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Reflections
Historic news reports show serious crimes are not new here : Reflections : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisHistoric news reports show serious crimes are not new here
| by Roger Matile
| 1/26/2012
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One of the more enduring tales, probably apocryphal, concerning the 1864 Kendall County Courthouse was that the stairs were built with 13 steps so they could be used for double duty. The story was that during the 19th century, gallows had 13 steps, so the front steps could quickly be repurposed in case an execution was required.
Unfortunately-or perhaps fortunately, given how flawed the state's capital punishment record was-the built-in gallows was never needed. Writing in the Aug. 29, 1923 Kendall County Record, publisher Hugh R. Marshall somewhat wistfully remarked that: "There have been several murders in the county but the punishment has never been death."
In the newspaper world, crime stories have been a staple of news coverage ever since John Peter Zenger made his first press run. And while politicians like to suggest we are being overwhelmed by criminality, a glance back through old newspapers shows that crime has been a constant throughout our history, even here in what should have been quiet, bucolic Kendall County.
Vandalism, for instance, is far from a recent problem. Some of the same things deplored as criminal acts unique to our time were happening right here 130 years ago. The July 21, 1864 Record reported that three Oswego youngsters broke into a one room school in NaAuSay Township and destroyed furnishings and books. They were tracked down, arrested and taken to the Kendall County Jail in Yorkville.
Violence among rambunctious young men isn't new, either. In February 1869, the Record reported that Bob Jolly was refused entrance to a dance at Chapman's Hall in Oswego. After the dance, he waited for Mark Chapman, the dance's host, outside the hall, and then set upon the unfortunate Chapman with a club, severely beating him.
Illegal drugs were not much of a problem in 19th century Kendall County (drugs were mostly legal then), but public drunkenness was a major problem. In the late 1860s, Oswego residents were familiar with the exploits of a woman nicknamed "Crazy Mary" who loved to drink. Suggesting that bad ideas never really go away, the fight for women's rights was blamed then, as it is often today, for persuading women to take criminal paths.
The Record's Oswego correspondent wrote in 1869 that "Crazy Mary, I presume, is a woman's rights woman in favor of enjoying equal privileges with man; at least her conduct yesterday showed that she thought she had a right to have a spree." Apparently, Crazy Mary had gotten pretty well tanked and then paraded up and down Washington Street telling the local gentry exactly what she thought of them. In April of 187l, Crazy Mary was back, with the Record reporting that "Crazy Mary was in town on a day last week and soon appeared in a very demoralized condition, lying around loose; people should not give or sell her more liquor than she is able to stand; none at all would be better."
In that era, a surprising number of people got so drunk that they collapsed in public places. One of the most fatal places to pass out was on the railroad tracks, and several Kendall County residents did just that. One of those fatal accidents took place in Oswego in May of 1877, when John McCrawley collapsed while staggering home on the tracks and was run over and killed by a southbound train.
Drunkenness even extended into the courtroom itself. The Jan. 26, 1882 Record reported that "At the Kendall County Courthouse last Thursday, the grand jury petitioned Judge Kellum to have their foreman resign because he was too drunk to attend to business."
Murder, too, found its way into our small communities back in the days when life was supposed to have been simpler and safer. In the fall of 1872, Mark Newberry was apparently showing too much attention to the wife of Oswegoan Duke West. On Sept. 25, Newberry was playing euchre with West's son and wife, when West, lurking outside the window, shot him in the back with a shotgun, killing him instantly. West was tried and convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Domestic violence, as the above incident suggests, isn't a recent problem, either. In fact, there was a surprising amount of it in our community more than a century ago, including incidents of stalking and spousal abuse. One of the most infamous cases involved the Wormley family in Oswego Township, who became the innocent victims of a husband's murderous behavior.
In the winter of 1891, a Mrs. Mears of Aurora left her husband "because of his worthlessness," according to the Record, and went to work for the George Wormley family on their farm north of Oswego along what is today Ill. Route 31. That December, the woman's husband went to the Wormley farm and tried to persuade her to come back to him. When she refused, he became abusive. When Mrs. Wormley tried to act as peacemaker, the man drew a pistol and shot both her and her son, 14 year-old Harry Wormley. Mears fled the scene, but was arrested in Aurora. Mrs. Wormley recovered with a wound in her chin and powder bums on her face, but young Harry died. In November of 1892, Mears was sentenced to life in prison.
We sometimes get the impression the U.S. is being swallowed by a sea of violence and depravity never before experienced. Those impressions are successfully fostered by unscrupulous politicians bent on maintaining their secure and profitable offices by sowing fear among their constituents. In reality, crime rates have been steadily declining for years. In May of last year, the New York Times reported the rate of violent crime in the U.S. was at a 40 year low.
The real problem seems, as is so often the case, the public's ignorance of their own history, combined with a willful refusal to figure out what the truth is. In this day and age of the Internet, it's not that difficult. All it takes is a willingness to learn.
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