The Hanging of Eliphalet Green
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On Christmas Eve, December 24, 1823, two men - William Wright and
Eliphalet Green - were working as laborers in the distillery of Abel
Moore near the Wood River Creek, which ran near Moore’s property.
Moore’s homestead was located along Rt. 140, just east of the Alton
State Hospital. A quarrel began between the two men which ended in a
fist fight. Green was badly beaten. He became furious with rage.
Green, who was thought of as “half-witted,” got his gun, loaded it
with a charge of gunpowder and one lead bullet, and deliberately
shot William Wright as he was retreating to the house. Wright was
struck in the right side, and died immediately thereafter. Green
went to Edwardsville to the office of Squire William Ogle and gave
himself up. After hearing Green’s story, Ogle committed him to the
jail, where Sheriff Nathaniel Buckmaster took charge of him.
Letter
from Sheriff Nathaniel Buckmaster to Judge Reynolds:
“Dear Sir: Painful as it is to me, it becomes my duty to inform you
that there was committed to the common prison of this county, on the
25th of December, a man by the name of Eliphalet Green, charged of
having committed a murder on the body of one William Wright. I take
this opportunity of making the facts known to you, and should you
think proper to order a special court, give timely notice and I will
govern myself accordingly. It will be for your consideration whether
a speedy trial will be to the interest of the country or not. Yours
respectfully, Nathaniel Buckmaster, Sheriff.”
A trial was held on January 13, 1824 in the courthouse in
Edwardsville, which had been erected in 1817. The jurors were:
Emmanuel J. West, foreman; Lyman Gillet, Ephraim Wood, Matthew B.
Torrence, William Hinch, John Gonterman, Julius Barnsback, John
Good, Caleb Gonterman, Guy Paddock, Jacoby Judy, John T. Lusk, Low
Jackson, James Watts, Oliver Balster, James Tunnell, Erastus Brown,
and John C. Barnett. John Reynolds, Justice of the Supreme Court of
Illinois, heard the case.
The following were witnesses at the trial: Squire William Ogle,
James Dabs, Susannah Bradley, Amos Bradley, Polly Bradley, George
Debaum, and Abel and Mary Moore.
The Trial. From the History of Madison County, 1882.
At a special term of the circuit court, begun and held for the
county of Madison aforesaid, in the courthouse in the town of
Edwardsville, in said county, on the 13th day of January 1824, in
the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.
The Grand Jurors of the people of the State of Illinois, residents
and good and lawful men of the county of Madison aforesaid,
impaneled, sworn and charged to inquire for the body of the county
of Madison aforesaid, in the name and by the authority of the people
of the State of Illinois, upon their oath, present that one
Eliphalet Green, late of said county of Madison, yeoman, not having
the fear of God
before his eyes, but being moved and seduced by the instigation of
the Devil, on the twenty-fourth day of December, in the year of our
Lord, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three, in the county of
Madison aforesaid, with force and arms feloniously, willfully, and
of his malice aforethought, did make an assault upon the body of one
William Wright, in the peace of God, then and there being, and the
said Eliphalet Green, a certain gun of the value of twenty dollars,
then and there charged with gunpowder and one leaden bullet, which
gun so loaded and charged as aforesaid, he, the said Eliphalet
Green, in both his hands, then and there had and held to, against
and upon the said William Wright, then and there, feloniously,
willfully, and of his malice aforethought, did shoot and discharge
and the said Eliphalet Green, with the leaden bullet aforesaid, out
of the gun aforesaid, then and there by force of the gunpowder,
shot, discharged, and sent forth as aforesaid, the aforesaid William
Wright in and upon the right side of him, the said William Wright,
near the right pap of the right side of him, the said William
Wright, then and there, with the leaden bullet aforesaid, out of the
gun aforesaid, by the said Eliphalet Green, so as aforesaid, shot,
discharged and sent forth, feloniously, willfully, and of his malice
aforethought, did strike, penetrate and wound, giving to the said
William Wright, with the leaden bullet aforesaid, so as aforesaid
shot, discharged, and sent forth out of the gun aforesaid by the
said Eliphalet Green, in and upon the right side of him, the said
William Wright, near the right pap of him, the said William Wright,
one mortal wound, of the depth of four inches and of the breadth of
two inches, of which said mortal wound the said William Wright then
and there instantly died, and so the jurors aforesaid, upon their
oath aforesaid, do say, that the said Eliphalet Green feloniously,
willfully, and of his malice aforethought, him, the said William
Wright, then and there in manner and form aforesaid, did kill and
murder, to the great displeasure of Almighty God, to the evil
example of all others in like cases offending, contrary to the form
of the statute in such cases made and provided, and against the
peace and dignity of the same people of the State of Illinois.
Signed, James Turner, Attorney.
The trial ended January 14, 1824, and resulted in the following
verdict: “We, the jury, find the prisoner guilty of murder.” Signed
by James Mason, Foreman.
The Sentencing. From The History of Madison County, 1882.
On January 15, 1824, Eliphalet Green was led again into the
courthouse in the custody of Sheriff Nathaniel Buckmaster. Judge
John Reynolds asked Green if he had anything to say before
sentencing, which Green replied that he had nothing but what he had
already said. The Judge passed the sentence of hanging by the neck
until dead, and that the sentence was to be carried out February 12,
1824, between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., at some “convenient” place
near the town of Edwardsville. It was further ordered that Green pay
the cost of the hanging. Judge Reynolds told Green that “it is not I
that condemns you, but the jury and the law.” The death warrant of
Eliphalet Green was issued on February 11, 1824, signed and sealed
by Joseph Conway, clerk of the Circuit Court of Madison County.
Before dawn on February 12, 1824, Green was taken from his cell and
was led by Sheriff Nathaniel Buckmaster (who was “agitated” at the
thought of hanging Green) to a convenient place in the creek bottom
near the bridge on the Springfield Road. Spectators came from a
distance, and it is related that a number of Native Americans had
assembled to see how civilized people killed their fellow men. Green
was led to the gallows, where he sincerely repented of his “wicked
deeds.” Some of the leading men “had their sympathies aroused for
him.” The opinion of the public was divided in reference to his
crime and its penalty. Sheriff Buckmaster hung Eliphalet Green until
he was dead. Green, who died like a man, was buried near the place
of execution. It is stated that Paris Mason guarded the grave
against body snatchers, and caused the corpse to be taken up and
re-interred in his (Mason’s) own graveyard. This was the first
hanging, or execution, in Madison County, and the second in
Illinois.
The cost of the hanging was as follows:
Cash to Watts for making gallows and coffin for Eliphalet Green,
$25.50
Paid cash to White for a hook to hang him on, $2.00
Cash to Paris Mason for a rope, $1.50
Cash for a small rope at Pogue’s, $.50
Cash for digging grave and filling it, to Jarrot and Roberts, $3.50
Cash for shroud and cap, $4.18
Cash paid to Jarrot for driving wagon with coffin to place of
execution, $.50
Cash to Meeker for nails to make the gallows, $1.40
Total: $39.08
NOTES:
Nathaniel Buckmaster, Sheriff of Madison County at the time of the
murder, came to Illinois in 1817 and settled in Edwardsville. He was
a brick mason by trade, and also made money in real estate. He
served for many years as County Sheriff, and twice as a member of
the General Assembly. Buckmaster served during the Black Hawk War
(1831-32). He and his family moved to Alton in 1835, where he served
as postmaster and Warden of the Alton State Prison.
John Reynolds, who served as Judge during the trial, served on the
Illinois Supreme Court from 1818 – 1825. He was also a member of the
Illinois House of Representatives (1826-1830; 1834-1837; 1836-1843;
1846-1848; 1852-1854); and the fourth Illinois Governor (1830-1834).
The hanging of Eliphalet Green – the first in Madison County and the
second in the State of Illinois – took place at a creek bottom, near
a bridge on the Springfield Road. The Springfield Road is located at
the north of Edwardsville, and was near the original town square
(where the jail and courthouse were).
Paris Mason, who guarded the gravesite of Eliphalet Green and later
had the body reinterred in a different location, was one of three
brothers (Hale, James, and Paris or Perez), who were natives of
Grafton County, New Hampshire. Their father, Perez Mason Sr., fought
during the Revolutionary War. The Mason brothers came to
Edwardsville in 1817, when Illinois was still a Territory. James
Mason bought the Kirkpatrick property in the original town of
Edwardsville (to the north). He later moved to what would be
Grafton, Jersey County, Illinois, to established a ferry across the
Mississippi. After James’ death, his widow and Paris Mason platted
the town of Grafton. He later had a falling out with the family, and
moved west of Grafton to Mason Hollow, where he built a home and
warehouse, and operated a store at Mason’s Landing (Upper Grafton).
His stone house was located at the foot of Springfield Street in
Grafton. Hail Mason became a preacher, and was one of the early
settlers of Godfrey. He also helped to found Clifton (Terrace).
TALKS WITH THE EARLY SETTLERS
Mrs. Latty Scarritt, widow of Nathan Scarritt
Source: Alton Telegraph, February 25, 1875
Some of the particulars of the crime and hanging of Mr. Eliphalet
Green were given by Mrs. Latty Scarritt, wife of Nathan Scarritt,
which left the impression that Mr. Green was an inoffensive man, at
work at Abel Moore’s, and that he was imposed upon and provoked by a
rowdy, and in a fit of anger, when dared to shoot, did shoot his
man. He had no money and no friends, and was sentenced to be hung,
and was hung. He owned the justness of his sentence, and asked on
the scaffold the forgiveness of the wife and children of the man he
killed. Dr. Peck visited the doomed man in his cell often. He
professed religion, and wished to be baptized, and Dr. Peck baptized
him. His conduct in prison and on the scaffold gained the sympathies
of the people, and they determined that he should have a decent
burial. But in the night, some Belleville medical students, who were
watching for their prey, came and stole Mr. Green’s body away. Mr.
Hale Mason and others gave pursuit and followed them to the
dissecting room, where they had just deposited the body, and of
which they intended to make use. Mr. Mason demanded the remains and
brought them back and buried them in his own dooryard.