The Sunday Oregonian., August 13, 1922, Magazine Section, Page 9, Image 93

THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, AUGUST 13, 1922
9 -
HEY call southern Illinois "Egypt
and Williamson county "Bloody
Williamson." The county's sobri
quet Is clearly doe to a series of feuds
and killings dating back to 1870 and end
ing let us hope with the massacre of
the strip miners In the woods between
Marlon and Herrin on June 21 last.
Why "Egypt" is not so apparent. Ex
planations differ according to whether
the informant Is an Egyptian or not
Some captions outsiders profess to be
lieve that the inhabitants of southern
Illinois dwell, or used to dwell. In a state
cf mental darkness. Others say that as
the city on the Ohio river waa christened
Cairo the hinteriand naturally acquired
Che name Egypt.
Others contend that the region was so
dubbed because the flats about Cairo
resemble the delta of the Nile, especially
la flood time. Cairo was the town lam
poonedor was it a veracious picture t
by Dickens In "Martin Chnzxlewll" The
residents of Egypt, on the other hand,
scribe the appellation to fertility of soil
and fidelity of climate. They recall spe
cifically a strange year when all of north
ern Illinois was wasted by drought and
Ji ad to be fed from the bursting granaries
t the southern tier. The old settlers
knew their Bible. They pointed exult
antly to the forty-first chapter of Genesis,
the story of Joseph's interpretation of
the dream and of his hoarding the corn
through the seven years of plenty against
the seven of famine.
"And the seven years of dearth began
to come, according as Joseph had said,
and the dearth was in all the lands, but
In all the land of Egypt there was bread.
And all countries came into Egypt to
Joseph for to buy corn; because that the
famine waa so sore In all lands."
Coal Near Surface.
This la a pleasing and plausible ex
planation of the nickname given to
southern Illinois, and one prefers to be-.
Heve It the true one. The fact laT how
ever, that there are more fertile soils
than that of Williamson county. It Is
clayey and alkaline, and has been largely
abandoned by the wheat grower, which
must not be taken to mean that the
country is not green and beautiful at
this season, for It Is. But many years
en the farmers discovered that they had
beneath their feet a treasure surpass
ing the bumperest of corn and wheat
crops a vein of bituminous coal under
lying most of the region, averaging nine
feet in thickness, stretching well across
the state and easily mined. In some
parts of Williamson connty the coal Is
only 10 or 12 feet beneath the surface.
In such places are the strip mines, so
called because the surface dirt la
tripped off and the coal taken out aa
from ah open quarry Instead of being
reached by tunneling, as In- coal fields
where the Tela lies deep. In other parts
of the same connty the coal la from 100
to 200 feet under ground.
When the farmers realized that they
wned black diamond mines many of
them sold out or leased to the mining
companies and retired to the towns.
Others continue to cultivate their farms
and lease the coal rights to outsiders,
and there are some who work their
farms la the summer and mine In the
winter. WWiamson and Its neighbor,
Franklla coTnty, are two of the nation's
greatest coal producers. With the ex
ploitation of the coal fields came a
boom. Herrin, a few miles from the
scene of the recent massacre, was until
25 years ago a wheat field, a part of
what the settlers called Herrln's Prairie.
Even 20 years ago It railroad station
was a boxcar. Now It is a city of about
12.000 Inhabitants, with good buildings
and streets, the only hospital in William
son county and a high school which any
person encountered In Herrin will tell
you la "the best In the state." Marlon,
the county seat, nine miles from Herrin.
an older and sedater community, has
about 10.000 persons. Carbondale has a
state norofral school.
Mountaineers Come In.
The principal source of early migration
was the rf ountains of Tennessee and Ken
tucky. A good many of the pioneers
crossed the Ohio Just before the civil war
because they were unionists. They found
copperheads in their new abode, and the
mingling led to famous feuds. At the be
ginning of the war Williamson county
was democratic, but before the war ended
It swung to republicanism, and there it
has stayed ever since.
The people are still distinctively south
ern In their speech, habits and cooking.
It Is not strange that they should be, con
sidering their origin and the fact that
Marlon and Merrin, 111., are farther south
than Louisville, Ky.. and about on a line
with Richmond. Va. If the reader will
glance at a map he will see this to be
true. One notices few negroes, however.
There hsve been so many "race riots" In
southern Illinois, caused usually by the
importation of negro labor from the
south and the resistance of white north
ern labor that the southern counties hsve
not been regarded as especially salubri
ous retreats for the colored brother.
There are, however, a few mines that em
ploy negroes, and as a rule they get along
with the whites.
The white settlers came from a region
of feudal tradition and practice and of
self-made law. When they crossed the
river some of them kept on shooting
when aggrieved, and it is taking some
time for their descendants to get Into the
habit of carrying their troubles to court
Instead of acting as their own Judge and
executioner. In the roaring boom days
of Herrin the killings, the writer was
told, averaged "almost one a day." and
anything less than this wss regarded as
a symptom of sluggishness.
But the city Is not as tolerant toward
crime as It used to be. The whole county
Is gradually inclining toward peace, de
spite the occasional outbreaks of ferocity,
but even so the busleat man In the Wil
liamson connty continues to be the vet
eran coroner. William McCown. On the
whole. It was a hopeful sign when the
znebs of June 21 had to loot hardware
stores to get arms and ammunition. Time
was when nobody needed to do that.
History of the Vendetta.
Far away and long ago Is the proces
sion of murders known locally as the
"vendetta."s whicn caused Williamson
county to be tagged with the adjective
"bloody." But a brief outline of this
dark feud may help the reader to an un
derstanding of the massacrre of the min
ers In 1922. The facts were painstakingly
collecterd by MIlo Erwln, an attorney of
Marlon, and published In 1878 when the
graves were fresh. Historians owe a debt
to Hal W. Trevillion, editor of the Herrin
News, who republished the volume In
114.
"I have to- catalogue the deeds of the
vendetta, concocted by leaders and exe
cuted by fiendish emissaries, that has not
a parallel In the record of crime," Mr.
Erwln wrote. "Here were men at whose
bloodthlrstiness even savages would
tlush, which brands them forever as the
babses and bloodiest of Incarnate de--mons."
Seversl families were suspected of be
ing concerned In the vendetta, among
them the Russells, the Slsneys, the Hen
dersons, the Bulliners, the Hinchcliffs
and the Crains. The original causes were
GREEN MAGIC By
(CoBtlnnd Prom Pac S.)
lently that his head Jerked backward.
She spoke in his ear; bnt I heard.
"I suppose when you've made him hole
out you're going to kill him as you d!tl
that man In Texas you murderer!" she
said. Gillespie had been holding the golf
bag loosely by the handle. His fingers
seemed to go limp; the clubs clattered on
the green. At this sound I saw a nerv
ous Jerk or so from the heads of the
gallery beyond the ropes; then all eyes
went back to Mr. Moore. I realized that
the presence of Madge and me inside the
ropes was attracting no attention; we
were policing the course and had that
privilege. All this In the Instant while
Madge Bavin drew her breath to add:
"Stay Just where you are. Professor
Hansen. If you make one move or say
one word I'll tell your record to the
crowd give your whole game away!"
The Jaw of John B. Gillespie went
slack, his complexion turned green. I
saw that he was paralyzed, silenced and
needed no further present attention. I
turned, and so did Madge Bavin, toward
Edgerley Moore. He had been standing
like a statue over his Schenectady putter,
and you could hear the breathing of the
gallery as they waited for him to make
that one easy stroke which meant vic
tory. But now he raised up a little and
turned his head uncertainly in our direc
tion with the look of an old dog who is
expecting his master's call. The motion
released the tension of the crowd; a
faint buzz of whispers broke out. And
Madge Bavin strolled past Mr. Moore
with the casual air of an official who is
seeing that all is well. As she passed she
spoke. Her voice, I suppose, was lower
than when she addressed Gillespie it
could not have carried to the crowd be
hind the ropes. Yet at the moment it
The feudists always fire from ambash upon their unsuspecting victims.
a deck of cards, a woman and a crop of
oats. The Russells, Sisners and Hender
sons were republicans, the other demo
crat. Felix, or "Field" Henderson,
fought George Bulllner over a game of
cards In a saloon on July 4, 1868, and'
was badly beaten by the Bulliners. The
next autumn somebody burned the Bul
liners' cotton gin and three ricks of hay.
Some persons thought Field Henderson
did it.
In 1869 David Bulllner and George Sis
ney fell out over the ownership of a crop
of oats and George knocked David down
with a shovel. The Bulliners retaliated
with Henry rifles and pistols, and Sisney
was shot In the hip while trying to get
behind a tree. In 1872 Thomas J. Rus
sell and John Bulllner courted Miss Sarah
Stocks. She preferred Bulllner and there
after he and Russell were enemies. The
vendetta was now under way. Other fam
ilies" were dragged in. The Crains, falling
out with the Hendersons, became allies
of the Bulliners. It got so that whenever
members of the embattled families met
there was a fight.
From fists they proceeded to deadlier
weapons and to the ambuscade. One
morning in 1873, George Bulliner, riding
his horse along the country road toward
Carbondale, was shot from the brush, and
seemed to me that the whole town must
hear it. Even, monotonous yet how It
rang!
"Drive It over the bulletin board
there," she said. "Drive it as far as you
can!"
Mr. Moore straightened his shoulders;
L-saw the wooden head of his putter
come up with a perfect, slow back swing;
saw It sweep down, saw a dlrot spring
from the surface of the green. The ball
soared over the bulletin board, over the
driveway was lost to view. It landed, I
learned later, in the brook a good 140
yards away. The fixed eyes of the gap
ing gallery followed the ball. Before
they looked back Mrs. Bavin had spoken
again to Mr. Moore:
"Yoo will sit down. You will go to
sleep but you can still walk " By
the time the gallery turned back its gaze
to the enactor of this remarkable per
formance, Mr. Moore had sunk down on
the green with something of the motion
of a baby rs-ho is learning to walk, and
his eyes slowly closed. Then babel broke
out; people began to come through the
ropes; but Mrs. Bavin, leaning over
Edgerley Moore, cried in her natural
tone now:
"Give him air! Send Dr. Carrington
here!" Almost as soon as she spoke the
doctor was at her side.
"He can walk, doctor get him to the
clubhouse," she said and then, in
Moore's ear: "Get up when the doctor
helps you. Go with him!" Sloore, the
doctor suporting him, struggled to his
feet. His eyes were still closed. "Mr.
Gillespie : help on the other side," she
whipped out "and, JImmie" this In an
aside to m "keep them off but Join
us inside." All the way I fought a des-.,
perate rear-guard action with the press '
and the gamblers. I succeeded some-
all he said thereafter was "Turn me over
and let me die." Two assassins, from
fence corners, fired at Monroe and David
Bulllner with shot guns and revolvers
while they were on their way from
chnrch. The Bulliners returned the fire.
David was shot in the back and mortally
wounded.
As Set Down In History.
"This," wrote Mr. Edwin, chronicler
of the feud, "was the worst murder of
them all. You may combine corruption, .
debauchery, and all the forms of degrada
tion known to the Inventive genius of
man, and cord them together with the
strings drawn from maidens' hearts, and
paint the scene in human blood bespan
gled with broken vows and seared con
sciences, and still it will redden heaven
with revengeful blush and leave blacken
hell to make It equal."
Before he died David Bulliner accused
Thomas Russell and David Pleasant.
Russell was tried and acquitted, although
John Bulliner sat in the courtroom facing
him with his gun. One of the witnesses
was Sarah Stocks, over whom Russell and
John Bulliner had quarreled. Mr. Er
win's picture of her must not be omitted.
"Her contour," he said, "Is not as
faultless as a Greek goddess, but her
Will Irwin
how; when I arrived at the bedroom to
which they had taken Mr. Moore I saw
that someone either -Gillespie or Mrs.
Bavin had awakened him from his
trance. He lay on the bed looking be
wildered but normal. And no sooner had
I slammed and locked the door than Mrs.
Bavin turned to John B. Gillespie.
"You have 2 4 hours to leave this town
and take your addition with you "
she began. The rest was splendid but
what with my anxiety lest the reporters
clamoring in the hall break in on us,
what with my general emotional up
heaval, only flashes stick In my onemory,
like: "The full story of that Texas
episode I've been working with Dr.
King. I tell you a subject in the third
stage of hypnosis will take suggestions
from anyone I did It publicly so that I'd
have the proof In case you should try one
single trick on me ryou're to say to the
reporters that this Is a nervous collapse
I tell you. If you make a move I don't
like, I'll give the full story to the news
papers that's all, Mr. Gillespie go and
don't come back!"
I remember the face of Gillespie pale,
the lines fallen, the power gone from his
eyes. I remember that he babbled out a
futile word of denial or protest here and
there, which Mrs. Bavin stopped instant
ly with her own steely tones. At this
final (ommand she turned to me. And I,
moving as though myself hypnotized, un
locked the door, somehow Jammed the
unresisting Gillespie into a cranny of the
crowd of questioning reporters, dammed
the flood by main force, and locked the
door again.
Madge Bavin turned to Edgerley
Moore.
"Now," she said, wrth all the mother of
her In her tone, "we'll take care of your
case. Don't worry. We're going to get
form and features had caught some new
grace from the times. Her eye was as
clear and cold as a stalactite of Capri.
She wore a sigh, and there is something
in a sigh for everybody. But I will throw
no shadow over her, for life in her is as
mysterious as in the rich belle; and when
the golden chariot of destiny roll3
through the skies she may take her seat
among the great."
Tom Russell's release so enraged the
Bulliners and their friends that there was
talk of hanging the leaders of the Russell-Henderson
clan. As Tom Russell dis
appeared, vengeance was visited on his
kin and fellow feudists. On May 15,
1874, three men hid behind a pile of logs
and shot James Henderson while he was
working In his field. They had tried to
steal up to his house, but the barking of
his dogs and braying of his mules scared
them away. Henderson died; his wife
went mad. Henderson on his deathbed
said the assassins were James Noriis,
John Bulllner and Manuel or Monroe Bul
liner. John Bulliner was arrested. He
was acquitted because four witnesses
from Tennessee swore he was in that
state at the time of the murder.
In all the narrative there is not one
man-to-man duel. The feudists fired al-
you out of this so that no one will ever
suspect."
Madge Bavin carried the operation
through to the end; however, the next
week was a period of strain, not only for
her, but for Carrington and me, her com
mittee on suppression. We got Mr.
Moore to Carrington's private hospital
under charge of a head nurse who is of
ficially deaf, dumb and blind. The doctor
, and I were always on guard, and we man
aged to put over our story to the press
that the strain of the tournament season
had been too much for a man of Edgerley
Moore's advanced years; that a sudden
mental aberration made him drive on the
last green Instead of putting, and then
collapse.
But the news of Mr. Gillespie's failure
and disappearance drew the attention of
the newspapers momentarily away from
Mr. Moore and gave us our opening. That
night we motored our patient down to
New York and put him on a steamer for
England. He never came back.
Dr. Carrington was in London the next
year and ran across him in New Oxford
street. Dr. Carrington took him to
luncheon and, following an almost irre
sistible Impulse, turned the conversation
indelicately toward Mr. Moore's career at
golf.
The doctor said afterward that he felt
a little conscience-stricken when he did
this; but he certainly paid high. The
disagreeable episode which closed his
career as champion had evaporated from
Mr. Moore's mind; he remembered only
his glories. He held Dr. Carrington until
nearly 4 o'clock while he droned out the
full details of every round he had played.
As a device for breaking away Dr. Car
rington dragged in a reference to Gil
lespie and the climax of the last match.
At that Mr. Moore's eyes flickered and
his expression grew for a moment sheep
ish. . But he recovered almost Instantly.
"Well, anyhow," he cackled, "this old
dog had his day."
(Copyright, 1922. by Will Irwin.)
ways from ambush from weeds, road
side thickets, barnyard fence corners,
from behind trees and logs, upon unsus
pecting victims. Vincent Hinchcliff was
riding homeward after visiting a sick
man. Several men, hiding in a skirt of
timber, fired, four shotguns and twelve
times with pistols. "Vince" and his horse
fell dead, -i ' t
Another Offered Up.
"And in the woods nearby," wrote Mr.
Erwin, "were heard the screams of Joy
and fiendish yells of these ruffians, hold
ing a regular kickapoo war dance over
his remains, while the smoke from their
guns was ascending high up in the' dome
of day as a signal to the surrounding
country that another victim had been
offered up."
"Field" Henderson was-charged with
the murder of Hinchcliff, but 15 men
swore at the trial that they had seen him
at a chnrch 12 miles distant at the time
IHnchcliff was killed. The state's attor
ney, J. D. F. Jennings, dropped the case.
Jennings, afterward Judge of probate in
Oklahoma City, was the father of Al Jen
nings, ex-bandlt, whom President Roose
velt pardened and who later ran for gov-
ernor of Oklahoma. It will be recalled...
that Al Jennings, following the tradi-r
tional custom of demanding blood lor:
blood, was hunting outlaws who had."
killed his brother when he got entangled
with them and bec'ame an outlaw himself.
Usually the Williamson county bloods
did their own murdering, but occasion
ally,' It appears from Mr. Erwin's story,
they hired it done. Marshall Crain said
that John Bulliner agreed to give him
$300 for killing George W. Sisney, and
did give him all but $5 of the sum. Sis
ney had been waylaid four times, but
seemed to have a charmed life. On a
night of rain and wind Crain crept along'
Sisney's porch in Carbondale, found an
open window where the curtains were
blowing, aimed his shotgun between the
curtains and fired. As the historian of
the vendetta says:
"Marshall Crain pulled the trigger, and
George W. Sisney laid still in death's
eternal sleep."
Party Lines Are Broken.
Crain next sought out William Spence,
who kept a store in Crainville, fired both
barrels of his shotgun into Spence's ab-
domen and finished him with a revolver. -At
this point the patience of the bystand
ers broke. Republicans joined with dem
ocrats in the common cause of ending the
slaughter. They were influenced by prac
tical as well as moral considerations. We
quote Mr. Erwin again:
"Our lands went down in value one
third to one-half. The fields of grain that
were annually gathered on the west side
of the county nearly failed. These were
stubborn facts, known at home and read
by thinking minds throughout the world.
The name of Williamson county had be
come a hiss and a byword. Strangers
shunned us like a serpent, and the sting
was felt. Affairs were deplorable. Ruf
fianism was rampant. Noted assassins
were concealed in the thickets of the
bloody ground. The air was filled with
the omens of disaster. Pass the street
corners and the breath of murder was
whispered in your face. Bold- assassins
stalked unbridled and unchecked. To
bring these outlaws to justice was the
universal desire of our people'; but how
to do it was a point that put to silence
the entire country. The people were
cussing the offlicers. Those who knew
anything were afraid to tell it."
County and state officers offered re
wards for the arrest and conviction of
the murderers. A woman told who they
were. Brave men pieced out the evidence.
Sam Music, a teamster, was arrested. In
jail he confessed to complicity in the kill
ing of Spence and Sisney, and implicate-'
others. All, to their amazement, were ar.
rested and went to trial. Marshall Crain
was sentenced to be hanged. George W.
Sisney Jr. visited his cell, and Marshall
said: "Wash, I am ruined. I murdered
your father, and ask' you to forgive me."
"Wash said," Mr. Erwin reports,
" 'You murdered him without cause, and
I will never forgive you,' and walked
away with the excitement of gratified
vanity lighting with radiance on the
vestal roses of his cheek.
A Poem on Scaffold.
The hanging of Marsh Crain was a
great event in Illinois and was regarded
as proof that "bloody Williamson" had
turned over a new leaf. On the scaffold
, he said : "I am guilty of killing the two
men," and read a "poem of 24 verses
which he had composed for the occasion."
Sam Music was sent to prison for 14
years and some of the others for longer
terms.
One would like to report that William
son county, after this purging, lived hap
pily ever after. Mr. Erwin, closing his
narrative, prayed that It might be so. He
wrote: "With this, I seal the volume, and
turn my eyes away from "the bloody acts
of depraved men, hoping with all the fer
vor of which my soul is capable that God
will add no other plague to our county."
And in the Introduction to his history ha
offered this excellent advice: "There is
no reason why a community of as intel
ligent, honest and industrious a people
as ours should not live in peace and
plenty. We must learn to Senounce crime
and punish criminals, and not stand
ready to applaud them. Our criminals
must lay down their arms, for there can
never be peace as long as they sleep on
them. The law must be enforced; with
out this, life will be unsafe and property
Invaded. Young men, help build up a
healthy public sentiment against crime."
That was written 46 years ago. The
county has indeed had its periods of calm
since then, but on June 21 and 22, 1922,
21 men were killed In and following an
attack by union miners on workers In a
strip mine that was being operated in
defiance of the union. Nineteen of them
were killed after they had surrendered
and marched out behind a white flag.
They were marched to a wire fence In
the woods. "Run, you scabs!" the leader
said, and as they ran they were shot, and
some who escaped after running this
double gauntlet of guns and barbed wire
were hunted through swamp and thicket
and dragged out and killed.