This is a reprint of a “From the Local History Room” column that first appeared in September 2015, before the launch of this weblog.
Odd news of days gone by
By Jared Olar
Library Assistant
Anyone who does historical research will not have to read very long before coming across episodes and anecdotes of a more colorful or humorous or somewhat odd nature, or shocking or tragic events that were reported using the characteristically florid and expressive writing style of the past. More often than not, one will find that these old written accounts and newspaper articles tell their stories using styles of expression that are no longer deemed acceptable or appropriate.
A convenient compilation providing several examples of odd news of days gone by and other things that one just cannot say in the newspaper any more may be found on the “Newspaper Tidbits” pages of the Tazewell County “Genealogy Trails” website at www.genealogytrails.com/ill/tazewell. These “tidbits” are drawn not only from old issues of the Pekin Daily Times, but also from various newspapers across the country that occasionally noticed Pekin events.
For example, the March 10, 1841 New Orleans Picayune published this item (and bad pun) about “An Old Couple” from Pekin:
“An interesting marriage ceremony took place recently in Pekin, Illinois, uniting in holy bonds, Stephen Mason and Hannah Mason. The ardent Stephen is seventy-three years of age, and Hannah is blushing sixty-seven. The lovely pair had been previously married at an early day, lived together forty years, raised and have now living thirteen children. Seven years ago they separated, were legally divorced, and became free-Masons.”
Tazewell County’s first murder trial, which took place in 1844, naturally was covered not only by the local newspapers but also made the news elsewhere. Thus, The Ottawa Free Trader of March 1, 1844, briefly mentions the trial, supplying a detail about the case not mentioned in Charles C. Chapman’s 1879 “History of Tazewell County”:
“Murder – John Woods of Tazewell County, in this state, has been committed to jail on the charge of inhumanely killing his own child, only ten months old. It was proven against him that he tried to get the physician to kill the child when it was born.”
A much less serious notice of a court proceeding in Pekin was included in the Sept. 23, 1871 Cincinnati Times-Star in Ohio:
“A man was brought before an Illinois Magistrate and fined $6.50 for being drunk. He smiled blandly, and drawing out a dollar bill, said, ‘All right, Mr. Magistrate; I suppose you remember when I sold out my saloon in Pekin. I had $5.50 on the slate against you. With this dollar that will exactly pay my fine. You must excuse me, Squire, for this little spree of mine; but I didn’t see any other way of collecting my bill against you than this.’ Exit inebriate. Audible smiles among the audience.”
The folks in Ohio seemed to have had a yen for news of Pekin (where many of their kin had settled), for in the following year, the July 26, 1872 Cincinnati Daily Enquirer reported, “A Pekin, Illinois, woman got into a dispute about an old umbrella, and became so furious that she went into convulsions and died.”
The Daily Enquirer then added one of those remarks no longer deemed appropriate in modern journalism: “What a loss to society such a woman as that must be!”
We’ll conclude with the following remarkable obituary of a former Pekin attorney, published in a periodical called The Republic on Dec. 28, 1921. The obituary was headlined, “Gas Puts End to Clay’s Life”:
“Henry Clay, once noted attorney of Pekin, Illinois, and an outstanding figure in Illinois politics, is dead after a life in which tragedy followed tragedy. Clay died in a Peoria hospital from the effects of gas inhaled Christmas night. On that night Clay, who was 64, was found in a gas filled room with Mrs. Elizabeth Bruner, 70, who had evidently invited him to Christmas dinner. Both were unconscious. Mrs. Bruner died yesterday afternoon, Clay a few hours later. It is believed the gas had escaped and suicide was not intended. Until sixteen years ago, Clay had been active as a lawyer and politician. Fate began tampering with his life in 1905 when his eldest son, Harry, accidently shot and killed his chum. Following that the Clay family moved from McLean county to California, Clay abandoning his career. In California, family troubles developed and the Clays separated. Mrs. Clay and the children remained in California, Clay returning to Pekin. Five years ago while driving an automobile, Clay ran down and killed a 10 year old girl. A month later that automobile caught fire and was destroyed. About two years ago Clay’s son, Henry Jr., dropped dead in a San Francisco street from a stroke of apoplexy. A year ago last, September, Sheriff Bob Clay of Tazewell, Ia. [sic – Ill.], was shot and killed in a battle with bandits. And then, on Christmas night, fate, seemingly tired of further trifling with Clay, snuffed out his life.”
