Kane County, Illinois - Chapter 11: The Resurrectionists, 1908

Another type of criminality was ram])ant in the early days of our country's history, and that was the crime of grave robbing. This had been carried on for vears in this section of the country and many were the bodies stolen by men who were called resurrectionists. In the early days no arrangements were made with hospitals for subjects for dissection in medical institutions and thev were compelled to resort to the crime of body snatching. The Medical Institution at St. Charles, organized by Dr. George W. Richards, profes- sor of theory and practice of medicine, and formerly president of the La Porte (Indiana) j\Iedical School, had established a summer school for physicians in St. Charles. His home was opposite the present Universalist parsonage in that city, and the institution in which the dissection was carried on was a stone barn, which has since been torn down. Students in those days came to college poor in purse and were anxious to work to pay their way through school, and as bodies were constantly needed by the Medical Institution they naturally sought remunerative occupation by robbing graves. Two or three graves of honored citizens had been examined and discovered to be emptied of their precious contents. "Many who had recently lost friends commended the painful task of examining their newly made graves, while many friends only refrained from it lest they should find their fears realized and that the outrage so hopeless of redress had been consummated. The irritation and indignation that was caused by this feeling may be readily imagined." In the spring of 1849 three men driving a pair of horses attached to a spring wagon stopped for supper at the Lovell tavern, four miles east of Sycamore, on the St. Charles and Sycamore road. While eating their supper the land lord's daughter overheard some conversation which made her suspicious. She reported the conversation to her father, who went out and found the implements used by the resurrectionists secreted in the bottom of the wagon. Mrs. George M. Kenyon had been but recently buried and they surmised that it was the intention of the grave robbers to secure her body for the dissecting table, and it was also known that a friendless German had been buried in the south burying ground of Sycamore, now the present site of the Methodist parsonage, and it was supposed that they were also seeking for his body. This news was conveyed to Mr. Harry Joslyn, and he, with Mr. Lorenzo Whittemore. Kimball Dow and a few others, armed themselves and hid near the burying ground, with the hope that the resurrectionists might be caught robbing the grave. Early in the evening, not long after dark, three men made their way into the cemetery and immediately began search for the grave of the German. As they approached it the men in hiding noticed that they were armed. One of their number went to the wagon to secure the tools necessary for digging. At this moment one of the party in hiding was seized with a fit of coughing, which alarmed the grave robbers, and they immediately hurried to the wagon and drove into town. The party in hiding followed them into the village and caused the arrest of the resurrectionist party. One was found to be the son of Dr. Richards, president of the Medical Institution at St. Charles. Another was a man by the name of John Rude, and the name of the other was unknown. There not being found sufficient evidence of their guilt, they were released. The parties arrested were thoroughly alarmed and their fright was not lessened by Waterman answering their question as to what would be done by them by the promise to shoot them in the morning. It was supposed after their severe fright that they would make a hasty retreat for St. Charles, but they recovered their nerve, and although they started directly east for their home, they evidently decided they would not return without something to show for their night's work. Mrs. George M. Kenyon was buried in what is now known as the Ohio Grove cemetery and, dying at the age of but seventeen years, in the bloom of youth, a girl well known, great sympathy was felt for the young husband and her immediate family. After her burial her grave was watched for two nights and it was supposed that all would be well thereafter. The parties watching the grave of Airs. Kenyon the third night left shortly after midnight. Two of her girl friends were impressed by the story of the grave robbers, which had been circulated throughout the country, laid a twine over the grave and fastened it at each side, covering it with dirt so that if it were molested it could easily be detected. When the relatives arrived at the grave in the morning they still found the string in position, but something made them uneasy, and after hearing the story of the grave robbers being in Svcamore they decided to investigate. Upon digging down their fears were realized as the comb of the deceased was found about a foot below the surface. Reaching the coffin they found it emptied of its contents and the grave clothes alone remained in it. The lid of the casket had been broken in and the body taken hastily away. News of this crime spread over the country like wildfire. Mr. David Churchill, father of the deceased, was a man well known and highly respected, and the circumstances of the young lady's death made the crime seem doubly terrible. It was decided before any action was taken in the matter to have a party go to Dr. Richards at the Medical Institution and demand the return of the body. Upon arriving at St. Charles they procured a search warrant and went to the institution and while on their way found the horse belonging to a Sycamore physician, who had doubtless gone there in great haste to inform Dr. Richards that he had better be on his guard. Upon examining the dissecting room they f-^ nnd fragments of human bodies and skeletons, but none corresponding- to the description of Mrs. Kenyon. As they were about to leave the building Mr. Kenyon discovered upon the stone flagging a lock of hair belonging to his wife. It was the precise peculiar shade of his lost wife's hair and he knew it in an instant. It was not sufficient evidence to convince a jury perhaps, but it satisfied him. He went back and begged piteously for the remainder of his wife's remains and it was here that Dr. Richards made his great mistake in inflaming the searching party. He said to Air. Kenyon in his hour of sorrow: 'T have no subjects now, but if you will come again in a few days I will have a lot of them, and from your way. too." The party returned to Sycamore, reported to their neighbors what had transpired, showed the friends the lock of hair belonging to Mrs. Kenyon, told of the insulting remarks made by Dr. Richards to the grieved husband, and with one accord the citizens of Sycamore and vicinity volunteered to go next day and recover the body or know the reason why. A large part of them were young men, impetuous and ready for trouble, but the older men counseled conservative action. A committee was selected to again visit Dr. Richards and was composed of the following men : Esquire Currier, of St. Charles; John C. Waterman, William Fordham, Lorenzo Whittemore and Kimball Dow, of Sycamore. They informed Dr. Richards what they were there for, told of the party that was ready for action, and that it had only been by the intercession of their friends that an assault had not been made at once. They still found Dr. Richards defiant and impudent, and he denied any knowledge about tlie body they sought for. and said perhaps the students might account for it. They noticed also that Dr. Richards and some of the students were fully armed and seemed to be ready for trouble in case of an attack. When J\Ir. Kenyon caught sight of Rude, who had been detected at Sycamore, he took an instincti\'e aversion to him and could scarcely be restrained from shooting him on the spot. Nothing, however, was gained by this parley. The crowd had increased on the way. so that now about three hundred men stood in front of Dr. Richards' house and had sn arranged their party that escape was impossible. Seeing that trouble was in store for them, one of the young men of the institution informed them that he had seen a corpse answering the description of Mrs. Kenyon. Upon hearing this David Churchill, father of the deceased, and Mr. Kenyon, her husliand. rushed for the door and forced it partly open, when the muzzle of a gun was thrust out and fired. Mr. Churchill pushed the barrel of the gun downward, so that no one was injured. This was followed by a shot from Air. Kenyon, who was armed with a rifle. He fired blindly through the door and by the irony of fate his bullet pierced Rude, the guilty resurrectionist, through the hips and he was mortally wounded. An assault followed and all the windows in the building were broken and several students wounded and Dr. Richards was struck twice. As he appeared at the door and made a sign to surrender a stone struck him in the temple and he was carried back senseless. The friends of Richards feared that another attack would be made and secured the services of an attorney, A. Barry, who promised them that the body would be returned, and he instructed Mr. Prescott, a relative of Mrs. Kenyon. to go to a spot two miles south of St. Charles on a farm now owned by Mrs. Harvey Jones, of Sycamore. And it should be stated in passing that a constable appeared on the scene and ordered the mob to cease firing, and at that juncture Mr. Barry, an attorney, since well known in this county, promised the mob that he would return the body the next morning. Mr. Barry and a student named Harvey, with Air. Bannister and Prescott, of St. Charles, found the remains buried on the banks of the Fox river in a grove, about two feet deep, wrapped in a blanket. The body was taken to the river, washed of the earth that adhered to it. wrapped in some clothing, placed in a coffin and brought back to Sycamore. A second funeral ser\'ice was held at the Alethodist church at Sycamore and a large concourse of people met on that Sabbath day to consign for the second time to the grave the body that had caused so much excitement in all the country around. It has been stated that the bodv was taken to the home of Air. Kenyon and there buried under his window, but the body was buried in the grave from which it was taken and a tombstone pointed out to those interested in the early history of the county, and many are the visitors even to this day to the grave which caused so much turmoil and loss of life. An impression seems deeply founded that Dr. Richaras was on the whole a bad man of the criminal type and thus he has been depicted in the histories to the present time. We will say, however, that Dr. Richards was a very well educated gentleman and at the time he was shot ranked as high as any other physician in Illinois. Alany were the physicians of Chicago who sought his counsel. Airs. Harvey A. Jones, who was then a girl of ten or twelve years, and witnessed the shooting and knew Dr. Richards intimately, as he had been tlieir family physician for years, says that his home was one of refinement, that he had traveled abroad and in many respects was regarded as one of the most intellectual men of the community. It is needless to sav that this broke up the organized band of resurrectionists, and from that dav the visitors, even to this day. to the grave which had been their family phvsician for years, say that to this day. with one exception, crime of a like nature in this locality has been unknown. Rude died the day following, the students recovered, while Dr. Richards finally died from the efifects of his wounds inflicted by the Sycamore mob. We will say, howe\-er. that had it not been for the impudence of Dr. Richards and his students when parties were searching for the body and for the carelessness with which the remains of the dissected bodies were handled, this trouble would never have occurred. Parties still living remember well how Dr. Richards and his students threw the remains of human bodies after dissection into the river, which naturally excited a spirit of opposition to their work. The account as we give it is from a conversation held with George M. Kenyon about a month previous to his death, with ]^Irs. Harvey A. Jones, who witnessed the riot, and from members of the mob who participated in that event, and reported by L. AI. Gross in his historv of DeKalb countv.