DeKalb County, Illinois - Chapter 6: The Banditti, 1868

About the confines of advancing civilization upon this continent, there has always hovered, like scouts before the march of an invading army, a swarm of bold, enterprising, adventurous criminals. The broad, untrodden prairies, the trackless forests, the rivers, unbroken by the keels of commeree, furnished admirable refuge for those whose crimes had driven them from the companionship of the honest and the law-abiding ; and, hovering there where courts and civil processes could furnish but a thin veil of protection for life or property, the temptation to prey upon the unprotected sons of toil, rather than to gain a livelihood by the slow process of peaceful industry, has proved too strong to be resisted. Some have sought these unpeopled western wilds for the express purpose of theft and robbery, some because they dare not live within reach of efficient laws, and some who came with honest intentions, have been tempted into crime by the prevalent immunity from punishment. Everywhere in newly-settled lands the proportion of the dishonest and criminal has been greater than in the older and better regulated communities. This was particularly the case in the earlier settlement of the prairies of DeKalb County. A strong and well constructed net-work of organized crime at that time stretched over this whole seetion of country, and few were fortunate enough to preserve all their property from being swept up in its meshes. A good horse and his equipments was the most easily captured, and most readily concealed - consequently the most coveted and dangerous property in the country. No possessor of a fleet and famous horse dared leave him for a single night, unless secured in a strong, double-locked stable, guarded by faithful dogs, and oftentimes by the owner himself, who regularly slept in his stable. During the first four years of the settlement of the country, a large portion of the population were obliged to keep an armed watchman every night, in order to secure any sense of safety to their valuable horses. Many an instance will old settlers relate of thieves detected by these watchmen, while engaged in breaking the stable locks, and fired upon, with more or less damage to the intruder. They were the more cautious, from the fact that a fleet horse once gone was gone forever. So skillfully were the plans of the thieves concocted, so much of energy and ingenuity was employed in rapidly forcing the stolen steeds at once to a great distance, so large the number of rascals who were connected, that pursuit and capture was difficult - even dangerous - and always unsuccessful.

Brodie's Grove, near what is now the village of Dement, and near the west line of the present township of Malta, was a famous rendezvous and station-house of this gang of banditti. When Mr. Benjamin Worden lived there in 1840, he had a fine pair of horses, and much against his will felt forced to adopt the prevalent custom of sleeping in the barn with them to guard them. Old Brodie discovered that he made this a practice, and innocently asked him Avhy. He answered promptly and significantly, that there were many thieves about, and he feared he should have them stolen. The old man, who had taken a fancy to Ben., answered that he need not fear. His horses should not bo stolen. He would see to that, and warrant him that they should not be lost. The old man had the reputation of being one of the chiefs of the gang; and Worden, confident of his sincerity, ever afterwards considered them safe, as if guarded with bars of steel. About that time Worden had made some significant discoveries. Near the little grove was a large, circular depression of the prairie, called a sink-hole. In its center was a strong stake driven, and every indication about it that in that sheltered, obscure spot horses had been frequently tethered and fed. The Brodies were frequently coming and going, and every time upon a new horse, usually a very fine animal. What could all this mean, but systematic horse thieving ?

But horses were not the only prey for these banditti. The circulation of counterfeit money was a large and profitable branch of business, and there were dark and ominous hints in circulation of yet fouler crimes perpetrated ; pedlars had mysteriously disappeared in that section of the country. They had been traced to the vicinity of this grove, but never traced beyond it. When the Brodies finally fled the country, there were found among their effects a suspiciously large number of travelers' trunks, pedlars' cases, and similar property, whose possession was most easily accounted for on the supposition that the murder of innocent travelers, pedlars, and other wayfarers, was not too heinous a crime for them to commit, if the temptation offered. Walking over the prairie one day in search of his cattle, Worden suddenly found the ground sinking beneath his feet, and he was precipitated into a large, square cavity, which had been carefully excavated, then covered with planks and soil, and carefully turfed over with growing grass. The soil taken out had been carefully removed, so that no traces of the excavation could be seen on the surface, and no suspicion of its existence there would be excited. Although no property was then in the cavern, yet the purpose for which it was designed was evident, and its proximity to the residence of the suspected Brodies indicated the origin and ownership of this place of concealment. Pages might be filled with stories told by the early settlers of circumstances which indicated plainly that Brodie's isolated Grove was one of the chief rendezvous of some of the most daring and skillful of those land pirates who at that early period roved over these billowy prairies, as pirates roam the seas.

Kishwaukie timber. David Driscoll was the first settler there, and for many years it was known as Driscoll's Grove. David had married a connection of the Brodies, and the families naturally became intimately associated. A year after David had settled there, his father, old John Driscoll, moved out with his family, and William Driscoll, his brother, with a family of six or seven children, bought David's claim, the father and David settling anew a few miles farther west, David on the banks of the Killbuck, and the father in what is now called Pennsylvania settlement, a few miles farther north.

There is much reason to believe, and little reason to doubt, that the houses of David and John Driscoll were other stationhouses on the route of this horse-thieving fraternity ; and it is not impossible that even after William Driscoll's purchase there, the Driscoll grove still furnished them shelter and refreshment. From thence their usual course was across to Gleason's at Genoa, or to Henpeck, now Hampshire, in Kane County, and thence north to McHenry County, where some men, now prominent as politicians and office-holders, were supposed to be connected with the gang. From thence it was not difficult to pass the stolen horses along to the pineries of Wisconsin, the mines at Galena, or to find a market for them at some of the young cities on the lake shore. In Ogle County on the west, and Wrinnebago on the northwest, the banditti were more numerous. There theft, counterfeiting, and the like crimes, constituted but a small part of the sworn duties of the gang. They were required to control elections, to secure the election of justices from among their friends, and in case of arrest, to furnish perjured testimony to secure their discharge. In the spring of 1841 seven of the gang had been arrested and confined in the new jail at Oregon. The court had assembled for their trial in the new Court House, just completed, when, on the night before the trial, the rogues assembled, and burned both buildings to the ground. But the prisoners did not escape. Their trial was proceeded with, and the evidence was found complete and conclusive. But one of the confederates had secured a place upon the jury. He would consent to no verdict of guilt. Then a novel method of securing a conviction was adopted. The eleven honest jurors seized the refractory twelfth, and threatened to lynch him in the jury room unless he gave his assent to the verdict of guilty. The rascal gave up his opposition, the verdict of guilty was received, and the three criminals Avere sentenced to imprisonment for a year. They all, however, broke out of jail and escaped.

Such outrages as these naturally aroused a strong and bitter opposition among the honest people of the land. They would be more or less than men who should submit tamely to them. Neither life nor property being protected by the laws, some additional, more stringent, if less merciful, measures must be adopted. The settlers met by universal consent, and organized a band of lynchers. The Ogle County Lynching Club was the title of the organization, although its membership extended over Winnebago and Lee Counties as well. In the spring and early summer of 1841, there were held numerous meetings of these Regulators, or Lynching Clubs, and their armed bands, mounted or on foot, traversed the country, delivering warnings and threatenings to those whom they suspected of being confederated in the gangs of banditti. " You are given twenty or thirty days to leave the country, and if found here after that time you will be lynched," was the brief and threatening message which condemned the suspected party, without a trial, to banishment, at whatever sacrifice of his property, and at whatever sudden sundering of the ties which bound him to his home. It was not strange that such messages provoked strong, indignant opposition. Crime always finds or imagines some justification for its evil deeds, and at least is apt to retort that its acts are no worse, only more bold, than those of its pursuers. And it was true in this case, that although the original organization of the Lynching Club was supported by many men of undoubted probity and worth, although the staid Puritan, the upright justice, the honest lawyer, the clergyman even, were on its rolls of membership, yet there were also men of the baser sort, - men who used the organization for the purpose of wreaking vengeance on their personal enemies - men who were capable of manufacturing false statements to secure the destruction of their foes ; yes ! there were even horse-thieves themselves among the most active and prominent of those who were lynching others for the same nefarious practice.

The Lynching Clubs duly organized, they met by mutual agreement, and selected John Long, of Stillman's Run, the proprietor of a fine saw-mill just erected there, as captain of the combined companies. Soon after, in the performance of his duties, he headed a detachment of the lynchers, who seized one Daggett, -who was residing near what is now Greenough's Ford in the town of Franklin, and, tying him up, gave him a severe flogging, at the same time ordering him to leave the country. Not long after these events, the mill of Mr. Long was set on fire and destroyed ; and although no direct evidence was obtained of Daggett's connection with the deed, yet circumstances pointed strongly to him as the perpetrator of the crime. About the same time one Lyman Powell was seized upon the road between Driscoll's and the Killbuck. lie seems to have been really a harmless, inoffensive man, lame, and destitute of any settled occupation. But he was an associate of the suspected Driscolls, worked at threshing and other odd jobs for them and others. The Lynching Company questioned him closely, to draw from him some evidence of the criminality of himself or his associates, but not succeeding to their liking, they beat him cruelly with hickory withes, and taking from him the horse he rode, they turned him adrift. He afterwards went to the place where he had bought his horse, and furnishing satisfactory proof that it was honestly obtained, it was returned to him. About the same time a threatening letter was sent to Long, defying the society to combat, and threatening personal violence. Mr. Long, being intimidated by these acts, called his band together and resigned his office, and Mr. John Campbell, of White Rock Grove, in Ogle County, was chosen in his stead. Mr. Campbell was a very exemplary man, a good Christian, a member of the Baptist Church, a father and a grandfather.

In June of this year, Judge Ford, afterwards Governor of the State, and its historian, was holding court in Sycamore, when news came down that an armed body of men, magnified by people's fears to a large army, was marching through the western portion of the County, threatening acts of violence. The Judge, considering such proceedings to be contrary to the peace and dignity of the State, resolved to send a formal embassy to inquire what were their objects and intentions. Frederick Love, the Probate Judge, the District Attorney, Farewell, of Ottawa, the Sheriff of the County, Morris Walrod, and William A. Miller, a well-known citizen, were selected as the embassy, and started out on the Oregon State Road to search for the invading army. A mile or two beyond Driscoll's Grove it was found encamped for rest and refreshment. It was discovered to be the Ivnchers, to the number of one hundred and fifty, or thereabouts, headed by Captain Campbell. After a long and friendly conversation, Captain Campbell, without hesitation, displayed the constitution of the club for their inspection. It required its members to scour the country, investigate the character of suspected persons, warn them, if probably guilty, to leave the country, and lynch them if they refused. Campbell explained that they did not desire to interfere with the courts, but to aid and assist them in the enforcement of justice in cases which they were unable to reach. The commission had a friendly visit, and returning, made a very favorable report to the Judge, who seemed indisposed to make any opposition to their proceedings, but rather to favor them than otherwise. It was, perhaps, upon this identical scouting excursion that Campbell, as chief of the club, visited the Driscolls, one and all, and warned them that unless they left the country within twenty days they would be lynched. To David Driscoll he said : " If after that time you are found east of the Mississippi river, we will brand your cheeks with R. S., and crop your ears, so that none shall fail to know your character as a rogue and a scoundrel wherever you may be seen." Is it strange that all the tiger passions in the human heart should be roused by words like these ?

There was a gathering of some of the gang soon after. The Brodies, the Driscolls, the Bridges, the Barrets, were all there ; stern, fearless, determined outlaws, exasperated to madness by the threats which had been served upon them, indignant as more honest men would have been at the stern summons to abandon their homes and firesides to their enemies, and fly like hounds before them.

Various modes of resistance were talked of. It was proposed to gather together at Driscoll's grove, fortify themselves there, and defend their position with their lives. Some counseled a compliance with the order, and an abandonment of their homes. But the most feasible plan they could imagine was one that best suited their crafty and revengeful natures. It had been tried in Iowa, and worked successfully there. William Driscoll had been in Iowa the previous winter, and he had told the story. It was simple, and easily executed. It was merely to shoot the captain of the Regulators. Long had been frightened into resigning by merely burning his mill. Let his successor be shot, and no person would dare to risk his life as its captain ; so the organization would necessarily become extinct. This course was resolved upon, the agents in the tragedy were selected, and the meeting dispersed.

There are many reasons for supposing he was not. It was generally thought by those who knew him best that he was not connected with any of the criminal acts of his father and brothers. Those who had known him from infancy asserted that he was an exception in the family. The family, even while residing in Ohio, were noted as criminals. The father had served his five years in the penitentiary, and some of the sons, perhaps, deserved the same punishment. But William was known as a marked exception. He was a man of noble bearing - generous, hospitable, industrious - possessor of a large property, which he was known to have honestly acquired, one of the leading farmers of the County. No one could point to any crime that he was guilty of, or even seriously suspected of. His chief sin was that he was one of the Driscolls, and he suffered the fate of poor dog Tray for the same reason - he was found in bad company.

On the Sunday morning following this meeting, the old man Driscoll was seen about the premises of Campbell. He walked around the grounds, passed up to a clump of bushes, closely observed the location, and soon went away. He might that night have easily gone home, but he did not. lie stayed at a neighbor's without any apparent reason, and slept there. Was it because he knew that a foul crime was about to be committed, and he wanted to prove an alibi? It was so supposed. That evening just at dusk, Captain Campbell, who had returned from attending Church at Rockford, was passing from his dwelling to his stable, when he was accosted by two men who inquired the road to Oregon. His wife heard him call out "Driscoll," and immediately after there was the report of a gun, and as she rushed toward him he fell lifeless in her arms, shot through the heart. The two men immediately and deliberately walked off* in the direction of Driscoll's Grove. The brave son of Campbell - a lad of thirteen years - seized his father's gun, rushed toward the retreating murderers and snapped it at them three times, but the effort to avenge the murder was unavailing : the gun did not go off. The murderers disappeared in the distance, and the grief-stricken family was left alone with the lifeless corpse of its honored head.

It will be readily understood that this shocking murder caused a prodigious excitement throughout the whole country. Swift couriers roused the entire region with the startling intelligence, and summoned all the clans to meet at once and devise means to secure and punish the murderers of their chief. Detachments were sent out with the morning's light to scour the country in search for the guilty pair, but the pursuit was unsuccessful. David and Taylor Driscoll were understood to he the two who had committed the crime, but they could nowhere be discovered. The scouts in their search discovered a spot upon the prairie, a. half-mile from the scene of the murder, where three horses had been held while they closely cropped the herbage that grew there, and there was some reason to suppose that a wretch named Bridge, who has never since been seen in this section of country, was the man who held, ready for instant use, the horses of his companions, while they committed the murder. None of these men could be found; but the old man Driscoll was taken at his house by one party, and, in spite of his protestations of innocence and ignorance of the Avhole matter, and of the proof he presented of his absence from the scene at the time of its perpetration, he was carried off, his house set on fire and burned to the ground. The house of David Driscoll was also burned and his family left shelterless upon the open prairie.

Toward evening a party reached Driscoll's Grove, and setting their guards about it to prevent any escape, they went up to William Driscoll's cabin and took him and his young brother, Pierce, into custody. William had been the first to tell, the story of the murder to the settlers at the grove. lie had been in Sycamore on that day, and while there Mr. Hamlin, the postmaster, had called him into his office and read to him the startling news, which the Postmaster at Oregon City had written on his package of letters for Chicago, that, passing through all the offices on the route it might speedily spread the news far and wide. William seemed surprised and saddened by the intelligence : it boded no good to him. He had perhaps expected to be taken and tried, for he went quietly with his captors, making no objee- tion or resistance. Conscious of his own innocence, he said he felt sure of acquittal. They told him that they merely wanted him to go before Mrs. Campbell, at White Rock, that she might see if he was the man who had killed her husband. Toward evening they arrived at the house where the corpse of the murdered chief of the lynchers was still lying, and where the wailing widow still mourned her sudden and awful bereavement. The two Driscolls were brought to her view, and without any hesitation she said that neither of them was present at the murder. The son who had followed and tried to shoot the assassins, was equally confident that neither of the prisoners were of the guilty pair. But the party of excited men who had gathered at the scene of the assassination were eager to avenge the death of their leader, and cried aloud for victims. Those whom they had captured were of the family of the murderers.

The country was ringing with the cry that the Driscolls had done the murder, and these were Driscolls. The clans would meet there on the morrow, and these men should be kept and put at their disposal. So saying they placed them for the night in the upper chamber of the Campbell house, and a guard was set round to prevent their escape. It was not a vigilant guard, and as the night wore on the sleepless captives talked of attempting an escape. " They are determined to kill us to-morrow," said Pierce - "I can see it in their looks and manner."

And after a long whispering discussion of the chances, the stern determination of the elder brother prevailed, and they concluded to remain. With the dawn of the morning a large gathering of the lynchers had collected from the country around. Many of the most respectable citizens of that section of country, such as the Cheneys, of White Rock, who had hitherto looked with some disfavor upon the summary proceedings of the lynchers, now gave up their opposition and freely imbibed, they soon became like a band of raving enrolled themselves as its members, and became the sternest and most sanguinary of the band. At an early hour the clans from the remoter settlements came in. There was a company from Payne's Point, led by Wellington ; from the Pennsylvania settlement, led by Dr. Hubbard ; from Oregon City, led by a Methodist clergyman, by the name of Crist, and a company from Daysville, a flourishing little town, that has since gone to decay, which Avas commanded by one Capt. Austin.

White Rock Grove, a small belt of timber not far from the larger and better known Washington Grove, in Ogle County, had been selected as the place of rendezvous for the lynchers, and thither the band, with their prisoners, wended their way. The three Driscolls were carried in one wagon, with ropes about their necks. It had become evident to the captives that their trial was to be n mere farce, and that their fate was already sealed. Overwhelmed by the horrors of their situation, they sat stupid and dazed.

But meantime the friends of William Driscoll had not been entirely idle. At the moment of his arrest a messenger was dispatched to Sycamore to procure the attendance at the trial of some who knew of his innocence, and as they arrived upon the ground where two hundred of the infuriated lynchers were raging around their doomed victims, a couple of wagons were driven up containing a few of his defenders. Among these were J. R. Hamlin, Timothy Wells, and Frank Spencer, of Sycamore, and Benjamin Worden and Solomon Wells, of Driscoll's Grove. The lynching club of llockford had not yet arrived, and an hour was spent in waiting for their coming. Near the place of the mock trial was a distillery, and during the delay a barrel of whisky was rolled out from it, its head removed, and the thirsty crowd regaled themselves with its fiery contents. Maddened by a sense of indignation at the outrages of the banditti whom they were organized to oppose, infuriated by the brutal murder of their own honored chief, and driven to frenzy by the fiery fluid which they

The little band of those who knew William, and believed in his innocence, endeavored to encourage him to hope for an acquittal. But "no," said he, "they will kill me, but they will kill an innocent man."

The club from Rockford soon arrived. It was led by Jason Marsh, a well known citizen of that place, by Mr. Robertson, the postmaster of the town, and by Charles Lattimer, a young lawyer, who was subsequently killed in a street fig-lit in Wisconsin.

Upon their arrival a circle was formed, and a lawyer named Leland, who has since occupied the bench in Illinois, as a Judge of the Circuit Court, was chosen as the presiding officer. Seating himself upon the ground at the foot of a tree, he had the old man Driscoll brought into the ring and arraigned before him.

It was a natural and pertinent question, but it rather con" fused the lynchers. There was some hesitation among them, but at last one and another charged him with certain minor offences.

The main charge was a general cry that he was one of the horse-thieving fraternity, and that they were afraid of their lives if he should be released.

The old man stoutly denied most of the charges, but he admitted that he had stolen a yoke of cattle in Ohio, and one who "was present says that he also admitted the theft of fifty horses in Ohio, without detection, but that he was caught in stealing the fifty-first, and served five years in the penitentiary, at Columbus, for it. "When I came out," said he "I resolved to lead an honest life. I moved away to this county, and I have since kept my pledge."

The old man was taken out of the ring, and William Driscoll was taken in. lie was a large, noble-looking man, and if the party had not been frenzied with rage and liquor, would have excited some respect. Accusations against him were called for. Few could charge any crime whatever ; but a circumstance that excited suspicion, and that had been much talked about, was mentioned. It was, that he must have been in the secret of the murder of Campbell, because he first reported it at Driscoll's Grove and in that section of country. We have already seen that he got the information about it from Mr. Hamlin, the postmaster at Hamlin, who had come especially to explain this suspicious circumstance, now tried to get a hearing. He asked to be permitted to say a word or two, but was met with a storm of hisses, and shouts of " no, not a word."

Spencer and Wells, who had made some defense of the accused, and got excited in the discussion, had already been seized and placed under guard. A move was made to take Hamlin also, but Leland cried out that he had a right to be heard, and he was permitted to make his statement. Driscoll also talked a little. He said he had lived honestly and done no injustice to any one, unless it was that in a certain trade on one occasion, he had afterward thought he did not do quite right. Nothing was of any avail. The crowd cried " Shoot him, shoot him," and he was led out of the ring.

There was a motion, then, to give them an hour to prepare for death, and to give them the benefit of clergy, which, as they construed it, was to furnish a clergyman to talk and pray with them. Crist, the preacher, Captain of the band from Oregon City, went to the open whisky barrel, drank a dipper full of its fiery contents, and then knelt down and prayed, long and noisily. William Driscoll joined him audibly, but the old man took no notice of what was transpiring.

Hamlin, meanwhile, moved around among the excited crowd endeavoring to secure a postponement of the execution, or, if possible, a commutation of the sentence to banishment beyond the Mississippi, within twenty-four hours.

Lcland, the presiding officer, favored the project, and while unwilling to do much himself, urged Hamlin to keep up the excitement in favor of mercy. Phelps, clerk of the Ogle County Court, favored it. McFarland was also active in support of this movement, and they finally got the party called together ao;ain, and moved for an extension of the time, but the majority, led by the Cheneys, Marsh and others, were bitterly opposed to it, and fairly hooted it down. The time had now expired, and the gray-haired old man was brought out, blindfolded, and told to kneel upon the grass. The lynchers drew up in a long line, with guns in their hands. A number, unwilling to take part in the execution, stood round in the rear, and their guns wrere leaning against the rees. Marsh shouted that all must join in, and he movd thnf all the guns left standing there be whipped up against the trees. Upon this the guns were all taken, and the men fell into line. A Justice from White Rock was marshall and gave the order to fire. The fatal one, two, three was called, and at the word three an hundred guns were discharged, and the lifeless body of the old man fell over like a bag of wheat.

Then William Driscoll was led out by the side of the bloody body of his father, and he, too, shared the same fate. Not a muscle moved in either of them : so many well-aimed bullets pierced them, that but for the bandages that covered their eyes, their heads would have fallen into fragments. The bodies were thrown into a brush-heap, and the crowd dispersed to their homes. Some pitying hand partially covered the corpses with a foot or two of earth, and a couple of weeks later, when the popular excitement had somewhat subsided, the Driscolls having found, in Mr. R. P. Watson, a friend who dared public opinion so far as to make coffins for them, and they were quietly removed and decently buried in Driscoll's Grove.

The crowd returning destroyed what remained of the loohouses and barns of both the father and the son David, to make sure that the whole race should be driven from the country. No one dared harbor or take the houseless family in, and for two or three weeks they lived in a corn-crib amidst the ruins.

Probably no one at this time will justify this sanguinary act of execution ; none, perhaps doubt that it resulted in the death of at least one innocent man. No doubt the leading men engaged in it thought they were doing right. It is certain that it resulted in dispersing the whole gang of banditti, and giving peace and security to a section of country that had hitherto been subjected to frequent outrages and constant alarm.

David Driscoll has never since been seen in this country : he fled to the uninhabited wilderness across the Mississippi, and his fate is unknown.

Six years after these occurrences Taylor Driscoll returned, and being seen in McIIenry County, was arrested and brought to trial for the murder of Captain Campbell.

The witnesses against him all depended upon the testimony of the widow of Campbell, who swore positively that Taylor Driscoll was the man who fired the shot that killed her husband. Although six years had passed, she said she knew him perfectly, and that she never was mistaken in identifying a person whom she had once known.

But in the course of a vigilant cross-examination, by Mr. Barry of Driscoll's counsel, she was induced to swear with equal certainty, that upon a more recent occasion she had seen Pierce Driscoll at a certain time and place. She was as positive of it as she was that she had seen Taylor Driscoll shoot her husband. It happened, however, that she was mistaken in this. It was proved beyond a question that it was not Pierce but another brother, who closely resembled him, whom she had then seen, and that Pierce was forty miles away at this time. The jury finding her thus mistaken in identifying a person whom she had seen only a few months before, were easily persuaded that she might have been equally mistaken in testifying to the identity of Taylor, whom she had not seen for six years, and they gave him a verdict of acquittal.

But the investigations of the writer of this history have led him upon evidence, which he is not permitted to divulge, which fully convinces him that Mrs. Campbell was right, and that Taylor Driscoll was really the murderer of Campbell.