Book tells of first murders in Fayette County

Over the years, I have written about many of the first murders committed in our county,  with the information coming from the “History of Fayette County, Illinois,” published in 1878.

Several weeks ago, I related the unsolved murder of young Francis Little of Ramsey Township. Shot in the back by an unknown assailant, Little was seated in the front room of his home with his three orphaned sisters when he was murdered on Nov. 22, 1872. The murderer was never identified.
In Avena Township, John R. Scoles was shot and killed by Frank Rande, the "Daring Bandit of the Wabash," in September of 1877. Scoles encountered the man as he was returning home one morning. He saw what he thought initially to be a tramp leaving the house and pursued him.  
A posse was gathered, and Wireman, Barnes and Long all took shots at the man, who then shot Wireman, Barnes and Long’s horse.
According to the Letters of Administration, Ephraim F. Barnes, a blacksmith, died on Sept.  10, 1877, leaving his widow, Elizabeth, and children, Permelia, Charles, Lewis, Terence E. and Dorsey M. Barnes.
The first murder to occur in Bowling Green Township was in 1845, when John A. McClanahan, a Bowling Green merchant, killed Webster Nance for refusing to pay for a seven-pound keg of nails. McClanahan was found not guilty on a claim of self-defense.
A second murder in this township involved Charles McClanahan and Harvey Rice, two soldiers in the U.S. Army.  Home on furlough, the two were drinking in a low groggery and got into a political argument with Richard Nowlin,  who, it was said, had pro-South leanings.  
McClanahan fired the shot that killed Nowlin, and both Rice and McClanahan returned to their units. Once again, it is the estate record for Richard Nowlin that tells the date this occurred – April 28, 1864. His widow, Miriam, received a pension of $100.43 from the government, which suggests that Richard Nowlin was also a Union soldier.
Records of the Adjutant General of Illinois tell that Charles H. McClanahan was a member of Co. D, 68th Illinois Infantry, and mustered on May 31, 1862. Harvey S. Rice of Co. H, 8th Illinois Infantry, re-enlisted on Jan. 3, 1864, deserted and escaped from prison at Marshall, Texas, on March 1, 1866.
In Hurricane Township, John Murphy committed the first murder when he killed a man named Martin VanBuren Williams over a game of cards. Williams died in March 1850, leaving a wife, the former Rebecca Stonecipher, and children, James M., 7; Charlotte, 6; and Ezra, 5.
Rebecca remained a widow for a number of years, and made annual guardianship reports to the county court.
The first hanging in the county was of George Ogle, who killed his common-law wife, Eleanor Swick Clemens, in a fit of jealousy. He disposed of the body in Lost Lake, but his deed was discovered. Ogle ran, but was later captured and put in chains made by Vandalia’s blacksmith, Michael Steinhauer.
An old timer remembered that it was 40 degrees below zero when George Ogle was hung on the gallows at Vandalia.
Harvey  Radcliff’s wife Sarah was holding on to the crook of his arm when he was shot at close range by Leroy Beach on Feb. 2, 1858, at their home in Sefton Township.
An inquest was held into the murder, and Sarah Radcliff testified that the Beaches, Leroy and Rachel, had been visiting with them. “Five minutes after the couple left and after shaking hands with her husband,” she said, “Beach returned and called out to her husband.” Sarah recognized his voice. Her husband went to the door and she heard a shot and saw a flash.
Information came to light that Thomas Pickens was the instigator of Radcliff’s murder. Beach broke out of jail and disappeared, and Pickens was then arrested and placed in jail as an accessory.  
Pickens was later found not guilty by a Shelby County jury, and on the morning of July 2, 1861, several of Pickens’ neighbors and members of the Harvey Radcliff family took their places around the perimeter of Pickens’ orchard. As he entered the orchard to begin work, a signal was given and the men fired as one. Pickens fell dead, with two bullet wounds in his body. No steps were taken to discover who did it; everyone believing it to be just retribution for the murder of Harvey Radcliff.
In Wheatland Township, the 1867 murder of William Hamilton, a Civil War veteran, by Sanford White, shocked the neighborhood.  
Hamilton, a Union veteran, was home on a visit with his family from his home in Gadsden, Ala., when on the final night of his visit he was coaxed by his brother, John, to attend a neighborhood dance. William did not dance until the last dance, when he was persuaded to dance with an old friend, Helen Ford.
Helen had a new suitor named Bill White. As William left the dance and was getting into the wagon to go home, he was felled from a blow by White and died immediately.  White was later sent to the penitentiary, while Helen traveled to Alabama to carry the story to William’s wife.
The 1878 county history book is a good place to start in researching the events and people of the early days of Fayette County.