Writings of Abraham Lincoln, the — Volume 1: 1832-1843 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 280 pages of information about Writings of Abraham Lincoln, the — Volume 1.

Writings of Abraham Lincoln, the — Volume 1: 1832-1843 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 280 pages of information about Writings of Abraham Lincoln, the — Volume 1.

Dear speed:—­We have had the highest state of excitement here for a week past that our community has ever witnessed; and, although the public feeling is somewhat allayed, the curious affair which aroused it is very far from being even yet cleared of mystery.  It would take a quire of paper to give you anything like a full account of it, and I therefore only propose a brief outline.  The chief personages in the drama are Archibald Fisher, supposed to be murdered, and Archibald Trailor, Henry Trailor, and William Trailor, supposed to have murdered him.  The three Trailors are brothers:  the first, Arch., as you know, lives in town; the second, Henry, in Clary’s Grove; and the third, William, in Warren County; and Fisher, the supposed murdered, being without a family, had made his home with William.  On Saturday evening, being the 29th of May, Fisher and William came to Henry’s in a one-horse dearborn, and there stayed over Sunday; and on Monday all three came to Springfield (Henry on horseback) and joined Archibald at Myers’s, the Dutch carpenter.  That evening at supper Fisher was missing, and so next morning some ineffectual search was made for him; and on Tuesday, at one o’clock P.M., William and Henry started home without him.  In a day or two Henry and one or two of his Clary-Grove neighbors came back for him again, and advertised his disappearance in the papers.  The knowledge of the matter thus far had not been general, and here it dropped entirely, till about the 10th instant, when Keys received a letter from the postmaster in Warren County, that William had arrived at home, and was telling a very mysterious and improbable story about the disappearance of Fisher, which induced the community there to suppose he had been disposed of unfairly.  Keys made this letter public, which immediately set the whole town and adjoining county agog.  And so it has continued until yesterday.  The mass of the people commenced a systematic search for the dead body, while Wickersham was despatched to arrest Henry Trailor at the Grove, and Jim Maxcy to Warren to arrest William.  On Monday last, Henry was brought in, and showed an evident inclination to insinuate that he knew Fisher to be dead, and that Arch. and William had killed him.  He said he guessed the body could be found in Spring Creek, between the Beardstown road and Hickox’s mill.  Away the people swept like a herd of buffalo, and cut down Hickox’s mill-dam nolens volens, to draw the water out of the pond, and then went up and down and down and up the creek, fishing and raking, and raking and ducking and diving for two days, and, after all, no dead body found.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Writings of Abraham Lincoln, the — Volume 1: 1832-1843 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.