January 6, 1876 Volume 2 Number 28
Mal HARGAN, brother in law of Dr. BENTLEY, has returned from Texas. He speaks very highly of his new home.
DIED--Death came May 26, and called Johnny. He had seen 14 summers, was a bright, beautiful boy; brave, courageous, truthful, just blooming into promising manhood; but oh! the blossom bough was torn from the parent tree, and the tombstone set up in our hearts; a vacant chair at the fireside, a vacant place at the table; a bleeding, weary, troubled heart, the expectation of years cut off. O, how hard to say, "He giveth, and He taketh away; blessed be His holy name; yet He doeth all things well."Death came Dec. 5, 1874, and called little George. He had seen seven summers. He was like a sunbeam, pleasant as a summer breeze. Again the tombstone is set up in our hearts; another chair is vacant; no more the sweet pratter of that little tongue, the silvery tones of that once merry laugh will greet our ears no more, to gladden our weary, aching hearts. Oh, God! how mysterious are Thy providences; Thy ways past finding our. Death came Dec. 19, 1875, and called William. He had seen nineteen summers; was the beginning of our strength, the last of our sons. He was in the beauty of manhood, in the early morning of life, full of promise, full of hope, brave, energetic, ready to do, willing to do, and believing what man has done, man can do; noble, brave, courageous, truthful, generous to a fault. To me they were"Three precious buds of innocence, Too fair on earth to bloom; Just sent to show how fair a flower Can bloom beyond the tomb."Wearily the heart beats feebly. We went our way, waiting for our change to come, accepting the decree of Omnipotence, trusting that merciful God that watches over us, knowing that all is well; laboring, trusting, waiting, believing when life's labors are over, that there remaineth a rest for me, knowing that "He giveth and taketh away; blessed be his name."----T.R. DAVIS
LOCAL MATTERS--Mrs. HENDRICKSON, the wife Wm. HENDRICKSON, presented him with a holiday present, in the shape of a boy. A happy New Year. --The personal property of W.S. CALVERT, deceased, will be sold at public sale by the administrators of said estate, at the late residence of the deceased, today. Thursday the 6th.--WE understand that ex-sheriff HUDGENS will collect the taxes of this county, this year.
--J.H. DUNCAN, J.V. GRIDER, and W.M. DAVIS presented our jailer with a Christmas gift, in the person of James NORRIS. It is needless for us to tell our readers who James NORRIS is, from the fact that he is a noted character and has been published throughout Southern Illinois as one of the "mighty men of Williamson." He is known in the jury room, on the criminal docket and in many other places. James HENDERSON, in his dying declaration, and he knew him (NORRIS) to be one of his assassins. He has been indicted in this county for two years, and up to the time above spoken of, he has been running at large. We hope to see the time when the officials and citizens of Williamson county will pull together and hunt down criminals without fear or favor and put forever at rest any hopes of escape when the law is violated and prove to criminals that "the way of the transgressor is hard."
--Sheriff NORRIS took "Big Jep" and "Black Bill" CRAIN to Cairo, last Friday, where they will be tried for the murder of Wm. SPENCE. Taking into consideration the magnitude of crime connected with this affair J.V. GRIDER and others thought it proper to escort the prisoners to Carbondale in military honors, and accordingly met them at the depot with the malitia. The trip was smooth enough until their arrival at Carterville, where the engine "ditched," leaving the outfit on foot. NORRIS and the prisoners renewed their journey in a wagon, and the malitia returned home.
MARSHALL CRAIN--The Sheriff, we understand, has ordered the lumber and employed a carpenter to erect the scaffold upon which Marshall CRAIN is to be executed on the 21st inst., Friday week. We have been credibly informed that there are several petitions in circulation in different parts of the county, praying the Governor of the State to commute the sentence to imprisonment for life, and that the same has met with some favor in some localities in the county; to what extent we are not informed. We hope, however, that any petition having in view the changing of the sentence which has been inflicted by the Circuit Court, will meet with no favor at the hands of the law-abiding citizens of our county. This man, Marshall CRAIN, is certainly guilty of murder most foul--yea, of assassination; of shooting down our fellow citizens in the bosom of their family, without giving them a moments warning. For the honor, integrity and majesty of the law, and the sacred rights and liberties of the citizens of our common county, we hope there will be no obstructions placed in the way of the execution of the sentence of the Court by any citizen of our county or any one else. WE have a fellow feeling for the family and relatives of Marshall CRAIN, and would not knowingly and wound their feelings, but we owe a duty to our fellow man and the country in which we live, and duty compels us to talk plain on this subject.
COUNTY COURT PROCEEDINGS--The following is the cases tried this week. There are other cases disposed of by continuance and otherwise, not given in this report.
People vs. Wayatt CANADY; assault with deadly weapon; found
guilty.
People vs. Henry EBBS; gambling; plead guilty, and fined $15 and
costs.
People vs. T.B. LEE; tearing down advertisements; plead guilty
and fined $5.00
People vs. Howard HENSON; carrying concealed weapons; plead
guilty and fined $20.00.
People vs. Walter W. WHARTON; carrying concealed weapons;
verdict, not guilty.
People vs. George R. SANDERS; assault with deadly weapon; found
guilty, and fined $25.
People vs. Malissa MCCORMIC; petit larceny; not guilty.
People vs. George R. SANDERS was bound in $1,000 bonds to keep
the peace.
Several other cases for trial. Court likely to continue until
Friday.
LOCAL MATTERS--A well attended and pleasant surprise party at Rev. H. ADKINSON' s last Tuesday night. --The contract for the erection of the scaffold for the execution of Marshall CRAIN, has been let to Samuel IRELAND.--J.W. SAMUELS was brought before the Police Court last week to render an account for illegal distribution of spirits. Twenty-five dollars and the usual flavoring was assessed. --MARRIED, by Rev. Geo. W. LAMASTER, on the 5th inst. at the residence of the brides father, Mr. Charles A. WALKER and Miss Annie STOTLAR, all of this county.
DIED--Died, at his residence in this place last Sunday evening. Dr. Thomas D. FERGUSON. The deceased's illness was brief and his death unexpected. He had been a practicing physician in this county for several years, was well known by the people of this county, and as a physician his reputation was exalted. His remains were interred in the city cemetery on Monday last.
THE GALLOWS--A Sad and Awful Warning to all Evil Doers.
THE LAW VINDICATED--MURDER WILL OUT---THE TRAGIC DEATH OF MARSHALL CRAIN
At last the hard hearted criminal has expiated his crime by yielding to the highest penalty known to the law--hanging by the neck till he is dead. It is with a feeling of sorrow that we assume the task of publishing to the world the fact that a man has been hung in Williamson county for murder; but the cup of wrath has boiled over, and the outraged law has stretched forth its powerful arm to vindicate the rights of the citizens and the peace and quiet of the community, and we bow in humble submission and say--Amen. The remedy must always be equal to the disease, or the whole body will perish. Perhaps the terrible lesson taught by the tragic death of Marshall CRAIN will be a sufficient warning to others that the day of taking the life of your fellow man with impunity has passed, and that violaters of the law will surely meet with condign punishment. The history of the life, chase and capture of Marshall CRAIN, is perfectly familiar to most of our readers. Taking the case of Marshall CRAIN in the abstract, there might arise many palliating circumstances that would tend to greatly mitigate the situation he was placed in. He was raised up among roughs and bullies all his life. His mother was a good, kind hearted, Christian lady, and had she lived, would, no doubt, have raised Marshall up right; but both of his parents were called away when he was quite young, and he was thrown among a set of men whose greatest pride and highest ambition was to drink, swear and fight. Thus was his baser or animal nature cultivated and brought forward as the most prominent feature of his character. It growed with his growth and strengthened with his strength, until his whole moral nature was overshadowed. It is said of him that he has remarked often, that he "loved to shoot a man just to see him fall." Whether he ever said such a thing or not, we do not now and here pretend to say; but, judging from his past record, we can say that it is in perfect keeping with the disposition which he has manifested before and since his capture and sentence. The scene in the court room, where the death sentence was passed upon him; where several of the most respectable ladies of our city, and a large audience were present; the Judge was so overcome that he had to pause more than once during the rendering of the sentence; the awful solemnity of the occasion brought tears to the eyes of many of the ladies and gentlemen who were present-but Marshall CRAIN 's eyes were as dry as an air pump in a chemistry room. He received his sentence of death without a shudder; not a muscle moved; all seemed, to him, calm as a summer day. As he retired from the court room he recognized some of his acquaintances in the audience near the aisle, looked forwards them and knowingly winked and smiled as gracefully as if he had been going to play a game of baseball.
But his stoic nature was soon overcome-the pressure was more that he could bear. When he came to realize the situation he was placed in, that the sands of his life had nearly run out he completely broke down and gave way to a flood of tears, wailings and lamentations such as are rarely witnessed. He was sentenced on Thursday afternoon. That night he began to get serious. By the foreseen of the next day (Friday) he had given up all hopes, and sent a request to be Circuit Judge for permission to come before him and make a clean breast of his confession. He was taken before that body, and attempted to detail a history of his connection with a band of lawless assassins, but his wailings and lamentations knew no bounds, and he was obliged to forego the statement, and was taken from the Grand Jury room completely overcome with grief, without making any important revelations. But the press and the people were not doomed to suffer for revelations, for after the first storm blew over, he was reconciled to write statements thick and fast. He very soon began to turn his attention to things spiritual. M.P. WILKIN, minister of the M.E. church, John A. RODMAN of the Baptist church, and Wm. H. BOLES, minister of the Christian church, with several of the good sisters of the different churches, were solicited as spiritual advisers. True to their profession, they were ready to give any consolation in their power to the "dying man." Hymns were sung, prayers were offered, the throne of Divine grace was importuned to spread the mantle of salvation over the poor criminal and wash all his sins away, until finally Bro. BOLES, the Christian preacher, succeeded in getting him in the notion to be baptised. It was his (CRAIN' s) desire to be baptised in running water, and to be dressed in a long white robe; but Bro. BOLES persuaded him that running water was not material; as to the white robe, that was altogether a matter of taste. So the white robe was procured, and the mill pond west of town selected as the place-so, accordingly, on Sunday, the 21st day of November, A.D., 1875, he was baptised in accordance with the faith and practice of the Christian church. Many thought that he was actually in earnest and intended to seek salvation, but on his return to the jail, (so he says), he found a small hand-saw lying just inside the door; so he, and with the aid of Big Jep and Black Bill CRAIN, two of his cousins, charged with the same crime, set himself to work to saw out through the top of the jail. Of course it took them all some time to saw out an opening through the nine inch heavy timber above, which are filled with nails, but notwithstanding the fact that there has been eight men on guard duty every night since he has been in jail, he actually succeeded in getting a hole through the top of the ceiling sufficiently large enough to admit him to the roof, and had sawed away the sheeting and had began to tear away the shingles on the roof, when he was discovered but the guards It was thought for awhile that he had made good his escape, but upon diligent search he was found snugly concealed in the garret. After that he was hand cuffed and chained to the floor. He was allowed a little exercise everyday, by walking about the room in which he was confined.
His desire to kill clung to him nearly all the while. He made several attempts get advantage of the jailer. About one week ago he managed to get hold of a pistol cartridge, and concealed it about his person so that it escaped the eyes of the guards. The purpose he had in view was to kill Sam MUSIC, the man who first revealed the hellish combination, and whose evidence led to the arrest of Marshall and others of the assassins, so he procured a piece of tin and wrapped it so that it would form a hollow tube, in one end of which he placed the cartridge so that the rim of the cartridge was exposed thing the impromptu gun in one hand and a small iron poker in the other, he called to MUSIC who was confined in the room across the hall, to put his head out of the opening, a square hole in the center of the jail door just large enough to admit a mans' head lengthwise, intimating that he would tell him something very important about his connection with the vendetta. MUSIC obeyed when CRAIN began to whack away with his piece of iron upon the cartridge but it would not ignite. MUSIC became aware that something was wrong took his head cautiously in. One of the other prisoners who was confined in the room with CRAIN told the guard the circumstances. CRAIN was asked how he expected the cartridge to kill MUSIC with such a devise, his answer was that he expected the cartridge to explode and "frighten MUSIC so that he would break his neck trying to get his head back through the opening in the door." Resigned to his fate as CRAIN apparently seemed to have been he has lost no opportunity of affecting his escape and had it not been for the strong guard which has been kept constantly at the jail both day and night there is not the least doubt but what he would have flown long since. Again set at liberty it would have been a difficult to forestall the dark and bloody deeds he would have committed, his anger and wrath would have known no bounds, a reckless destruction of human life would have inevitably followed. Often during his confinement he would long for the opportunity of wreaking his vengence on some of those whom he disliked. Only a few days ago he related to W.W. TIPPY, a constable in the west part of the county, how near he came killing him, thinking at the same time he was one of Geo. W. SISNEY' s boys.It might be proper to say here that of all the persons who Marshall CRAIN had planned to kill and those he did kill, there never was a semblance of a personal difficulty between them. He had been thrown by association into company that did not like them and he. Marshall, fathered the idea that they would be good subjects to kill he was a monomoniac in this direction, no doubt but shooting and killing human beings was a pleasure to him.
There was a very large concourse of people present but none permitted to witness the execution except those provided by law. Here we let the curtain fall on this dark drama. The sun will rise tomorrow morning the same as of yore, the good industrious people of this county will go about their daily avocations and lessons of this day will soon be forgotten like the voice of an ugly dream.
LOCAL MATTERS--Next Monday is the day fixed to dispose the CRAINS.
DIED--Crainville, Jan. 13, 1876, The subject of this obituary, Alice CRAIN, familiarly known as Aunt Ailsy, consort of J.W.* CRAIN, (better known as Uncle Jep.) was born in Caldwell county, Ky., on the 13th day of December, 1814, and died on the 11th inst., at 12 o'clock, m. She professed religion at about the ago of fifteen years, and united with the Baptist church in the county where she was born. Shortly after she moved to this (Williamson) county, and united with the Grassey church. At the organization of Hurricane church, she put her letter into that church, of which she was a faithful member until her death. Her maiden name was CARLISLE. She was married to J.W. CRAIN on the 23d of March, 1834; was the mother of eleven children, five sons and six daughters; all lived to be grown men and women, and she lived to see them all with families but one, and they settled around her. Three of her daughters died before she did. She has now surviving her eight children and thirty three grandchildren, all being in this neighborhood. She has buried thirteen grandchildren and one great grandchild. The funeral took place yesterday, the body, by her request, being carried into the church house and her funeral preached, her husband and children and a large concourse of friends being in attendance. After the grave was filled, (as she had requested), her husband and children marched around the grave, and congregation sung "When we get to Heaven we will part no more." The scene was touching. May God bless the bereaved ones, and may they make an unbroken family in heaven. John A. RODMAN (*The W is circled in pencil and a line to the top says Jasper Urven? CRAIN)
A LAST INTERVIEW--VENDETTA SECRETS.--At an interview in the Jail at Marion, On Thursday, the following conversation took place between a Globe-Democrat representative and Marshall CRAIN:
Reporter. Mr. CRAIN, I have a few questions to ask you, some of which you may not wish to answer. First, when were you born?--CRAIN. December 6, 1848. R. What is your full name?--C. Marshall Thomas CRAIN. R. When were you married, and to whom?---C. March 4, 1874, to Miss Rhoda Rich. R. By whom, and where?--C. I forget the name of the Justice. We were married at Coal shaft No. 3, in Mount Carbon.R. How long have your parents been dead?--C. About nine years.R. Have you any children?--C. No, sir. R. Have you made any statements to be delivered, after your death, to the public?--C. No, sir. I have not. R. Was it through counsel of your lawyers, or by your own free will, you plead guilty to killing SPENCE!--C. By counsel of my lawyers. R. When did you first become connected with the vendetta?--C. Spring of 1874--between the death of Dave BULLINER and James HENDERSON.R. Did you not withdraw from it, and afterward join again?--C. Yes, sir I withdrew shortly after I first joined; but, in October, 1874, I went back.R. What caused you to rejoin?--C. I learned that John BULLINER had either hired some one to fire into my house or had done it himself. I became alarmed and went back to them.R. Do you wish to say whether or not you did the killing of SISNEY?--C. Yes, sir; I killed him. No person was with me when it was done. Nor no one was with me when I tried to take his life in December, 1874, the time his arm was hurt.R. Did Obe STANLY have anything to do with this shooting?--C. Not that I know of. R. Who was with you when SPENCE was shot?--C. Sam. MUSICK R. Why did he go with you?--C. He said that he knew $5,000 was to pass through SPENCE's hands that day, to be paid to John LANDRUM, and he wanted to get it and leave the country. He went to SPENCE in the afternoon to settle up an account and asked SPENCE to wait until night. SPENCE said, no; he would settle now; his life was in danger, and he did not wish to have a light in the store after dark. They had no settlement as I know of. After the shooting MUSICK said he was going home. Don't know whether he did or not. We were both in the store about five minutes after the shooting. R. How many times was he shot?--C. When i saw him last he had been shot twice with a shot gun and once with a pistol.R. What caused you to shoot SISNEY and SPENCE? Were you hired, or did you do it for prejudice?--C. I shot them because of prejudice, but the BULLINER boys agreed to pay me $200 for the work. R. How much of this have you received?--C. All except $5. R. Have you any other statements to make?--C. None that are new. I swore falsely against Allen BAKER in Murphysboro. This I regret. I only told on fifth of what I knew of BULLINER. I never said, as was reported, that I would be willing to hang to the first limb if I could get to kill John BULLINER and Allen BAKER. BAKER told me his father fired into his (BAKER's) room as a blind. BULLINER gave Mart. DYAL and Jonas J. ELLIOTT $300 to kill HENDERSON. R. How soon after SPENCE was shot did you leave the country?--C. About two weeks. R. Who are your spiritual advisers?--C. Several; the most attentive are Rev. H. BOLES, Thomas MCMAIN and Thomas WARREN. I have been baptized in the Christian faith. R. What disposition do you want made of your body?--C. I wish it to be given to my relatives, who will bury me in the HAMPTON cemetery. I want to be buried in a white linen shroud with the robe I was baptized in over the shroud. R. Do you think you have made your peace with your Maker?--C. Yes, sir, I think I have. I bear no malice against any one, notwithstanding I have a great number of enemies. I expect to meet friends and enemies as one in heaven. R. Is there anything additional you wish to say?--C. No, sir. I have nothing more to say. I pay for my crime tomorrow, and let others take care of themselves. If they come out clear, all right. R. Does you wife visit you often?--C. Yes, sir, pretty often. R. When do you expect her again?--C. This afternoon. I desire to be all alone with her all the time she is here. He would say nothing as to MUSICK's immediate connection with the shooting of SPENCE.
LOCAL MATTERS---Dr. W. C. WILLEFORD has located in this place and will now go about healing the sick and doing good. --John OGDEN and Benjamin WAGGONER arrived here at an early hour yesterday morning from Cairo, with a writ of habeas corpus for Samuel MUSIC to attend the CRAIN trial now in progress at Cairo. Sheriff NORRIS escorted the prisoner to Cairo. --A man by the name of WATSON, of Williamson county, was arrested in this city yesterday, for passing counterfeit silver money. His bond was fixed at $300 by Esq. MURPHY in default of which he was sent to jail.--Era Illinoisan.--James M. WASHBURN of this county, has been elected to the position of Vice President of the State Board of Agriculture, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Dyas T. PARKER, of Cairo.