where the Ku-Klux received such severe punishment; also W. R. Ward.

            ONE OF THE HEROES OF THE FIGHT

            From these parties we gained our information of how the Ku-Klux threatened Maddox,; how they had marched up the lane to his house, in full uniform, with guns and pistols; how sheriff and his posse lay hiding in the grass and behind fences, shielding their guns from the fitful light of an August moon; the bold advance; the challenge; the flash and roar of the solitary gun in the bands of the brave Flannigan; the fall of Duckworth; the fire from Ward’s gun; then the confused jumble of men and horses; the lurid blaze from gun muzzles, and a straggling flight of white-robed men, a prostrate body upon Maddox’s porch, and the piteous cry of:

“OH, FOR GOD’S SAKE, PRAY FOR ME!”

the grey dawn; the captures; and on up to the arrival of myself and the “guvnur.”

            In a room next to eh one where we wrote our dispatches were the costumes of the Ku-Klux—white robes, white masks, and tall, peaked white hats.  These were trimmed with black cloth, and spots of blood on them marked where warm human blood had spurted from deep, and perhaps fatal wounds.  Saddles and old hats were also in the heap; and a gun and pistol were pointed out to us as the weapons of young Duckworth.

            We asked to see the prisoners, when Mr. Cantrell, who was our escort during our stay in Benton, said:

            “Wait until after dark.  It would create a sensation to visit them now.”

            Night came, and with it a chill wind, that robbed and sighed through the locust trees in the square.  A mist hung over the wet town, and only a murmur of voices could be heard in the direction of the hotel prison.  The transition had been great—from a city of one-half million inhabitants to a town of seven hundred—and eleven lawyers.

            A MAN WITH A GUN FIVE FEET LONG

beckoned us to follow him, and in Indian file we silently directed our steps to the hotel prison.  In front of it was a company of men, armed with Springfield rifles.  They were all sizes and conditions—young men—and rammed home cartridges with a vim.

            Capt. Hogan addressed them—

            “Attention!  The first duty of a soldier is obedience to orders.  All commands should be executed in an orderly manner, and the guards should observe great caution in firing at objects.  Last night one of you fired at a hog.  The consequences were wonderful.  Another caution,” he said, looking at a slim-Jim sort of a fellow, who was standing on one leg, and resting his gun on the upraised knee, pointing the death-dealing muzzle at a crowd of Bentonites, “always elevate the muzzles of your pieces above the heads of people when you put on or take off a cap; and when on guard bring in all who come to your lines, but let no person out.”

            John Hogan was every inch a soldier.

            “Attention!”

            The company drew itself up into a warlike attitude.

            “Dress up!”

            They were, indeed, dressed in an odd manner—straw and slouch hats, and occasionally a remnant of a “plug;” blouses, frock coats and some no coats at all.

            “Shoulder arms!”

            There was no nonsense about these fellows, and the rifles found their way to shoulders with a speed that even astonished Capt. Hogan.

A SQAURE GLASS LANTERN

hung pendant from a low porch, and broad locust trees leaned over the old frame house with apparent affection, throwing a dim light upon the armed men, who stood awaiting orders to march.  Up above the armed citizens, above the loaded rifles, with forms bent over the railing of the long porch, were the two prisoners—Capt. Green Cantrell and Aaron Neal, looking down upon a scene both had been familiar with when they were commander and soldier in the service of the United States.

“FORWARD, MARCH!”

and the armed men of Benton faded into the darkness and mist of the night, formidable in organization and directed by law-abiding and fearless citizens.

            “This way, gentleman!”

            We passed through a room filled with armed men, up a flight of stairs, and were ushered into the company of Neal and Cantrell.  After an introduction, I said:

            “Gentlemen, we are correspondents of newspapers—St. Louis and Chicago—and are anxious to get a statement from you, as we do not wish to do you injustice in our letters from Benton, nor do we ask you to commit yourselves.”

            “I know my rights,” said Neal, in a grating, harsh voice; “and anything I could say would do me no harm.”

            We had caught a Tartar—and, to take his word for it, a very innocent and wronged man.

            I looked to Dacus for relief, and soon saw the genial face of the “guvnur” light up with confidence.

            “Mr. Neal, pardon me; but you had a father;” and here the “guvnor” leaned forward and riveted Neal with a benign look, “who—“

            “Yes, I had a father,” said Neal in his jarring, grating way.

            “You mistake me, Mr. Neal—you had a father who was a Baptist preacher?”

            Dacus had struck the tender string, and Neal revealed all he knew about his father, the primitive days of the old church behind the livery stable, and emphatically denied being a Ku-Klux, but said he was a good citizen and—a lawyer.

            “The night before the fight (it took place in the morning) I put a gun under a church for Hamilton—and Hamilton knows that he got it and used it in the fight.  I was at home during the march of the Ku-Klux.”

            “Then you can prove and alibi?” I said.

            He remained silent.

            “Capt. Cantrell, were you engaged in the raids?” queried Dacus.

            “Yes—unwillingly.  They met me and forced me to accompany them.  I feared to attempt an escape. When the fight took place I turned my horse to run, but was immediately filled with small shot.”

            “Where were you captured?

            “At Neal’s house.”

            One confessed, and the other—a lawyer—denied.

            We next entered the room where young Duckworth lay.  He rested upon his back unable to move from that position.  A bullet had hit him back of the right ear, one in the right side of his neck, and one in the right arm.  The “guvnur” went straight into the young man’s affections, who talked right along under the infliction of questions.

            “Did you have any ritual in your bands?” I queried.

            “What?”

            “Any ritual—any oath or obligations, to bind you together?”

            “Oh, yes, sir.”

            “How long have you been a member?” asked Dacus.

            “At least a month.”

            “Who was your leader the night of the fight?” I queried.

            “Neal.  He led us.”

            “What is the penalty for the betrayal of the Ku-Klux?”

            “Death!”

            The “guvnur” astonished Duckworth by giving him correct Ku-Klux grips, which he had picked up as he rummaged around peach-brandy still houses, in search of Ku-Klux, on the line between Alabama and Mississippi.

            THE “GUVNUR’S” CONCLUSION

            “These signs are the same that existed in the South during the reign of Ku-Kluxism in Tennessee and Alabama.  The organizations in those states were broken up, and many of their members hunted new homes, which they found in southern Illinois.  Here the order was again established and now exists with the same rules and penalties to govern it as existed in the southern states.”

            “True,” I responded.

            “This is a productive country, and its people are clever and generous; but, Mr. Ocelot, the majority of them are very ignorant.”

            “True again, sir.”

            “Why, some of them have never seen a railroad or train of cars.  They talk of a plank road and telegraph!  The housewives would hang their wet linen on the wires, Mr. Ocelot, if they could reach them.  Dense ignorance prevails among them in regard to the rapid strides of science.  These people—I mean the ignorant ones—are the atipodes to progress.”

            “Indeed, very true, ‘guvnur.’”

            Dacus and myself retired to bed that night feeling there was a screw loose in Franklin County, and we felt like saying what the sad man said to his sister-in-law as he stood by her side gazing at the silve plate intended to ornament the lid of his brother’s coffin—

            “THE D----D THING’S CROOKED.”

But we did not say it, and after an interesting talk with William Cantrell about the blue-tail fly, and Ward and Flannigan on subjects of domestic nature, they all took up their guns and went to their rooms somewhere in Benton.

            A LUMINOUS SUN

sent a beam straight at Benton’s new courthouse, in the morning, and diffused a warmth in the town that was agreeable.  That sunbeam warned the “guvnur” and myself that more notes had to be looked after and we speedily dressed and went to the morning meal awaiting us.  At the table we met a talkative gentleman.

            “Will they ever be punished?  Did you say that?”  he said, looking at me,  “No, they will all be turned loose. Then what?  The bush, sir—the same as in Williamson County.  Have any been seen since the fight?  Did you ask that?  Yes, sir.  On Webb’s Prairie six men were seen in white uniforms, riding backward and forward on the Benton and McLeansboro Road.  On Knob Prairie, six miles from Benton, about 12 o’clock at night, on Wednesday following the fight, twenty, dressed in different costumes from the Benton Ku-Klux—black robes trimmed with white—appeared to be organizing.  Do I know any Ku-Klux?  Certainly.  It is reported on good authority that a man named Vancil has ten sets of those uniforms in his loft.  In the month of June, 1874, Dr. Poindexter, a prominent physician, met five Ku-Klux one night, and on another night, eleven, in the southeast corner of this county, bordering on Saline and Williamson counties.  All were dressed in uniforms.  They passed him by and did not say a word.  In 1873, in the month of October, a man named Wilson, who lived about nine miles northeast of Murphysboro, in Jackson County, was visited by twelve or fifteen together, at his house.  They called him up in the nighttime, and told him they would not hurt him.  Then Culp just before he was killed, while at DeSoto, had some pictures taken remarking that he feared he might be killed sometime or other.  On his way home from DeSoto that day a rifle ball laid him dead in his wagon, and his team took his body home.  That is all, sir.”

            During the morning, the “guvnur” improvised a Ku-Klux, according to agreement, dressed him in a bloody garb, and extracted from his person four pictures.

            At 1 o’clock in the afternoon, we entered our carriage for the

RETURN TO DUQUOIN.

            The route back was pleasant, the bottom being drier than the day before, and Dacus more entertaining that on the route out; and as the evening sun lay almost level with the road, and fell with a tender beauty upon the golden rods, the sumach, and on through the slender and straight oaks that lined the road, we saw Duquoin in the distance, and reached it in time for the St. Louis train to carry the “guvnur” home to the bridge and Lafayette Park.

            AT SUPPER

I took iced tea with a gentleman who talked to the waiter in a tone that impressed me. It did not take long to broach the Benton subject.

            “What do you think of the troubles?” I asked.

            “Whenever,” he said, in a deep bass voice—and I thought of Finch, “you hear newspapers and newspaper correspondents, say to the people that the courts are powerless; that sheriffs are corrupt; that judges do not do their duty, then you will see just such a state of affairs as now exist in Franklin County—the people banding together to correct supposed evils.”

            “Ah, sir,” I replied, “you are—“

            “I am opposed,” in deep bass, “to any violation of law, from whatever source.  The dignity of the law, sir—“

            “You are—“

            “I am in favor of the supremacy of the law.”

            “You are—you are—a lawyer, then?”

            “I am sir!” in still deeper bass.

            Taking another glass of iced tea, I arose from the table with strange ideas in my head.  I always had a vague hope that some time or other I would be able to sit down and have a good square talk without law or lawyers in it, or see some worthy act performed without their aid.  My antipathy to lawyers, and courts, and sober sheriffs is strong, and of long standing; and it’s natural for me to say that the interests of the people are neglected whenever I see a sheriff in repose—or a judge talking politics and shaking hands with people in southern Illinois.

            SEATING MYSELF IN THE OFFICE

of the hotel, I let my mind range back to Benton and its eleven lawyers, and came to the positive conclusion that the governor of the state and Mr. Barr—a lawyer—took a long time to settle up that little Ku-Klux affair, when in stepped Mr. John H. Oberly, editor of the Cairo Bulletin, and a gentleman from Murphysboro; whom he introduced to me as Mr. Layman—a lawyer.

            OCELOT.

 


Tuesday, 31 Aug 1875:
A GLOBE-DEMOCRAT CORRESPONDENT
AND A CITIZEN

All the citizens of Milo Erwin’s county are not of the same opinion.  Milo said that the editor of the Cairo Bulletin gave to Williamson County her unenviable notoriety for bloodshed and outrages; that the laws were executed, and its officers competent and faithful.  All this and more too, of a peculiar character, he published in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, consuming two columns of solid type.  Owing to the absence from the city of Mr. Oberly, that correspondence has received no notice from the person whom it was intended to injure.  But if has caused a correspondent of the Globe-Democrat to say a few words; and it also drew forth a rather strong letter from a correspondent signing himself “Citizen.”  We extract from both of these letters:

To give some idea of the murderous work carried on in Williamson County, the following enormous list of murders, manslaughters, and assassinations has been furnished, which have taken place since 1862:

MURDERS AND MANSLAUGHTERS.

James Stilley, _____ Burbridge, Thomp. Corder, A. J. Lowe, William Stanley, Samuel Moore, Valentine Spinhart, William Burton, Samuel McMahan, Charles McHaney, James B. Morrey, ex-member of the Illinois Legislature; William Meece killed Mar, 1875; James Gibbs, James Latta, _____ Pricket, William Moulton, and M. G. Walker.

John C. Owen, the murderer of M. G. Walker, was convicted, and is now serving out a twenty-five years’ term in the state penitentiary, and the murderer of A. J. Lowe was also convicted, and served a term of one year at Joliet, and is again back in the county.  Seventeen murders committed and only two convictions!

ASSASSINATIONS.

Ruben Stocks, assassinated in 1862; Christopher Howard, 1865; John Chenoweth, 1866 or ‘67; Zara Cash, 1870; Isaac Vancil, 1871; George Bulliner, 1873; Dave Bulliner, 1874; James Henderson, 1874; Vincent Hinchcliff, 1875; William Spence, 1875; George W. Sisney, 1875; Thomas P. White, 1875.  Twelve assassinations and no convictions.

After this general summing up and classification of murders, manslaughters, and assassinations, he refers in the following language to Milo’s effusion:

A two-column communication appeared in the Globe-Democrat of the 25th instant, signed by one Milo Erwin, and headed “A Voice from Williamson,” which deserves notice.  He claimed to express the true sentiment of the people of this county and of the situation of affairs here.  In this labored article he totally denies the existence of any Ku-Klux organizations in this county and would convey the idea that everything is quiet here.  It is evident, however, that his article was written in order to ventilate some real or imaginary wrong which he had suffered at the hands of Oberly, of the Cairo Bulletin, and Brown, formerly of the Marion Democrat.  It was written in a spirit of retaliation, and, from what we can gather, with an eye to securing favor and applause from those in sympathy with the gentlemen in white of nocturnal and erratic habits.  This Erwin claims to have been editor in chief of the Marion Monitor, and while in that capacity, to have suffered some severe excoriations from the pungent pen of the outrageous Oberly.  It is true that Erwin, at the time of making a race of office, was, or sought to be, the controlling spirit of the Monitor, but it is equally true that he never held himself out to the world as its bona fide editor.  His desire to rush into print and associate his name with those of such prominent characters as Oberly and Brown, is, perhaps, his most innocent motive for this erroneous effusion.

To a disinterested person, Milo Erwin’s position, with such an overwhelmingly list of murders and violations of the law before him, would appear unsupported in any particular whatever, and place Mr. Erwin in a very questionable attitude as to fair dealings and veracity.  We draw this mildly, because we are not the managing editor of the Bulletin.  Now, as to the enforcement of the law, the following is from “Citizen,” dated at Marion, and accompanied with other matter of a personal nature, which we will not publish at present.

No civil officer here can enforce the law, because public sentiment is against the law and against the officers who endeavor in execute the law.  And these things have gone on till they are becoming legitimate fruit in rape, murder, and assassination.  The citizens of this county, who are worth having here, are trying to get away; and well they might.

The above are only a few articles of a similar nature that have come to our notice within the past week.  Mr. Erwin, at his leisure, can answer these, and if he expends a proportionate amount of the high-strung language devoted in his late articles to the editor of the Bulletin, it will resemble, in length, the noted State paper issued by the present governor of Texas to the patient people of that state.


GIVEN AWAY.
Duckworth, The
Ku-Klux Turns State’s Evidence.
The Preliminary Examination of His Associates

            CENTRALIA, Ill., August 29.—The preliminary examination of the Ku-Klux marauders arrested for the attack on the house of John B. Maddox, took place before United States Commissioner Curlee.  The prosecution was made under the United States Ku-klux law. The Government was represented by District Attorney Van Dorston, assisted by Hon. W. W. Barr, of Franklin County.  The defense by Messrs. Payne and Williams, of Benton.

            THE PRINCIPAL WITNESSES

examined were John B. Maddox, W. W. Jacobs, Mrs. James Brown, Dr. Ray and John Duckworth.  Duckworth testified that he was at the fight at Maddox Lane, and on that night Aaron Neal was the leader of the band.  Her gave the names of the following fourteen men as being then with the gang:  Calvin Moore, George Proctor, George Herd, Wilson Summers, Thomas Sommers, Mardonia Sommers, Henderson Sommers, Rufus Stripling, W. W. Briley, William Plasters, Green Cantrell, W. W. Jacobs, himself, and Aaron Neal.  He testified that on the night of the 29th of July,

THE BAND MET

at the house of Hiram Sommers, and resolved to give a visitation to Maddox and Brown.  The latter was supposed to have some improper women about his place, the former was charged with having measured their horses’ tracks.  When they came to Brown’s house they found him in a dying condition.

            The testimony of W. W. Jacobs another member of the band, confirmed that of young Duckworth.  Aaron Neal was the leader that night, and Calvin Moore administered the oath.  The Franklin County band was only part of

A REGULAR ORGANIZATION

that existed in Williamson, Saline, and Jackson counties, and its object was to do what they pleased, regardless of law.  They visited James Brown that night to make him break up a gun, with which he had threatened to shoot any Ku-klux who visited him.

            Dr. Ray, of Franklin County, testified that the death of Mr. James Brown was hastened by the Ku-klux visitation that night, but could not swear that it was the immediate cause.  This testimony was contradicted by that of the succeeding witness, without any new points being developed.

            THE RESULT

of the examination was that Aaron Neal was held over.  Two charges had been preferred against him:  first, for conspiracy to injure the public; and second, for conspiracy against the liberty and property of Mr. Maddox.  The first charge was dismissed.  On the second, he was held over in $2,000 bail.  He gave bond, with his brothers, Jeremiah Neal and Thomas Neal, as securities.  The others, R. Poindexter, James Abshier, Frank Fleming, and William Nolan, were held over in $1,000.

            Great indignation is felt that Neal should have been allowed to go free on so small a bond.  At the conclusion of the preliminary examination, Aaron Neal, went home, under a guard, to Franklin County, where he is charged under the state law, before the county court, with riot and unlawful assemblage.

            The United States Commissioner will give a preliminary examination tomorrow to

BRILEY, LAWNESS AND CANTRELL,

who are still in custody.  The indications are that they will also be admitted to bail, when, like Neal, they will be held under bonds for riot and unlawful assemblage under the state statures.  The other members of the Klan, named by Duckworth and Jacobs, are skulking in the woods, Capt. John W. Hogan, of the Franklin County militia, is here assisting the prosecution in the production of evidence.

 

Milas Brooks was arrested at Cobden, Illinois, while in a state of intoxication.  He stated that he was one of the Williamson County Ku-klux Klan.  Upon being searched, several masks were found upon his person, which rather corroborated his statement.  He is now held for the action of the United States commissioners.  Brooks formerly was a resident of Carbondale, where his reputation is one of a bad character.

The Trial of William Gupton

William Gupton, in charge of Deputy John Cain, left Cairo yesterday morning for Vienna, where a special term of the Johnson County circuit court was begun yesterday morning for the purpose of giving him a trial on the charge of murder.  The trial promises to be one of much interest, as the friends of Eschbach, through more than a year has passed away since the deed was committed, seem anxious that Gupton shall suffer to the full extent of the law for the crime.  To those of our readers who are not acquainted with the circumstances of the deed, it may prove of interest to give a synopsis of the occurrence:

Mr. Eschbach had been to Villa Ridge to attend the funeral of Herman Blom’s child, and when the train returned to the city, went directly from the train to his barbershop, where he commenced to put things to rights and clean up so that he would be ready for work when he went to the shop on Monday morning.  Shortly after, probably not more than five minutes after Mr. Eschbach opened his shop doors, Bill Gupton, a steamboat pilot, and a man of notoriously bad character entered the shop.  Just what occurred after Gupton went into the shop is not known, but he had been there but a very few minutes when people were in the vicinity of the shop heard two shots fired, and a moment after saw Gupton backing out of the shop door, and just as he stepped outside he was seen to fire the third time, the ball striking the glass in the door, which Eschbach was trying to close.  Then pushing the door open, Gupton fired the fourth shot, pointing his pistol into the shop.  In a few second after Eschbach came out of the shop, and said to some men near by, “There is the man who shot me!  Catch him!  Catch him!”  Mr. Al Heightman, bartender at Lane’s saloon, came out of the saloon just as the last shot was fired and seeing what was going on, rang up to Gupton and attempted to take the pistol from him.  Gupton resisted, and Heightman and he had a tussle, in which Heightman succeeded in getting the revolver.  By this time quite a crowd had gathered about the corner and Officer John Hogan coming up, took Gupton in charge and took him to the city jail.  After Eschbach came out of the house, he walked down the sidewalk as far as Cris Anther’s meat shop, several time saying, “There is the man who shot me!—Catch him!  Catch him!”  He then returned to the shop and lay down.  A number of his friends gathered around him, and seeing he was badly hurt, sent for Dr. Wardner who arrived in a few minutes, and at once administered to the wounded man’s wants, but he died in half an hour afterwards.

FROM
VIENNA, ILL.
The Trial of Gupton Begun—A Jury not yet Obtained—A Short Sketch of the Prisoner, Etc.

      VIENNA, Aug. 30, 1875.

Circuit Court, special term, for the purpose of trying the much talked of Gupton murder case, commenced this forenoon, Judge D. J. Baker, presiding.

The case is exciting considerable interest, and there will be a large number of persons present to witness the proceedings.  Judge W. J. Allen and Hon. D. T. Linegar and C. N. Dameron, county attorney for Johnson County, will conduct the prosecution, and Messrs. O. A. Harker, H. B. Hardy, and A. G. Dameron, appear for the prisoner.  Thus it will be seen that the weight of legal ability is against the prisoner—not that Messrs. Harker, Hardy, and Dameron will not do all in their power for their client, but that they are all young lawyers and have not had sufficient experience to enable them to cope with such lights as Linegar and Allen.  But they will contest every inch of the ground to be fought over, and it they lose in the end the fault will not be theirs.

The prisoner (Gupton) was brought to this place by Deputy Sheriff John Cain, this morning, and was at once turned over to the keeping of Sheriff James H. Carter.

Having learned that Mrs. Gupton, mother of the prisoner, had arrived in town, your correspondent this morning called upon her I the hope of learning something of the history of the unfortunate man.  She is a plain looking old lady, and evidently much distressed on her son’s account.  The following is a brief sketch of the early history of the prisoner:

William R. Gupton was born in Montgomery County, Tennessee, in the year 1843, and is consequently 33 years of age.  At the age of one year his parents moved to Smithland, Kentucky.  Gupton was very sickly until sixteen years of age, the physicians pronouncing his disease consumption.  At about this age he concluded to go “on the river,” and learn to be a pilot, but the old lady could not remember the name of the boat on which he entered his apprenticeship.  At the expiration of his time, he was granted a pilot’s license, and thence forward up to the time of the shooting of Eschbach, was almost constantly employed.  Since the death of her husband and father of the prisoner, William has not only been the sole support of his mother three sisters, and two brothers, but also of his grandmother and her tow children.  She avers that he was always a kind and affectionate son, and that if he was dissipated, he was very successful in keeping it from her knowledge.  The old lady suffers great anguish and pain because of the terrible predicament in which she finds him. She is now, and has been for the last eighteen years, a member of the Methodist Church. The only education William ever had he received at his mother’s hands.

Up to this hour but two jurymen have been obtained, and the indications are that it will be Wednesday morning before taking evidence will commence. Most of the witnesses for the prosecution are here, though one or two important ones are yet to arrive.

The Wrong Man Again.

            Sheriff Irvin received a telegram on Saturday night stating that Hutchinson, the man who killed Suttar, the narrow gauge railroad engineer, in this city about a month ago, had taken passage on the steamer Grand Tower at a point below Cairo on Saturday, and that he should look out for him. Sheriff Irvin was on hand when the boat landed at the wharf, and soon had the supposed murderer in charge, but upon being questioned he stated that his home was in Cape Girardeau, and that his name was Albert Clark. The sheriff held on to him until further proof could be obtained, when Clark asked to be taken to the St. Charles Hotel, stating that he knew the clerk, Mr. Dean. Mr. Irvin took him to the hotel, where his statement was verified by that gentleman. He was released, and seemed to be very happy when the clutches of the sheriff were loosened upon him.

 


Wednesday, 1 Sep 1875:
“THE GOLDEN RING”
Another of the Band Turns State’s Evidence.
The Fearful Oath Administered on Joining.
“First Wars, then Ship, and then Hang all Offenders.”

            CENTRALIA, August 30.—United States Commissioner Curlee, of Tamaroa, assisted by Commissioner Stoker, of Centralia, held a preliminary examination today of Green M. Cantrell, and Williamson Briley, two of the Ku-klux engaged in the fight in Maddox’s lane, on the 16th instant.  James Lawness, another member of the band, waived examination previously and was held over in $2,000 bond.

            THE FIRST WITNESS

was W. W. Jacobs, who was implicated in the outrage, and who turned State’s evidence.  He testified that the leaders of the band were Aaron Neal and Calvin Moore.  He was sworn in on the 22d of July, at the house of Hiram Summers.  He gave the names of nine men present on the occasion.  There were four hundred members of the band in Franklin and one thousand in Williamson County.  He was sworn in by Neal, who made him take an oath that he would not spread any of the secrets, signals, or passwords of the organization, which was known as

THE “GOLDEN RING”

would go whenever called in by the Grand Master and wherever to first warn, then whip, and then hang all offenders, the penalty for refusing being to have him thrust out from ear to ear and his tongue torn out by the roots.  He testified to Cantrell and Briley having been sworn in on the night of the 14 inst., and to their being present, disguised on the night when the fatal remonstrance was made to the visit to Maddox’s and when various other depredations were then committed.  After starting on the Maddox expedition, Cantrell asked, “Is there going to be any dirt done?” but was answered by Neal that they were only going to have some fun and to wait and see. These were about the only points elicited in addition to the evidence of yesterday, which was in a great part reported.

            John Duckworth also of the band, in giving State’s evidence, testified to about the same facts.

            THE DEFENSE

            On the part of the defense it was attempted to show that Cantrell had been an intimate personal friend of Mr. Maddox and had no reason to visit him, that there was nothing unfriendly in the relations between Briley and Maddox, and that both the accused had been quiet and respectable citizens heretofore.  Briley told Captain Hogan he intended to surrender himself and give State’s evidence, but was arrested by a posse the night before he intended to give himself up.

            SMALL BAIL REQUIRED.

            After a conference of several hours, United States Commissioner Curlee decided to hold Cantrell in fifteen hundred dollars bond, and Briley in one thousand.  The sum is considered low, and regret and indignation is expressed that Neal, the leader, should have been let off on two thousand dollars bonds.

            INTERESTING FACTS.

            In a long talk with Captain John Hogan, who was Captain of the Franklin County militia, I have gathered some interesting facts.  It is owing to Captain Hogan that the first organized resistance was made to the Klan.  He provoked Summers, of the Klan, for selling his boy whiskey, and was warned to pay Summers back the amount of the fine, $100 on the 20th inst., and on a second warning was to have then been hung.  He procured Maddox and Sheriff Mason and procured necessary arms and accoutrements from Governor Beveridge to form a militia company for the arrest of the offenders.  The arms were furnished by the State, which of course also bears the expense of their subsistence.

            POLITICIANS ANGERED

            Although organized exclusively for the benefit of Franklin County, the bold and courageous course of Captain Hogan has excited as rancorous hate in Franklin County among the politicians of his county.  Commissioner Richeson, of Franklin County, became dissatisfied when not consulted in the preliminary arrangements made by Captain Hogan and he made a speech to the citizens of Benton on the 26th, when he assured the audience that the county would have to bear the expense of the militia, and that the whole capture could be easily managed by a sheriff’s posse.  Resolutions to that effect were adopted and the militia company has been disbanded in consequence.  Among the speakers was C. C. Payne, Esq., who defended Neal, and who has a brother that has fled the county since the recent troubles.

            A BOLD APPEAL

has been made to the Ku-Klux spirit of the citizens of that county.  In his speech, Mr. Payne said:  If the bedrock of this Ku-kluxism were exposed, not a man but would throw up his hat and hurrah for the Ku-klux of Franklin.

            KU-KLUX STRENGTH,

            A careful estimate shows that nearly fifteen hundred men are more or less directly connected or in sympathy with the band in Franklin, Williamson, and adjoining counties.

            Aaron Neal, the leader, is an old member of the Southern Ku-Klux Klan.

            GREAT CREDIT IS DUE

W. W. Jacobs, who has voluntarily exposed the plan and its membership.  He joined it for the purpose of exposing and breaking up the organization, and another object he had was to discover the murderer of old man Vancil, who was hung by a band of Ku-Klux for disobedience of orders about two years ago.  Several men were arrested for the murder, but had to be discharged after the main witnesses against them had been shot and killed.  It has been discovered through Duckworth, Jacobs, and others that Aaron Neal, Calvin Moore, and a man named Jesse Cavins, were all present at, if they did not assist in, the hanging of Vancil.  This brutal murder will probably never been avenged.

            THE PASSWORDS OF THE KLAN.

were simple.  On meeting a supposed member I put my hands in my pants pockets and moved my fingers on the outside.  If he was a member he responded by moving his coat by the lapel with his hands, or the lapels of his vest by the same means.  Then, taking him by the hand, I would put two fingers on his hand between the thumb and first finger, and if he was a member he would say something about doing well.  The last two words were the passwords, and were sufficient, if used in any sort of phrase.

            NOLLE PROSSES

have been entered in four of the cases brought before the Untied States Commissioner—those of R. Poindexter, James Absher, Frank Fleming, and William Nolan.

MORE OF THE BAND ARRESTED.

            On Sunday Deputy United States Marshals Mulkey and Moore, went over and arrested six men as members of the band:  Akin Plasters, Enoch Summers, Eli Summers, Calvin Summers, Jasper Neal, and Joseph Huffpine.  On arriving at DuQuoin, today, three of the men were released on the order of Sheriff Mason and Captain Hogan, who thought sufficient evidence could not be brought against them to insure conviction, although undoubtedly members of the band.  The other three were brought there tonight, Messrs. Aikin Plasters, Enoch Summers and Jasper Neal.  They will probably be examined by the United States Commissioner tomorrow.

THE FRANKLIN KU-KLUX

            The following is a complete list of the Ku-Klux of Williamson for whom writs have been issued:  Calvin Moore, Aaron Neal, George Herd, George Proctor, Rufus Striplin, Williamson Briley, Henderson Summers, Thomas Summers, Jr., William Plasters, Jr., Green M. Cantrell, John Duckworth, Hiram Summers, William Boyd, Jr., Thomas Poage, William Scarlet, James Lannins, Jasper Neal, Elisha Summers, John Launius, William Launius, Huston Summers, Enoch Summers, Randall Poindexter, Elias Summers, Calvin Summers, Daniel Summers, Ambrose Summers, Mandex Summers, Joseph Hughines, Marve Shaw, Benjamin Herd, Steven Herd, William C. Perriman, William Perriman, Sr., James Abshear, Lafayette Abshear, William Knight, Sr., William Knight, Jr., John Vincon, James Bailey, William Nolan, John R. Moore, Frank Fleming, James Shain, Robert Summers, Sr., Aiken Plasters, Sr., Scote Summers, Henry Johnson.


PASSED IN HIS CHECKS.
Mr. James Lane is Deputized to Take in a Negro to Jail and Is Compelled to Shoot Him in Self-Defense.

            About half past four o’clock yesterday afternoon, Officer Sargent saw two negroes fighting on the corner of Fourth Street and Commercial Avenue. He ran to them, separated them, and then arrested one of the parties, by the name of Elija Safford, and started to the police court with him. He had gone down Fourth Street but a little way, when he met Mr. James Lane, proprietor of the Crystal Saloon, whom he deputized to take the negro to the lock-up. Lane took the negro in charge, and had got to the corner of Sixth and Washington Avenue, when the negro stopped, refusing to go any further with him. Lane argued with him for several minutes, when Mr. Jacob Walder came up. Lane asked him whether he had a revolver, seeing that the negro was determined to get away.  Mr. Walder replied that he had, when Lane said, “Give it to me.”  The revolver was given him, when he placed it in his pocket and said to Safford: “Policeman Sargent has deputized me to take you to jail and you must go.” Safford still sternly refused, saying, “Jim Lane, you white s-n of a b---h, I’ll die before I go to jail with you,” and made a movement as if to draw a knife or revolver from the back pocket in his pantaloons. Lane saw the movement and exclaimed, “Stop! Don’t come near me.” Safford still advanced, with the evident intention of assaulting him, when Lane drew the revolver given him by Mr. Walder and shot him in the right breast. Safford started to run, but had gone but a few steps when he turned round exclaiming, “I’ll fix you yet.” Again Lane leveled the weapon and fired, just as the negro who detected Lane’s intention, turned his back. The ball struck Safford in the back, and he fell to the ground. He was picked up and carried to a house on Commercial Avenue, near Fourth Street, where he died in about half an hour afterwards.

Lane walked up the street, where he was put under arrest by Officer LaHue, and turned over to Deputy Sheriff John Sheehan.

 


Thursday, 2 Sep 1875:
THE
MAN WHO WAS KILLED.

            The ghastly, hideous sight of a post mortem examination was presented to us last night in all its realities. Storiass, the black man killed by Lane, lay stretched on a board in the cabin of a negro woman. The surgeon had laid wide open his stomach—and heart, lungs, liver and all the vital parts were exposed to the view of the eye. Blood ran in rivulets, and gathered in pools on the floor, while the hands of the surgeon were busy searching for the bullets that had not speedily ended the life of the unfortunate man. A dim light made the scene more ghastly, and when the men assisting the surgeon turned the dead body on its side, blood washed down upon the floor like water. We are of the opinion that such scenes—necessary, we know—should be conducted with more privacy. We had no particular business there ourself, and will certainly never have any business whatever in such a place again under similar circumstances.

THE KU-KLUX
Three of the Assassins Hiding in
Texas
They Are Charged with Nearly All the Assassinations.
Two More Outlaws Held to Bail.

MARION, Williamson County, Ill., August 31.—Tom Russell, James Norris and David Pleasant, now reported to be in Texas, it is alleged are chargeable with nearly all the assassinations that have taken place in this county.  These parties may be in Texas, hiding from the vengeance which is sure to overtake them sooner or later, but the general belief is that they are not; that they are sulking about this and adjoining counties, awaiting a favorable opportunity to make sure of the next victim marked on the death-roll.

JAMES NORRIS

is a man between twenty-five and twenty-six years of age, born and reared in this county, and regarded here as a vagabond—a character so low in the scale of humanity as only fit to be just what his is represented—an outlaw.  His father, John Norris, is deemed one of Williamson County’s best citizens, who deplores the terrible profligacy of his son, but is in no way responsible for his acts.

TOM RUSSELL

is also a native of the county, about the age of Norris, and represented to be of vicious habits.  His father is counted among the oldest and most respected citizens—a wealthy farmer, and the family possesses culture and refinement, more so than any of those connected with the feud.

DAVID PLEASANT

one of the reputed murderers, is said to be  desperado of the first water, and acts in concert with Norris and Russell when out o the warpath in quest of scalps.

HIRED ASSASSINS

From all that can be gathered, it is evident that the killing in this county has been done by a few persons, carefully selected and equipped for the business.  There seems to be no doubt about this, whoever the parties may be.  Men governed by no impulse but that of reward for the blood of their fellow men.  The assassins in each case have been hired, paid a price for the heart’s blood of those who have so recently been sacrificed on the altar of revenge.

THE DEATH ROLL.

Old Jim Henderson, it is said, was killed by James Norris; Dr. Hinchcliff by Tom Russell, Samuel Henderson by Gordon Clifford, alias Texas Jack; Old George Bulliner by Tom Russell and David Pleasant; Col. George W. Sisney by James Norris; David Bulliner by Tom Russell and David Pleasant.  The murderer of William Spence, it seems, is in no way suspected, but no doubt he fell by the hand of one of the desperate characters mentioned above.

ONE THEORY

here is that the aggrieved parties in the vendetta have sent out of the State for men to do their killing, so as to avoid arrest and punishment for the terrible crimes that now blacken the good name of Williamson County.  Southern Illinois, and all this fair commonwealth—crimes that must pass upon the page of the state’s history, and remain as a stigma of shame upon this people in their day and generation.

A GRAVE QUESTION.

            Every day, every hour, now passes in suspense.  People here wonder, and repeatedly ask the question, “Who will be the next victim?  Who next stands marked on the death-roll, that must be sacrificed to help fill the measure of these inhuman butchers, who now have complete control of one of the fairest counties of Egypt?”

            THE KU-KLUX TRIALS.

            CENTRALIA, ILL., August 31.—The Commissioners’ Court of the United States, in session at Centralia, Ill., met this morning at 8 o’clock, and took up the case of James Lannis, one of the Ku-klux of Franklin County.  The evidence was agreed to, and Mr. Lannis held to bail in the sum of $1,000.

            THE NEW CASES.

            The cases were all dismissed against the parties arrested yesterday, except that of Jasper N. Neal and Akin Plasters.  Upon trial the evidence showed that Mr. J. N. Neal was sworn in on the night of the fight at Maddox’s lane, but he did not go with the party.  This is all the evidence that appeared against Mr. Neal.  The evidence further shows Akin Plasters, the other defendant, went with a band of Ku-Klux.  In disguise on one or two occasions, but was not with them at Maddox’s lane.

            OPINION OF THE COURT.

            Commissioner Stoker delivered the opinion, and said that this case was quite unlike the case of Cantrell and Briley, tried on yesterday, in which he dissented from the opinion of Commissioner Curlee, but as he was only associated with Commissioner Curice, he would not be contentions.  There seems to have been no desire on the part of the defendants to withdraw or abandon the organization.  Bail was fixed at $1,000 in each case.

            Court then adjourned till 8 o’clock a.m. tomorrow.

            Other prisoners are expected from the K. K. vicinity tonight.


THE INQUEST.
Testimony of Witnesses in the Lane-Storiass Killing.
Lane in the Discharge of His Duty as a Deputized Officer.

The following is the testimony given by the several witnesses examined at the inquest over the body of the negro Elijah Storiass (not Safford, as we had it yesterday), who was shot by James K. Lane on Tuesday evening.

Lizzie Walker, Cairo, Illinois, being first duly sworn, said:—Was standing on the corner of Fourth Street and Washington Avenue; heard a man tell him Lane, “Here, take this man in charge,” meaning Storiass, the deceased.  Jim Lane said to I. Walder, “Have you a pistol?”  Walder said, “Yes,” and Lane said, “Give it to me.”  Walder handed it to him; Storiass was in front of Lane; Lane followed and caught up with him; Storiass said to Lane, “Don’t put your hands on me.”  Lane told him (Storiass) to stop; Storiass turned down Sixth Street towards Walnut Street, and motioned to Lane not to follow.  Mr. Sargent then brought Storiass back; Storiass said, “Mr. Lane, did you call me a d—n black son of a b---h?  I don’t take that off of no man.”  Saw them go along a little ways and Jim Lane shot him, (Storiass).

Patrick Carroll, Cairo, Illinois, upon being sworn, said:—Saw John Taylor and Jim Lane with Storiass; Storiass refused to go with them; he said he didn’t want any man to come out of a whisky saloon to take him, and he wouldn’t go; he resisted all the way to the corner of Washington Avenue and Sixth Street; then he made fight; saw him draw his arm to strike Lane, and advanced toward Lane; Lane backed up a few steps and then I heard the report of the pistol, and saw that Storiass was shot.

John Taylor, being duly sworn said:—Storiass and someone else were fighting; Sargent came down and tried to separate them, and couldn’t do it; so he called for assistance to a number of parties; Sargent then called on me to help him make the arrest; I went over and tried to separate them but couldn’t do it; both parties were very strong; I then asked Sargent for his whistle and he went to the corner and blew it several times for assistance; Storiass and the man he was fighting with became separated, and I met Sargent and he told me he had placed Storiass in charge of Jim Lane; Sargent told me to go to Jim Lane and assist him in making the arrest.  When I came up with Lane he was about twenty feet behind Storiass, who was going toward the Mississippi Levee; he was walking very fast; Lane told him to stop several times; that he was authorized to take him to the justice and he had to do it; Lane didn’t catch up with him; he stopped and commenced arguing, and said he would die before he would go; he used that expression several times and also threats; he said there were not men enough to take him; Lane and I then took hold of him and he jerked loose a number of times in succession; he dropped a piece of gum on the sidewalk and asked me to pick it up for him; I told him to stand aside a little and I would; he said, “No, I will stand here,” at the same time he had himself in position to strike me; both Jim Lane and I talked to him and reasoned with him for some time, and told him there was no use of resisting, that we were deputized to take him; he said he wouldn’t go with Lane but would go with me; he said he wouldn’t go with a son of a b---h that was selling whisky; but was resisting me all the time; Storiass tried to get by me as though he wanted to get at Lane  and struck him over my shoulders; he started off then and said he would not go to jail; that he would kill the son of a b---h before he got to jail, and made a pass at Lane; then he walked about eight or ten feet up Washington Avenue and turned around and called Lane a son of a b---h and said he would die first before he would go to jail, and struck at Lane.  I then felt a sting on my arm and heard a report of a pistol, but don’t know who fired it. I then let go of him and stepped to one side and then saw Jim Lane shoot him.  Storiass walked about six or eight steps after the first shot was fired.

Dr. J. J. Gordon being sworn, said:  I examined the wound of Elijah Storiass and found that he died from the effects of internal hemorrhage, caused by a gunshot wound in the stomach and bowels.

Philip Hisey, of Greenfield’s Landing, Mo., was sworn and testified:  Saw on Sixth Street, near Walnut, two white men and one negro; saw there was some difficulty between them, and after stopping I saw that it was Mr. Taylor, James Love and a negro man; the white men were trying to arrest the negro, and he resisted, saying:  “I will not be arrested; I will not go to jail;” he said further, “You have no authority to arrest me, and I will not go with you;” Mr. Taylor then turned up his vest collar and allowed him something and said, “I have the authority to arrest you,” and he said then, “I will go with you;” he then walked a few steps and said, “I will not go with you;” Mr. Taylor then took hold of his arm again and said, “Come on;” he then said, “I will go with you, but make Jim Lane go away;” when they got in the corner of Sixth Street and Washington Avenue, I heard him (Storiass) say to Lane, “Oh, you son of a b---h;” he called Lane a son of a b---h several times; saying, “Did you call me a son of a b----h?”  About this time, they had started up Washington Avenue, when I heard some one say, “He struck Lane;” then I heard the shooting; he struck at Lane several times.

Joseph J. Abell being first duly sworn, said: I saw Lane, Taylor, and Storiass at the corner of Sixth Street and Washington Avenue, and Taylor had hold of Storiass; saw Storiass strike at Lane over Taylor’s shoulder and call him a son of a b---h; then Lane stepped back and Storiass put his hand back to his pocket and advanced toward him (Lane); then Lane shot him twice.

            Minerva Hurley, Cairo, Illinois, upon being duly worn, said:—I saw Sargent and Storiass on Fourth Street and Washington Avenue, and heard Sargent say to Jim Lane, “Here, take him in charge;” Storiass said, “No, I will go to McCarthy’s myself;” Lane stopped until Storiass got between Fifth and Sixth streets, when Lane asked Isaac Walder it he had a pistol; Walder said, “Yes,” Lane said, “Give it to me,” and then started after him; when they got to the corner of Sixth and Washington Avenue, Lane said to Storiass, “Come on, this way,” meaning up Washington Avenue; Storiass said, “No, I am going this way to jail,” meaning up Sixth Street to Walnut; Storiass said, “Go away, Jim Lane, I will not go with you; I will go with that other man;” Storiass pulled loose from Taylor and then Lane jumped off the sidewalk, drew his pistol and fired one shot; Storiass then run about twelve or fifteen feet and Lane shot him again.

            Henry Sargent, sworn, said:  “I arrested Storiass, turned him over to Jim Lane, and told him to take charge of him, and left to look for another man he was fighting with.”

            This concluded the evidence taken, when the jury returned the following verdict:

            We, the undersigned jurors, sworn to inquire into the death of Elijah Storiass, on oath, do find that he came to his death by a pistol shot wound, at the hands of James K. Lane, in the discharge of his duty as a deputized officer of the city:

            John McNulty, foreman; Thomas H. Seymour, B. F. Clark, Jesse Hinkle, Henry Sout, Thomas Black, Herman Able, John Gwathney, T. P. Miller, Henry Brown, Patrick Mockler, John W. Cornell.

LANE ACQUITTED

Lane was taken before Bross and Comings, justices of the peace, yesterday, and after a patient examination that consumed one half day, was acquitted. John H. Mulkey appeared for the defense, and William Mulkey for the State.  The killing of Storiass was declared an act of self-defense.


THE GUPTON TRIAL
Names of the Jurors—Examination of Witnesses

                        VIENNA, ILLS., Aug. 31, 1875.

            There was nothing of interest transpired in the Gupton case today.  It was four o’clock before the last juror was sworn in, after which County Attorney Dameron made the opening argument for the prosecution.

            Among the witnesses in attendance are:  Henry Lattner, Mrs. Dinkel, Robert Levy, Al Heightman, Deputy Sheriff John Cain, and several others.

            The following are the names of the jurors:  G. B. Miller, B. F. Boomer, George Axley, James Martin, Tiran Hooker, Dennis Albridge, Robert Thompson, John J. Veatch, B. F. Poor, A. B. Waumack, S. M. Warren, and J. M. Parrish, all of whom are farmers and good citizens.

            The work of examining witnesses will commence in the morning, and it is believed all the testimony will be taken during the day.  J. F. McCartney arrived today and entered the case for the prisoner.

      LEX.

            VIENNA, ILLS., Sept. 1, 1875

            There was not much time wasted this morning at the commencing of the court in getting down to work.  The first witness called was Augustus Botto, but the reporter being late in arriving in the court room failed to get his evidence.  I am assured, however, that the facts sworn to by Mr. Botto were substantially the same as stated by him at the coroner’s inquest.

            Mr. Henry Lattner, proprietor of the building in which Mr. Eschbach had his shop was the second witness.

            Mr. Lattner testified:—My name is Henry Lattner; I live in St. Louis; lived in Cairo in June, 1874; I knew Eschbach for about ten years; in June, 1874, I was doing business on Commercial Avenue in Cairo, in the same building with Eschbach.  He rented his shop from me.  I don’t remember the day but it was on a Sunday in June 1874, that Eschbach got killed; I did not see the difficulty; I was in my saloon and heard the shots; I heard two shots fired; I did not notice it much at first: I heard three shots, when Eschbach opened the door and ran into the hall and said, “Henry, I am killed, catch him;” I went out and Gupton was standing on the steps; I thought he would shoot me and ran around the barber pole; Mr. Al Heightman came out and caught Gupton; I don’t know that Gupton said a world when we went out: I think Eschbach and I went out together; when we went into the shop Eschbach sat on a chair; he then laid down on the floor; he died in about twenty or thirty minutes; two shots were fired in succession, but there was more time between the second and third shots.

            Cross-examined by McCartney:—I am not related to Eschbach; he rented from me a long time; there was a door leading from his shop into the hall in the rear of the saloon; hall was used for sitting room; first I heard was pistol firing; could not tell just where the firing was; sounded like it was in the barber shop; went around to see, and Eschbach just came from a funeral, he told me so; his shop door was open when I got on the sidewalk; could not tell whether the shooting was in the shop or on the sidewalk; when I came out the saloon Gupton was standing on the end of the steps at the Crystal Saloon, three or four feet from the barber shop door; the shops extend as far as the building reaches; there is a space of six inches between the Crystal Saloon and my building; Gupton was not at the door of the barber shop when I came out; think he was on the step 3 feet from the building; there were two other men in my saloon when the firing took place; think they got two glasses beer; I was standing outside when Gupton came down the street and went into Crystal saloon, and saw him go into barber shop and sit down in the back chair; he acted like a man who had had a drink; I went into saloon and got two gentlemen and some veer; heard at one time like if someone kicked a chair; knew Gupton before; knew him to be a pilot; supposed him to be in the habit of patronizing barbers; I was behind the counter when I heard the shots; when Gupton went into shop Eschbach was close to window, brushing his clothes; the chair that Gupton sat down in was the one at which Eschbach worked; was no other barber in the shop; don’t think anyone was working for Eschbach at that time; I am not related to Eschbach.

            Re-direct by Allen:—It was on Sunday; think about 5 o’clock; Eschbach had occupied my house about six years; the barber shop was generally shut up on Sundays at 12 o’clock; sometimes they would open if someone wanted to be shaved, but did not make a practice of doing so; it is the usual practice to close up at 12 o’clock, unless someone wanted to go away and then would open; don’t know that the shops were ever open on Sunday night.

            Levi Harris sworn:—I was sworn yesterday.  I live in Cairo; I have been there three years; knew him by sight; I saw the prisoner about time of murder; never saw him before; I had been at Botto’s and was coming across the street to get drink of whisky; I was right by the switch; I had been to the circus grounds and was in street near the switch; switch was near middle of street on left side: I was twenty-three steps from the barber shop door when heard fuss; when I got across there I saw Eschbach pulling Gupton up out of the chair by the collar; Eschbach pushed and Gupton fell down; Gupton got to the door.  I never was in the shop in my life; can’t tell how far chair is from door; Gupton did not offer any resistance to Eschbach; Gupton fell clear down when Eschbach pushed him out; he put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a pistol; Eschbach came to door and opened it about a foot and peeped out; one door was shut and the other door was open; when Gupton fired first shot Eschbach ran back in house; Heightman ran out and gathered Gupton; Heightman’s business was a bartender at Lane’s; saw Eschbach when ran out the house; Gupton raised up to make another shot; then someone caught him; Eschbach went back in house; heard no words in barbershop between Eschbach and Gupton; saw Eschbach after he as dead; I was attending baggage at Cairo & Vincennes office; was not a witness before coroner’s inquest; it looked like Eschbach pushed Gupton out and then went into the shop and came right back.

            Cross-examination:—My name is Levy Harris; I know Mr. Botto; I was not sitting at Botto’s; I was crossing Commercial Avenue; I was on side next Ohio River; I was crossing street right opposite barber shop; I had been to the show ground; I went upon right hand side of the street; when I was crossing saw the door of barber shop open; saw man sitting in chair with head leaning back; Eschbach was walking round and went and pulled him out of chair; don’t know where his feet were: I did not stop to see all that went on; I was twenty-three steps from barber shop; I did not think anything strange till saw Eschbach pulling man out of chair and pushing; I stopped then until it was all over; I was twenty-three steps from the door when Eschbach pulled him out of chair; did not see Eschbach kick Gupton; Gupton did not lay on floor in shop; laid on ground outside; Eschbach gave him a shove and down he went; he turned over and raised up; Eschbach came to door and peeped out.  His hand was on the door, hold of it can’t tell how long Gupton laid on the ground, but was a few minutes.  He kinder “leant” over against a post.  Gupton was up before Eschbach got back to the door; Gupton never fired till Eschbach came back to door, and looked out; Eschbach opened the door; Gupton did not open it; when Eschbach looked out, stuck his head out, Gupton fired.  The door was not clear open, about (one foot).  Eschbach opened door with right hand. Left hand side door was shut and did not open it at all.

            Charles Austin testified:—Charles Austin is my name; I live in Cairo for the present, have lived there three years; I knew him about nine years; I must have been there when he got killed; I was there last summer some time; it was on Sunday, latter part of June ore 1st July; I was standing across the street, and saw the gentleman (the prisoner) go into barber shop; Eschbach shoved Gupton in a very rough way; Gupton said, “You shove a man out, will you,” and then shot him in the right arm; I called Mr. Botto’s attention, when I saw Eschbach push Gupton out of the door; said look, they are getting into a fuss; Gupton shot again, can’t tell how close they were together; when Gupton shot first Eschbach started to run back in the house; Eschbach behind a chair on the left hand side of the house, when two shots were fired; can’t tell how far in Eschbach was, but could see him when Gupton fired the last shot; Eschbach cried, “Oh, he has killed me!” Gupton did not go into the barber shop after Eschbach pushed him out; I was right near to Botto when the shooting occurred; heard Eschbach hollow he was shot; Eschbach did not come out; saw him after he was dead; he was laying on the floor; Mr. Eschbach had been out for a funeral; it was only a little while after Eschbach went into the shop when Gupton went in; first saw Gupton at Delmonico Saloon; when Eschbach pushed Gupton he did not fall down; he caught on his hands, and pulled out his revolver; Gupton did not have his pistol out until Eschbach opened the door; Eschbach did not come outside the house at all; he took effect in the right shoulder; because Eschbach throwed up his hand; when the third shot was fired Eschbach’s face was to Gupton; his face was to him all the time.

            Cross-examined:  I was sitting at Botto’s saloon; Mr. Botto was sitting with his face towards the building; I was standing looking across the street; I saw Eschbach go into shop; in a few minutes Gupton came along and went in; Eschbach took off his coat and pulled up his sleeves to wash himself; Gupton went into Lane’s saloon, but did not stay long, and came out and went into barbershop; don’t know all that was done in barbershop, and did not see him till shoved out in a tolerably rough way; Gupton was not in there long.  He was shoved out in a very rash way and caught on his hands. It is a low step from the walk into the shop; Eschbach shoved Gupton out with his face foremost; Eschbach was at his back.  Gupton fell and kinder caught on his hands.  Gupton was not down quite—not enough to say lay there, but it took him a while to straighten up.  Gupton took out his pistol when he was mighty near straightened up.

            Thomas Coyne sworn:—I live in Cairo; I have lived there since came from Tennessee; about three months; on evening of day in question, boarded at Commercial Hotel; my bed room was in front room up stairs; was in my room and heard a shot which attracted my attention; looked cross the street; saw a man standing at barbershop door; he was standing on the outside of the door; did not see Eschbach for several minutes; he came out of Lattner’s Saloon; Gupton stood a little way back from the barbershop and towards Lane’s saloon; he had a revolver in his hand; Eschbach when he came out called out, “Catch him, catch him—he has shot me;” I did not go out of my room until after the police had taken Gupton away; I think it was about 3 o’clock, or after, when the shooting was done; my room was south room upstairs; I was reading I think when shooting occurred; the first shot attracted my attention—a short time; I don’t think it was a minute till the second shot was fired; think there was more time between second and third shots than between first and second.

            Robert Levy testified:  I lived in Cairo four years; remember Eschbach since I first went to Cairo; was there in June 1874; it was on Sunday evening I was on Sixth Street and heard the shots; I ran down the street; I got near Hartman’s, I heard the second shot; as I ran across the street near the track Gupton fired the third shot; Gupton was pointing his pistol at the door of Eschbach’s shop; the third shot was fired in the same direction; Gupton fired with the right hand; could not say what he was going with his left; saw Eschbach afterwards; he came out of Lattner’s saloon and said “Catch that man, he has shot me;” Gupton pointed his pistol at Lattner, and he ran and I ran too; Al Heightman came out and took the pistol from Gupton; saw Eschbach after the shooting; was at the corner’s inquest; it was about half past four o’clock when shooting took place; Eschbach had been to a funeral.

            John W. Fry testified:—I live in Cairo; lived in Cairo eight years; went south and came back four months ago.  I was sitting on Sixth Street and heard pistol shots fired; looked down street and saw Mr. Gupton getting up; saw Gupton put his arms between two doors and fire two shots; Mr. Lattner came out and said Gupton had shot EschbachGupton then leveled his pistol at Lattner; Mr. Al Heightman came out and took hold of Gupton; I heard three reports; I saw Eschbach when he came out; I saw Mrs. Dinkle have holt of Eschbach.  He is dead—died that night.

            Al Hightman testified:—I was sitting in the Crystal Saloon when I heard three shots fired in quick succession.  I went out and saw Mr. Gupton standing on the sidewalk pointing his pistol toward Eschbach’s barber shop door; Eschbach was standing in the door; I took hold of Gupton when we had a tussle and fell, when Mr. John Hogan came up and arrested him.

            Dr. H. Wardner testified:—I reside in Cairo; I am a physician and surgeon; have practiced a good many years; I knew Eschbach; I was called to see him the 28th of June, 1874; found him in his barber shop; was not at shooting; don’t remember if heard shot; he was alive when I first saw him; he was quite faint and becoming fainter rapidly; he lived, perhaps, twenty-five minutes; stayed with him till he died.  The doctor then went on to described Eschbach’s wounds, detailing them substantially as he did before the coroner’s jury the night after the murder.

            At the conclusion of Dr. Wardner’s testimony, the prosecution announced that their testimony was all in, and that they would rest their case.

            J. P. McCartney then took the floor to make the opening statement for the defense, and was still talking at the time of mailing this letter.

            LEX.

 


Friday, 3 Sep 1875:
Died.

            Mrs. Van Stoddard, proprietress of the Stokes House, died last night at half past eight o’clock.

ACCIDENT TO OBE
STANLEY.

            Obe Stanley, the man who went to Capt. Sisney’s and called him up the night Sisney was assassinated, met with a serious accident at the Pearce House in Vienna Tuesday night. He came to town and took a room at the above named house. He went to his room about 10 o’clock, and laid down on the bed with his clothes on. He fell asleep and to dreaming. What he was dreaming about will be understood when it is stated that he thought “they were after him,” and jobbing his hand into his pocket for his revolver, got hold of the muzzle instead of the handle and in the effort to get it out the hammer caught in his clothes, and was discharged, the ball striking him in the palm of the hands, passing through the thumb joint, into and through the wrist and about half way to the elbow, from whence it was extracted by Dr. Bratton. The wound is very painful one and may result in the loss of Mr. Stanley’s arm.

 


Saturday, 4 Sep 1875:
DEATH OF DOCTOR CONDON.

            Yesterday we received the subjoined telegram, announcing the death of one of the most prominent and popular citizens of Anna—Doctor Condon:
Anna, Sept. 3, 1875
To John H. Oberly:

Doctor Condon found dead on by-street this morning. Particulars by mail.
C. O’Callahan.

Later in the day the following letter from the above well-known citizen of Cairo, arrived by mail, giving the particulars of the sad event.
Anna, Ills., Sept,. 3, 1875
John H. Oberly, Esq.—

Dear Sir—Knowing of your intimate acquaintance with the deceased, Dr. Condon, and of his extensive acquaintance in Cairo and southern Illinois, is why I took the liberty of telegraphing you. On last evening (Thursday) the doctor was called to the bedside of a young lady patient. At about 8:30 o’clock, he departed for home—that home he was destined never to re-enter. He was not seen since alive. This morning as a gentleman was hunting up his cow, he was attracted by something white lying among the weeds, and on investigation it proved to be what remained of the genial, whole-souled doctor. Hogs had eaten off part of his nose, ear and jaw. Heart disease or apoplexy is supposed to be the cause of death. It looks as if he stumbled and fell forward, face down. His hat was to one side and his cane a little away from his right hand. The coroner’s jury are just impaneled at this writing. The Masonic Fraternity, of which the doctor was a member, have taken his remains in charge. Most of his children, who are away, have been telegraphed for. Our little town wears the aspect of sincere mourning. The doctor was a favorite among young and old. His lively sallies of wit and repartee made him a welcome visitor at every fireside. Hoping I have not trespassed.
I remain, respectfully,
Con O’Callahan.

The sudden death of a gentleman as highly esteemed as was Doctor Condon will be regretted by the people of Anna and surrounding country, for he was widely known and respected by the best citizens of Union County. In Cairo he had very many friends who will never forget the generous and charitable impulses that marked his irreproachable life.

We also publish a letter from Mr. W. N. Butler, a former resident and lawyer of Cairo, relative to Doctor Condon’s death:
Anna, Ills., Sept. 3, 1875

Ed. Cairo Bulletin—This morning about six o’clock the body of Dr. S. S. Condon was found in a path leading from one of our back streets. He had been to visit a patient at Mr. Mullen’s and left the house to return home about 8:30 last evening. As he was found not more than fifty yards from the house he must have died soon after leaving Mr. Mullen’s and his body laid there all night. His face was badly disfigured by cats. Coroner Ives was notified. He had the body removed to the residence of Mrs. Condon and there held an inquest. The jury returned a verdict of “Death by heart disease.” We are informed that he had not been well for a few days past but was able to attend his business. He was on the streets last evening, looking quite well, and his sudden death shocked the whole community. He was an old pioneer of Union County and highly respected by all who knew him,.
W. N. Butler

THE GUPTON TRIAL
The Great Trial Ended at Last
The Prisoner Sentenced to Four Years in the Penitentiary

VIENNA, ILL., September 2.—The Gupton murder case “draws its slow length along” not very rapidly.  The evidence was all in last night, and the argument commenced this morning.  Hon. D. T. Linegar made the opening argument, and that he made a powerful speech against the prisoner is admitted on all sides. His method of handling the case was peculiar to Linegar.  Mr. Linegar is sympathetic sort of a man and his feelings are always with the prisoner.  But he overcame that in this case.  While, during his entire speech, he never once spoke an unkind word of Gupton, his strictures upon the crime committed by him and the eulogy passed upon the murdered man, had a telling effect upon the prisoner.

H. B. Hardy, for the defense, followed Linegar, and made an excellent argument.

J. F. McCartney commenced the closing argument for the defense at 3 o’clock this afternoon, but had not concluded when court adjourned.  He will finish in the morning, when Judge Allen will make the closing argument.

When Gupton was put on the stand, yesterday, he testified that he went into Eschbach’s shop to get a shave.  When he went in, Eschbach was in the rear of the shop wiping his hands with a towel.  Gupton went to one of the chairs, when Eschbach turned to him and said:  “What do you want?”  Gupton told him he wanted to be shaved.  Eschbach said:  “Go out of here,” and came towards him.  Gupton did not move, and Eschbach took hold of him and commenced to push him, and in pushing him, Gupton fell, when Eschbach kicked him two or three times in the side.  Eschbach then left him and went towards the rear of the shop as Gupton says he thought, to get some kind of a weapon.  Gupton got up and started for the door, and just as he reached the door Eschbach caught up with him.  As Gupton opened the door Eschbach kicked and at the same time pushed him out on the sidewalk with such force as to throw him (Gupton) to the sidewalk.  When he got up he saw Eschbach standing in the do0or and he (Eschbach) made a motion as if to come at him.  It was then that he drew his revolver and fired three shots, with what result is well known to the readers of the Bulletin.

The above is substantially Gupton’s evidence, though not exactly his language.

One thing is certain:  the witnesses for the prosecution did not “pan out” as strong a case against the prisoner as everyone believed they would.  What effect Allen’s speech may have on the jury I can’t tell, but if the case was to go to the jury as it now stands, and they were to return a verdict of “not guilty,” it would not be surprising to anyone.  That hanging is “played out” in this case, is certain.  Public opinion has undergone a wonderful change within the last day or two, and Gupton is beginning to be regarded as not so bad a man after all.  The general impression now is that Gupton will get from two to five years in the penitentiary.

LEX.

CONCLUSION—THE VERDICT.

            VIENNA, ILLS., Sept. 3, 1875.

            There is no use in making a short story long.  It is all over now, and Gupton knows his doom.

            Judge Allen made the closing argument in the case this afternoon.  At four o’clock the case was given to the jury.  At seven it was announced that the jury had agreed, and court at once assembled to hear the verdict.  The prisoner was brought into the court, and all the counsel being present, and the judge asking the foreman of the jury whether the jury had agreed upon a verdict, the answer was “Yes.”  The clerk then read the verdict as follows:

            “We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of manslaughter, and fix his punishment at four years in the penitentiary.”

            This verdict was not unexpected.  It has been evident since the first day of the trial that public sentiment was drifting to the prisoner’s favor, and grew stronger and stronger in his favor every day, until tonight, when it is almost impossible to find a man who is not in favor of the absolute acquittal of the prisoner, or giving him more than five years in the penitentiary at the farthest.

            What has wrought this change in the mind of the people is a mystery to me, unless it has been the appearance and demeanor of the prisoner during the trial.  Gupton has certainly conducted himself in a manner to command the sympathy of all who have attended the trial. But it is over; Gupton will go to Joliet for four years, and by good behavior, will get off with three years and two months, which is certainly but slight punishment for taking the life of a human being.  The jury have said it, and it must be so.

            I cannot close without saying a word for the young attorneys who conducted the defense in this case—Messrs. Harker, Hardy, McCartney, and Dameron.  Each and every one of them labored from first to last with a zeal worthy such as only men of their metal and determination know how to use.  When it is considered that they had such lights as Judge Allen and Dave Linegar to “buck against,” the wonder is that they did so much for Gupton and got him off with so slight punishment.  They deserve credit and they have it.  They were appointed by the court to defend Gupton, and of course, it was their duty to do so to the vest of their ability, and they did it.

LEX.

           

 

Sunday, 5 Sep 1875:
SIX EXECUTIONS.

            Six men were executed at Fort Smith, Arkansas, on the 2d inst., for murders committed. Their names were James Moore, a native of Johnson County, Mo., killed the sheriff’s posse; Heck Campbell, a negro, Choctaw Nation, killed Lawson Rose and his daughter; Samuel C. Fooy, a Cherokee, Fort Smith, murdered J. Emmett Noff; John Whittington, Choctaw Nation, murdered a man named John J. Turner; Daniel Evans, Tennessee, killed a traveling companion named Zebald; Smoker Mankiller, Cherokee full-blooded, killed a man named Shrot. These six men paid the penalty of their crimes at one time. It was a big human sacrifice to the good justice.


Died.

In Cairo, Thursday evening, September 2nd, of consumption, James Barrett, aged 39 years. Mr. Barrett was an old resident of Cairo.


 

Wednesday, 8 Sep 1875:
PENITENITARY.
The Story of Two Ex Convicts from
Cairo

They Tell a Tale of Brutal Treatment
How Convicts Are Maltreated and Murdered
The Innocent and Ignorant Commissioners and Warden.
They Know Nothing of the Conduct of the Deputy and Guards.
But Beveridge Cannot, of Course, Afford to Make a Fuss About the Matter.

Yesterday, a man about five feet seven inches, slight mustache and goatee, walked into the Bulletin office holding a copy of the St. Louis Evening Republican, in his hand dated 3d inst. He addressed us and pointed to an article headed
JOLIET.
Story Told by an Ex-Convict of the Famous Sucker Prison
Some Things that Should Be Looked into by the Authorities of
Illinois.

"I wish to endorse all that is in this," he said, "and add some things McCarty didn't know."
We looked over the article. It was a statement made by John C. McCarty, convicted of grand larceny in this city in 1872, and sent to Joliet, for three years. He had gone out, six months in advance of time under the good behavior rule and thought it his duty to tell what he knew of the abuses of the Illinois Penitentiary.
THE WILLIAMS CASE.

He says that Williams, who died in the penitentiary last January, was showered by Sleeper, the deputy warden, until he was insensible. Just then, Hall, deputy warden, going into the room, ordered him to dress. He could not, when Hall ordered him doused again. He was doused and died.

THE McCARTY CASE.

About three months before this there was another murderous outrage committed upon a convict named James F. McCarty, of Indiana.  He was bathed.  About two hundred pounds of ice were broken and put into a tub.  Water was then poured in, and the ice stirred until the water was as cold as ice could make it.  McCarty was stripped, and four Negroes plunged him into the ice water one minute, lifted him out a moment, and plunged him back a minute and a half.  On being lifted out he fell dead.

THE CASE OF WILLIAM JEFFERSON.

William Jefferson was a black man.  He was sick.  Being taken from the sick room to the hospital, he was ordered to move on.  He replied that he was too sick.  The guard thereupon struck him on the head with a club and killed him.

A CASE OF EXTREME BARBARITY.

was that of Charles Davis, a small, delicate man, weighing not over 112 or 115 pounds, with hand not larger than those of a child.  He was put at hard labor, entirely disproportioned to his capacity, and not being able to perform it, was put into “the hole” three nights in succession.  Those who are put into the hole have neither supper nor breakfast, dinner being their sole meal during the 24 hours.  Davis was rendered still less able to do the work assigned from this treatment, and during the morning after his third night in the hole, became completely exhausted.  He begged hard to be assigned work that he could do and expressed his willingness to do everything he could. But declared the impossibility of his performing the task assigned him.  They paid no heed to his entreaties, but put him in the hole again, strapped a gunny bag in the manner of a knapsack to his shoulders, with 12 fire brick in it and strung his arms up to a ringbolt and kept him in that torturing position for six hours.  They then let him down, took out some of the bricks and put in a chunk of iron weighing 40 pounds and strung him up for four hours longer.  The writhing of the poor victim under this prolonged torture caused the straps to cut through his coat, vest and shirt into his flesh until he was

ALL DRIPPING WITH BLOOD,

and apparently dead.  He was found in that condition at the end of the four hours, during which time he had been left entirely alone.  They then cut him down in a hurry and took him to the hospital.  The doctor examined him and said he could not live, but after lying in the hospital three months he was able to walk about feebly and do little chores, but was never able to labor again, and probably never will be.

We read all this and said:

“Well, what is your name and statement?”

“My name is James Fort.  I was sent upon the same charge with McCarty from this city.  I will make no statement of my innocence or guilt.  I was convicted on the evidence of two prominent officers of the court.

“I had a better chance to find out the rascalities carried on in the prison than any other convict.  I, occupying the laundry, having charge of the washing department under Mr. Frank Murray.  The laundry is divided from the place of punishment by a hall about twenty feet long and six feet wide.  A door shifts off the laundry from the hall, which is called Court Solitary.  In this court convicts are pretendedly tried, before torture, by Judge Hall.  I could often see and hear what was going on in there.

The commissioners and wardens say, publicly, and from the pulpit in the chapel, that no convict ever struck unless in self-defense.  They believe this, no doubt, because they are very ignorant of the actual condition of the prison, Hall, being the managing man, the closer of the eyes of the board and warden, governor and people. But the fact is, convicts are struck with clubs, punched and kicked every day, by George McGee, in the west wing, and by young Hall, the Judge's brother, in shoe shop seven. Several others indulge in this clubbing, punching and kicking exercise.

A few weeks before I let the prison on the 17th of August, Deputy Warden Hall was sick and off duty. Capt. Sleeper was in his position. Between ten and twelve o'clock in the day, convict 9157—O'Neal I think is his name—sent from Chicago in the month of July last, was taken into the Solitary. He was charged with "talking" Sleeper got to abusing him with his tongue considerably. The convict replied, in effect, he was doing the best he could and could do no better. Sleeper up with a club and struck over the head three or four times. You could hear the blows distinctly sixty feet off. Young Hall had charge temporarily of the Solitary that day.  Now comes in the joke of how much the warden and commissioners knew about prison matters.  The warden and Commissioner Taylor, I think—only saw his back—were coming from the warden house down to the Solitary when this clubbing business was going on.  Sleeper got wind of their coming; went out and headed off the warden and companion, and attracted their attention to another part of the prison while Hall put the convict in the Hole, and wiped up the blood.  Then Capt. Sleeper escorted the warden and his companion to the Solitary, where all was serene.  The next day I got 9157’s shirt to wash and it was literally soaked with blood.

Convict John Duffie—8368, I think—was working in the foundry or butt shop. Complained of being sick and unable to work. Reported to a doctor. Got a little medicine, and was sent back to work. After being in the shop a short time, complained that he was unable to do duty. Capt. Hall sent him to the Solitary. He went up to see the doctor next morning. While he was at the hospital he got a chance to communicate a few lines to me. He said, "I am sick. I know I cannot live. Hall is killing me by inches. They persist in working me, and will give me no treatment. If I should die, please write or go and tell my father about it when you get out."

Duffie was put back in the Solitary and kept there four or five days.  The doctor visited him each morning in the Solitary.  Finally he got so bad he was helped from the Solitary to the hospital, and died there of pneumonia—I think that is what the doctor called it—on the 10th day of April last.  I don’t believe his disease was pneumonia.  I think it was a severe attack of Hall, a disease that has been fatal to many a poor convict.

In the morning after Duffie’s death, his stripped clothes were sent down to me for washing.  In the pocket of the pants I found an undated note addressed to me, containing the following:

Hall’s treatment is killing me, I will surely die.  Don’t fail to see and tell my father of my fate.  John Duffie.”

When I reached the prison Mayhew was deputy warden.  He put me in the convict bakery.  I remained there until Mayhew was succeeded by HallHall came to me and said:

“I want you to go over into the warden’s kitchen.”

Butler, a negro from Cairo, who killed old man Price, had charge of the kitchen.  He is a man nobody can get along with outside or inside.  I told Hall I would prefer to remain where I was; that I was a baker; and furthermore that I knew Butler and that nobody could get along with him.  Hall replied:

“You must go where you are told with out any back talk.”

I went over to the warden house with Hall, who took me down to the kitchen, and said to Butler:

Butler, here’s a man to help you.”

Butler said:

“Don’t want him.  I know him.  Can’t get along with that man.”

Hall said:

“You don’t want to get along.”

I begged off, but Hall was peremptory and I was left with Butler.

Well, matters went on until one morning something fell with me on top.  Butler was the something.  The guard came along, but I knew nothing, and Butler knew nothing.  Several times after something fell with me on top, and Butler was always that something; but neither would tell, and I didn’t lose my time.  I was driven to this.  Finally I was taken out and put to carrying water to the top gallery.  For an old man, wounded by bayonet and bullet, the work was too hard.  I complained and was beaten and kicked.  While here I was pulled about, beaten and kicked almost every day.  Finally I got into the washhouse, and had a very good time after that.  I got out with all my good behavior marks, and will never be back there again.

And thus Fort ran on telling us many things we cannot remember.


 

Friday, 10 Sep 1875:
IMPORTANT ARREST
One of the
Williamson County Ku Klux Arrested in this City.

            Deputy Sheriff John Cain, of this city and B. F. Lowe, of Williamson County, arrested a man named Sam Music, who is said to be the man who murdered William Spence, in Crainville last July. He is also suspected of having engaged in the assassination of Captain George W. Sisney, at Carbondale. Since the murder of Spence at Crainville, Music has been staying at Greenfield’s Landing, opposite this city, in Missouri.

 


Saturday, 11 Sep 1875:
Indicted.

The grand jury yesterday returned an indictment against James K. Lane for the killing of the negro Storiass last week.

THE VENDETTA
Samuel Music’s Confession.
Was Present when Sisney and Spence Were Killed.
Marshall Crain the Hired Assassin.
Forty Armed Citizens Arrest Accused Parties.
John Bulliner and Doc McCarty Arrested.

(Special Dispatch to Cairo Bulletin)

CARBONDALE, Sept. 10.—Samuel Music, the Williamson County man arrested in Cairo, Thursday, by John Cain, passed through here this morning and was taken to Marion.  During the passage on the train he was bountifully

SUPPLIED WITH WHISKY,

and at Marion he was kindly received, and treated to more whisky.  By this time he was in a frame of mind to reveal all he knew.  Parties were selected to

TALK WITH HIM

and performed their part so well that Music made what is believed to be a full and candid confession.  He has been connected with the Bulliner gang some eighteen months, or more, and claims that he fired none of

THE FATAL SHOTS,

but was present when Sisney and Spence were assassinated.  The murderer of both men is Marshall Crain, living near Crainville.  When Music made his confession, the sheriff of Williamson County deputized some

FORTY CITIZENS

and armed them to the teeth.  They immediately started to arrest the various parties named by Music.  At Crainville, Jep, Sam and Bill Crain were arrested.  At Carterville, John Bulliner and Doc Macarty were captured.  At least twenty men are now in

PURSUIT OF MARSHALL CRAIN,

and it is thought he will be taken before morning.  Allen Baker is another of the gang.  He is supposed to be at DuQuoin.  Officer Lowe and others went up on the 6 p.m. train to arrest him.  Music says Crain was hired by the Bulliners to

MURDER SISNEY,

and that the price paid for the deed was $160.

            I feel satisfied that Music has told a pretty straight story.  He has given the names of every one engaged on the Bulliner side.  In regard the

VENDETTA AT AN END,

for the Russell side will doubtless flee the country.

            I will write you more and full particulars tomorrow.

B.

 


Sunday, 12 Sep 1875:
THE VENDETTA
The Beginning of the End. 

Suspicions that Led to the Capture of Sam Music.

The Confession.
Marshal Crain the Murderer of Sisney and Spence.
Wholesale Capture of Other Members of the Bulliner Gang.

CARBONDALE, ILL., Sept. 11, 1875.

Editor Cairo Bulletin:

Our whole town was in a whirl of excitement last night when I sent you the dispatch concerning the arrests of the Williamson County assassins.  I tried to give you a brief, but correct report, and succeeded as well as possible under the circumstances.  I will now go more into

DETAILS.

As published by you, Samuel Music was arrested in Cairo, and had been recently ---rk across the river in Missouri.  He is a man about 28 years of age.  He has made Carbondale his home for six or eight years.  He is what might be properly termed a “hard case,” drinking and carousing frequently.  He has a bad eye in his head, and is altogether a man for whom the people at large had little use, though it is not known that he has, previous to this, been engaged in any really criminal business.  For a year and a half past he has been working for Mr. J. W. Landrum, whose farm is near Carterville. His associates were entirely among the Bulliners and their friends.  He was just the man to be made their tool, and how well, and yet how badly he has performed their work the results show.  That your readers may see clearly

THE STARTING POINT,

I will say that the killing of Spence, at Crainville, witnessed by a resident of that neighborhood.  This gentleman, whose name, for wise purposes is withheld from the public, told his story to several persons in whom he had implicit confidence.  He intimated to Officer Lowe that if he would arrest Sam Music and ply him plentifully with whisky, he could get a clue that would expose the whole business.  Accordingly the arrest was made.  Lowe and his prisoner passed through here yesterday morning.  Music was bountifully supplied with whisky, seemed as happy as a lord, and generously treated some of his acquaintances.  On arriving at Marion he was just in the proper mood to “squeal,” and a clever advantage was taken to draw from him everything he knew.

THE CONFESSION

            Music was taken into the confidence of the Bulliners a year or fifteen months ago.  Since that time he has been generously posted in regard to the actions of that gang.  It will be recollected that two men, about one year go, attempted to shoot Capt. Sisney early in the morning, but their guns did not go off.  Upon Sisney’s evidence, one Cagle was arrested for this attempt and now he’s in jail at Marion.  Music declares the innocence of Cagle, and says that Allen Baker was one of the parties.  The other party was not mentioned that I can learn of.

BAKER

has lived here a large portion of the time for the past four years.  He is a desperado in every sense of the word.  I will refer to him again before I close this letter.  The murder of Capt. Sisney was committed by Marshall Crain, John Bulliner, and Sam Music.  They had been watching their opportunity about a week.  When Mr. Stanley came to Carbondale, and began to inquire for Sisney, his steps were continually dragged by Music until Mr. S. was traced to Sisney’s house.  By the time that the victim came down stairs the assassins were at their post.  Bulliner and Crain were waiting at the window with their weapons in their hands, while Music was on the watch.  Bulliner was the first to make the attempt on the life of Sisney, but the cap of his gun snapped.  Crain then fired the fatal shot.  Crain had secreted a portion of his clothing, shoes, &c. at the outskirts of town before going to his fatal work.  These were taken to him by Music the following morning.  Music declares that Mr. Stanley was entirely innocent of any participation in the crime.  The assassination of Spence followed hard on that of SisneySpence was also murdered by Marshall Crain, assisted by Music. Samuel Crain was also present.  Music, as before, did the watching.  Marshal Crain called the victim from his bed and killed him.  According to Music, I was correct when I stated in a recent letter that Spence was killed because he knew too many of the assassins’ secrets.  Music says that was the reason given why Spence must be killed, but yet he (Music) believed that the leaders of the gang wanted to get Spence’s money after the tools had done their bloody work.  The price paid Crain for the murder of Sisney was one hundred and sixty dollars.  One hundred and fifty of this was paid by the Bulliners, the other ten by another party whose name has slipped my memory.  The price paid for Spence’s life, or how the bloody money was divided, I could not learn.

            Immediately after the confession of Music, Sheriff Norris, of Williamson, called to his aid a posse of thirty or forty of the county’s best citizens—men equal to the desperate emergency.  Armed to the teeth, the sheriff and posse started out to arrest the gang.  A portion came to Crainville and arrested those I mentioned in my dispatch of last night.  They took their prisoners to Carterville where Dr. McCarthy and John Bulliner were at once arrested.  Thence a large party went in pursuit of Monroe and Marshal Bulliner.  These men were reported being captured during the night.  The report comes from pretty fair authority, but it may prove incorrect.  Officer Lowe came on to this place.  He secured the assistance of City Marshal Brush, and proceeded to DuQuoin, where they arrested Allen Baker.  They brought him down on the midnight train and took him to Marion this morning.  Baker said but little about his arrest, but it is believed he will join Music in making a confession for this reason:  Some four weeks ago, Baker was working for Mr. Purdy at a saw mill two or three miles east of this place.  I believe Baker was notified to leave, but paid no attention to the notice.  At any rate, a few nights after a fearful charge of shot was fired at him through the window, but missed him.  He then left and went to DuQuoin.  Music says that Marshal Crain also fired this shot—that Crain was getting fearful that Baker would expose the gang, and thought it best to put him out of the way.  From what I know of Baker, when he is informed of the treachery of Crain, he will make a clean breast of all he knows.

THE LATEST

Monroe Bulliner or Marshal Crain has not been taken.  It is believed the latter left about one week ago for Arkansas or Missouri.  Music is in jail at Marion.  The other arrested parties are under guard.

Our whole community is in full rejoicing.  We believe the vendetta at an end.  With the breaking up of the Bulliner gang, the others will doubtless flee the country, and we shall have peace once more.

Respectfully, B.
 
Music’s Arrest

As will be seen be referring to the Bulletin of yesterday morning, the arrest of the man Sam Music, by Deputy Sheriff John Cain in this city a few days ago, has proven a great importance to the authorities of Franklin and Williamson counties, and, in fact, the whole of southern Illinois.  Music, after having been filled talkatively full of whisky by his guard, who it seems is a good judge of human nature and knew his man pretty well, acknowledged that he was one of the Ku-klux party, and that he was present at the killing of Spence and Sisney.  Upon this evidence, the authorities of Williamson saw fit to arrest the parties implicated by Music, and now the people of that section are rejoicing in the belief that their troubles, so far as the Ku-klux depredations are concerned, have come to an end.

 

On Friday an indictment was returned against James K. Lane for manslaughter and his bail was fixed at $3,000.

 

 
Tuesday, 14 Sep 1875:
A HANGING OFF.
Tom Jones Respited at the Last Hour.
A Fugitive from
Tennessee and a Son of a Preacher.

New Madrid, Mo., Sept. 10, via Hickman, Ky., Sept. 11—The preparations for the execution of Tom Jones, the O’Bannon murderer, today were suddenly ended by the arrival of the prisoner’s lawyer.  H. C. Reilly, with a stay of execution.  Up to a late hour last night the prisoner had hopes that he would receive a temporary respite but when the packet passed and no news had come, he gave up all chance and began to settle down for the worst.  The arrival of his attorney just before the man was led out to the scaffold was a complete surprise to everybody.

John Grier, an ex-deputy sheriff of Gibson County, Tenn., and W. A. Holmes, arrived on the packet this morning and identified Jones as John Wagster, who left that country five or six years ago.  They claim that he was connected there with the perpetration of numerous outrages on the life and property and that he was compelled to leave under an indictment for murder of a negro.  His father was a Baptist minister now dead.  His mother and brothers are still living there.  He did not attempt to disprove or deny at all what they said relating to the change of his name.

On a final interview with Jones just before Mr. Reilly’s arrival, he gave your correspondent the names of thirteen citizens who were in the party on the night O’Bannon was killed.

For the first time since his confinement he expressed a desire this morning to see a minister remarking that the experiment might do him some good as it could not, in any event, result in injury.

Everything was in readiness for the execution and during the entire forenoon people poured into the place from all parts of the country to witness the scene.  Aged men came with their families in wagons, including even their little ones and daughters.  The negro population was largely represented.  At ten o’clock the number swelled to one thousand.  When the postponement became known the crowd dispersed through various parts of the town.  Some drank freely, became involved in fights and gave way generally to impulses of swamp whisky in war whoops and flourishes.

On the arrival of the steamer City of Chester, in the evening, the prisoner was taken down to the boat and sent back to Johnson County jail for safekeeping.  He was accompanied to the wharf by the sheriff, his deputy and about twenty shotguns.  I spoke to him on the wharf, and he manifested the same firm, unflinching disposition which has characterized him throughout.  The opinion of many is that he will spend the remainder of his life in the penitentiary.  He has reason to rejoice, for the gallows had for full twenty-four hours been waiting to claim him.
 
In Memoriam.

Died, September 2nd, James Barrett, of this city, aged 38 years.
 


Wednesday, 15 Sep 1875:

Thomas Jones, the gentleman who was to have been hung at New Madrid last week, but who had a stay of execution granted to him until the Supreme Court of Missouri can pass upon some question of the trial, must be an amiable creature.  While the scaffold was being put up, he sat looking out of the window of his cell and the progressing work, and addressed the crowd gathered about it, after the following manner:  “God damn the scaffold!  I can jump off that there without a shuffle.  Look at them.  There ain’t a white man among them.  Building a jump for me!  I’ll die like a white man, you sons of bitches.  There, see that fellow in the red shirt?  I know him.  He is a Goddamn horse thief.  He hasn’t had a clean shirt on in 12 month.  I’m a white man, you bet.  Put her up; damn your souls, I’ll jump her.  Jesus Christ!  What a mob!”

 
Died.

In this city last Sunday evening, of congestive chill, Adaline Mayfield, infant daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. J. Cundiff.  It was but two months old.  The funeral services were attended Monday afternoon by Elder Maybe, and the remains taken to Villa Ridge for interment.  The parents have the sympathy of all who know them.

(Robert J. Cundiff married Adelaide A. Phillips on 17 Mar 1874, in Alexander Co., Ill.  There is a marker in Cairo City Cemetery at Villa Ridge, which reads:  “Adaline M., Daughter of R. J. and A. A.  Cundiff Died Sept. 12, 1875, Aged 2 Mos. And 2 Days.” —Darrel Dexter)
 
 
Tuesday, 21 Sep 1875:
THE KU-KLUX
The Assassins of Spence Fail to Prove an Alibi

CARBONDALE, Ills., Sept.19—The evidence in the examination of the Crains, charged with being accomplices in the murder of William Spence, was conducted at Marion, Saturday noon.  Judge W. J. Allen, for the prosecution, spoke for one hour, followed by Hon. A. D. Duff, also for the prosecution.  At 4 p.m., the case was continued until Monday.  The evidence, which it was said would be given by defendants’ witnesses to prove alibis, etc., was unsuccessful.  Music’s testimony was not disputed in the least.  The whereabouts of Black Bill Crain, on the night of the murder, was sworn to, but did not clear him of being an accomplice to the affair.  Hon. W. N. Mitchell, of Marion, enrolled one hundred good citizens, who were organized into a company of militia and furnished with arms on Saturday, to be ready for all emergencies.  These men promise their lives and pledge their fortunes for the restoration of peace in Williamson County.  The people of southern Illinois are rejoicing at the successful unearthing of this band of outlaws.  John Bulliner, with his two accomplices, Allen Baker and Sam Crain, will be examined at Murphysboro, commencing Wednesday, for the assassination of Col. George W. Sisney, in this city last July.
 
 
Wednesday, 22 Sep 1875:
BULLINER, CRAIN,
AND BAKER.

John Bulliner, Samuel Crain, and Allen Baker, charged, through Music’s confession, with being parties to the murder of George W. Sisney, in Carbondale, are now at Murphysboro, confined in jail.  It is believed the examination will be delayed until the meeting of the grand jury.  Many people give Music the credit of being a knave anxious to shield himself, and it is asserted that Marshal Crain, who is directly charged with the murder of Sisney, stayed all night with a family ten miles from Carbondale on the night of the assassination.
 


Thursday, 23 Sep 1875:
Died.

Yesterday morning (Sept. 22nd), Josephine, daughter of Francis and Virginia Vincent, aged 10 years.  Special funeral train will leave foot of Eighth Street at three o’clock this afternoon, for Villa Ridge.  Friends and acquaintances of the family are invited.

 

 
Saturday, 25 Sep 1875:
Died Suddenly.

On Thursday evening, a young colored man named William Stuart, porter on the Illinois Central sleeping car “New Orleans,” after arriving in Cairo on the afternoon train, made his way to the barber shop of Harry O’Brien on Commercial Avenue and told Mr. O’Brien that he was not well.  He laid down in the shop, and died in a few hours.  His disease was congestion of the bowels.
 
The negro who a few years ago stabbed another negro and killed him in this city, by the name of _____ Dickson, has been arrested, and will be brought back to this county for trial.  Sometimes there is a little delay, but Sheriff Irvin always brings criminals to the scratch at last.
 

Sunday, 26 Sep 1875:
Rosa, infant daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dezmia, died yesterday morning.  The remains were taken to Jonesboro for interment.
 
Sad Accident.

A. W. Howell, agent of the Mississippi Central railroad, and telegraph operator, at Filmore City, while engaged in switching cars yesterday, caught his heel in a “frog” and falling across the track was run over and killed by a train of cars that was backing down at the time.  The switchman being sick, Mr. Howell was performing his duty, and to his inexperience in the business may be attributed his sad death.  He leaves a wife to mourn his untimely end.

 

 
Tuesday, 28 Sep 1875:
FURTHER FROM WILLIAMSON.
The Capture of Marshall Crain.
What He Knows of the Assassinations.
He Believes the Jig’s Up with Him, and Intends to Have Company.
Arrest of Terry Crain.
He Is Implicated in Killing Edward Burbridge Thirteen Years Ago.
Signs of a General Cleaning Up in Williamson and Jackson.

            CARBONDALE, ILL., Sept. 27, 1875.

            Editor Cairo Bulletin—Marshall T. Crain, the alleged murderer of Sisney and Spence was brought to this place by Officer Lowe on last Saturday. Of the circumstances of the arrest you informed your readers in Sunday morning’s paper. Since his arrest, Crain seems to have undergone a peculiar change.  Without doubt, during his flight he was subjected to a great many hardships.  He was accompanied by his wife, and entirely out of money.  Together they walked over two hundred miles.  Arriving at the house of her uncle, in Arkansas, the woman broke down, and could go no further.  Here Crain left her, pursuing his way on foot and alone.  Although he was a man of endurance, he was broken down and used up.  He declares that he tramped over five hundred miles.  He is a man of twenty-seven years, but has an extremely boyish appearance—not appearing to be more than nineteen years old.  There is nothing in his appearance that would attract attention.  His face shows no intelligence, his dress is that of a backwoodsman, and in his manners and speech he is awkward and bashful.  With all this, however, he has a devilish, snaky eye in his head; and if the type is indicative of character, Crain is a murderer from the soles of his feet to the hair of his head.

            While here, the prisoner talked freely. He was shown the statement of Music, and pronounced it substantially correct.  He states that Baker killed Sisney and that Music killed Spence.  He admits being present at both murders.  His description of the killing of Spence is diabolical.  The victim was shot down at the first fire.  Then the murderer went up to him and deliberately shot him through the head with a pistol.  Crain says that the others mentioned by Music are all guilty except one or two.  He swears that if he could be permitted to kill Baker and John Bulliner he would be willing to hand to the nearest tree.  It would appear that Bulliner hired him to do the desperate work, and after its performance refused to pay the pitiful amount promised.  Not only was money used and promised in this infernal business, but arrangements planned to secure the murderers from punishment.  Witnesses were selected who in any emergency would go into court and swear the members of the gang though.  But should this fall, then the jails were to be forcibly broken open and the prisoners set free.  But there is no danger of this latter part of the plot being carried out.  In Marion, one hundred of the State’s bright, new Enfield rifles are in the hands of an equal number of reliable men.  Besides, the people of the two counties are as one man demanding the swift punishment of the criminals.  That several of these parties will stretch hemp there is but little doubt.  The statement of Music, corroborated by the confession of young Crain, together with the strong chain of circumstantial evidence, will convict the greater number of the parties arrested.

            Terry Crain, another member of the extensive Crain family, was arrested and brought here yesterday.  He is charged with killing Edward Burbridge at Crab Orchard Bridge in September or October, 1862, thirteen years ago.  As nearly as I can learn, the particulars of this murder are as follows:  The 128th regiment were on the march from their rendezvous at Marion to take the train on the Illinois Central railroad at Carbondale.  They were halted at the bridge that the loiterers and stragglers might be brought up.  While here, Burbridge came along with his team.  His farm was near the scene of the late murders, and he was going to Carbondale on horses.  He asked and received permission of the officers to drive through the ranks of the men and pursue his way.  While driving through the regiment he came upon two or three of the Crains and some others who knew him.  He was stopped, and high words ensued, which ended by his being fearfully beaten, kicked, and finally killed by a blow from a stone or club.  He died within a few hours after receiving the blow.  Burbridge was an outspoken Union man and was obnoxious to the Crains and men of like ilk.  The grand jury has indicted Terry Crain as the murderer.

There is no connection between this last named murder and those which have rendered this part of the country so infamous save this: The people are getting over the feeling of fear that has oppressed them since this era of blood has been inaugurated, and are determined to rid the country of the murderers, thieves and robbers have infested it for so long a time. This is not confined to Williamson County, but in Jackson there is a terrible waking up.  The jail at Murphysboro is full.  Twenty-two men are now awaiting the action of the grand jury and court, and it is believed a large majority of these will be convicted.

In Jackson County a wholesale arrest of thieves has been made.  Among others, one Callahan is in jail.  He is worth thirty thousand dollars, but so strong is the felling of the people he has not yet been able to obtain bail.  He has sent for a number of his former acquaintances throughout the country, but he gets no sympathy.  I tried to get enough of the particulars of the large arrests together to make you up an article, but so great is the rush of criminal business at Murphysboro that prosecuting attorney, sheriff nor deputy sheriff could take any time to give me anything like a satisfactory statement.  But from the following, a hastily written and probably bungling account from the Jackson County Era, your readers will readily see that something is going on.

As we predicted in last week’s issue the arrest of Callahan and Ditch would open more light on the gang of thieves who have been plundering and robbing on the highway in the north part of this county.  One of the gang has turned state’s evidence, and tells some startling tales of their exploits.  He relates the story of robbing the narrow-gauge station house, and connects several persons, some living in this town, with this robbery.  A shotgun belonging to the station agent, was taken by the thieves and hid in a hollow tree in Ora Township.  The gun was allowed to remain in the tree until after Stevens told where it was, and one of the deputy sheriffs went and found it just where Stevens said it was.  Stevens also gives the particulars of a plot to rob Gill J. Burr, the county treasurer.  It was supposed that Mr. Burr had on deposit $16,000 in the safe of Hindman, Michaelis & Co.  Jim O’Brien, Wash Allen, Ditch, Stevens, and others were in this plot.  They all assembled at O’Brien’s saloon, put on their black suits and masks and came as far as the storehouse, but did not make the attempt on account of the lateness of the hour, thinking that if they would have to blow the safe open they could not get through the job before day.  Samuel Brunn, one of the partners of the firm of H. M. & Co., who sleeps in the store, was to be intimidated, if possible, but if he did not “behave himself” he was to be killed. Stevens told that one of the thieves when they were about to disperse that night, took off his suit of black and threw it in the public well at the southeast corner of the square.  It will be remembered by the readers of the Era that a notice was made some two months ago of a black gown being taken from the well, which resembled a woman’s dress. This is the same gown thrown in by the thieves, but who thought, at that time, that “thereby hangs a tail.”  Stevens is the man that caused the arrest of Callahan and Ditch last week.  He told of the goods that had been taken from Mohlenbrock’s store at Campbell Hill, said that Allen and Ditch are the parties who went into the station house on the Narrow Gauge.  Stevens also tells of a plot to throw from the track the pay car on the Narrow Gauge road.  Indeed his story is a thrilling one, and of much interest to the people of the county.  There are other things in connection we would like to state, but it is policy to hold back various things in connection, which we will probably be able to give to the public next week.

Thus, it will be seen, the right is speedily to triumph, and God speed the day.  You that live out of harm’s way—that do not fear the assassin’s bullet, know nothing of the feeling of relief and security that we begin to feel—or, rather, you do know it, but you fail to appreciate it.  Before long I expect to inform you of other and startling information.  The air is full of it, and I shall try to keep posted.

B.

(Marshall T. Crain married Rhoda Rich on 4 Mar 1874, in Jackson Co., Ill.  Terry C. Crain was a private in Co. D, 128th Illinois Infantry.  He was 27 and a native of Williamson County, when he enlisted on 26 Sep 1862.—Darrel Dexter)
 
NEARING THE END.

Marshall Crain, whom Music confessed murdered Captain Sisney in Carbondale while that unfortunate gentleman was conversing in his parlor with a man named Obe Stanley, was captured in Arkansas, by Deputy Sheriff Lowe, of Williamson County.  Lowe trailed Crain through Missouri down into Randolph County, bordering on the Missouri line, and caught up with him in Pocahontas, a small town on Black River, a stream that empties into White River at Jacksonport.  The outlaw was asleep when found, and was therefore captured without any danger to his pursuer.  He was heavily armed, having a double-barreled shot gun, Henry rifle and two pistols.  He accused Allen Baker of killing Sisney, and Music of killing Spence, but says he was a party to it.  The trial of this case will bring to light all the dark and bloody history of a vendetta that disgraced the county in which it played its tragic scenes; and citizens who stand high in the county may be identified with it.  The fact that those implicated in the brutal murder of Sisney are to be tried in Jackson County argues that justice will not be trammeled through fear or favor.  The startling letter from our correspondent “B” in this issue, will be perused with interest, as it is direct from the scenes of troubles.
 
A CONVICT’S LETTER

Shut up in prisons, for crimes against the law, are men endowed by nature with kind and affectionate feelings; and many of them have mothers who mourn their sad and dismal fate.  Gupton who killed Eschbach, has a mother, and all through the trial, when it was supposed death would be the penalty inflicted, she remained by his side, and only left him when the sheriff was ready to conduct his prisoner to the designated place of confinement.  The annexed is a letter from him to a citizen of Cairo.  In it he shows a tender regard for his mother, and alludes to his past position in life, with a touch of feeling:
Vienna, Sept. 1875

James Kinnear—Friend James:—You will confer a lasting favor on me if you will conduct mother to Mr. Haynes’, on Twentieth Street.  If your business should deter you from complying with this request, please have friend Black to act in your stead, and I will be under obligation to either of you gentlemen for attentions shown my mother while in Cairo.  I judge you already know my fate—therefore I will not allude to the subject; but in conclusion will say that a letter from yourself or friend Black, or any other friend, will be hailed with a hearty welcome at my prison door.

Although I stand today a convict, I still have the same sympathy and high-toned and honorable feelings about me that I always had; and I hope those who knew me in days that are past, and held me in high regard, will not cease to know me now. With many wishes for your future comfort.  I remains as of old,
Your friend,
Will R. Gupton
 
The funeral of Caroline Swoboda, which took place yesterday afternoon, was very largely attended by her former friends and acquaintances.

(A marker in Cairo City Cemetery in Villa Ridge reads:  Carolina Swoboda Sept. 2, 1844-Sept. 25, 1875.—Darrel Dexter)
 


Wednesday, 29 Sep 1875:
A man named Jacob Reuter cut his wife’s throat, in Albany, Indiana, on the night of the 25th inst.  After committing the deed he cut his own throat and set fire to the house.  Reuter’s wife, when found, was dead.  His wounds will prove fatal.
 
Funeral Notice.

Died, in this city yesterday, Mrs. Susie Williams, in the eightieth year of her age.  Funeral services at her late residence, corner of Cedar and Fifteenth, at 1 o’clock.  Special train will leave foot of Fourteenth Street at 3 o’clock, to convey the remains to Villa Ridge.  Friends of the family invited to attend.
Daniel Hale.
 


Thursday, 30 Sep 1875:
Samuel Crain has had an examination in Murphysboro, and been discharged, the evidence gathered against him not being strong enough to prove him connected with the Williamson County vendetta and recent assassinations.
 
Mrs. Susie Williams, a lady in her eightieth year, says the Sun, died in this city Tuesday night.
 
 
Saturday, 2 Oct 1875:
Col. Eads, mayor of Charleston, Missouri, was in the city yesterday, in the interest of Robert Smith, the man who, charged with having murdered a baby, came so near being sentenced to be hung at the last term of the Mississippi County circuit court.
 
 
Tuesday, 5 Oct 1875:
Funeral Notice.

Funeral services will be held over the body of Charles Carroll Martin, this morning at 10 o’clock, at the residence of the late William Martin, on Cross Street.  Services will be conducted by the Rev. Isaac E. Anderson.  The body will be conveyed to Villa Ridge for burial, in a special coach attached to the 3:15 passenger train, the coach returning with the evening freight train.  Friends of the family are respectfully invited to attend.
 
Little Charley Martin, aged four years, youngest child of the late William Martin, died yesterday morning about three o’clock, of what is supposed to have been diphtheria.
 
It was reported yesterday afternoon that Ernest Pettit was dead.  Though Mr. Pettit is very low, he was still living last evening.
 
On last Friday night, a disturbance took place in the saloon of Harry Blackstone, at Charleston, Missouri, which ended in the death of a man named Frank. It seems that Frank, who was a butcher, and who when sober was a peaceable and good-hearted man, had become intoxicated and upon entering the saloon of Blackstone, began to abuse the bartender, a young man of about twenty-one years of age.  The bartender, whose name we could not learn, ordered Frank to leave the house, but he did not seem disposed to go, and kept on in his abuse, whereupon the barkeeper struck him, knocked him down, and while Frank was lying on the floor kicked him in the side.  Frank then got up and made his way to a barbershop, where he laid down in a barber chair, and as those who were in the establishment thought, went to sleep.  After he had been lying in the chair some time, one of the men in the shop went to him and told him to get up, but he did not answer, and upon examination it was found that he was dead.  The barkeeper was arrested and placed in jail, and though it is generally believed that he had no intention of killing Frank (who was liked by all who knew him), yet a strong feeling is manifested against him, and the citizens of Charleston signify their intention to raise money and hire an attorney to prosecute him.  Frank leaves a large family who were entirely dependent upon the proceeds of his labor for support.
 


Wednesday, 6 Oct1875:
We are pleased to inform our readers that Ernest Pettit, who was not expected to live on Monday, is improving.
 
Philmont Caldwell, the colored man who died in this city on Monday morning, was buried yesterday afternoon by the Colored Odd Fellows, who turned out in full regalia to attend the funeral.
 


Thursday, 7 Oct 1875:
THE SISNEY MURDER TRIAL.

John Bulliner and Allen Baker are now being tried in Murphysboro for the killing of Captain Sisney.  Up to the present time a jury has not been secured.
 
The remains of Mrs. Block, wife of Henry Block, of New Orleans, who died at the St. Charles Hotel, Cape Girardeau, a few days ago, passed through this city yesterday for New Orleans, where they will be interred.
 


Saturday, 9 Oct 1875:
Poor old Mose Hall, the negro bootblack and stable man—a fine old colored gentleman, one of the olden kind—has gone the way of all flesh by way of the Ohio River.  On Thursday night he fell from the wharf boat and that was the last of earth with him.  The result of that fall was that Coroner Gossman was called and sat on poor old Mose’s body. Well, well; the unfortunate Moses had a hard time in this world at best.  Fortune was not kind—was, in fact, a cruel stepmother to old Moses.  She hit him many blows with her hard hand, and it may be that the old man is happier in death than he was in life.
 
Poor old Mose, the bootblack, is no more.  He moseyed off the edge of a barge while fishing, and some hours after Mr. Hill fished him out of the water a cold corpse.  He was a particular friend of Ike Walder and Capt. R. W. Dugan, and they will mourn his loss.
 
Old “Mose” was engaged in fishing on one of the wharf boats, and in attempting to step from one boat to another, slipped and fell into the river and was drowned before any assistance could be rendered him.  His body was fished out of the water yesterday morning by Diver Hiram Hill.
 


Sunday, 10 Oct 1875:
THE BLOODY HISTORY.
Trial of Bulliner and Baker Commenced.
Murphysboro the Scene of the Revelations.

MURPHYSBORO, ILL.—October 7.—The murder cases now being tried are the all-absorbing topic throughout the city, and a most remarkable degree of interest is manifested, there seeming to be a firm determination that justice shall be meted out with the utmost rigor.  In order that there shall be no lack of legal counsel on the part of the prosecution, Judges William J. Allen and Andrew D. Duff, have been retained by Governor Beveridge and the county of Williamson to assist Mr. Pugh, the prosecuting attorney in this county.  After the trials of John Bulliner and Allen Baker have been concluded here, their cases for killing William Spence will be called for trial at Marion, Williamson County, in case of a failure of conviction here, of which there is little doubt.  This case will probably come up next week, and the learned counsel mentioned above will also be retained in this case.

            COURT ASSEMBLED

promptly on time this morning, judge, counsel and everyone in attendance.  The efforts to procure the twelfth juror were resumed, the special venire of twenty-five citizens from the surrounding county being in attendance.  At 9 o’clock the jury was filled by the selection of Davis Cox, the other eleven being G. W. Johnson, Samuel Keith, Joseph Imhoff, George Simonds, H. H. Etherton, Henry Belderbach, T. K. Mackey, John M. Reeder, Lemuel Imhoff, Edward A. Davis, and Robert A. Beasley—109 persons having been examined.

            While the examination of jurors was progressing this morning, the mother of young Bulliner made her appearance in court, taking a seat beside her son, who was very visibly affected by her presence, freely shedding tears and evidently experiencing much anguish at seeing her while he was in so precarious a position.  The jury having been

SWORN IN,

the judge announced that no other cases would be tried at this term of court, and directed the counsel to state the case to the jury.  A call of witnesses, of whom there are a large number, was then made by the sheriff, several of them made their appearance, were put under oath, and given to charge of an officer for safe keeping.

            There are twenty-four witnesses for the prosecution and sixty-five for the defense, among them quite a number who are reported to have taken an active part in the feuds which have rendered Williamson County so unfortunately notorious during the past ten years.

            Considerable time was occupied in calling, swearing, an removing witnesses, the utmost caution being observed in preventing them from talking go and conferring with each other or with outsiders in reference to the case on trial, and it was not until ten o’clock that Judge Allen began his statement of the case to the jury.

            THE JUDGE BEGAN

by stating the great importance of the case, and the great degree of responsibility resting upon them, in order than an impartial verdict might be rendered.  He impressed upon their minds that they were not to be prejudiced in the slightest degree, either for or against the prisoners, but to discharge their duties without fear or favor.  The Judge then read the indictment charging Marshall Crain, John Bulliner and Allen Baker with the willful murder of Captain George W. Sisney, on the 31st day of July, 1875, at Carbondale, Ill., by shooting him with a shotgun loaded with buckshot, eleven of which took effect.  The law defining the crime of murder and the penalty therefore was then read.  Minute details of the murder were then given, the judge

STIGMATIZING THE CRIME

as one of the most cowardly and brutal that has ever disgraced the American country, and worse than the murders committed by the Spanish or Italian brigands.

            At this point the wife of Baker, with her little babe in her arms, came in, looking pale and evidently feeling as though there was but little hope for the husband whom she loves so well.

            Judge Allen then explained to the jury what an accessory to a murder was, stating that although a man might be a thousand miles away, yet, if he had hired, advised, or counseled the murder, he was equally as guilty as the person who committed the physical act.  The judge stated the whole case in the most lucid, forcible, and eloquent manner, occupying about thirty-five minutes of time.

            F. E. ALBRIGHT, ESQ.

then made the statement for the defense, enlarging somewhat on the grave importance of the case, not only to the accused, but to the people and commonwealth.  He also spoke of the great care that had been exercised in the selection of a jury, and praised their intelligence and standing in the community.  He then went into a short resume of the case, declaring that the defense rested their hopes of an acquittal on the entire innocence of the persons accused, which would be clearly shown as the case was more fully developed.  He claimed that, as Mr. Sisney and others had been murdered, it was felt in the community that someone must be punished, and, unfortunately for his clients, they have been selected as the victims that must be offered up as a sacrifice to appease the feelings of an excited people; but that, in truth, they were as innocent as babes unborn.  The law regarding

PRESUMABLE INNOCENCE

was then expatiated upon, and the point that a man was innocent until proved guilty, was forcibly impressed upon the minds of the jury.  He then referred to character of the testimony to be produced by the prosecution, and stated that two of the witnesses (referring to Marshall Crain and Samuel Musick) would perjure themselves, and, to insure a conviction, would swear to anything that was necessary to attain that end.  Mr. Albright referred to the Williamson County vendetta, their bloody warfare and the numerous murders committed, but stated that the murder of Captain Sisney was no more brutal than that of several others which had resulted from the fearful feud that has prevailed in Williamson County for years past.  He then spoke of Samuel Musick and Marshall Crain, what their testimony would be.  Musick having admitted that

HE KILLED WILLIAM SPENCE

at Crainville, and that Crain and Baker had killed Sisney at Carbondale, having been hired to commit these crimes.  Mr. Albright denounced these two men, if their statements were true, as Judases, informers who had received their thirty pieces of silver, and had then betrayed their companion. He claimed, however, that the whole story was untrue.  He also stated that Mr. Lowe, who arrested Musick and Crain, had been in frequent communication with these two prisoner, and that a damnable scheme had been concocted to swear away the lives of his clients, and all for the sake of gain—the rewards offered for their arrest and conviction, at the same time securing immunity from punishment for themselves.  Mr. Albright made a most excellent statement, appealing to the heart’s sympathies for his clients, speaking of John Bulliner as the sole support of his widowed mother—widowed by the hand of one of the assassins of which the Williamson County Vendetta was composed; also of

THE WIFE AND BABE OF BAKER,

the babe having been born while the father was confined in a dungeon of the county jail; mentioned their extreme poverty, and the faithfulness of the poor wife to her husband during all his confinement, and now during the trial for his life.  Mr. Albright spoke of the murder of young Bulliner’s father and brother, and how Tom Russell, who was accused, had been set at large by the justice before whom the preliminary examination was had, he (the justice) having been threatened by numbers of men who paraded the streets of Marion with loaded shotguns on their shoulders, that if he committed Tom Russell he would never be allowed to return to his home alive, and intimated that Sisney, perhaps, had a hand in that transaction.  He wound up by stating that if ever a man on earth had just provocation for committing a murder, it was young John Bulliner.  Several authorities on evidence were cited to show that little credence should be given to testimony given by an accomplice, and that no conviction should be had on their evidence alone.  The standing and position of the two prisoners was spoken of, the counsel claiming that they ranked with the best men of the county.  Mr. Albright consumed about three-quarters of an hour in his harangue, which was a very able effort.

 

BULLINER AND BAKER TRIAL.

The result of the Bulliner and Baker trial will be reached on next Tuesday.  Witnesses swear that John Bulliner’s character, for peace and honesty, is good; but that they would not believe Musick on oath.  Bulliner’s aged mother is with him during the trial.
 


Tuesday, 12 Oct 1875:
BULLINER-BAKER TRIAL.

The evidence in the Bulliner-Baker trial, Murphysboro, closed yesterday at twelve o’clock.  Arguments of counsel commenced in the afternoon, and will probably close this evening.  It is exciting great attention, people from all the surrounding counties being in attendance, and the courtroom is daily filled.  Bulliner is represented as acting cool and collected.  During the testimony Allen Baker acknowledged to having killed a man in Arkansas, during the war, for which he was sentenced to a military prison in Little Rock.  While he reverted to this portion of his life, he burst into tears, and upbraided those who were delving into his past career with a purpose to injure his chances before the jury.  As the trial progressed, and Lowe was testifying, Bulliner rose up from his seat and accused the witness of swearing to a lie.  Many of the scenes of trial were interesting and exciting.

(Allen Baker was a private in Co. K, 13th Illinois Cavalry.  He was 18 and a native of Franklin Co., Ill., when he enlisted on 25 Jan 1864.  He was sentenced to six months for larceny while in the service, according to his military records.  He was mustered out 31 Aug 1865, at Pine Bluff, Ark.—Darrel Dexter)
 
NEARLY AN ESCAPE.

Marshal Crain, one of the William County prisoners, confined in Murphysboro, under a charge of participating in the murder of Sisney and Spence, and who is a voluntary witness against Bulliner and Baker, make a bold attempt to regain his liberty Monday morning, at 1 o’clock.  One of the guards, Ned Fitzgerald, took Crain from the jail, and while attending him in the yard, the prisoner grasped from a barrel a handful of lime and threw it into his face and eyes.  After performing this act, Crain sprang over a fence and dashed into a clump of woods and threw himself on the ground.  Fitzgerald fired two shots which gave the alarm, and brought to his assistance three other guards.  Owing to the fearful effects of the lime in his eyes, Fitzgerald was unable to aim with any degree of accuracy.  Three of the pursuers ran past Crain, but the fourth fortunately stopped within a few feet of him, and by accident discovered his man lying flat on the ground.  Covering Crain’s person with his gun the guard ordered him to surrender which request was immediately complied with.  The prisoner was conducted back to jail, handcuffed and carefully guarded, where it is to be hoped he will remain until the final disposition of his body by the law.
 
Dr. J. Honnard, who was tried in the Jackson County circuit court, last spring, and convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary for four years, for manslaughter, has been granted a new trial by the Supreme Court of the State.
 
JOHN BULLINER.
He Testifies in Favor of Himself

Am twenty-five years old; live about three miles from Crainville—live with my mother; am single; father is dead; heard the testimony of Musick and Crain; have one shotgun and one revolver; keep the gun upstairs at the head of my bed; Marsh Crain never got a gun from me, neither did Allen Baker; Baker never got a horse from me; Baker never got a pistol from me; Marshall Crain was at our house during the threshing ten or twelve days before Sisney was killed; he and Musick were at our house together; never had any such conversation as Crain swore to; on the Friday after Sisney was killed, I started to Carbondale to sell some wheat; at Crainville, I concluded to stay and see the Sisney funeral, as there was to be a Masonic display, and I had never seen one; I changed my mind and started for Carbondale, but met some men who had better wheat than I had, and, as they only got ninety cents for it, I turned back, and as I came back I saw Marshall Crain, and asked him to show me where his house was shot into; we went into it and looked; there was no conversation, except as to the house being shot into.  After we left there, as we were going by Musick’s gate, he called me in to get dinner, but I didn’t go in.  I never paid Marsh Crain $15 at any time for anything; there is no truth in the statement that I offered $200 or any other sum to have anyone killed; I offered $2,000 for the apprehension and conviction of Tom Russell and Dave Pleasant, who, I believed, killed my father and brother; I also offered $500 for their apprehension alone.  Marsh Crain never told me that Allen Baker said that he could get $300 for killing me.

The whole story, as sworn to by Marsh Crain, was all denied to in detail and pronounced false.

I made no resistance when arrested.  I never ran and hid.  I am always at home where anybody can come and find me when he wants to.  I never advised or suggested the killing of Captain Sisney not intimated that I wished him killed.  I don’t think I had any reason for desiring Captain Sisney’s death.  Myself and Captain Sisney never had any difficulty in our lives.  My brother Dave and Captain Sisney had difficulty, some years ago at a mill, about some oats; they had done a good deal of business together, and Davie went to Sisney’s blacksmith shop, taking his books along, to have a settlement; they had some words and Sisney hit Dave with a spade.  Dave came running home, got a shotgun and a revolver and I went back.  We saw Dave when he was running home, and heard Mrs. Sisney screaming.  When we got to Sisney’s he had a revolver and a sixteen-shooting rifle; when we got near he drew up his gun and told us to halt, or he would blow out heads off.  I pulled out a revolver and told him to shoot; the old man (father) said:

“GO FOR HIM, BOYS,”

Sisney then turned and ran, turning around every few steps and pulling his gun up to his face; I shot at Sisney once, but didn’t hit him.  Some time after this the matter was compromised, and that ended the difficulty, but we never spoke to each other; some of Sisney’s boys and ours used to speak to each other after that.

            Haven’t seen Baker at Crainville or Carterville since Sisney was killed, except when we passed through together, handcuffed, after we were arrested; Musick came into our house early the next morning after Sisney was killed; I reckon it was 12 o’clock or afterward when I left Crainville to go home, on the day of the funeral; I was in Crainville two or three hours that day; I have known Allen Baker a little over a year; have known Marshall Crain nearly ever since we came to this country, in January 1864; he was only at our house once during the threshing—on Monday, I think; I wanted to hire him and Musick to help thresh; this Monday was the one a week before the Wednesday that Sisney was killed; don’t recollect of Baker ever being at our house but once; he never got a horse of me; I have never been away from home more than one or two nights at a time; have had no trouble with Sisney since the time I shot at him; Dave shot him then with his shotgun; at the time of the examination of Tom Russell, at Marion, for killing my brother Dave, I did not propose to form a company or gang and take Sisney out and hang him; there was some talk about there being no law to punish men, and there was some talk by others that if this thing didn’t stop (meaning the murders) there would be a company got up and go round and hang everybody they came to; don’t recollect that I ever said to anyone that this was the only course to be pursued; think I never said so.

            Redirect—I never proposed to get up a company to hang Sisney, but others did, and it was talked of all through the country.  My father and brother had both been killed within two months and a half of each other, preceding the investigation of Tom Russell and I was considerably excited, of course, about that time.

 
The Massac Journal, commenting on Gupton’s letter to a citizen of Cairo, says:  “Parties living in our city were well acquainted with Mr. Gupton, and his mother’s family.  They say he bore a good character and was highly respected.  His great besetting sin was the use of intoxicating liquors to too great an extent, and this, perhaps, led him to the commission of the crime for which he has been sentenced.”


Hudson, the man who shot Suttar, the narrow gauge railroad engineer, has been safely caged at last.

Hudson, the man who shot and killed Jacob Suttar, while the latter was at work cleaning his engine in the lower part of this city, some three months ago, was arrested on Ohio Levee by Constable Robert Billingsly yesterday morning.  Hudson came to Cairo on the steamer James Howard, and upon stepping off the boat, was met by a young man named John Lally, who knew him and who engaged in a conversation with him, the two sitting down on a log near the edge of the river, where they remained for some time.  Hudson, it seems, came back to this city to see his sister, whom he asked Lally about, saying that he wanted to find her.  After leaving Hudson, Lally hunted up Constable Billingsly, and informed him of Hudson’s whereabouts.  After his arrest, and upon being asked where he had kept himself since the shooting, Hudson told him that he started up the narrow gauge immediately after the scenes, and walked to Cape Girardeau, near which place he worked in a stone quarry for about two weeks, and after leaving the quarry he secured work on a farm in Missouri, where he has remained ever since.  He had, when arrested, a skiff tied at the wharf opposite Sixth Street, which he intended bringing into use if the authorities learned of his presence in the city, but he was taken without the least warning, and the skiff proved of no value to him.  He is now in the county jail.
 


Wednesday, 13 Oct 1875:
A LITTLE MISTAKEN.

Recently we published a letter from Gupton, now in the penitentiary, addressed to a gentleman in this city.  We published that letter as a matter or news, and commented on its contents as we comment on all items of interest that strike out attention; and while doing so we were not influenced by any particular motive whatever.  But our friend Bouton, of the Jonesboro Gazette (and we consider him a clever and just gentleman) thought it was the inception of an attempt to create sympathy for the man serving out, in the penitentiary, the term allotted him by twelve juryman.  In an article he said as much, and at the same time remarked as follows:

“This is the first conviction for murder from Johnson of many years.  When the Cairo lawyers take a change of venue to Johnson, the county upon the acquittal of their client.”

Shucherks of the Johnson County Yeoman, one of the guardians of the fair name of Johnson, took exceptions to Bouton’s brief thrust and replied in annexed satisfactory manner:

“When the Gazette asserts that this (Gupton’s) is the first conviction for murder from Johnson County for many years, it is evident the Gazette is not well posted in the premises.  Within our recollection three cases have been brought to this county on change of venue from Alexander.  It may be that there were others, but we know nothing about them.  The cases to which we refer have all been tried within the last two years.  That of Daizy Breese, for the murder of his reputed brother, was the first, the prisoner being found guilty and sentenced to the penitentiary for life.  Diltz, for murder, was acquitted.  It will be remembered that in that case nearly twenty years elapsed between the time the murder was committed and the trial.  During the interval most all if not all the witnesses died, and when the trial came on and what evidence there was heard, all the jury could do was to acquit Diltz.  The next and last case was that of Gupton, for the murder of Eschbach, and in this case we believe the jury entailed on Gupton all the punishment they consistently could and regard their oaths.  The facts do not bear the Gazette out in the assertion that ‘when Cairo lawyers take a change of venue to Johnson they count on an acquittal,’ for in two out of three cases tried in this county in the last two years, the defendants have gone to the penitentiary—one for life and the other for four years.”
 


Thursday, 14 Oct 1875:
Mr. George Young, who killed a butcher named Frank in Charleston, Mo., was formerly a resident of Golconda, Ill., where he has many friends and relatives living.  He was bailed in the sum of $2,000.
 
John Allen, a brakeman on the Cairo Short Line railroad, fell from the train when near Columbia, Ill., Tuesday morning and was killed.  No one knew when he fell, or how the accident occurred.  As soon as he was missed the train was run back a mile or so, and his body was found lying near the track.  His skull was crushed out of all resemblance to humanity.  His body was properly cared for by the railroad officials.
 
BULLINER
AND BAKER
Sentenced to the Penitentiary for Twenty-Five Years.

We received the information late last evening that Bulliner and Baker were sentenced to the penitentiary for twenty-five years for the murder of Sisney.
 
Mr. John Herston, of Hazelwood Precinct, was in the city yesterday.  Mr. Herston has been a resident of Alexander County for fifty-five years.  He can tell you all about the Shaffer massacre at Mound City, how the Indians went to Mrs. Shaffer’s cabin, how they were given their dinner, how the old man Shaffer told his wife “somethings’s up” and wanted her to seize the Indians’ guns from the fireplace and help him “clean them out” how the bloodthirsty Indians did finally kill all the members of the family except the old man, who escaped with but one wound by a tomahawk, with the aid of a piece of spinning machine, after a desperate fight, how he broke the ice and swam Cache River, and how he got lost and found his way again by finding several ears of corn in the road, and in fact, all about the whole affair.

(An account of the massacre referred to above can be found in A House Divided by Darrel Dexter.—Darrel Dexter)
 


Friday, 15 Oct 1875:
THE VERDICT.
Bulliner and Baker Sent up for Twenty-Five Years.

Murphysboro, Ill., Oct. 13—The great murder trial is over and the jury found the defendants, John Bulliner and Allen Baker, guilty and affix their punishment at twenty-five years in the penitentiary.  Upon hearing the verdict Bulliner was much affected and gave way to his feelings.  Baker was comparatively indifferent, but his pale and trembling features showed that he was not unmindful of the terrible punishment decreed.

A new trial was moved by Mr. Albright, giving reasons.  It is not thought that it will be granted, in which case the matter will be taken to the supreme court upon a bill of exception.
 
 
Sunday, 17 Oct 1875:
On Friday evening, while Mrs. Ullman, mother of Mr. Samuel Ullman, the merchant of this city, was walking along Seventh Street, between the avenues, she was taken very suddenly with an attack of the heart disease, and fell helpless upon the sidewalk.  She was carried into the residence of Mr. Charles Pfifferling, on Seventh Street, where she died in a few moments.  Mrs. Ullman was sixty-seven years of age.
 


Tuesday, 19 Oct 1875:
OFF TO A DUNGEON.
Bulliner Shackeled with Irons and Chains Is Sent to
Joliet.
(
Jackson County Era.)

It was a heart-rending to witness the taking off of John Bulliner.  A young man of such fine personal appearance to be borne away to a dungeon to be confined for twenty-five years—during the best part of his life—seems to be a hard penalty to suffer or any time.  We saw him as he was brought from jail, heavily shackled with irons and chains, his affectionate old mother hanging on him until taken away by the officers, weeping bitter tears of sorrow.  Before he got in the hack to be borne to the depot, he kissed his old mother, and then turned and embraced his brother, Monroe, and kissed him on the cheek.  How changed the scene.  During the process of the trial and up to the very moment of the reading of the verdict of the jury, Bulliner was cheerful and buoyant in spirits, as though he had not the least fear of being convicted, but from the moment the verdict was read and up to the time of leaving for prison, he was depressed in spirits and did little but weep and sob in a most pitiful manner.  From his actions we should judge he was an affectionate son and brother.

He loved his aged mother, and what seemed to trouble him most, was the fear that his brother would be killed by the other side of the vendetta and leave her alone in the world.  It is our opinion that John Bulliner is not a bad man at heart, and if guilty of murder the deed was done in vindication of the death of his old father and brother, Dave.  But the law must be vindicated.  It John Bulliner is guilty—and a jury of good men have so decided—it is right that he be punished, and the penalty is probably none too severe.  It is only to be regretted that he should be so heedless of the consequences that follow the vindication of the death of a relative by taking the law in his own hands.  John has gone up, and when he gets out of the penitentiary, if he should live to see the end of his term, he will be an old man.  The outside world will be entirely changed to him.  His old mother will be dead many years before, and laid by the side of her murdered husband and son.  Strange faces and unknown towns will appear to him, where once everybody was an acquaintance and every village and bypath perfectly familiar.  The old Bulliner farm will not be what it used to be.  Williamson County will have passed from the scenes of blood and Ku-kluxing, and assumed the aspect of prosperity and civilization.  The example made of Bulliner, we think, will have a good effect upon the people of the whole State.  We now want to see the law thoroughly vindicated, and every person connected with this bloody affair dealt with as the law directs.  Let us have a thorough cleansing, and try and redeem the lost character of really the garden spot of the great west.
 
Mr. Thomas N. Lind, the stepfather of Mr. Wood Rittenhouse and Mr. Sim Rittenhouse, of this city, died near Cleves, Ohio, last week, of dropsy.
 


Wednesday, 20 Oct 1875:
ANOTHER VENDETTA ARREST.

The Murphysboro Independent reports that a man named Mit Baxter, living three miles east of Carbondale, was arrested in Marion Friday, charged with the murder of Doctor HinchcliffHinchcliff, it will be remembered, was a Bulliner partisan, and met his death a few steps from his residence at the hands of assassins, while riding on horseback.  Both Hinchcliff and his horse were instantly killed, being riddled with bullets.  This may prove the commencement of the trials and tribulations of the other branch of the vendetta assassins.
 
ONLY JUSTICE.

Since John Bulliner has been sent to a dungeon, is it not due him and his gray-haired mother that the murderers of old man Bulliner and his son Dave, should be hunted down and tried.  One side in the vendetta has been driven to the wall; now let the other side be made to divulge its secrets.  They were the aggressors and shot from ambush, in a cowardly manner, two Bulliners and Dr. Vince Hinchcliff.  The crusade of justice will not be complete until the men on the adverse wise are brought into the legal camp and tried for their unwarranted crimes.  The murders of Sisney and Spence were not more barbarous than those of the Bulliners and Hinchcliff, because the men who fired the fatal shots were the bloody aggressors and are the direct cause of John Bulliner’s fate.  Russell and Clifford are both in Texas, and they should be brought back and asked to explain why they left Williamson in such a hurry, and at a time when men were being killed from the bush.  Once in the hands of the law, with prospects of an ignominious death before them they may tell the secrets of the other side the same as Musick and Crain told the dark stories of the Bulliner faction.  Sending Bulliner and Baker to the penitentiary, and hanging Crain and Musick, may stop, effectually, the perpetration of further crimes, but it will leave unpunished men who have earned the title of desperadoes and assassins through a series of bloody acts that are covered by as thin a veil of secrecy as that which covered the acts of Bulliner and his associates.
 


Thursday, 21 Oct 1875:
The funeral of Mr. Carpenter, who died on Tuesday, took place yesterday afternoon.  The Odd Fellows, of which order he was a member, attended the funeral in a body.
 
The funeral services of the late M. S. Cox, will take place at the Presbyterian church this afternoon at forty-five minutes after one o’clock.  All friends of the family are invited to attend.  After the services at the church the remains will be placed upon the Illinois Central train and taken to Pittsfield, where they will be interred.  Mr. Cox was a resident of Pittsfield for several years, being engaged while there in the grocery business.  At the breaking out of the war, he sold out his business in that place, came to Cairo and entered the quartermaster’s department here, under Capt. A. C. Woolfock.  At the close of the war, he entered the bookstore of Mr. W. B. Rockwell, and remained in the store as manager until the first of March, 1868, when he became a partner, and has remained in the firm since that time.  At the beginning of the administration of ex-Mayor John Wood.  Mr. Cox accepted the position of city constable, of which office he fulfilled the duties until it was abolished.  He was a prominent member of the Presbyterian church, and a gentleman respected by all who knew him.  In his death our city has lost a useful and upright citizen.  The disease which caused his death was bronchial consumption.  He was first attacked with it about a year ago, and has since slowly failed in health until Tuesday, when he succumbed to his destroyer.
 


22 Oct 1875:
CRAIN CONFESSES.

In the circuit court at Marion, on last Tuesday, Marshall Crain confessed that he was the murderer of unfortunate Spence.  It will be remembered that on the night of the day on which Sisney was buried, Spence was slaughtered while in the act of opening his store door.  The first shots did not kill him, when a pistol was put to his head and discharged, the ball passing through his brain.  The murder was brutal and unprovoked, and in connection with the killing of Sisney caused the excitement and measures that have brought the perpetrators to justice.  Crain confessed before Judge Crawford.  Witnesses will be examined by the judge to enable him to fix the penalty for the crime.  When Crain’s case is disposed of, Musick will be tried.  It is believed he will also make a confession.  Jeff Crain, Black Bill and Yellow Bill Crain, alleged participants in the Spence assassination, will be tried this term of court.  All this looks like business and we now commence to think that Williamson County will see better days in the future.
 
The funeral ceremonies of the little son of Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Cunningham, which took place at the family residence yesterday morning, were attended by a large number of the friends and acquaintances of the afflicted parents.  Little Frazier was a child of remarkably bright and active mind, and his early death has made a void in the home and hearts of his parents which indeed will never be filled.  Rev. Mr. George of the Methodist church conducted the services, extending the only consolation possible to the bereaved family.  The remains were taken by special train at half past ten a.m., to Beech Grove Cemetery.

(Robert H. Cunningham married Alice Peters on 18 Feb 1867, in Alexander Co., Ill.—Darrel Dexter)
 
The funeral of little Frazier Cunningham took place yesterday morning at half past nine o’clock.  It was attended by a large number of the friends of the parents.
 
Vicksburg Herald 19:  John T. Reid, river reporter of the Monitor, better known as “Jack Reid,” died at his lodgings at the Trowbridge House yesterday morning, after a short illness.  Poor Jack was a good boy in the proper acceptation of that term, and was well like by everyone who knew him.  He had always a fund of good humor on hand and was pleasant and agreeable under all circumstances.  Our contemporary will miss his services and we shall miss his good humor.
 


Saturday, 23 Oct 1875:
TO BE HANGED.

Late Thursday night we received a dispatch, two late for publication in Friday morning’s paper, stating that Judge Crawford had sentenced Marshall Crain to be hanged in Marion, on the 21st of January, 1876.  This is the first death penalty imposed on any of those engaged in the dreadful vendetta.  That it is a just sentence, no one can deny, as he confessed to being the perpetrator of the cold-blooded murder of the Crainville merchant, Spence, on the night of July 31st.  Crain has acted the coward from the time he committed the murder at the door of the little frame store in Crainville.  Fear drove him away, and when captured, coward-like, he told all he knew.  The result will be a strong scaffold and a strong rope, and a shuffling off of the mortal coil.
 
In Franklin, Tenn., Colonel John House was instantly killed, and his son M. House was mortally wounded, while engaged in a difficulty with a policeman named
Griffin and a church member named Allison.  The coroner’s jury rendered a verdict of unjustifiable homicide.  Griffin and Allison are both under arrest.  House was, during the war, Lieutenant Colonel of the First Tennessee Infantry, and a man of prominence in his locality.
 
The Southern Illinoisan publishes the following:  “Marshal Crain was arraigned at Marion, Williamson County, on yesterday for the murder of William Spence and plead guilty to the charge.  He was remanded back to prison and will be sentenced soon.  Jasper W. Crain alias Big Jep, Noah W. Crain alias Yellow Bill, W. J. Crain alias Black Bill, were also arraigned upon the same charge and pleaded not guilty.  They will be taken to the Alexander County jail, there to wait the February term of the circuit court, a change of venue having been taken.”
 


Sunday, 24 Oct 1875:
Brown, the negro who murdered a German named Pfarr and ravished his wife, was hanged in St. Louis on Friday.  He denied the crime to the last.  As his body ceased swinging, a doctor standing near the scaffold remarked:  “A good job.”  Another doctor replied:  “Yes, d----d good.”
 
DOOMED!
The Assassin of William Spence on Trial!
Marshall Crain Sentenced to Be Hung!

(Egyptian Press, Extra, Oct. 22)

Judge Crawford announced on Wednesday, when Marshall Crain plead guilty to the indictment for the murder of William Spence, that he would commence to hear the investigation of Crain’s case at 9 o’clock yesterday morning.  At that hour Crain was brought into court, and the investigation was promptly begun, by the introduction of the evidence for the people.  The most important witnesses for the State were Sam Music, one of Crain’s accomplices, and Monroe Bulliner who swore that Crain told him, a few days after the death of Spence, that he (Crain) killed him.  The attorneys for the defense made very vigorous cross examination; and they introduced several witnesses for the defendant, to show that the statements made by Music could not be true; and others to prove that the defendant was of weak mind; and further that he had some reason to believe that Spence was harboring the Sisney boys in his store.

At half past 2 o’clock the examination ended, and the judge asked the attorneys if they desired to say anything.  Both sides declined making any remarks, preferring to leave the case entirely on the evidence.

By this time the courtroom was crammed with anxious and almost breathless spectators, many of whom were respectable ladies of this place, all eager to hear what would be the fate of the prisoner at the bar.  While Judge Crawford was writing out the sentence everything was perfect stillness, and when he looked over the audience before commencing to speak, there could be read in the faces of all a deep anxiety for the coming result.  The judge, in his remarks, spoke of the great responsibility that this case had placed upon him, of the great depth of this crime, of its being a premeditated and cold-blooded murder.  He spoke of the opportunity offered the criminal, to have his case tried by a jury of his countrymen; of his explanation to the prisoner of the probable results should he plead guilty to the charge of murder; that with a full knowledge of these things, he had still entered a plea of guilty.  The judge then spoke of the penalty fixed by our laws for the crime of murder; of the law itself, its true intents and meaning.  When he spoke of this, the final doom of the prisoner was fixed in the minds of many that were present.  Many in the audience were weeping by this time, and the judge himself shed copious tears, seeming almost overcome.  He placed his handkerchief to his eyes and bowed his head for a few moments—silence in the room was perfect—but soon rallied himself and said:  “I must do my duty before my God and my fellow men” and with few words pronounced the sentence of death of Marshall Crain.  When the sentence was pronounced, Crain’s wife, who had been at his side all day, gave way to her feelings and wept bitterly.

During the entire trial the prisoner did not appear the least alarmed, and did not seem to be even affected when the judge spoke his doom.  Crain was asked if he had anything to say why sentence should not be pronounced on him.  He answered that he did and rose up and said that the people had forced him to trial before he had time to defend himself; that he had been led into these crimes by John Bulliner, a man who was smarter than he was; and he did not think he deserved to be hung.  The judge then pronounced the sentence—that Marshall Crain should be hung by the neck until dead.

The day fixed for his execution is Friday, the 21st day of January, 1876.

Crain is guilty of the highest crime known to the law—one of the most willful murders ever committed among any people, and is the first man ever sentenced to be hung in Williamson County.
 


Tuesday, 26 Oct 1875:
LETTER FROM A CONDEMNED
MAN.

The trials of the assassins of the vendetta have been marked by many pathetic and exciting scenes.  Crain, when arraigned for trial for the murder of Spence, in Crainville, waived the services of a jury, pleading guilty and throwing himself on the mercy of the court.  Judge Crawford was the presiding judge, and desired that the prisoner should receive the benefits, if any, of a jury; but when it was declined, he ordered the examination of all witnesses in the case.  After hearing the testimony, Judge Crawford sentenced Crain to be hanged in January.  Over six hundred people were in the courtroom when the sentence was passed upon the prisoner and utter stillness reigned.  Crain evinced no feeling until sent back to jail, when he shrieked and moaned in contemplation of the fate in store for him.  He was taken before the grand jury and divulged the names of men now at liberty who have him money to perpetrate the crime for which he was doomed to suffer.  The names of these persons have not been made public.  While giving his testimony he suddenly broke out into wild sobs and lamentations.  All these scenes were startling and affecting to those who heard them.  After the first outburst of fear and regret had passed away, he sent for Judge Allen, with whom he conversed in reference to himself and others and penned the following letter to Judge Crawford; which we give as written, except that the orthography and grammatical construction have been slightly altered:

MARION, October 23, 1875.

JUDGE CRAWFORD.—Dear Sir—It is with a high respect to you that I write you.  I do not hold any prejudice against you for the sentence that you put on me.  Hoping and praying to God that I may get forgiveness for my rimes, may God change my heart and give me a new heart that I may be converted before I die and go home to heaven where there will be no more parting.  If there is any prejudice alleged against me by the people, pray to God that it may be removed as far as the east is from the west.  I pray to God that out county may ever more be in peace and harmony.  I do believe with all my heart that Judge Crawford is doing his duty.  May God bear him up in doing justice toward all mankind as long as life exists in this sinful world.  May God bless and save all mankind, is my prayer.  I want the prayers of everyone of God’s people.  I pray to God for a change of heart, and for a home in heaven.

Marshall Crain

P.S.—Please read this to the people in the courtroom.

Although this man has shown a want of true courage and nerve, he may die with unusual calmness.  That his fate is sealed, unless a way of escape presents itself, no one will for a moment doubt.  No unnecessary pity or sentimentality on the part of the people of Williamson will influence the governor to commute his sentence to imprisonment for life.
 
The deep sympathy felt by the citizens of Cairo for Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham in the recent loss sustained by them in the death of a peculiarly bright and beloved little boy, has been increased to a painful extent by a second bereavement of a like character.  On Sunday last, the remains of Allie, their youngest child, was borne to Beech Grove Cemetery, and there buried forever out of the sight of his already afflicted parents.  The double blow has brought Mrs. Cunningham to a bed of sickness.  The disease which carried off both the children was diphtheria, and another little one of the family is now suffering from it, and until yesterday there were but slight hopes entertained of its recovery.  In common with the large number of the friends and acquaintances of Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham, we extend to them our sincere and heartfelt condolence, well knowing that the poor, common words of courtesy, though acceptable, will have little power to heal the sorrow which has been visited upon them.

 

Col. William Allen, brother of Hon. Thomas Allen, president of the Iron Mountain Railroad, is dead.
 


Wednesday, 27 Oct 1875:
Resolutions.

At a meeting of Alexander Lodge, No. 224 I. O. O. F., held on Thursday evening last, Oct. 21st, the following preamble and resolutions on the death of George Carpenter, a member of said lodge, were passed:

WHEREAS, Death has again visited us, and taken from our membership our lamented Brother George Carpenter, therefore be it

Resolved, That in the death of Brother Carpenter, this Lodge is deprived of the fellowship of one whose daily walk and conversation in life, was that of a true Odd Fellow.

Resolved, That to the mourning widow, children and friends, we extend our heartfelt sympathy in this their great affliction.

Resolved, That a page in the journal be set apart to his memory and that these resolutions be inscribed thereon.

Resolved, That the Lodge room be draped in mourning for thirty days, and that a copy of these resolutions be sent to the widow of our deceased brother by the Secretary.
 


Thursday, 28 Oct 1875:
It is said that Black Bill and Jep Crain were very anxious in securing a change of venue from Williamson County, to have been sent to Johnson County for trial, but that Judge Allen opposed their being sent there, and succeeded in having them sent to this county.  What grounds Judge Allen based his objection on we were unable to learn.
 
Mayor James Hampton, an old resident of Williamson County, was in town yesterday.  He is eighty years of age, and has been intimately acquainted with the Bulliners, Spences, Sisneys and Crains.  He has three granddaughters who married respectively, Fleetwood, Warren and Wesly Crain, brother of Marshall Crain, now under sentence of death for crimes committed in Williamson .
 
Press Squires, an old and well-known steamboat engineer, died at Newport, Kentucky, on Sunday night last.
 


Friday, 29 Oct 1875:
CRAIN CONFESSES,
It Was He Who Killed Sisney and Spence.
He Convicted Baker to Save His Own Neck.

MARION, ILL., October 27—The circuit court term which commenced October 14, and terminated on the 21st, was the most important in its results ever held in this section of the country.  A synopsis of what was accomplished in this land of the vendetta is herewith appended.  A nolle pros. was entered in the case of Fielding Henderson, charged with the killing of Vincent Hinchcliffe, for lack of evidence.  Pad. Henderson, convicted of malicious mischief was sent to the state’s prison for one year.  These charges of assault to kill Captain George W. Sisney, against Timothy Cagle, were dismissed, the
CONFESSION OF MARSHALL CRAIN
having exonerated him.  Milton Baxter, charged with murdering Vincent Hinchcliffe, gave bail in the sum of $3,000 and had his case continued.  In the case of the State vs. William Jasper Crain alias Big Jeff Crain, William J. Crain alias Black Bill Crain, and Noah W. Crain, alias Yellow Bill Crain, for the murder of William Spence, the first two were granted a change of venue to Alexander County, and will be tried in January.  Yellow Bill was admitted to bail in the sum of $5,000.  The trial of Marshall Crain, who pleaded guilty to the killing, has already been published in full, as well as his sentence to death on the 21st of January next.  Since Crain’s sentence he has been apparently penitent, and his cries are constantly heard by those in proximity to his cell.  He now entertains the hope that he can
PURIFY HIS SOUL
by embracing religion.  Had Crain, like Music, held to the truth, he might have been dealt with more leniently, but he asserted and retracted, repeated and denied, until like a beast altered with too much rope, be became entangled.  He held up with remarkable courage until Friday last, when he broke down completely and confessed that he was the man who killed William Spence and Captain Sisney, and that he swore against Baker to save his own life.  On the day mentioned he had George W. Sisney, Jr., called to his cell and told him that he was the murderer of his father.  He prostrated himself before the young man and asked his forgiveness.  Sisney replied that he could not forgive the man who shot down his father in cold blood without any provocation whatever, adding that forgiveness for such a crime would be unnatural.  Crain remarked that he was not in his right mind when he committed the deed.  When Crain’s neck is stretched the vendetta crowd will have lost their most daring member.
 


Saturday, 30 Oct 1875:
ANOTHER LETTER.

Marshall Crain seems to have a mania for letter writing.  The Egyptian Press contains another effusion from his pen, addressed to Mr. Jesse L. Ragland, in which he says:  “I am in a terrible fix to die; I know that I have got to die, and all that I can do now is to pray to God to forgive me, and prepare for death.  Cousin Jesse, I desire the prayers of all Christians; I want you to pray for me and remember me in your prayers.  I pray God to forgive me, that I may be prepared for heaven.  It has fell to my lot to die at a rope’s end.”  He is undoubtedly, much exercised as to his future after death.  There does not seem to be any halfway business about this fellow.  When he was engaged in the high art of slaughtering people at $15 a head, he threw all of his energies and strength into the agreeable occupation.  Now praying and letter-writing occupy his time entirely.  He concluded his letter as follows:  “I pray God to soften my heart, that I may see the danger I am in.  It seems like it is almost too late for me to be forgiven.  I try to pray and my mind is so placed on things that are past, I pray to my Savior to place my mind on heavenly things, and remove all darkness from me, that I may see the danger I am in.  Remember, friends, as you pass by, as you are now so once was I; as I am now you should not be.  Take up the cross, prepare for death, teach all mankind the way to heaven prepared for you and me.”
 


Sunday, 31 Oct 1875:
NO PRECEDENT

The case of Marshall Crain is said to be without a precedent in the history of trials.  When he acknowledged to having committed the crime he was certainly impelled to the confession through a desire to escape the death sentence, as no judge before, upon whom rested the power of fixing punishment, ever inflicted the severest penalty.  It certainly required strong moral force in Judge Crawford, in the face of precedent, to step aside from the beaten path and deal with Crain in a manner commensurate with his cool and terrible crimes.

 

 

Tuesday, 2 Nov 1875:
FRIGHTENED TO DEATH.

On the 21st inst., in the lower portion of Massac County, Columbus Mosier and Sam Durall were engaged in chopping a tree.  Words of a trivial character passed between them, when Mosier took hold of Durall below the armpits, raised him off his feet and dashed him down suddenly.  Durall scrambled to his feet and limped off half bent, saying:  “Lum, you have killed me!”  Prostrating himself he died in a few minutes.  Another story is that Durall called Mosier a d--n liar and threatened to split him open with the axe, and that Mosier went up to Durall and pushed him down rather roughly; when he got up and walked a few paces, saying, “You have killed me.”  A physician named James T. White was passing along the road when the sudden death occurred.  He gave it as his opinion that Durall died from the effects of fright—his weak physical condition being such that he was unable to rally from the effects of the shock.  Mosier was greatly affected over the result of the affair, and falling down over the dead man, the tears streaming from his eyes, he said, “Oh Sam, you are dead, but the Lord knows I did not intend to kill you.”

(The 6 Nov 1875, Jonesboro Gazette reported that Samuel Durall, aged about 30 years, was killed on 21 Oct 1875, by his employer, Columbus Mossure, in Massac County.—Darrel Dexter)
 
George Minor, a young man 22 years of age, died in Murphysboro last Wednesday.
 


Wednesday, 3 Nov 1875:
Died, yesterday morning, at 4 o’clock, of bilious fever, John Marnel, aged 70 years.  A special funeral train will leave the foot of Eighth Street tomorrow at 1 o’clock, for Villa Ridge, where the remains will be interred.
 
Mr. John Marnel, Sr., died at his home in this city yesterday morning, at four o’clock, of bilious fever.  The deceased seventy years of age, and has a wife and a large family of children residing in this city.  The funeral will not take place until tomorrow at one o’clock, owing to the absence of two of the sons of the deceased, who are expected to arrive in Cairo today.  A special train will carry the remains to their last resting place at one o’clock tomorrow afternoon.
 


Thursday, 4 Nov 1875:
The remains of John Marnel will be buried at Beech Grove Cemetery today.  The funeral services will be held at the Catholic church at twelve o’clock.  A special train will leave for the place of interment at 1 o’clock.
 


Friday, 5 Nov 1875:
The funeral of John Marnel took place from his late residence yesterday afternoon.  The remains were followed to their last resting place by a large number of friends.
 
 
Tuesday, 9 Nov 1875:
The
Charleston (Mo.) Courier publishes the following item:  “Charles F. Norton was found dead in his bed on the 15th ult., near Patterson, Wayne County.  When found his nose was eaten off, his eyes eaten out and a little hole in the back of each hand.”
 
Mrs. William Sandusky, who has been lingering for some time, died on Sunday morning at 10 o’clock.
 
Funeral Notice.

The funeral of Mrs. Margaret Hehl, wife of Daniel Hehl, who died in this city Sunday night, at 10 o’clock, will take place today.  Services at the German Catholic Church at 1 o’clock, after which the remains will be conducted to the corner of Fourteenth and Levee, to be conveyed to Villa Ridge on special train.  Friends of the family are invited to attend.  The remains will leave the residence, corner of Fifteenth and Cedar, at 10 o’clock.  Daniel Hehl.

(Daniel Hehl married Margaret Smith on 13 Oct 1870, in Alexander Co., Ill.—Darrel Dexter)

 

 
Wednesday, 10 Nov 1875:
At Delevan, Illinois, a mob hanged John Williams, on the night of the 7th, for horse stealing.  Great excitement in the neighborhood over the affair.  No arrests have as yet been made.
 
William K. Murray shot and killed Joel Woodrum, his brother-in-law, in Williamsburg, Ill.
 


Friday, 12 Nov 1875:
A little colored girl named Fanny Green, aged five years, had her skull badly hurt yesterday morning by being struck with a brick thrown from the top of a house on Eighth Street, where her father was at work repairing the roof.  The child was playing near the side of the house, when the old darkey, her father, not seeing the child, threw the bricks down.  The unfortunate child has carried to Dr. Wardner’s office, where medical aid was administered.  It is thought the child will die.
 
Card of Thanks.

Editor Bulletin—I desire through your columns to return my sincere thanks to Mrs. Dr. Smith, Mrs. Kaha, Mrs. Howley, Mrs. Beecher, and other kind ladies, for their unceasing attention to my wife, during her last illness; also to the teachers of the Thirteenth Street public school, who so earnestly and successfully labored to keep their children quiet; and to all my friends who assisted in any way, I again return my thanks.
W. H. Sandusky
 


Saturday, 13 Nov 1875:
The trial of Capt. James Melton, for killing a man by the name of Wiseman, in Calloway County, Kentucky, nearly two years ago, commenced at Mayfield Saturday last.
 
Fannie Green, the little colored child whose skull was injured by a brick striking her on the head, on Tuesday morning, is much better, and hopes are entertained that she will soon recover.
 


Sunday, 14 Nov 1875:
A unknown man was killed near the trestle work on the Illinois Central, yesterday afternoon, by the passenger train that arrives in the city at half past two o’clock.  He was picked up and brought to the passenger depot, where an inquest was held on the body about four o’clock.  When killed, the man had on a tattered pair of breeches, a black box coat, blue shirt and slouched hat.  He was about five feet eight inches high, with light hair, mustache, and goatee, and light freckled complexion, and is supposed to have been about twenty-eight years of age.
 


Tuesday, 16 Nov 1875:
JOHN BULLINER CRAZY

News comes from the northern part of the state that John Bulliner, who was sentenced to the penitentiary for twenty-five years, has gone raving mad.
 
MARSHALL CRAIN WRITING.

Marshall Crain, who is now under sentence of death for the assassination of Sisney and Spence, is hard at work writing a full history of the vendetta.  Crain knows there is no hope for him in this world, and it is therefore believed he will write the truth.  The history will, it is said, implicate prominent citizens of Williamson County, and will be read by avidity by the people of the state.
 
The funeral of Mrs. Dr. Gordon, which took place on Sunday afternoon, was largely attended.

(A marker in Calvary Cemetery at Villa Ridge reads:  Isadore, wife of Dr. Jacob J. Gordon, Sept. 22, 1837-Nov. 15, 1875.  Jacob J. Gordon married Isadore Buske 27 Feb 1862, in Pulaski Co., Ill.—Darrel Dexter)
 
A floater was picked up opposite the St. Charles Hotel in the Ohio River yesterday morning.  Coroner Gossman was notified, and held an inquest over the body.  On the drowned man was found a marriage certificate, which gave the names of Joseph Andermott and Miss Annie Hummel.  The certificate was issued in Chicago.  After the inquest, the body was placed in the hands of Mr. Cary, the undertaker, and buried at the expense of the city.
 
Funeral Notice.

The funeral of Thomas Caif will take place today.  Services at St. Patrick’s Church at 1:30 o’clock.  Special train will leave foot of Eighth Street at 2 o’clock to convey the remains to Villa Ridge.  Friends and acquaintances invited to attend.

(This may be the same person as Thomas Keefe referred to below.—Darrel Dexter)
 
Thomas Keefe, who lived on the farm in Kentucky, opposite the wharf boats, died of pneumonia yesterday.

(This may be the same person as Thomas Caif referred to above.—Darrel Dexter)
 
 
Saturday, 20 Nov 1875:
JOHN BULLINER.

John Bulliner, in the penitentiary, it is said, is so far gone in lunacy as not to recognize his keeper or friends who visit him.  He will not indulge in any food or drink, and medical men say that he will not last many days unless a change comes over him soon.  We have no advices from Allen Baker, but are satisfied he is hard at work making a good mechanic out of himself.  He has ample time and opportunity.
 


Tuesday, 23 Nov 1875:
WON’T PAY THE REWARD.

For some reason best known to himself, Colonel Brush, of Carbondale, refuses to pay Mr. Lowe the reward he offered for the capture of Captain Sisney’s assassins. Lowe received the reward offered by the State, but will have to call upon the law to investigate the causes that led to Colonel Brush’s refusal to pay up. The Murphysboro Era, in its late issue says: “Soon after the murder of Capt. Sisney, Col. Brush, of Carbondale, offered a reward of $500 for the apprehension and conviction of the murderer. It was our opinion at first that Brush did this to make him sound big, that he had no feeling for Sisney, and that he did not offer the reward with the intention of ever paying it. It now seems that we were correct in our judgment, for we are informed that he refused to pay the reward. Then is not Brush a repudiator? Has he not been guilty of repudiating his private debts heretofore? Did he not at one time own a wildcat bank in Carbondale before the war; and did he not cause the bank to break; and did he not redeem his bank notes at twenty-five cents and at various sums below par? We knew something of these facts when he made the reward, and felt safe that he never would pay unless compelled to by law.”

The funeral of Richard Garland was attended by a large number of friends and acquaintances. The remains were buried at Villa Ridge.

 
Sunday, 28 Nov 1875:
On Friday night, Ulisse Tessier, died at the house of her father, of typhoid fever. The funeral will take place at the residence of Mrs. Tessier this afternoon when the remains will be taken to Villa Ridge for burial.

(A marker in Cairo City Cemetery at Villa Ridge reads:  Ulesse Tessier, daughter of M. & M., 1856-1875.  Also on the marker are her sisters, Hermina Tessier, Oct. 26, 1867-Dec. 17, 1873, and Palmana Tessier, Aug. 1, 18__-Nov. 22, 1865; and Michael Tessier, July 9, 1792-Oct. 20, 1870.  Michael Tessier appears to be the father of Moses Tessier.  The 1870 census of North Cairo Precinct, Alexander Co., Ill., household 27, shows:  Moses Tessier, 43, born in Canada, blacksmith; Mary, 40, Canada; Zana, 16, Canada; Julius, 14, Illinois; Minnie, 12, Illinois; Ezra, 10, Illinois; Lude, 9, Illinois; William, 7, Illinois; Matilda, 3, Illinois; Michael, 73, Canada; and Louis, 31, Canada, blacksmith.—Darrel Dexter)

Died, in Pomeroy, Ohio, November twentieth, 1875, Horace Remington, infant son of Horace M. and Annie C. Horton.

Funeral Notice.

The funeral of Ulessie Tessier, daughter of Moses Tessier, will take place from the residence of her father, on Tenth Street, this afternoon at two o’clock. A special train will leave the foot of Tenth Street, to convey the remains to Villa Ridge. All friends of the family are invited to attend.

 


Tuesday, 30 Nov 1875:
James H. Fore, who escaped from the Missouri penitentiary, recently, was serving out a sentence of ten years for killing his brother-in-law, Beach, and attempting to kill his wife.

The sudden death of Captain Dyas T. Parker, who was regarded as one of our most worthy and substantial businessmen, and who was honored and beloved by all who knew him, has spread a feeling of sorrow and regret throughout the city.

OBITUARY

Died, At his home in this city at 6 o’clock Sunday morning, Captain Dyas T. Parker, aged fifty years.

In the death of Captain Parker, our city has sustained a great loss.  He was one of the most honored and respected citizens, and was known to all.

Captain Parker was born in Brown County, Ohio, in September 1825.  Soon after his birth, his parents removed to the town of Maysville, Kentucky, where they remained until he was fourteen years old, when the family again changed their home to Ripley, Ohio.  When Captain Parker had gained a suitable age for transacting business, he entered the dry goods business, in which he remained until the year 1849, when the whole country was thrown into great excitement over the discovery of gold in California; he sold out his business, and with a party of friends, went to that state in search of a fortune.  He remained in California, about one year, returned to Ripley, and again went into the dry goods business.  In 1852, he was married to Miss Josephine Peters, of that place, in 1853, he again sold out his business and moved to Salem, Illinois, where he lived eight years, when he came to Cairo, and entered the commission business.  Since that time he has been associated in this branch of trade with several of the most prominent businessmen of our city, among whom are Mr. John B. Phillis, R. Miller, and R. R. Cunningham.  He was a prominent member of the Chamber of Commerce of this city, and has been for years a member of the Executive Committee of the State Board of Agriculture.

At the time of his death, Mr. Parker was associated with no one in business, having dissolved by mutual consent with R. H. Cunningham about the first of this month.  On the 27th of last month Mr. Parker was married to Mrs. S. B. Halliday, of this city.

His business relations have been of the most upright and honorable character; his death is mourned by the entire community, and has cast a gloom over the people that will not soon lift itself from their hearts.

His funeral will take place this morning at 10 o’clock.  The funeral services will be held in the Episcopal church, and will be conducted by the Rev. Mr. Gilbert.  The remains will be taken to Beech Grove Cemetery by special train, where they will be interred.  The funeral will be conducted by Alexander Lodge of I. O. O. F., of which order Mr. Parker was a member.

 

CAIRO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Cairo, Ill., Nov. 29, 1875

At a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, merchants and businessmen of the city of Cairo, called for the purpose of taking action relative to the sudden death of Capt. Dyas T. Parker, late commission merchant and a prominent member of the Board of Trade, a committee of five was appointed by the president to draft resolutions expressive of the sentiments of all present.  Messrs. Z. D. Mathus, S. D. Ayers, William Linker, Peter Cuhl, and Charles Cunningham were appointed on said committee, and reported as follows:

Resolved, That whereas it has pleased Almighty God to remove from our presence our esteemed friend and fellow citizen Dyas T. Parker; therefore

Resolved, That we, the merchants and businessmen, desire to express our profoundest sorrow at his sudden death, and tender our sympathies to the family of the deceased in their sad bereavement.

Resolved, That we attend the funeral in a body on tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at 9:30 o’clock.

Resolved, That we cause a copy of these resolutions to be published in the daily papers of Cairo, and that the secretary be instructed to furnish a copy to the family of the deceased.
Z. D. Mathus,
William Linker,
Charles Cunningham,
S. D. Ayers,
Peter Cuhl, Committee

Voted that a committee of five consisting of Messrs. E. C. Pace, E. P. Davis, Z. D. Mathus, William Linker, and R. W. Miller, be appointed to confer with the Odd Fellows for the purpose of assisting in making arrangements for the funeral.

Voted to adjourn until this morning, November 30, to meet at the late residence of the deceased at 9:30 a.m., unless notice of a change of time be published in the morning papers. E. M. Stearnes
Sec’y Cairo Chamber of Commerce

NOTICE.

The members of the Chamber of Commerce, and businessmen generally of the city, who purpose attending the funeral of the late Dyas T. Parker, will meet at 9 o’clock sharp, at the residence of the deceased, By order of The Committee.

I. O. O. F.

The members of Alexander Lodge No. 224, I. O. O. F., are hereby notified to appear at the lodge room promptly at 8 o’clock a.m., for the purpose of attending the funeral of our deceased brother, Dyas T. Parker. The lodge will proceed in a body from the lodge room to our late brother’s residence, at 8:30 a.m., promptly. Visiting brothers cordially invited to join with us.
By order of the Lodge,
Will K. Hawkins, Sec’y


 

Wednesday, 1 Dec 1875:
The Odd Fellows to a man turned out in full regalia to attend the funeral of Captain Dyas T. Parker.  The funeral was one of the largest that has taken place in this city for years.
 

 

Friday, 3 Dec 1875:
Miss Julia, oldest unmarried daughter of Mr. Nicholas Hunsaker, of Dog Tooth Precinct, is dangerously ill and it is feared will not recover.  Relatives living in Cairo were sent for yesterday.

            (Nicholas Hunsaker married Adelia Worthington, on 22 Mar 1849, in Alexander Co., Ill.—Darrel Dexter)
 


Saturday, 4 Dec 1875:
The Late Captain Dyas T. Parker.

Speaking of our late fellow citizen, Captain D. T. Parker, deceased, the Jonesboro Gazette, says:  “He was identified with the State Agricultural Society from its organization, and was vice president at the time of his death, and was one of the most able members of the State Board of Agriculture.  He was a member of the Cairo Board of Trade, and an Odd Fellow fraternity by whom his remains were interred with appropriate honors on Tuesday.  Southern Illinois has lost one of its best citizens, and his decease is deplored by a large circle of friends throughout the State.  Having been honored with the friendship of Captain Parker for a number of years, we deeply feel this affliction, and join in our condolence with the relatives and friends.”
 


Wednesday, 8 Dec 1875:
CAPTURED.
Bill Davis, a
St. Louis Murderer, Captured in Cairo—A Lively Chase.

Bill Davis, a colored man, shot and killed Tom Kelley, also colored, in St. Louis some two or three months ago.  Davis was arrested and held to bail in the sum of $800 for his appearance at court to stand trial for the murder of Kelley.  Rube Armstrong, a colored detective and proprietor of a well-regulated stagger-juice shop “went” Davis’ bond.

After being released from jail, Davis loitered about St. Louis for some time; but as the time set for his trial drew near, concluded he would get out of the way, and jumped his bail and came to Cairo.  He remained here about two weeks, and then went to Tennessee.  Shortly after Davis left Cairo Sheriff Irvin received a telegram requesting him to arrest Davis and hold him till the arrival of an officer from St. Louis who would take him back to that city.  But Davis had gone, and the sheriff so informed the St. Louis authorities.

Armstrong then went to Tennessee and succeeded in capturing Davis.  On the way back to St. Louis, when the boat got to Union City, Davis jumped ashore and made his escape, and again turned up in Cairo, Armstrong followed him, arriving in the city on Monday.  Armstrong sought the assistance of Sheriff Irvin to recapture Davis, who it appears had been traced to the old den on Fifth Street, known as the “Flat Top.”

Between 10 and 11 o’clock on Monday night Sheriff Irvin and the negro detective Armstrong, went to the Flat Top for the purpose of arresting Davis, but the murderer having by some means been warned of the coming of the officers, succeeded in getting out of the house just in time to prevent the avenues of escape being closed.  As it was he was compelled to leave in such a hurry that when he appeared on the street he had on nothing but shirt and drawers.  The officers approached just as Davis passed out of the door and commanded him to halt.  He refused, and started to run, when three shots were fired at him, the balls coming uncomfortably near his ears.

Davis next took refuge in a den on Commercial Avenue, opposite the Vicksburg House, where he met a friend whom he sent to the Flat Top after his clothes; but instead of going after Davis’ clothes, his friend went to Deputy Sheriff Sheehan and informed that officer of Davis’ whereabouts.  Deputy Sheehan gathered together several members of the police force, and proceeding to the house, arrested Davis.  He will be taken back to St. Louis to stand trial for the murder of Tom Kelley.
 


Thursday, 9 Dec 1875:
Dr. C. W. Dunning left for Lexington, Kentucky, on Tuesday, where he goes to attend his nephew, who is not expected to live.
 


Friday, 10 Dec 1875:
Marshall Crain, the Williamson County assassin, is visited daily by his wife, “a rather delicate but flue looking little woman, who has stuck to him nobly, and who has the sheriff’s permission to see him at almost any time.”
 


Saturday, 11 Dec 1875:
John Williams, a colored man, formerly a resident of this city, died very suddenly in Chicago a few days ago.
 
Captain James Pepper and wife, with the remains of their youngest son, Harry Pepper, who died in New Orleans a few days ago, are passengers on the Mary Houston.  The deceased had been suffering with consumption and was taken South in the hope of regaining his health with the above result.
 


Sunday, 12 Dec 1875:
THE TRIAL OF PENDERGRAS IN
JONESBORO.

The trial of Charles Pendergras alias Charles Coffee, for the murder of Patrick Kavanaugh, city marshal of Murphysboro, on the night of the 20th of April last, is now in progress in Jonesboro.  The whole of the first three days was occupied in obtaining a jury—some ninety-five persons being summoned before the panel of twelve was obtained.  The prosecution is represented by A. R. Pugh, state’s attorney for Jackson County, and Jackson Frick, state’s attorney for Union County.  The defense is conducted by Robert R. Townes and M. J. Inscore.  The defendant is a young man of prepossessing appearance and conducts himself in a calm and somewhat indifferent manner.

The killing was perpetrated in the city of Murphysboro, near the Logan House, and was the result of an altercation between Pendergras and Kavanaugh about the loss of the former’s hat, which he had lost at a dance.  Pendergras fired two shots, one of which struck Kavanaugh on the right side of the neck.  Kavanaugh died in two weeks afterwards, having at one time in the interval been able to make his appearance on the streets.  The evidence for the defense was begun on Friday last.
 
Died.

At the residence of his daughter, Mrs. H. Coyne, on Saturday, December 11th at half past 5 o’clock p.m.  John Coyle, of Villa Ridge.  Funeral services at St. Patrick’s Church this day at half past 1 o’clock p.m.  The remains will be taken by train from the foot of Eighth Street to Villa Ridge.
 


Tuesday, 14 Dec 1875:
GUILTY.

The Pendergast trial in Jonesboro came to a conclusion Saturday afternoon.  The jury left the courtroom at 11 o’clock a.m. and remained out four hours.  The result of their deliberation was a verdict of guilty, the punishment of Pendergast being placed at twenty-four years imprisonment in the penitentiary.  The prisoner’s counsel gave notice that they would enter a motion for a new trial on Monday.
 


Wednesday, 15 Dec 1875:
Judge Crawford, before whom the Pendergast-Kavanaugh trial in Jonesboro was held, overruled the motion for a new trial, but granted defendant’s counsel sixty days in which to prepare a bill of exceptions to carry the case to the Supreme Court.
 


Thursday, 16 Dec 1875:
John Bulliner, it seems, is not raving mad at Joliet, but is hale, hearty and happy.
 
BRUSH’S REWARD.
The Man or Men Who Arrested Sisney’s Murderers May Now Get Their Money.

(Carbondale Observer of yesterday)

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN—On the morning of the assassination of Capt. G. W. Sisney, last summer, the undersigned on his way to his office, heard first of the fiendish deed.  He inquired what steps had been taken towards the ferreting out and arrest of the perpetrators.  Not discovering that any efforts worthy the name had been made, or that anything towards such a consummation was contemplated by citizens, or the authorities of the city—and it seeming as if timidity and panic had overpowered, or that apathy inexcusable had stricken the community, and that no voice had been or would be raised to vindicate the honor of the place, or to manifest a proper respect for the murdered citizen, and a determination that the assassins should be apprehended and brought to justice—the undersigned, feeling a horror that such a state of things should be permitted to exist here, unchallenged and unrebuked, publickly announced that he would pay five hundred dollars for the arrest and conviction of the guilty parties.  The offer was made in good faith, and to protect, as far as I was able, the good name of Carbondale.  Not that I felt more friendly towards Captain Sisney than I had towards the Bulliners and other victims of the feud—my relations with all the slain were ever friendly, so far as I know—but Mr. Sisney was residing in our midst, and I felt it to be a duty to his family, as well as to us all, that measures should be adopted and action taken by this community for the capture and punishment of his slayers.  I think some of them, if not all, have been taken and convicted.  I hold myself in readiness to pay over the reward I offered, to the person or persons who made the arrest, as soon as the proper parties shall be ascertained.  And to the end that justice may be done, I hereby propose to submit to the decision of Judge Crawford, at the special term of the Jackson County Circuit Court, to be commenced at Murphysboro, on the 10th day of January, 1876, the question as to who is the proper party or parties entitled to said reward.  Therefore, claimants are requested then and there to appear and exhibit evidence of their right to the same.
D. H. Brush,
Carbondale, Dec. 10, 1875
 
Michael Easly, a colored man aged thirty years, residing near the corner of Eleventh and Walnut streets, died very suddenly yesterday.  Easly was an employee at Messrs. Halliday Brothers’ mills, and yesterday morning not feeling well, got his brother to go do his work for him.  His wife went out to do a day’s washing, and when she returned about 5 o’clock last evening, found her husband laying dead in the bed.  What caused Easly’s sudden taking off is not known.
 


Friday, 17 Dec 1875:
From a private letter received from Jonesboro, we make the following extract:  “I see you were wrongly informed regarding the Pendergast trial.  He got twenty-five years in the penitentiary.  Sheriff Nimmo left with him on Tuesday evening, the 14th inst., for Joliet.  There is no hope here of a new trial, or new hearing before the Supreme Court; and the very essential—money—is lacking to stimulate the attorneys in his case to further exertions.”
 


Saturday, 18 Dec 1875:
BULLINER.
An Effort to Be Made for a New Trial.

(From the
Chicago Times of Thursday)

Monroe Bulliner, brother of John Bulliner, the alleged leader of the Jackson County vendetta, arrived in the city from his home at Carbondale, on yesterday, and put up at the Sherman House.  He was accompanied by his attorney, F. E. Albright, Esq. A lynx-eyed reporter of the Times recognized Mr. Bulliner’s autograph, sought him out and proceeded to interview him.  He was quite reticent, at first, having evidently heard of Col. Babcock’s career in Chicago, and determined to immortalize himself by being equally contrary and angularly cussed.  At length beneath the beaming and confidence-impairing smiles of the reporter, he thawed out sufficiently to give the outlines of the object of his mission.  In company with Mr. Albright he is on his way to Joliet to visit his brother John, who in September last, was sentenced to serve a term of twenty-five years in the charitable institution there located.  The object of this visit is to pave the way for an application for a revocation of sentence and a new trial.  Monroe Bulliner states that Marshal Crane, who is to be hanged Jan. 22 for his complicity in this damnable business, and who testified against John Bulliner at the trial, has since acknowledged that John was innocent of the blood of Sisney and Spence, and that he killed them himself.  He has also confessed to having killed another man in the Southwest—probably in Texas.  On the strength of Crane’s confession, the attorney is quite confident that a new trial will be accorded the prisoner.  It will be remembered that John Bulliner and a man named Baker were tried conjointly, found guilty, and each was sentenced for the same length of time.  Monroe Bulliner says that the attorney now sees that it was a mistake on his part to have permitted this, and is satisfied that had they been tried separately, Baker would have swung and Bulliner would have skipped off free.  Monroe says, furthermore, that the Snyders and “all the other fellers down thar whose character is worth a cent,” stand ready to sign a petition asking that John may be pardoned.  Messrs. Albright and Bulliner left for Joliet at 5 o’clock p.m.
 
 
Tuesday, 21 Dec 1875:
Charles Wittig, Sr., died at his home in this city on Sunday, 19th.  At the time of his death, Mr. Wittig was seventy-four years, one month, and eleven days.  He will be buried from his residence on Washington Avenue, between Fourth and Fifth streets, today at two o’clock.
 
A colored man named Leonard was killed by the incoming passenger train on the Illinois Central a short distance above Mounds Junction yesterday.  Leonard was driving his team, and did not notice the train coming until his horses were on the track.  In attempting to save his horses Leonard was thrown between his wagon and the train as it passed by.  The train was stopped, when it was found that the upper part of Leonard’s head was crushed to a jelly.  The body was removed to Mounds Junction, where an inquest was convened.
 


Wednesday, 22 Dec 1875:
We regret to announce that the life of Mrs. Richard Fitzgerald is despaired of.  Mrs. F. has been an invalid for long time and her sufferings have been intense.  She is a very estimable lady and an exemplary wife and mother.  Mr. Fitzgerald and his family have the sympathy of the community in this, the hour of their bereavement.
 
 
Friday, 24 Dec 1875:
A fight occurred at Bill Scott’s saloon on Wednesday night between eleven and twelve o’clock between two negroes in which one of them received injuries from which it is believed he cannot recover.  Wallace Fraiser, a colored man, well known in Cairo, and a roustabout on the steamer
St. Joseph, were playing cards for money, when a dispute between them arose but they did not come to blows.  This was in the forenoon.  At night they met in the dancing hall under the saloon, where the quarrel was renewed.  In the fracas Frasier was stabbed in the back, and it is believed the wound will prove fatal.  The negro who did the cutting (we could not learn his name) was arrested yesterday morning about 6 o’clock, by Officer Andy Cain on board the St. Joseph.  He was sent to jail to await the result of Frasier’s wounds.
 
Card of Thanks.

Editor Bulletin—Permit me through the columns of your paper to return my heartfelt and sincere thanks to the Concordia Singing Club, Profs. Robbins and Eisenberg, and to the members of the Delta City and Silver Cornet Bands for music furnished by them voluntarily at the funeral of my late husband, and to my friends who assisted me in my bereavement.
Mrs. C. Wittig
Cairo, Dec. 23, 1875
 
 
Thursday, 30 Dec 1875:
In Johnson County, a man named Peter Davis stabbed Virgil Brock, engineer at Chapman & Hess saw mill at that place, with a huge butcher knife, inflicting a wound from which it was at first thought Brock could not recover. 
Davis was arrested and held in $4,000 bail for his appearance at the next term of the circuit court for trial.  Failing to give bond, he was brought to Cairo and lodged in the county jail for safekeeping.  His trial came off at Vienna last week, the jury returning a verdict of “not guilty.”  The words “not guilty” had scarcely escaped the clerk’s lips when Davis stepped outside the bar, said “Thank you gentlemen,” to the jury, left the courthouse and has not since been seen or heard of.  Davis had learned that the authorities of Shelby County, Indiana, wanted him, there to answer a charge of murder.  He has probably left the country for parts unknown.
 
The many friends in this city of Dr. P. L Williams will read with regret the announcement of his sudden and to his family and friends, unexpected death, which occurred in St. Louis on Thursday morning, 23d, instant.  For more than a year the doctor had been suffering from a disease of a peculiar character, and at the time of his death was under the treatment of the celebrated Dr. Johnson of St. Louis, who considered his recovery certain.  A short time ago he was taken down with an attack of malarial fever and pneumonia, and from which he died as above stated.  In his profession, that of dentist, Dr. Williams had won for himself a reputation second to no other doctor in this part of the country.  He had built up an extensive and lucrative practice in Cairo and vicinity, and a long and successful career seemed to open up before him.  But all was changed in a moment by the relentless hand that sooner or later will be laid on all animate life.  He leaves a wife whose devotion never permitted her to leave his side night or day, during his sickness, and who is now entitled to our deepest sympathy.  His remains were interred in Bethel Cemetery near Belleville, on the 24th inst.
 


Friday, 31 Dec 1875:
BEVERIDGE PARDONS AN ALEXANDER
COUNTY MURDERER.

Governor Beveridge has been severely criticized on more than one occasion for the frequent use he has made of the pardoning power vested in him as the chief magistrate of the State.  The latest exhibition of the executive clemency to which the governor is addicted occurred on Christmas Day.  On that day two murderers were pardoned out of the State penitentiary at Joliet.  One of these was William Butler, colored, of Alexander County, who was sentenced in 1867, to the penitentiary for life for the murder of James Price.  The murder was not committed “in the heat of passion and whisky” as affirmed by the Chicago Tribune.  It was a deliberate, diabolical murder, committed by a man in his sober senses, who had no motive for the deed except that of a sordid, selfish and cruel nature.  At a late hour of the night on which the murder was committed, Price was going toward his home, carrying in his hand a hatchet.  Butler went quietly up behind his victim, wrenched the hatchet from his hand and with a quick, unerring stroke, dealt him the blow which killed him.  Butler did not forget in any trembling apprehension of discovery, the cold-blooded purpose which had moved him to the fearful deed; he rifled his victim’s pockets of all they contained—a watch and fifteen dollars in money, and leaving the bleeding corpse of the murdered man where he had fallen, the murderer went home.

He was arrested, tried and sentenced to the penitentiary for life, the verdict of the people being that the sentence was a just one.

And this is the prisoner whom Governor Beveridge has pardoned.  The people of this city and of this county, which bore all the expenses of the trial and conviction of Butler, sent no petition to the governor for his pardon.  The officers who sided in his arrest and know all the circumstances of the cruel deed, the court, the jury, the lawyers who understood the case, signified no desire for the pardon of Butler.  None of our citizens knew of any purpose on the part of Gov. Beveridge to let Butler loose upon our people, free to seek and find another victim when he wants another watch and a paltry sum of money.  Why should he not seek another victim?  Has he not reason to believe that kind-hearted Gov. Beveridge would pardon him out a second time—give him a second Christmas gift in Joliet like the first?

We protest against this culpable exercise of executive clemency by Governor Beveridge.  If the kindness toward the felons in Joliet, which wells up in his heart and bubbles over in pardons, cannot be controlled, let him endeavor to display it with more discretion.  Better pardon the man who commits murder “in the heat of passion and whisky” than the one who strikes his victim down as did Butler.  The man, who hot-blooded and liquor-crazed, has killed a fellow man, is dangerous to society, but the cool and calculating thief who has dealt a murderous blow to make sure of the watch and the money of his victim, is more dangerous—he is a foe against whom no man can guard.  Gov. Beveridge when he is next impelled to pardon a convict of the stamp of Butler, might indulge in a little serious reflection on this matter without harm to himself or the people.
 
Governor Beveridge has pardoned out of the penitentiary
Butler, the murderer of old man Price.  Now let the Governor pardon all the other murderers, for of them all, Butler was the most cold-blooded and desperate.  Butler killed old man Price for his watch and money, and was sent to the penitentiary for life.
  
The officers of this city and county were no little surprised yesterday on learning that Governor Beveridge had pardoned out of the penitentiary the notorious desperado and murderer
Butler, the slayer of James Price.  It was not known here, or if known at all, only to a very few persons, and the matter was kept very quiet, that efforts were being made to secure the pardon of Butler.  Certainly the officers were not let into the secret, and we doubt very much if there is one of them either city or county that could have induced to lend his influence to secure a pardon for so notorious a villain as this butcher Butler.  The whole thing is a mystery to the people here, and they cannot understand where the influence came from that induced the governor to set Butler at liberty.
 
W. J. Crain, Sr., and W. J. Crain, Jr., better known as “Black Bill” and “Yellow Bill” Crain, members of the Williamson County vendetta, were brought to Cairo yesterday and lodged in the county jail.  The prisoners come to this county on a change of venue, and will in all probability be tried at the coming session of the circuit court.

 


Cairo  Gazette

 11 Jan 1875-22 Dec 1875

 

Monday, 11 Jan 1875:
The negro case of small pox, to which we referred last week, proved fatal.  Refused admission to the hospital, he was dumped into the street near the high school building, where he remained nearly a half day.  It remains to be seen, therefore, whether or not he has scattered the seeds of the disease broadcast throughout the city.  We have heard of two cases since; but as the Board of Health have taken them in and we are moved to believe that its spread will be arrested.  We have heard it intimated that the negro was put off a steamboat.  If this be true, our authorities should hold the guilty parties responsible.
 
A rumor somewhat damaging to the character of Jock Owens and young Peasely, reached Cairo about ten days ago, and received an increased circulation by publication in the Cairo Gazette.  The rumor was to the effect the Jock, Peasely and a negro, being suspected of murder, were hanged to a tree by a
Missouri mob.  Innocent men might be hanged by a mob, but it is very rarely that innocent men commit murder.  Jock, Peasely and the negro committed no murder—the rumor in fact was entirely groundless.  We received it from two or three sources, but not being fully persuaded of its correctness, we gave it as a rumor and for what it was worth.  Jock was in town a few days ago, and gives the whole story, from beginning to end, a convincing contradiction.  He was not hanged, and doesn’t intend to be.
 


Monday, 18 Jan 1875:
Mr. Buster, a resident of the upper part of this county, lost his youngest child last week, under the following circumstances.  Mr. B. being in
Cairo, his wife had occasion to look after outside affairs and while in the stable yard, heard the outcries of her two young children.  Hastening to the house she found the clothing which had covered the infant lying in the cradle, burned to cinders.  Picking up the infant it gave two or three gasps and expired.  It seems that a little two-year-old child, thinking the baby needed warming, gathered a shovel full of glowing coals from the fireplace and dumped them into the cradle.  The result detailed, followed, as a matter of course.
 
A German named Mike Boessler, was killed in this city last Tuesday ___ing by the giving away of a floor at Koehler Bro.’s ice house, on which he was storing ice.  Other parties were on the same floor, but succeeded in making their escape.  Boessler was well advanced in years, and quite destitute, so far as worldly goods were concerned.

 

 

Monday, 25 Jan 1875:
Two Alexander County boys named Harris, were shot and killed at Laconia, Ark., last week, in a fight in which six or eight persons were engaged.  Two other men, besides the Harrises, were so seriously wounded that they died in a few hours.  The Harris boys were sons of Mrs. W. W. Stewart, a resident of Thebes.
 


Monday, 1 Feb 1875:
Death of County Treasurer Martin

It is with feelings of sincere sorrow that we record the death of County Treasurer William Martin.  He died at his home, in this city of pneumonia, Friday morning last, at 15 minutes before seven.  He had been sick thir__ days and even the day before his death his physicians and friends believed that the crisis in his fever had been ___ and that he would recover.  ____ the turn of the night, on Thursday, however his disease took an unmistakable turn, and sinking rapidly, he died as above stated.

Mr. Martin was born in Davies County, Kentucky, on the 6th day of June ___ and came to Alexander County in the year 1845, and has resided here ever since.  He was at the time of his death serving his third term as county treasurer—a position which he filled honestly and to the entire satisfaction of the public.  He had filled many positions of trust, and the man does not live who can say “Billy Martin” ever wronged him out of one _____.  He was in the broadest sense of the term, “an honest man.”

A member of the Order of Odd Fellows and of the Delta City Fire Company, his brethren and fellow members and hosts of our citizens, assisted in last rites of sepulture, and ___ one realized that he had in his __, lost a valued friend and worthy companion.

A widow and five children survive, who thanks to his forethought, are comfortably provided for.  The remains were buried at Villa Ridge on ___ day.

(A marker in Cairo City Cemetery at Villa Ridge reads:  William Martin Died Jan. 29, 1875, Aged 33 Years, 8 Mos.—Darrel Dexter)
 
The universal expressions of regret over the death of county treasurer, Martin, show that he had a strong hold upon the affections and esteem of his fellow citizens.  A better hearted man, one who more earnestly sympathized with the deserving poor, is not numbered in the circle of our acquaintances.
 
The Harris boys, recently killed at
Lacconia, Arkansas, were mercilessly murdered.  Their only offense was that they had testified in a magistrate’s court, to facts that implicated one Hall Buck in the crime of arson.  Both boys were shot down in the courtroom and died the ensuing night.
 
Treasurer Martin whose recent death we notice elsewhere, had been married three times, and was the father of thirteen children, five of whom survive him.  His sons, Carson and Marsh, are “worthy sons of an honest sire”—better, more dutiful and industrious boys cannot be found anywhere.

(There are three marriages recorded in Alexander Co., Ill., for a William Martin.  William H. Martin married Mrs. Margaret Vincent on 9 Dec 1847.  William Martin married Harriett Sheppard on 15 Jan 1850.  William Martin married Matilda Wagoner on 13 Apr 1867.—Darrel Dexter)
 
SUICIDED.
Henry T. Martin Shoots Himself through the Brain.

Our community was not a little startled Wednesday morning, by the announcement that ex-policeman, Henry T. Martin had committed suicide, by shooting himself through the head.

During Tuesday he avowed a purpose to destroy himself; but referred to the matter in such a light and flippant manner, that his avowal commanded but little attention.  While being shaved at Alba’s barber shop he intimated that he did so because he didn’t wish to impose upon Billy the unpleasant job of shaving a dead man; and meeting a number of his friends in the evening he bid them “good bye,” with the remark that he was going away and would never come back again.  About two o’clock Wednesday morning he showed how fearfully honest were all these declarations, by sending a bullet through his brain.  His body was found where it fell, on a chicken coop at the corner of Commercial Avenue and Sixth Street, and from there after the inquest, was removed to the Rough and Ready engine house, where it remained until removed on Thursday for burial.

Martin was a young man, strong and vigorous, having nobody to provide for but himself, and life instead of being a curse to him, should have been a blessing.  He had for a few days previous to his death indulged to a considerable extent in strong drink and to this indulgence may be ascribed most likely his untimely death.
            The only effects found upon the body were photographs of his mother and sister, and the pistol with which he took his life.

He was at the time of his death a member of the Rough and Ready Fire Company, and one of the best firemen in the city.  The body was buried by and at the expense of the company in their cemetery at Villa Ridge.
 
Death of James Fleming.

Mr. James Fleming, a resident of Cairo during the past three years, died of pneumonia, on Saturday, the 23rd instant, a few minutes after 10 o’clock p.m.  He was an upright, and honorable man in all the relations of life, and if his epitaph be written no more fitting words could be employed than “Here lies an honest man.”

To the following deserved tribute to his memory we give place cheerfully:
GONE BEFORE
One more loved form has passed away,

One more tired body gone to rest.
And hands that did life’s duty well,

Are folded o’er an honest breast.
A loving husband, father, friend,

Whose smile may greet us never more,
Yet weeping souls, keep fresh the thought,

He is not dead, but gone before!
His work is done:  no earthly pang

Can rouse him from his wondrous sleep;
Spared all such anguish sorrowing ones,

As you feel now; who weep.
Oh, faithful wife, whose silvery hair,

Rippled a happy brow, of yore;
You yet shall share eternity,

With him, who’s only gone before!
Death (so called) is the birth of life,

To conscious immortality;
The heavenly gateway, where the soul

Enters divine reality.
Just hidden from your sight, his soul

Passed out toward the starry shore,
Of the hereafter, where sweet peace

Will crown your loved one gone before!
Mrs. Jacob Martin
 
The
Milford who died in Dog Tooth Bend a few days ago was not William H. Milford, as many of our citizens supposed, but John Milford, a relative of W. J.’s.  Few men in the country would be more seriously missed than Jeff Milford.

 

 

Monday, 22 Feb 1875:
Bob Gunsher, whose death was reported several days ago, died we are informed from injuries received a few nights previously, at the hands of a couple of negro assassins.  He was knocked down, robbed of boots, and permitted to lie in the street, during one of the coldest nights of the season.

 

 

Monday, 8 Mar 1875:
The facts involved in the killing of the negro woman Alice Gibbs, by Ross, a late resident of
Pulaski County, are already known to a majority of our readers.  Ross, who is a fellow of low instincts, denounced the woman as a “d----d strumpet,” etc., and finally dealt her a blow with his fist.  Alice, who according to the testimony of one of the witnesses held a razor in her hand, then made a slash at Ross, with the evident intention of separating his jugular.  Ross, in return drew his pistol.  The woman ran.  Ross pursued and fired three balls, the last one entering the woman’s heart, and producing death instantly.  Ross is now in the county jail, awaiting the action of the grand jury.
 


Monday, 15 Mar 1875:
Tim Coyle, late of the Villa Ridge Central House, died in this city on Wednesday night, and was buried on Thursday.  We heard it stated that his death was the result of injuries inflicted by a fall.
 
We see by the Murphysboro Era that William Gupton who killed Anthony Eschbach is sentenced to ninety-nine years in the penitentiary.  This is a deserved punishment.  The killing was unprovoked—simply atrocious; and the friends of Eschback should see to it that there is no interposition of executive clemency.  “The man was drunk,” it may be argued.  Admit that he was.  Men who, with their senses about them, make themselves drunk, and then wantonly take the life of a human being, should not be permitted to run at large, that they may at pleasure repeat the offense.

 

 

Monday, 5 Apr 1875:
The drowning of little Johnny McCarthy, last Tuesday, was a sore affliction to the father, who is our city jailer.  The little fellow fell from a barge and although his struggles for life were protracted over an interval of three or four minutes there was no means at hand for his rescue.

 

 

Monday, 10 May 1875:
The drowning of the little negro girl, Saddler, last Tuesday, has something heroic as well as sad about it.  With a sister five, and a brother, three years older than herself, she visited the river for a pail of water.  While dipping up the water the elder sister lost her balance, and fell headlong into the river.  The little brother came promptly and fearlessly to the rescue, and had brought the girl within a few feet of the shore, when the younger sister, a mere child, plunged in to help her brother, and was instantly swept away by the current and drowned.

 

 

Monday, 7 Jun 1875:
The body of a man picked up in the
Ohio near Grand Chain, last Tuesday bore the Paducah marker, a hole in the skull, evidently made by a slung shot.
 
A white man named James H. Morse committed suicide in this city on Friday, by jumping from Capt. Phillips wharf boat into the Ohio River.  He was destitute and desperate, and sought a balm for his woes in death.  A letter addressed by him to “Whoever Shall Find This,” states that he has two brothers living in Cincinnati, Ohio.
 
The body of a little two-year-old girl, in a handsome metallic case, and dressed in nicely embroidered clothing was exhumed last Thursday by a force of laborers working in the flats beyond the Mississippi levee.  Undertaker Carey says that the body was placed in his charge by its parents, who were travelers, about four years ago, with directions to coffin it, and forward as directed by express.  The express company refused to receive it without prepayment of charges, and threw it back on Mr. Carey.  Failing to hear from the parents, after an interval of ten days, he buried it where it was found last Thursday.  The conduct of the parents was heartless in the extreme. 

 


Monday, 26 Jul 1875:
Henry Dinkel died of consumption in this city on Tuesday last, and was buried in the Villa Ridge cemetery on Wednesday by the Cairo Casino and Arab Fire Company, of which organization he was a reputable member.  Dinkle was an old resident of
Cairo, and well thought of by those who knew him.
 
In the loss of their little boy, Robert L., Ex-Judge and Mrs. A. C. Hodges are sorely afflicted.  The little fellow died of a congestive chill, on the 15th inst., aged four years and ten months.  A bright, affectionate little fellow, a source of pride and joy to his parents, his death is deeply mourned, and will be the cause of enduring sorrow.  In a private letter to us, detailing the particulars of the little boy’s death, the old Judge says, “he retained his senses and speech up to the last, calling with every breath upon God for that help which never came.”  Please announce his death, and ask the Bulletin to copy.
 


Monday, 2 Aug 1875:
Capt. George W. Sisney, of
Carbondale, was shot dead at his own door, on Wednesday night last, by a concealed assassin, believed to be connected with the Bulliners of Williamson County.  Three attempts originating in the same quarter had been made upon the Captain’s life, previous to Wednesday one of which came near proving fatal.  It reflects shame and disgrace upon the law-abiding citizens of Williamson County—upon the authorities of the State of Illinois, the Bulliner-Russell factions that created so much consternation and bloodshed in Williamson and Jackson counties, are not exterminated.  Every villain connected with either gang has killed his man, yet none of them have been held to answer.  If any portion of the South were given to such scenes of bloodshed, quiet would be enforced by federal bayonets.  But, transpiring in the loyal State of Illinois the damnable work excites neither federal nor State attention, much less interference.

 

 

Monday, 9 Aug 1875:
The assassination of about fifteen and the hanging of about ten Williamson County white men has created an absolute reign of terror in Williamson and adjoining counties; but our Republican governor remains serene, sleeping as quietly as passion in the breast of infancy.  But the Bulletin has suggested a plan for waking up the narcoticized functionary that should without delay or parley be adopted.  Let somebody beguile a negro into the limits of Williamson and hang him to a “sour apple tree.”  In less than a week thereafter the power of the State will be invoked to suppress the disorder in Williamson County—a federal gunboat will be sent up Big Muddy, the army would be called in from the frontier and massed in Marion, if a Russell or Bullinger is left in the county, it will be because powder and ball, a sword and halter can’t kill him.  A negro savior and him crucified is the great want now of Williamson County.

 

 

Monday, 16 Aug 1875:
A colored woman named Ella Watkins hired a horse of Perry Powers about ten days ago, avowing a purpose to visit some friends living eight or ten miles out in the country.  One day last week the body of a negro woman was caught in the
Ohio, and being brought to shore was recognized as the body of the aforesaid Ella Watkins.  It is not positively known how the woman came to her death; but it is believed that in attempting to cross a slough between this city and Cache River, both horse and woman got beyond their depth, and were drowned.


A negro girl fell from the door of a building situated in Lake Edwards one day last week and was drowned.

 

 

Monday, 23 Aug 1875:
KU-KLUXISM IN
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS.
A Number of Masked Villains Brought to Grief.
The Law-Abiding People Aroused to Action.

Franklin County is all ablaze with excitement, rising superior in that regard to bloody Williamson.

While, for a number of years, there have been indications of lawlessness in Franklin, as in Williamson and Jackson counties, it did not assume such form as to excite much attention beyond mere local limits.  Very recently, however, the outrages have multiplied so rapidly that the authorities felt called upon to take vigorous and decisive action.  It was soon discovered that the authorities would have to deal with an organized gang, and the only effective remedy for the growing evil was powder and ball.

Among others who had incurred the displeasure of the gang, was county commissioner Maddox, who resides near Benton.  A notched hickory withe, left at this door, was interpreted to mean that on Monday night last, unless he sooner left the county, he would be taken out and whipped.  Being a man of nerve, he resolved to stay at home and fight.  Informing the sheriff of the affair, that officer promptly summoned a posse of twenty men, and repairing to the home of Mr. Maddox, he with his party remained concealed until 2 o’clock in the morning, when the gang of cut throats, numbering fourteen, disguised in white gowns and black head gear, made their appearance all of them mounted and armed.  The sheriff being a man of courage emerged from his concealment and commanded a “halt.”  The reply was the report of several pistols.  This assault drew out the fire of the sheriff’s posse.  One man, named Duckworth, was brought down and the balance put spurs to their horses and retreated.  A dead horse and fragments of bloody garments were found in the vicinity, showing that the posse’s fire, although it killed nobody outright, was terribly effective.

Duckworth was secured and being persuaded that his wounds were mortal, disclosed the names of the parties with whom he was acting, and of about forty others who belonged thereto, but were not present.  He further confessed that the organization, as an entirety numbered over three hundred men.

Thus apprised of the danger that environed them, and of the magnitude of the work involved in the arrest and punishment of so large a number of desperate men, the law-abiding citizens of the county, proceeded at once to the organization of a strong military force, which, armed by the State, is not on duty.

It is believed that the organization among the Franklin County scoundrels, has any direct connection with the Russel-Bulliner factions, but the opinion is quite generally entertained that its organization was suggested by the many unpunished crimes committed by those factions, and the utter inability of the authorities to stay the carnival of crime, or to arrest its authors.

And now that the raid upon the villains who have created so much terror in Williamson, Jackson and Franklin counties, has been commenced—now that fearless and determined men have adopted proper means to bring the bloody monsters to justice, let the work go sly on until peace has been conquered—until every participator in the lawless deeds that have brought such disgrace upon Illinois, is made to dangle at the end of a halter, or to live out the balance of his cursed life within the walls of our penitentiary.  The capture of Duckworth has opened the way to such a result, and although those who labor to bring it about will place their lives in constant peril, there must be no hesitation.  Brave men are in the lead, and no order-loving courageous citizen will refuse to follow.


Died in this city, on the 17th inst., of typhoid dysentery, Mr. Joseph Kennall, brother-in-law of Dr. R. S. Brigham. The deceased was a quiet, and industrious citizen, respected in life and lamented in death. He leaves a family.

 

 

Monday, 13 Sep 1875:
“PASSED ON.”
Death of Dr. Sydney S. Condon, of
Union County

Dr. S. S. Condon, a popular citizen of Union County, and an old pioneer of southern Illinois, has entered the realties of another life.  On the 2nd of September, he left his home on professional duty, and returning, fell prostrate, when only some thirty-five steps from the house he had left.  About ten hours later his lifeless body was found and borne to the home of his unhappy family, who looked with speechless agony upon the remains (disfigured by animals) of a loving husband and father.  The coroner’s verdict was “Death from congestion of the heart.”  That he, a kind-hearted, generous man, should have met with such a fate is inexpressibly sad.  Had they known his condition, scores of willing friends would gladly have comforted and assisted one who, had so often given a helping hand to them.

Hale, active, impulsive, charitable, full of humor and life, he was entertaining to the old and peculiarly companionable to the young people.  He would join them in a song, show them how he used to dance, tell them a story, and sometimes give them advice, pointed with a bite of wholesome sarcasm, rarely forgotten.  I speak from the pleasant experience of years ago, when I was an occasional visitor in his hospitable home.  Within the last year I have seen the young people gather round him with the same interest that I felt then; and I wondered that while time bent the form of my old friend, and made his hair so silvery white, that it left his mental powers so fresh.

Dr. Sydney S. Condon was born at Nashville, Tenn., April 15th, 1811; and educated at Princeton College, of Cincinnati, Ohio.  Practiced three years in Missouri before he graduated under a diploma of ability from Nashville.  In 1835, he moved to Jonesboro, where (and in the surrounding country) he enjoyed a large practice for thirty years.  In 1865 he moved to Anna, in which place he resided up to the time of his death—a useful and honored citizen.  He had a high appreciation of the arts, quite a taste for geology, and possessed some fine specimens in that line, and an impromptu speech from him was invariably followed with applause.  On September 4th, 1875, his funeral was preached at the Presbyterian church by Rev. W. Minton, and his body was attended by a large number of warm friends, and buried with Masonic honors, in Jonesboro.  To his bereaved family, and cultivated and sorrowing wife, I offer my sincere sympathy and hope they may realize that ‘though the casket (the body) be lost to me, the jewel—the soul, is not lost, but LIVES.
MRS. JACOB MARTIN,
Cairo, Ills., September 15, 1875

 

PENITENTIARY ATROCITIES
Prisoners Subjected to Barbarous Punishment.
The Horrors of the Inquisition Surpassed.
Shocking, Damning Disclosures.

            An ex-convict of the Illinois penitentiary, named John C. McCarthy, has furnished the St. Louis Republican “a tale of horror,” that will if its truth be established, effectually damn the wardens, superintendent and keepers of the Illinois penitentiary, in the estimation of every civilized man in whose bosom remains a single spark of humanity.

            The story carries upon its face the seeming of truth.  The Governor may “pooh! Pooh!” it as the vengeful outgiving of a released convict; but unless it is disproved, the people will accept it as true.  No sneering can break its force—it can only be overcome by proof, and unless that proof is speedily produced the wretches who are guilty of the barbarities charged, will be execrated as monsters, damned as demons and abhorred as fiends.

            McCarthy was sent to the penitentiary from Alexander County.  A larceny was proved against him and his term of imprisonment was fixed at two years.  Six months of this time was “rebated” for good conduct, and at the end of eighteen months he was set at liberty.

            McCarthy cognizant of the barbarities of which Walter Williams was the victim.  His account of the affairs that Williams had been showered by Sleeper, the assistant deputy warden, until he was insensible.  Just at that time, Hall, the deputy warden came in and told the helpless prisoner to dress himself.  He was not able to do so, and Hall ordered them to douse him again.  They did so and that was the last of him.

            The first case mentioned by McCarty as coming under his notice occurred about three months before that of Williams, whilst Matthew was deputy warden and Hall assistant deputy.  A namesake of the relater, James F. McCarty, who belonged in Indianapolis, was sentenced to Joliet for five years for some offense committed in Chicago.  He was unable to do the task allotted him in the prison, and was ordered to the “bath.” About 200 pounds of ice was broken up and put into the tub and it was the filled with water and stirred until it was as cols as the ice could make it.  McCarthy was then stripped and put into it by four colored men, and then entirely submerged for one minute.  They then lifted him out and scarcely gave him time to breathe when they plunged him in again for a minute and a half.  On lifting him out the second time he instantly fell dead.

            They were greatly dismayed at this and wrapping the body in a blanket, put it out at a window and carried it secretly to the hospital so that no one should know that the deceased had been under punishment.  John C. McCarty who tells the story had no means of knowing what, if anything, was ever done about it.

            The next case of cruelty he related was practiced on William Jefferson, a black man who took sick and as unable to do duty.  He was put into the sick cell on March 30 and next morning was taken to the hospital for medical examination and the doctor sent him back to the sick cell.  On his way there, under the charge of a guard, he became so weak that he could scarcely walk, and the guard ordered him to “move on.”

            He replied that he was too sick to go any faster, and thereupon the guard struck him over the head with a club and knocked him down.  He was taken into the hospital in a state of insensibility and died inside of fifteen minutes.  An examination was had, and the report was made that he died of disease of the heart.

            A case of extreme barbarity was that of Charles Davis, a small delicate man, weighing not over 112 or 115 pounds, with hands not larger than those of a child.  He was put at hard labor, entirely disproportioned to his capacity, and not being able to perform it, was put into “the hole” three nights in succession.  Those who are put into the hole have neither supper nor breakfast dinner being their sole meal during the 24 hours.  Davis rendered still less able to do the work assigned from this treatment, and during the morning after his night in the hole, became completely exhausted.  H begged hard to be assigned work that he could do and expressed his willingness to do everything he could, but declared the impossibility of his performing the task assigned him.  They paid no heed to his entreaties, but put him in the hole again, strapped a gunny bag in the manner of a knapsack to his shoulders, with 22 fire brick in it and strung his arms up to a ring bolt and kept him in that torturing position for six hours.  They then let him down, took out some of the bricks and put in a chunk of iron weighing forty pounds, and strung him up for four hours longer.  The writhing of the poor victim under the prolonged torture caused the straps to cut through his coat, vest and shirt and into his flesh, until he was all dripping with blood.

            He was found in that condition at the end of four hours, during which time he had been left entirely alone. They then cut him down in a hurry and took him to the hospital.  The doctor examined him and said he could not live, but after lying in the hospital three months he was able to walk about feebly and do little chores, but was never able to labor again, and probably never will.

            McCarty says that notwithstanding the warden reported three or four months ago that men were not ironed there any more, ironing men were of constant occurrence there, although the warden knew nothing about it.  He thinks that neither the warden nor the commissioner knows anything more about what goes on in the prison than any ordinary outsiders.  If any, however, is suspected of desiring to make a complaint he is deprived of the opportunity and roughly treated besides.  He regards the examination made by the commissioners as a farce.  There is a nice dinner, plenty of champagne and a dozen or so convicts brought in to be questioned.  The ones who can tell the best story of the management are sure to be reported to the officers for exemplary conduct and pardoned out.

            Can such things be and not bring upon us the vengeance of an angered God?

 

 

Monday, 20 Dec 1875:
The death of Mrs. Joseph __dge, whose funeral took place last Sunday, is sorely lamented by her relative and many friends.  Mrs. __dge has been in critical condition for the past two years or more, having lost the use of her left side entirely by paralysis.  At the time of her death she was about 72 years of age.  We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the bereaved family.
 
On Wednesday morning last a negro man named William Hurst repaired to his usual labor, feeling unwell, went home, and to bed.  Meanwhile his wife had gone out washing and she remained all day.  Returning in the evening and seeing
Hurst in the bed, she supposed him to be sleeping, and taking hold of him to wake him up, found to her horror that he was dead and cold and stiff.  He had died sometime during the day or heart disease.
 


Monday, 22 Dec 1875:
DEATH OF
MRS. DR. J. J. GORDON.

Died in this city on the 13th day of the present month, Mrs. Isadore Gordon, wife of Dr. J. J. Gordon, in the 38th year of her age.

Her physical sufferings were severe, but did not distract her mind from that thoughtful care for husband and children that had characterized her daily life.  To each she gave her dying blessing, with her clearest and tenderest instructions as to the future.

In the transition of Mrs. Gordon from the scenes of earth to the world of spirits we have lost another one of our oldest citizens, than whom not one was better loved or more worthily.  Impulsive, generous and kind, her friends were many and devoted.  Unassuming in her charities, unpretending in all her womanly ministrations to the needs of others, many are left who will miss her sore and long.  A devout Catholic, she realized here, as she realizes now, the beauties of her chosen religion.  In the family circle as in her relations to society, she was governed by her convictions of duty, and as surely as there is a world of rewards and punishments, that surely is she now realizing, more than earth could afford recompense for duty well and conscientiously performed.  The rites of sepulture were performed on Sunday the 14th instant, and the funeral cortege, one of the largest and most imposing ever seen in Cairo, showed alike how well beloved she was of our people, and how deeply our community sympathized with the stricken family.  Words in this case are but weak messengers of relief; but we can send no other.  Heartily, then, we join the many friends and acquaintances of the deceased in their expression of condolence, and to the sorrowing husband and children we would say be not disconsolate; “She has but gone before Earth has one angel less; Heaven has one more.”

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