Historical Stories and Biographies: May 2023

Monday, May 29, 2023

UNSOLVED CHILD MURDER: UNKNOWN NEWBORN

Kickapoo, IL -- When two brothers paid a dollar for an old footlocker at an estate sale here, they thought it probably contained odds and ends of machine parts from the owner's workshop. But when they broke the lock and opened the box, they discovered the decades-old mummified remains of a newborn infant, unleashing a mystery that's horrified and captivated the village of about 200 residents tucked into cornfields just outside Peoria. In a small town where everybody knows everyone else - and everyone else's business - nobody has a clue where the infant came from or how long it lay unknown in a garage attic. "That's been a real well-kept secret," said Norma Gilles, owner of Gilles Tap, one of the handful of businesses along the one-block stretch of highway that serves as the village's main street. The footlocker apparently was untouched for decades until Tuesday, when an auction was held to sell the property of 84-year-old William Searle, who died in May. Brothers Greg and Brad Gilles, who once lived across the street and knew that the retired carpenter liked to tinker with machines, bought it hoping it contained parts that could be used to help build a go-cart for Greg Gilles' children. When they broke it open they found a sealed cardboard box. Inside the box was a suitcase that contained the body of an infant girl. "At first I thought it was an antique doll. And when I looked closer, I realized it wasn't," Brad Gilles told the Peoria Journal Star. An autopsy answered only a few of the questions posed by investigators trying to determine how the full-term baby died and who hid the body. Coroner Dan Heinz said the umbilical cord was still attached and the placenta also was in the box, hinting strongly toward an effort to cover up an unnoticed pregnancy and clandestine birth. There were no signs of trauma, Heinz said. He will ask a forensic anthropologist to try to determine if the child was stillborn or killed. Heinz said the infant died decades ago, but it is impossible to determine when just by examining the body. Peoria County Chief Deputy Mike McCoy said the case is being handled as a suspicious death. He said detectives are trying to contact Searle's children and stepchildren, but some have died and the survivors are scattered across the country. Investigators hope one of them will be able and willing to answer their questions. "Obviously, some of these people aren't real happy about talking about it," he said. Police often solve years-old cases, but most were investigated when they occurred, giving later detectives a foundation. McCoy said this situation is a true test of investigative ability since the baby died so long ago and detectives have little to start with. "There are endless possibilities here. Everybody has a theory but nobody has any facts," he said. McCoy said the clues appear to point to a pregnancy and delivery that went unnoticed, perhaps involving an unmarried woman who didn't want to face the shame an out-of-wedlock birth would have brought 20 years or more ago in a small central Illinois village. Caroline Huffman, who grew up across the street from Searle's home, agreed. "That would have been disastrous back then," she said. Theories dominated conversation over extra-large cheeseburgers and lunchtime beers at Gilles Tap on Friday. Like most residents, who remember Searle as a quiet man who kept to himself, Norma Gilles believes he had no idea there was a body hidden in his garage. Gilles said when Searle married his second wife and moved into house - which had been in the Searle family - around 1970, only two sons lived with them and the rest of his children and stepchildren were grown. She theorizes that the body was hidden in the trunk before then and moved to Kickapoo along with the rest of the family possessions. The footlocker apparently had belonged to Bill "Tucker" Vogt, a stepson of Searle's, and had his name written on it, Gilles said. But she said Tucker died about five weeks ago. Gilles predicted the discovery will become part of local folklore. "Maybe the secret went to the grave," she said. "I don't think they'll ever know what happened." https://www.dailyeasternnews.com/2001/08/27/infants-body-found-in-trunk-at-estate-sale/ UNSOLVED CHILD MURDER : UNKNOWN NEWBORN September 6, 2001 A buyer at a Chicago estate sale made a gruesome discovery this week when he opened a footlocker he had bought and found the mummified body of a newborn girl inside. Peoria County authorities say the body is that of a full-term baby, with its umbilical cord still attached and remnants of a placenta inside a blanket around its body. The cord had not been cut or clamped, suggesting the baby died during or soon after an at-home birth--perhaps at the home where she was found in the small central Illinois town of Kickapoo. The baby may have been born 20 or 30 years ago, officials speculate. Examinations are scheduled to more closely determine the date, but forensic experts are pinning their hopes on police interviews to figure out how--and why--the baby died. The body was tightly sealed under several layers of coverings, preserving for years the tiny body, skin and wisps of reddish-blond hair. But as well-preserved as the corpse is, it offers few clues for investigators. The baby had no fractured bones and no wounds on her body. "The most certain knowledge we'll ever have will come if the Sheriff's Department finds someone who knows of this," said Heinz. "Other than that, we might never know." The estate sale came after the May death of 84-year-old William Searle, who had lived in the house since the 1960s. His wife died a few years earlier, as have some of the couple's children. Other family members have moved away. "This isn't something that was recent, something that happened a year or two ago," said Michael McCoy, chief deputy of the Peoria County Sheriff's Department. "That could hinder the investigation. The owner has passed away, his wife has passed away, several of his children have passed away. That makes it tough." No one at this point even knows if the body indicates any crime more serious than failing to report a death. The baby could have died naturally. (The Chicago Tribune, donated by KSHOhio) https://asylumeclectica.com/morbid/archives/morb0901.htm

https://groups.google.com/g/alt.true-crime/c/u_F6aVeRL1A/m/2tiK9JAhPeAJ

Sunday, May 7, 2023

JOSEPH VOORHEES of Kickapoo Township

JOSEPH VOORHEES was born on the 2nd of February 2, 1814, at Reading, Hamilton County, Ohio. He was the son of Garrett and Jerusha (Rugg) Voorhees. She was a native of Long Island, New York. His brother Harvey, lived at the old homestead in Ohio, was in the best of health, and was a highly esteemed and wealthy citizen (1873).

Joseph came to Elmwood on a visit in 1835 and returned, buying land in Kickapoo Township. In 1841 he moved to Peoria County and located on land in Section 6, in Kickapoo Township, where he was largely engaged in farming and stock-raising. He lived in a log cabin and was known for his hard work ethic. He had a brick yard on his farm and was for years engaged in brick manufacture. He had over 800 acres of land, a part of which was in Nebraska. He married Sarah Rynearson in Peoria, Illinois, March 10, 1840. She was born in Franklin County, Indiana, August 19, 1823, and was the daughter of Minnie and Sarah Rynearson, residents of Rosefield Township. Her family was of revolutionary stock. Her father took a particularly active part in the early Indian wars, and in the second war against England, and was at one time taken prisoner by the Indians and sold to the British at Malden during the War Of 1812 for three gallons of whisky.

The Voorhees ancestry is traced from Holland. Joseph’s father Garret, along with his family, settled in New Jersey before the revolutionary struggle. They were participants in that great struggle, and although there is no evidence of participation, it was safe to assume that they bore and acted their part with patriotism and valor. Mr. Voorhees' father, Garret Voorhees, was born June 9, 1763, in Somerset County, New Jersey, and died near Reading, Ohio, at the remarkable age of ninety-nine. Garrett Voorhees and his wife came to Ohio, in the early settlement of that State, when there was but one shingle-roofed house in Cincinnati. He bought a farm in Hamilton County and devoted most of his life to agriculture. He entertained, to the last, a vivid recollection of the War of Independence, and was particularly delighted to remember his service under General Wayne, the hero of Stony Point (“Mad Anthony"), and who was a great favorite with Mr. Voorhees. He was with him in the fight against the Indians who had defeated St. Clair and who were so terribly vanquished in the conflict in which Wayne commanded.

When Joseph Voorhees first came to Illinois, he bought two hundred and thirty acres of prairie land. His industrious habits and economical ways increased his lands until his farm contained 800 acres of the best soil. His property at the time (1873) was worth forty thousand dollars. Mr. Voorhees' early education amounted to little, if any, but he had, through life, been a constant reader. He was particularly interested in politics and was always a strong democrat and voted for Van Buren. He was an enthusiastic admirer of the democracy of which Jackson and Jefferson were the honored exponents.

In religion, Mr. Voorhees' views were peculiar. Although he was never connected with any church, he was always a respecter of the genuine followers of Christ. He entertained the opinion that churches improve society, and that, without them, all respect for law and order would be at an end. His advice to the troubled conscience of the sinner was to get religion and stick to it. Mr. Voorhees led a peaceable upright life and could never find the language to express his disgust of hypocrisy and sinister motives. It was very seldom that anyone met with one who led such a temperate life. From his boyhood up, he never used tobacco or liquor.

Excerpt from the Atlas Map of Peoria County: 1873: “He is now living at the homestead, surrounded.by family and friends, in the enjoyment of perfect health. As his health and contentment are of so delightful a nature, the writer predicts years yet before yielding to the debt of nature. As his father died at the advanced age of ninety-nine years; it may be possible the family longevity will preserve the writer's subjects as long, if not longer.”

Joseph Voorhees died on Oct 14, 1909 and is buried at Combs Cemetery in Edwards, IL

Sources:

Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Edited by David McCulloch, Vol. II; Chicago and Peoria: Munsell Publishing Company, Publishers, 1902

Peoria County 1873, Publisher: A. T. Andreas, Publish Date: 1873

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/30312598/joseph-voorhees

Monday, May 1, 2023

Settlement of Kickapoo Township

Settlement of Kickapoo Township (Township 9 North, Range 7 East; formerly known as
Orange Township), immediately south of Radnor Township, had a considerable role to play in
the early development of Radnor Township. Not only did this drainage afford an opportunity to
make use of waterpower, but the larger valley provided a natural conduit for the movement of
goods and people out of the Illinois valley (and Peoria) to the west. Mills were an important
early industry along the Kickapoo drainage. Hale’s mill, located on Kickapoo Creek in the
southeast corner of Kickapoo Township (NE¼ of Section 35), seems, from all accounts, to have
served an important role in providing the late 1830s settlers of east-central Peoria County with
sawn lumber that was used in the construction of frame dwellings. In 1835 William Hale, who
had recently arrived from New York, laid the groundwork for a water-powered sawmill which,
with the arrival of machinery from the east in 1836, was up and running by the spring of 1837.
This mill provided lumber for customers more than thirty miles away. Initially, Hale’s mill was
water-powered, but when the supply thereof began to fail, the mill was converted to steam power
in about 1848. The sawmill was converted into a distillery sometime after 1859, following
Hale’s death, and in 1867 was destroyed by fire (Bateman and Selby 1902:293).

By the early 1840s another sawmill, owned by Robert Bette and William Bruzee, seems
to have been present on the upper reaches of Kickapoo Creek in Section 23 of central Radnor
Township. By the time the 1902 county history was published, Kickapoo Creek at the mill site
was dry (McCulloch 1902:793-794). When the mill stopped production, and whether or not
failure of the water supply was the cause, is not stated, unfortunately. Sawn lumber seems to
have become available to the settlers of Radnor Township by circa 1837-38. William Gifford is
credited with constructing the first frame house in the township in either 1836 or 1837. In 1838,
the extended Dunlap family moved into a frame house that Alva Dunlap had constructed the
previous summer (1837) from lumber sawed at Hale’s mill (McCulloch 1902:791).12
In anticipation of the draw that Hale’s mill would have on the surrounding populace and
because a number of coal mines were beginning operation on adjacent lands, Norman Purple and
Andrew Hunt laid out a village on the quarter section west of Hale’s mill. They named this
village, comprised of seventeen blocks with Washington Square in the center, Hudson. The coal
mining in the vicinity of Hale’s mill also attracted many miners to the southern Kickapoo
Township area. These miners settled in the quarter section to the east of the mill and, eventually,
this concentration of dwellings became known as Pottstown, after one of the principal mine
operators. Pottstown was finally platted by his widow, Ann, on September 30. 1889. Another
important center in Kickapoo Township was the town of Kickapoo, located on the SW¼ of
Section 6. John Coyle laid out the town on an eight-acre tract of land with a centered public
square on July 3, 1836. The town of Kickapoo was a service center for both the local
inhabitants, as well as travelers on the major stage route to the west. Kickapoo with its wellknown hotel was the first stopping place west of Peoria.

Radnor Township, remaining overwhelmingly rural in character throughout the
nineteenth century, was by no means lacking in services and institutions. Beginning at a
relatively early date—potentially initiated by Rufus Burlingame at the Gifford Site—a dispersed
settlement coalesced within a small prairie located near the “Forks of the Kickapoo.” Andreas
(1873) notes that “on the south of the fork of Kickapoo Creek lies Orange Prairie, which was so
named in 1838 by Mr. Amos Stearns, from its round and orange like shape; it is justly celebrated
for its fine farms and intelligent population.” The 1861 map of Peoria County prominently
illustrates the “Orange Prairie P.O.” on a 100-acre plot of ground in the NW¼ of Section 36
owned by S. Huggins. Andreas (1873) also noted that the first post office in Radnor Township
was located in Orange Prairie (on Section 36) and was operated by Enoch Huggins.13 According
to Adams (1968:463), the Orange Prairie post office, which was established in December 1855
and dissolved in March 1868, was originally known as the Orange Post Office. The Orange Post
Office was established in March 1840 and dissolved in March 1842. The Orange Prairie Post
Office was established in December 1855, and again dissolved in March 1868.14 Johnson
(1880:613) notes that “the first schools [in Radnor Township] were taught in the Summer of
1837, and were subscription schools. These schools commenced almost simultaneously. One of
them was taught by Miss Mary Twitchell, in a log building on the Gifford place. The other
school was taught by Miss Phoebe Cline, in a small building on the Wakefield place, on Section
18.” Similarly, the 1861 map of Radnor Township illustrates a “M. E. Church” and a
“School”—both located along a section line road near the intersection of Sections 25, 26, 35, and
36 (approximately ½-mile north/northeast of the Gifford Site. Andreas (1873) indicates that a
church was built, presumably at that location, inn 1850, and that a Methodist minister “used to
preach here as early as 1835.” Blacksmiths also provided a necessary service to rural dispersed
farming communities such as Orange Prairie during the nineteenth century. William Fox
established a blacksmith shop and residence on a one-acre parcel located on the southwest corner of the NE¼ of Section 35 between 1855 and 1860.15 Fox was a native of Lincolnshire, England, and arrived in Peoria in 1851. Business was brisk enough in 1860 for Fox to have another blacksmith working with him at his shop and also residing with him and his family. His shop was still operating in 1880 (Johnson and Company 1880:824). Blacksmith shops similar to that of Fox

With the completion of the Peoria and Rock Island Railroad in circa 1871, the landscape
in and around Orange Prairie changed dramatically. In 1871, the community of Dunlap was laid
out along the route of the railroad (in Sections 10 and 11). A permanent post office was
established in that town following completion of the railroad. By 1902, Dunlap was described as
a “thriving village” with 300 inhabitants, six stores, two grain elevators, three churches, an Odd
Fellows Hall, and a grade school (Bateman and Selby 1902:794). This was the only formal town
that was ever established within the boundaries of Radnor Township.

Source:
RESULTS OF PHASE III ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT THE GIFFORD SITE (11P571),
A LATE 1830s FARMSTEAD IN RADNOR TOWNSHIP, PEORIA COUNTY, ILLINOIS (2006)