Madison County, Illinois - Chapter 16: Early-Day Tragedies, 1912

Hanging of Eliphalet Green - Winchester-Smith Murder Trial - Were the Widow's Wrongs Righted? - The Underground Railroad - A Three Days' Horror in the State Penitentiary - The Ghastly Wann Disaster.

In the decade covered by the reminiscences of Thomas Lippincott and George Churchill there occurred several tragedies that have passed into history. The first was the case of Eliphalet Green, who was executed at Edwardsville for murder on the 12th of Febru¬ ary, 1824. The circumstances were as fol¬ lows : Green, who was employed at Abel Moore's distillery in the forks of Wood river, had a quarrel with another employe named William Wright. Green, who was supposed to have some slight mental defect, became greatly enraged during the dispute having been violently abused, ran into the distillery, got his gun and fired at his opponent, who was retreating, or retiring, from the building. It was stated by an eminent jurist, who was present at the trial, that, in his opinion, Green was illegally convicted of first-degree murder, on the ground that his crime was committed in a sudden burst of rage and was not delib¬ erate manslaughter. The jury were influ¬ enced by the fact that he ran several steps to get his gun and supposedly, therefore, that his anger had time to cool. He deeply re¬ pented his rash and violent act, and seemingly did not question the justice of his sentence. The first notice taken of the case by the Edwardsville Spectator was in its issue of Janu¬ ary 20, 1824, as follows: "At a special court held in this place, last week, at which the

Hon. John Reynolds presided, Eliphalet Green was convicted of the murder of William Wright in December last and sentenced to be executed on the 12th of next month."

The convict received religious counsel from Hail Mason and Rev. John M. Peck; ex¬ pressed a firm reliance on the mercy of God in Christ Jesus; and was baptized, by im¬ mersion, by Mr. Peck, who by request preached a sermon at the time and place of execution and read a memoir of Green's life, dictated by him. Both memoir and sermon were afterwards published in pamphlet form. The death warrant was issued on the nth of February by Joseph Conway, clerk of the court, and was returned with the following endorsement on the back :

Judge Reynolds, who was a smooth poli¬ tician, and passed through life in an endeavor to hurt no one's feelings is said, in passing sentence of death on the prisoner, to have used language something like the following: "Well, Mr. Green, the jury in their verdict found you to be guilty of murder, and the law says you are to be hanged. Now I want you and your friends down on Wood river- to un¬ derstand that it is not I that condemns you but the jury and the law. Now I want to allow you all the time you wish to prepare, so the court wants to know at what time you pre¬ fer to be hanged." Green replied that any time would suit him, whereupon the court sentenced him to be hanged four weeks from that time.

The most solemn event in the early history of the Madison county court was the trial of Palemon H. Winchester, a talented young lawyer of Edwardsville, for the murder of Daniel D. Smith, who had formerly been a resident of Edwardsville, but had removed to Atlas, Pike county. On the 29th of January, 1825, while on his way home from Vandalia, he stopped over at Edwardsville. In an alter¬ cation between the two over the merits of General Jackson, Smith was stabbed and ac¬ cused Winchester of the deed. Although there was a crowd around them, no one saw the actual stabbing, but Smith died soon after and Winchester was arrested for the crime. He was committed to jail and his trial, which commenced March 23, 1825, lasted four days. Alfred Cowles, acting attorney general, of Belleville, and later of Alton, and Benjamin Mills prosecuted the case, while Henry Starr of Edwardsville, and Felix Grundy, of Ten¬ nessee, defended the prisoner.

Mr. Churchill comments on this trial as be¬ low : "Mr. Grundy knew how to fire the south¬ ern heart. He thanked God that he was born beneath the warm rays of a southern sun. He disclaimed all murder, all manslaughter on the part of his client. He said it was proved that the deceased was in the habit of striking savagely with his tongue and that if he had bridled his tongue he might still have been among the living. I believe that Mr. Grundy was correct in this. It is my opinion that Smith was killed not for words spoken about

General Jackson, but for a caricature ex¬ hibited and words spoken, very offensive to Winchester, four or five years before the mur¬ der while Smith was a resident of Edwards¬ ville."

At the close of the fourth day of the trial the jury brought in a verdict of "Not Guilty." During the trial the excitement was intense and though the roads were almost impassable great multitudes attended the trial. The argu¬ ment of Mr. Grundy, that verbal abuse consti¬ tuted an assault which was rightfully pun¬ ished in the death of the assailant, is a sophis¬ tical one that would hardly be offered in court today. Winchester, who was acquitted, was a young man of talent and came of a leading Tennessee family. He was allied by marriage to the family of Colonel Stephenson. He was given to convivial habits, and after the trial, sank lower in intemperance and dragged through a life of poverty to the grave.

Smith, who was murdered, was a notable character in some respects. He was known by the soubriquet of Rarefied Smith by reason of his project for propelling machinery by rarefied air. There were two other Smiths at that time in Edwardsville. One was known as Corn-fed Smith, on account of his obesity, and the third, Judge T. W. Smith, was known as Tammany Smith on account of having re¬ ceived his political education in Tammany Hall, New York.

In 1817 Daniel D., or Rarefied Smith, had built a tall brick tower in Cincinnati in the be¬ lief that by making a fire at the bottom he could create a current of air sufficiently pow¬ erful to propel machinery. His project prob¬ ably turned out to be only hot air, as the year 1818 found him advertising himself in the Ed¬ wardsville Spectator as a land agent at that place, the transition not being so very great, perhaps. He next appeared as the maker of a map of Illinois, four by six feet in size, for which he endeavored to obtain subscribers. It was certified to as "very correct" by such men as Governor Shadrach Bond, United States Senators E. K. Kane, Ninian Edwards and Jesse B. Thomas, Governor Edward Coles, Colonel Stephenson and Major S. H. Long, the last named of the United States corps of engineers. In 1821 he was ap¬ pointed by Governor Bond to the lucrative po¬ sition of recorder of the newly organized county of Pike. He seems to have been suc¬ cessful there, as after his death, his adminis¬ trator advertised 7,120 acres of land for sale belonging to his estate. For Smith's opinions on great national questions see his toast drank at Edwardsville fuly i8iq, as recorded by Mr. Churchill:

Another trial which caused great excite¬ ment and which has never been since dupli¬ cated in the history of the county - that is, in the nature of the charges made against the de¬ fendants - was that growing out of what was known as the Dixon robbery. The sheriff, William B. Whiteside and his deputy, Robert Sinclear, the latter of Upper Alton, were the defendants therein. In early days a man named Dixon came from England and settled in Illinois with his family. The family set¬ tled near the mouth of the Piasa, except one son who located at Milton. This son, Ma¬ thew, died in the course of a few years, but before his death had placed in his father's hands several thousand dollars. His widow claimed the money but having no vouchers was refused. She told her grievance to Sher¬ iff Whiteside and his deputy and, so the story goes, so wrought upon their feelings that they determined to wring the money out of the old man and give it to the widow. They did so,

Another is this. In the summer of 1821 there came to Edwardsville a report that old man Dixon had been robbed of a large sum of money in gold. That was bad, but when the rumor spread that the robbers were the sheriff and his deputy there was great excitement. They were arrested and Judge Reynolds was called on to hold the preliminary examination. For fear the shrewdness of the lawyers would work an escape for the prisoners a purse was made up and Colonel Thomas H. Benton of St. Louis, was employed to assist the prose¬ cution. Thomas Lippincott was employed to take down the evidence. The result of the examination was that the sheriff and deputy were bound over for trial. But it was dis¬ covered that the old man's residence, where the robbery was committed, lay just beyond the line of Madison, within the bounds of the new county of Greene (Jersey county had not yet been set off from Greene). The defend¬ ants were held for trial at the first term of the Greene county circuit court before Judge Phillips. Carrollton was new then and had no court house and the trial was held in an unfinished building. The judge literally sat upon the bench, on this occasion, it being the carpenter's bench, at one end of the room. The trial was conducted with much skill by able lawyers. When the case was given to the jury they retired outside the building and deliberated on the verdict, sitting on the grass in charge of a constable. The result was as strange as original : the sheriff was acquitted, but the deputy was convicted, although the testimony was said to have been the same in both cases. The deputy, Robert Sinclear, disappeared mysteriously immediately after the trial and was not seen again in the county. Mr. Lippincott writes : "It is due to the memory of William B. Whiteside and his de¬ scendants to say that he was always esteemed a good citizen and an honorable man with this single exception. As one of the officers of the Rangers, in the Indian wars, he was always considered the best, being as cool and ju¬ dicious as he was brave." The jury is said to have stood one for acquittal and eleven for conviction in Whiteside's case, but the obstin¬ ate eleven finally had to give way. The record of the trial showed that the leader displayed all the suavity of manner, on this occasion, for which he was noted. "Don't be at least alarmed," said he to the victim, "all we want is your money." Dame Rumor also talked of a Robber's Cave, where the robbers were sup¬ posed to have assembled before making their onset on the Dixon family, and that others, not brought to trial, were engaged in the af¬ fair. Sinclear fled to Arkansas and attained distinction. He was a man of fine appearance and pleasing manners. He was elected as a member of the legislative council of that state. Mr. Churchill is of opinion that the above Robin Hood version of the robbery, righting the wrongs of the widow, was concocted by Sinclear when the story of the robbery fol¬ lowed him to Arkansas and required an ex¬ planation.

Many years before there was a mile of steam railroad in Madison county there ex¬ isted a line of road that began no one, save the initiated, knew where and ended in some equally mysterious locality. It had regular relay stations but their location was equally secret. It had conductors but they were not figuring in the limelight. It was known as the "Underground railroad" and was patronized exclusively by fugitives from bondage. They paid no fare but traveled on free passes. Some incidents of travel on this line were re¬ lated, years ago, to Mr. John Harnsberger, of Alhambra, by the Rev. Elihu Palmer, a brother of Gen. John M. Palmer, who, it seems, from the following narration, had been a conductor on the line. The road paid no wages and if any dividends were declared they were not in money. Its stock was never listed on Wall street nor elsewhere.

The incidents Mr. Palmer related were as follows : Along in the early days he was cross¬ ing over Wood river bridge, near Alton, when he observed a picture of a negro tacked up on the side with a bill offering a reward for the fugitive's capture. Tearing down the picture and hand-bill Mr. Palmer took it along with him. Stopping at a friend's house he exhib¬ ited the bill whereupon the latter took it out and shot it full of holes. Mr. Palmer knew well that the negro would soon be traveling up the valley and kept a careful lookout for him, and in the evening saw him coming. Stepping up to him he gave him the countersign of "A friend," a signal well known to every col¬ ored man and their friends away down into the south. The negro answered it correctly and Mr. Palmer took charge of him, secreting and feeding him. Around the negro's neck had been placed an iron band with an upright back of his head holding a bell to indicate always to his owner his whereabouts, regard¬ less of the inhuman outrage to the victim's feelings and physical comfort. The man's neck was swollen to his face from his efforts to pull the upright over to file the clapper from the bell. Mr. Palmer and friends succeeded in removing the collar from his neck and, after resting, put him on a horse and mounted one himself. After riding all night he reached a more northern station of the road and put him in charge of other con¬ ductors who guided him further along on the road to freedom. Mr. Palmer then rode home and preached a funeral sermon the next day.

At another time a negro woman appealed to him for aid in helping her to escape. Her story was a tragic one. She had been a favourite with the daughters of her master who had her educated with themselves. Her master meeting with reverses of fortune it was plan- ned to sell her down south. She was young and attractive looking and would bring a fine price. Horrified at the thought of the fate impending she determined never to submit to becoming the mother of slaves, so, disguising herself in boy's clothing, she made her way safely to St. Louis and took the "underground route" for Wood river valley and arrived at Mr. Palmer's station. Mr. Palmer took her on a horse, while he mounted another, and rode all night with her to a northern depot when he returned home.

There were many men and women in Mad¬ ison county, in those days, of high character and sympathetic hearts whose homes were as open to all victims of cruelty and oppression as was Elihu Palmer's. Their philanthropic and heroic deeds brought them no reward in this life, and even subjected them to suspicion and ostracism ; but who doubts that they thereby added stars to their crown of rejoic¬ ing when they passed over to the Land of the Leal and heard the words "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

In the late fifties there was a convict at the Alton penitentiary named Hall, who was serv¬ ing a life sentence for murder. He was a des¬ perate man of wiry frame whose imprison¬ ment made him insane with rage and hate. This man was set to work in the blacksmith shop and was watched with extreme care, but he managed to make a short knife of a worn out file and used the skill of a genius in hiding it about his person. His cell like all others was strongly built of blocks of stone. The door was of oak many inches thick and bound with bars of iron. The prisoner's bed shut down against the door, which opened inwards, so that the door was fastened from within when the prisoner was in bed. Through the door which opened into a corridor, was a hole perhaps eight inches square, which was strongly barred, and the only other opening into the cell was in the outer wall of the prison, where a narrow slit, also barred, admitted light and air. This little window was near the ceil¬ ing and by reason of its narrowness and the thickness of the outer wall, a person on the outside, even if mounted on a ladder, could not get sight of the prisoner. All this was under¬ stood by Hall whose insane cunning had de¬ vised a desperate scheme to escape from the prison and humiliate the warden. At ten o'clock one morning, while at work, he sig¬ naled the guard whose name was Crabb, that he was sick, and, in accordance with the rule, Crabb started with him to his cell. While in the corridor, as the guard was opening an iron door, Hall struck him down with a bar of iron, which he had secured at the blacksmith shop, and dragged him into the cell. He then bound him with strips from the bed blanket and closed the door, shutting down the bed against it. The guard was stunned by the blow and did not recover his senses for an hour, and, as he did not return to the shop, search was made for him, and the warden was quickly informed of the event. Hall armed with a knife, was keeping watch over the wounded guard and was secure in his cell. He declared that he would kill the guard unless granted a full par¬ don ; but, after some reflection demanded, in addition, that he should be furnished with a loaded revolver and be permitted to walk with the guard out of the prison to a carriage at the gate, and that Colonel Buckmaster should drive the carriage in such direction and as far as he should indicate, and permit him to es¬ cape. He further stated that if any attempt was made to take him he would fall on Crabb and murder him. The situation was horrible and there seemed to be no way of getting at the prisoner that did not render the death of Crabb certain. The people of Alton were soon aware of the tragedy and the town was in an uproar. The guard was a well known and re¬ spectable citizen and had a family. The news of the situation was sent over the state and country and attracted absorbed attention from its murderous ingenuity. Communication was kept up with the convict and the guard through the door, before which Buckmaster stood for the greater part of three days, with a pistol in his hand, watching closely for a chance to shoot the convict. But Hall man¬ aged to keep himself covered with the body of the guard and his vigilance never relaxed.

Hall said he had been trying to get the war¬ den instead of the guard, but had been com¬ pelled to accept smaller game ; whereupon Buckmaster offered to take Crabb's place, if he might be released. But Hall declined to exchange his prisoner, although Buckmaster offered to go into the cell stark naked. It was useless to try to poison the convict, for the guard ate the same food and the little window did not afford a view of either. When this desperate situation was understood Governor Bissell sent a pardon to Colonel Buckmaster to be used at his discretion, but the warden de¬ cided not to use it except in the last extremity. No labor or pains were spared to catch the convict off his guard, but he seemed to feel neither fatigue nor fear. When every other expedient failed the warden decided to force the door, and accordingly, when the door was opened to admit the supper of the men he in¬ serted a crowbar to keep the door open and with the aid of another guard rushed in and pulled Crabb out. At their entrance the con¬ vict fell upon Crabb and tried to kill him with his knife, but failed to do so though he wounded him dreadfully. When the guard was rescued Hall closed his door and refused to surrender. He sat down on the floor out of pistol range and was beyond the reach of the warden. Buckmaster called on him in vain to surrender, and as his body was con¬ cealed by the door he still held out. But the warden watched until he saw one foot exposed when he instantly pierced it with a ball. The wound destroyed the nerve of the convict and he exposed his head which was instantly pierced with a bullet. He was taken out and died in a day or two. The guard recovered entirely from his wounds, and held his place in the prison after it was removed to Joliet. The Hall tragedy was long remembered in Al¬ ton and throughout the county.

The most serious and frightful tragedy that ever darkened the pages of Madison county history - that is, the one involving the greatest loss of life and most numerous cases of per¬ sonal injury - was that known as "the Wann disaster." It occurred at the little village of Wann, on the Big Four railroad, four miles from Alton and now known as East Alton.

About nine o'clock on the morning of Jan¬ uary 21, 1893, J. C. Bramhall, ticket agent of the Big Four at Alton, was called to the tele¬ phone and received this message from the agent at Wann : "Send doctors at once: No. 18 in open switch, burning up." No. 18 was. the fast New York and Boston express, the finest train on the road.

Hastily summoning the company's surgeon, Dr. W. A. Haskell, a special train was at once made up and was en route to the scene of dis¬ aster within a few minutes. The rescue party at the start, was made up of Surgeon Haskell, General Agent L. T. Castle, Ticket Agent Bramhall, Baggage Master F. L. Stanton, Conductor H. E. South, Engineer Edward Dawson and some employes of the company. They were joined at East Alton by officials J. Flynn and Louis Berner. Never before did relief train fly faster over a short stretch of road. Arrived at the scene of disaster they found that No. 18 had run into a siding and collided with a string of tank cars lying there.

The cars were filled with coal oil. The engine crashed into the tank train and burst open one or more of the tank cars, releasing the oil, and simultaneously with the collision, the engine, the tank cars and the two forward cars of the passenger train were enveloped in flames, the friction of the impact or flying coals from the engine having ignited the oil. The siding was in a cut, eight or ten feet deep. At the mo¬ ment of the collision Engineer George Webb jumped off, having previously set the brakes. He jumped on the lefthand side where the track ran near the bank. He struck the bank, rolled backward into the ditch and was in¬ stantly wrapped in flame. His death was al¬ most instantaneous. The fireman, more for¬ tunate, jumped from the right-hand side and escaped with a few cuts and bruises. The res¬ cue party, arrived on the scene, recovered the body of the engineer, though nothing was left but the trunk. The passengers were badly shaken up but none seriously injured.

The accident was the result of carelessness, a switchman having left the switch turned onto the siding instead of the main track. The re¬ maining cars of the passenger train were un¬ coupled and drawn out of harm's way, but the fire was raging so furiously about the tank train that no attempt was made to remove the cars that were ignited. And this is where the element of tragedy entered. Prior to this the accident had been but an ordinary collision, the product of negligence, but an awful calam¬ ity was impending to which the railroad acci¬ dent was but the prelude.

The fire still raging along the tank train at¬ tracted a curious crowd of villagers and others to the scene. Escaping gas on fire was rushing from the manholes of the tank cars, as if in warning, but the crowd paid no heed. The re¬ lief party, after the surgeon had attended to the injured, started back to the station, a quar¬ ter of a mile distant. The agent warned the crowd to disperse fearing the other tanks

Just after the relief party had reached the station to take the train and were looking to¬ wards the scene of the fire, they heard a muf¬ fled explosion. A dark cloud, seemingly of smoke, rose in the air, spread out wide and wider and suddenly burst into flame, lighting up the heavens, and then descended to earth in a fiery rain of blazing oil, striking the earth with an impact louder than the explosion. The blazing blanket of oil fell squarely on the sight¬ seers igniting everything it touched. A great wave of heat swept towards the station. The rescue party fled, momentarily, the heat wave scorching the backs of their coats. The wave passing they returned in response to the shouts, groans and shrieks of the distant crowd en¬ veloped in a sea of fire. A boy who had been on the outskirts came rushing to the depot shouting: "Send for all the doctors, more than a hundred people killed." An instant later human figures, pillars of flame, came rushing by, some with all the clothing burned from their persons, black and seared by flame and looking more like demons than human beings. The surgeon, Dr. Haskell, instantly compre¬ hending the nature of the disaster, hastily con¬ verted the station and an empty freight car into hospitals. He ordered buckets of water brought to the station into which he placed an antiseptic compound from his medicine case. He sent to all the houses round for cotton and bandages. The women responded nobly. They ripped open their comforters to obtain a supply of cotton which they took to the station with whatever else they had that they thought would give relief. Others of the local victims, who were able, rushed to the store of the Henry brothers where everything was gener¬ ously placed at their disposal, where Hon. Z. B. Job took charge of the situation and sec¬ onded the efforts of physicians. The victims were found to number over a hundred. Dr. T. P. Yerkes was near the scene but escaped with slight burns and was able to help care for the injured. Some of the survivors were des¬ perately burned ; some only slightly. Those fatally burned numbered thirty-two. Some died instantly, wrapped in a shroud of flame. Others lingered in unspeakable agony for hours or days until death came to their relief. All the physicians in Alton were summoned and arrived an hour after the explosion. Af¬ ter applying first aid, as far as the means at hand permitted, Dr. Haskell commandered a train to take the living victims to St. Joseph's hospital in Alton. When that ghastly train with its freight of suffering humanity arrived at the foot of Walnut street, the nearest point to the hospital, it was met by carriages and am¬ bulances, and the victims were lifted or helped from the cars. It was a heart-rending sight ; men with shreds of clothing clinging to them in blackened rags, their bodies seared and scarred, and, in some cases, the cooked flesh dropping from their bones. They were taken to the hospital where hasty preparations had been made for their reception, and there a corps of physicians, under Dr. Haskell's direc¬ tion and the care of the Sisters and trained nurses of the hospital, labored through weary hours to mitigate the horrors of the situation and alleviate as far as possible the suffering of the wounded. Four of the victims died at the hospital that night ; others followed them later.

The burning oil that descended covered something like an acre. This area presented the aspect of a great battlefield that had been swept by fire. The trees about were blackened by flame and denuded of the smaller branches. The ground was covered with debris ; shoes, hats, socks and remnants of clothing, to all of which pieces of flesh adhered.

tended there. The whole village was wrapped in gloom. The calamity was so sudden and overpowering that the people were stunned by the shock. Not all the victims were residents of the village; some were residents of Alton who had driven out to see the railroad wreck ; still others were employes of the railroad and some lived in the country adjacent. Several of the railroad men had crawled under the cars at the moment of the explosion and thus es¬ caped the descending sheet of burning oil. But after those who were able had fled twentythree lay on the field, dead or dying.

Taken in all its aspects the disaster was one of unmitigated horror. Of the victims who recovered all of the seriously injured were dis¬ figured for life. Some are still seen about the village with maimed bodies, with faces and hands seamed and scarred.

The railroad company awarded damages to its employes who were injured but fought compensation to the others on the ground that they were trespassers on the company's prop¬ erty. The physicians and the hospital had to sue the company for their services, but the courts decided in favor of the plaintiffs. The hospital's bill was resisted on the plea that Dr. Haskell's action in sending the patients to the institution was unauthorized; that he should first have procured an order of admission from the township supervisor; but the appellate court ruled that the Doctor's action was fully justified by the dire emergency; that even if the supervisor had been standing at his side he would not have been warranted in delaying for a moment to ask for authority. The emer¬ gency was there and had to be met instantly in the interest of suffering humanity. Such appalling circumstances swept precedent aside.

Dr. Haskell was the hero of the occasion. A born leader, cool and collected where others were wild with excitement. All looked to him for aid and direction. His wonderful record of efficiency on that day of disaster, is a proud page in Madison county's annals. There were many instances of unselfish heroism among the victims. A case in point is that of Charles W.

Harris, of Alton. He was among the first of the injured to reach the station, but refused to be treated until those more seriously burned than himself had received attention.