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NEWS ARTICLES
Union County Illinois Genealogy Trails 1910-1914 NEWS ARTICLES  A Camp Meeting Recollection, April 21, 1911 Reminiscent, April 28, 1911 Old Dwelling House Burned, May 19, 1911 The Real Casey Jones, August 4, 1911 Tried for Wife Abandonment, August 25, 1911 Letter From Arkansas, Oct 27, 1911 80th Birthday Celebrated, Feb 16, 1912 newEgypt Asking for One Place, Apr 3, 1912 Old Folks At Home, April 26, 1912 Old Daugherty House in Jonesboro, July 19, 1912 General Manager of the Union Pacific, Nov 22, 1912 Inheritance, Jan 24, 1913 Close Call, July 4, 1913 Oregon's Oldest Homesteader, Oct. 5, 1913 Regained Her Sight, Dec 26, 1913 Old Journal, Jan 23, 1914 Holy Roller Ellis, Mar 20, 1914 Transcribed and submitted by Darrel Dexter (The writer of the following was pastor of the M.E. church at Marion at the time of the incident related. He was afterwards presiding elder of the Carbondale district and often held quarterly meeting in Jonesboro. For the last 23 years he has been pastor of M.E. churches in Portland.) Portland, Ore.. April 12.--Editor Gazette. Thinking your readers might, some of them, be interested in a Jonesboro incident of 37 years ago, the following is related. In the summer of 1874 a camp meeting by permission of the fair association was held on the fair grounds just north of Jonesboro. The
Methodist preachers were there from Carbondale, Marion, Chester,
Sparta, Pinckneyville, Murphysboro, Ullin, Mound City, and Cairo. Rev. William Jesse Grant, presiding elder, was in charge. While the attendance at the services in the day time was good, the crowd at night was immense. The preachers were bivouacked in the upper story of the band stand, a round high structure in the center of the grounds. For meals they were well served by the campers and the good citizens of Jonesboro. Everything
went well till a bunch of rowdies began at the evening service to make
a disturbance, squalling on the outskirts of the congregation like a
tom cat in a fight; crowing like roosters, and shouting "Amen!" "Lord
help;" and so on. The ministers holding the meeting, of whom the writer was one, visited next morning his Honor Judge M.C. Crawford, circuit judge for assistance and advice. The
judge had been at the evening service and was hot with disgust at the
outrages committed by the fellows, one of whom, he said was from
Jonesboro, but a set over in the vicinity of the big hill. To put a stop to the annoyance he deputized each minister as an office of the peace, authorized to make arrests. At
the meeting that night the roughs were on hand, seemingly strengthened
by a lot of recruits, but so wary that it was impossible to identify
them during the meeting with the people singing and many moving about. After
the service was over and the people gone, the "gang" got into a new
building not yet completed, just in front of the entrance gate, where
they opened (in the dark of course) a mock country dance, calling out
"four hands round," "balance all;" and "swing your partners," attended
with such a clattering and stamping of the floor it sounded like the
devil himself turned loose. We, the preachers, held a brief council and decided upon an attack. Proceeding
cautiously, expecting a fight, a thing not new to some of us as we had
served through the Civil War, in a close squad we entered the lower
story of the new building alluded to, but the fellows we wanted were on
the upper floor. If the stairway had been
on the inside the game would have been ours, but by an outside stairway
on the side next the entrance gate the crowds clambered down, fairly
falling over each other, and escaped save one unlucky chap, who was
caught and led down to the music stand, where we had lighted lamps and
could see what we were doing. And here is where the fun began. A kangaroo court was organized with the presiding elder on the bench, Rev. J.L. Wallace, pastor at the town of Cairo, and an old lawyer as prosecutor, and the writer counsel for the defense. Rev. M.H. Nichols and Rev. J.J. Boyer witnesses. The prisoner was filled with alarm, being informed that we were all officers of the law. His companions had fled, he was alone, and as he seemed to think in the very jaws of death. As counsel for the defense I asked beseechingly of the court and prosecution if there was no way by which mercy could be shown the prisoner, this being his first offense and all that kind of thing. Whereupon the court condescendingly said, "If the defendant would give a list of the gang disturbing the meeting, promise to assist in keeping order, and never again be guilty of disturbing a worship congregation, he would take under advisement suspension of prosecution." The poor fellow now an object of pity, was willing to promise anything which he readily did. We got him down on his knees, gathered around him as a genuine penitent, and prayed devoutly for mercy upon his soul. He shook and wept bitterly. With a genuinely good wish and a hearty shake of the hand from each preacher, he was dismissed. It was like scorching a rat and turning him loose among the rest of the rats for that was the last of the disturbances. Judge Crawford next day laughed till his sides shook on learning what had taken place.
C. E. CLINE
Transcribed and submitted by Darrel Dexter EDITOR, GAZETTE. Would you give space in your paper for some items of interest to some of its readers? We have the partial election results of 1819, the first year of the state of Illinois after its birth as a state. The election was for a colonel, two majors, one lieutenant and one ensign of the militia. We give one township, to wit: Township of Ohio, County of Alexander, State of Illinois. The following vote was polled for colonel (no number of regiment given): Thomas Cox, 61; Owen Evans, 9. Major, Sidney Grant, 68; Samuel H. Allward, 64; Edmond Sutton, 1; Edmond Jones, 2; Abner Field, 1; John Howard, 1. Captain (of company not given), Philip Wakefield, 51; Edmond Sutton, 15; Lieutenant, Alison Powell, 59; Silas Iddel, 6. Ensign, Eddy Wilcox, 69. The election was held in all the townships in the county on the 5th day of June, 1819. From the returns in our possession we are not able to state whether the election was for a state militia or not. In
perusing the ancient __les, we see that the penmanship compares very
favorably to that of our humble pencil pusher, but the spelling is
possibly not so good. In those days, we also had that formality was much lacking. Everything was written out. Such a thing as a blank form was not known. We find quite a list of names on the tally sheet that are very familiar to us, for instance Miller, Dillow, Hileman,. Our grandparents came from Rowan county, North Carolina, in 1814. At or about the same time came the Dillows, Lences, Barnharts, Rineharts, Hilemans and Misenheimers. Mr.
Editor, when we get our mind back some sixty or more years we can
hardly refrain from writing of the times when compared to now, so
excuse an old friend. PAUL MILLER Transcribed and submitted by Darrel Dexter The residence of Mrs. William Ferrill on Ferry avenue, near Thomas C. Cozby's, was destroyed by fire last Monday night. The fire was discovered shortly after 11 o'clock but had made such headway that nothing could be done towards extinguishing it. It probably started in the kitchen in the east end of the building, as Mrs. Ferrill stated that this was the only place in the house she had built any fire recently. She lived there alone except a small family named Armstrong occupied the west end of the house. Some
of the household goods were saved, perhaps most of the furniture, but
the insurance had been allowed to lapse and the building was a total
loss. (Jonesboro Gazette, Jonesboro, Illinois, Friday, 19 May 1911)
Transcribed and submitted by Darrel Dexter The
song "Casey Jones" is popular everywhere these days and every now and
then some fellow who claims Casey Jones as his name bob up and tries to
leave the impression he is the real Casey whom the song was named for. The original Casey Jones, his real name was John Luther Jones,
was for a long time an engineer on the Chicago & New Orleans
Limited and was killed in a rear collision at Vaughn, Miss., on the
night of March 18, 1900. He was exceptionally popular in railroad circles and the song bearing his name was written and sung by a Negro, Wallace Sanders by name, who worked in a railroad house. Eugene and Philip Jones, locomotive engineers who run from Mounds to Memphis are brothers of the original Casey Jones. (Jonesboro Gazette, Jonesboro, Illinois, Friday, 4 Aug 1911)
Transcribed and submitted by Darrel Dexter James T. Lokey was tried here Wednesday afternoon before Squire J. Henry Hilboldt for wife abandonment and bound over to the grand jury. The parties live at Dongola. (Jonesboro Gazette, Jonesboro, Illinois, Friday, 25 Aug 1911)
Transcribed and submitted by Darrel Dexter Springdale, Ark., Oct. 17.--Editor Gazette--Your extracts and comments "From Old Gazette Files" are certainly interesting to us. You
mention in last week's Gazette the boys setting out from Jonesboro for
Texas in a one-horse wagon "on Sunday last," which would have been the
18th of September 1870. Come to think about it, your humble servant was only three days behind those boys on the road to the same place. We
started for Texas from our home two miles above Cobden on Wednesday
afternoon, Sept. 24, 1870, "just 41 years ago" and passed though
Jonesboro about sundown and camped for the night just west of town. On
the night of the 22d we camped on the bank of the Mississippi River, on
the night of the 23d just west of Jackson, Mo., and on the night of the
24th near Marble Hill (Dallas), close to a little railroad
station by the name of Lutesville, where we stayed from Saturday night
until Monday morning on account of a big rain and high water in a
little creek that we had to cross. By Monday morning the water had run down and the rain had ceased, leaving the road wet and muddy for our teams to get over. We didn't go many miles on that day. At Marble Hill we found a Mr. Chamberlain whom we had known at Cobden, where he was in the drug business in partnership with a Mr. Linnell who died there some years ago. We
don't know what route the boys from Jonesboro took after crossing the
Father of Waters; we only know that we never caught up with them on the
road. We took what was called in those days
the middle route, which crossed the Red River at Lanesport, a little
ways below the southeast corner of the Indian Territory. Our
first town to pass after getting into Texas was DeKalb, in Bowie
county; our next Clarksville, then Paris, Bonham, Honey Grove, Mt.
McKinney, Plano, and then Dallas, where we quit the road Nov. 2, 1870. Marion Murphy (The 28 Jul 1911, issue of the Jonesboro Gazette publishes a photo of Marion Murphy. Below the photograph, another letter was published. He stated that at Dallas they located on the prairies and wrote his first letter back to the Jonesboro Gazette. Ten years ago he moved to Springdale, Ark., in the Ozark hills. He was born near Washington, Daviess Co., Ind., 8 Oct 1843, and was 67 years old. ) (Jonesboro Gazette, Jonesboro, Illinois, Friday, 27 Oct 1911)
Transcribed and submitted by Darrel Dexter The children and several friends gathered at the home of J.W. Fuller Tuesday of last week (6 Feb 1912) and helped him celebrate his 80th birthday. Mr. Fuller has been an earnest worker all his life. He came to Union County in 1852. He
helped build the Illinois Central from Centralia to Cairo and was the
organizer of the Anna Fruit Shippers Association and has been president
of that organization for over a quarter century. (Jonesboro Gazette, Jonesboro, Illinois, Friday, 16 Feb 1912)
Transcribed and submitted by Darrel Dexter The following citizens of Jonesboro are all past 80 years of age:
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Klutts have lived in the same house nearly fifty years. Mr. and Mrs. George W. Walburn have lived in their old home place over forty years. Mrs. David Sowers is living at the old home where she and her husband started on life's journey together over fifty years ago. Mrs. James Morgan, who lived on the farm many years and reared a large family of children, now lives in Jonesboro. Mrs. Jacob Grear, "the angel of the sick room," has lived in Jonesboro all her life. Mrs. N.B. Hacker is still living at the old home place where Dr. Hacker took her as a bride when life was young. Mrs. Robert Reiss came to the old town with her husband many years ago. David Nusbaum is nearly 90 years old and has spent almost his entire life in or near Jonesboro. Daniel S. Davie can talk interestingly of the ways and customs of the good old days. He was born in Jonesboro. Mrs. Moses A. Goodman lived on a farm south of town during her husband's life time. Mrs. G.V. Kimber lives with her daughters in Jonesboro. She formerly lived on a farm south of town. William Wiggins had interesting experiences in early life in this then new west. Eph Kimmel raised a $17,000 peach crop near Cobden many years ago. It held the record until recent years. S.C. Jensen came to this county a few years ago and cleared up a little farm just west of Jonesboro. They had no house and lived in a tent the first summer, and often speaks of that. He and his good wife now live in the west part of town. Nearly all of these old folks have reared large families of children who have mainly remained in the county and are among its most substantial citizens. While assessing, I had the pleasure of seeing and talking with nearly all of these good old fathers and mothers. S.D. Hurst (Jonesboro Gazette, Jonesboro, Illinois, 26 Apr 1912)
Old Dougherty House in Jonesboro Transcribed and submitted by Darrel Dexter J.D.R. Brown
has bought the St. John's Lutheran parsonage on West Broad street and
will occupy it about the last of August, moving from his farm west of
town. This is a splendid residence property and with the outlay of some money could be made as desirable as any place in town. It is a large two story brick and was built in the 70s by Gov. Dougherty, who lived there until his death some years later. It has been greatly neglected since though always being a comfortable home. Mr. Brown will make extensive improvements on the place. He paid only $1,200 for it. The
St. John's people will build a parsonage near their church in the
country, an arrangement which will be much more convenient for them and
their pastor. The new pastor has recently arrived from Pennsylvania. He
and his wife and daughter will visit or "board round" among the
membership pending the building of the new parsonage, which is expected
to be completed next fall. (Jonesboro Gazette, Jonesboro, Illinois, 19 Jul 1912)
Transcribed and submitted by Darrel Dexter George Saffel,
otherwise known as "Geranium," until recently employed here as a
hostler, has been notified that by the death of relatives of Dallas,
Texas, he succeeds to an inheritance of $200,000. Saffel went from here to Golconda (Pope County) not long ago. (Jonesboro Gazette, Jonesboro, Illinois, Friday, 24 Jan 1913)
Transcribed and submitted by Darrel Dexter John Mitchell of Cairo, aged 21, who has an ill feeling toward Lee Adams, employed in Corzine's confectionery here came to Anna Saturday and told Adams if he did not leave before nine o'clock that night he would kill him. Sure enough at nine o'clock that night Mitchell called at the confectionery, but in the meantime Adams had notified officers of Mitchell's threat and the city marshal was there. When Mitchell discovered this fact he ran but was caught and taken to jail in Jonesboro. A
revolver was found on his person and he will have to answer to the
charge of carrying concealed weapons and threatening to kill. It seems that Mitchell has a grievance at Adams because he married Mitchell's half sister last week. (Jonesboro Gazette, Jonesboro, Illinois, 4 July 1913) Oregon's Oldest Homesteader Sincere in Proving up Claim at Parkdale Morning Oregonian, Oct. 5, 1913 HOOD
RIVER, OR, Oct. 4--(Special)--Although with furrows of age written deep
on her face, having celebrated her 85th birthday the past August, Mrs.
S. C. McIntosh, of Parkdale, the oldest homesteader in Oregon and
probably in the Northwest, has a clear sparkle in her eye and possesses
still more of the optimism than many people have in days of youth.
Mrs. McIntosh, who was born in Union County, Ill., in 1831,
removed from The Dalles after having been left a widow, her husband
having died in 1905, and at the age of 80 years filed on a choice tract
above Parkdale in the upper valley. She never left the place a
day after having taken the claim. So sincere was she in her
desire to maintain the rules of the Land Office that she would not pass
the night with her son, C. E. McIntosh, who homesteaded a tract across
the road from her. Mrs. McIntosh has been a resident of Oregon
since 1877, having come with her husband to The Dalles in that year.
(Transcribed by A. Newell)
Transcribed and submitted by Darrel Dexter John Weatherly is in receipt of a letter from his father, J.H. Weatherly,
of Dongola, telling of the joy of the family in this happy Christmas
season over the fact that his mother has regained her eye sight. For
two years she had suffered with an affliction to both eyes which made
her practically blind, she being unable to feed herself or to do any of
the duties about the house. A month ago she came to this city, entered St. Andrew's hospital and had an operation performed which restored her sight. Sunday she prepared the family dinner in her old manner and the family are greatly rejoiced. Mrs. Weatherly is seventy-two years old.--Murphysboro Independent (Jonesboro Gazette, Jonesboro, Illinois, 26 Dec 1913)
Transcribed and submitted by Darrel Dexter Thomas Rixleben has in his possession an old journal that was once the property of Dr. Benjamin W. Brooks, one of the prominent men of Jonesboro in its early days. Written on the fly leaf is "A Book of Formulae and Receipts or Recipes adopted in a practice of 34 years by B.W. Brooks." The first entry is dated July 24, 1818, the last in 1844. Yellow fever and cholera remedies are set forth at great length in this journal. (Jonesboro Gazette, Jonesboro, Illinois, 23 Jan 1914)
Transcribed and submitted by Darrel Dexter Walter Ellis was tried for insanity in Judge Crawford's court Tuesday (17 Mar 1914), declared to be insane, and sent to Anna State Hospital. Ellis is the Holy Roller fanatic who made the brutal attack on Noah Hickam
a few weeks ago and with his incarceration that affair may be regarded
a closed incident and the end of Holy Rollerdom in Union County. (Jonesboro Gazette, Jonesboro, Illinois, 20 Mar 1914)
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