"You Done My Sister Wrong"

As our researchers discovered when they did the life stories of the Civil War soldiers from Lawrence County, not only was there a conflict between the states but that often, while the men and boys were gone, there was also trouble on the home front. This was the case of a Crawford County soldier named Lt. Archilles M. Brown.

While serving in Illinois Infantry company he received several letters from ‘concerned friends’ that things were not going so well at home with his young wife. She was apparently socializing a little too much with Dr. George W. Routt (Dr. George) and the neighbors were talking. Archilles resigned his commission as Lieut. and headed home to straighten things out. And for a while things seemed to be good between the Dr. and the Brown family. The men became partners in a dry goods business in 1866 but alas, the rumors of a dalliance between Dr. George and Mrs. Brown persisted.

One fall evening in 1873 Mrs. Brown made an excuse to go out to the Orchard. Seeing that her husband had followed her, she returned immediately to the house. The next day Archilles found boot prints under the fruit trees that he suspected belonged to Dr. George and began to believe that a meeting had been arranged.

The next day Archilles got his gun, went into town, talked to some people, and then walked into Dr. George's office. Once there he shouted “I’ll teach you to make a whore out of my wife” and in front of Wilson Price, Archilles shot the doctor in the chest. As the doctor lay dying on the floor Archilles walked over and shot him in the ear with the bullet exiting the other ear.

Mr. Brown was jailed for his own protection and after several changes of venue, a trial was had in Lawrence County. After testimony that would make a grown man weep according to witnesses in court that day, he was acquitted of the crime. He went back to Oblong or lived on his farm with half of his children and Mrs. Brown moved into town with the rest of the children.

Now one might wonder how could a man who shot and killed another man in cold blood in front of a witness be acquitted. This just may be a case where the dead man's reputation in the community played a large part in the jury's decision, and some of them may even have felt Dr. George’s death was justified.

The rest of the story......

In 1858 before the Civil War and before Archilles had his troubles with Dr. George, the Hockman family in Lawrence County had their own troubles with him. Dr George had ‘courted’ Judith Hockman for a few months and she had gotten pregnant. By agreeing to marry Judith the bastardy suit was dropped.

Soon thereafter, George left the County and stayed away, failing to return to marry Judith and raise his son. William Hockman, Judith’s brother AND Lawrence County Constable decided to bring Dr. George to justice.

While the constable waited on the Lawrence County line, William Blackburn rode into Crawford County to get Dr. George and bring him across the line to Lawrence County so he could be arrested. The following is Mr. Blackburn's account of their short journey:

“I was the man who told Dr. George that there was a sick woman over in Lawrence County who desired his services. He told me that he understood that they were going to force him to marry Judith Hockman and said he was not going to do it. If any man attempted to arrest him, he would shoot him down with his revolver, that he had compromised with her six months before by promising to marry her but was not going to do it. After Dr. George and I got down in the Lawrence County, we saw some of my party coming and he started off but I caught his horse by the bridle and told him to hold on, that he was the man that made that woman sick, and he must now marry her and take care of her and would do so that night if I wished him to.”

On cross-examination at the trial, Blackburn continued his story: I went by myself over to Crawford County and at my request Dr. George went over the line in Lawrence County. I let on to him that it was a great crime; he said it was not so great as I might suppose it was, that he had courted a girl over Lawrence County at one time and that she had become pregnant and they wanted him to marry her and he should not do it. The officer and two others remained in Lawrence County concealed about two or three miles north of Chauncey until I went for Dr. George and got him over the line into the County and got near them. It was after night but the moon was shining. When I arrived at Alexander Stewart's in Crawford County where Dr George was boarded, it was almost dusk. After the officer and man came up behind me after we got over the line, they took him. After they arrested him referring to his threats, I said to him “Now. Where do you bury your dead?” He replied, “Oh you know, we all say a great many things we never intend to do.” I then laughed and went no further with them."

Once across the line in Lawrence County, Constable Hockman had his man. (Or as the old country music song goes,-- 'the man who had done his sister wrong'.) The group proceeded to the Justice of the Peace, Isaac Potts’ house, and then on to the Hockman family home for the wedding.

Justice Potts had this to say about that evening: “I have seen Dr. George twice in his lifetime; the first time I saw him, he was brought before me on an arrest on a warrant for bastardy to compel him to marry Judith Hockman. The suit was compromised by him promising to marry her. Shaw myself, Brower and others were present at the time. The next time I saw him, he was brought to my house at a late hour in the night. I then went with them to Hockman's, one of Judith Hockman's brothers, and I then married Dr. George and Judith Hockman and he was discharged from the arrest. There was no coercion used on him; if there had been, I would not have married them. He was free to marry her are not as he pleased.

They then returned to my house in the buggy that night --Judith Hockman, Dr. George and the baby. The doctor was stubborn and set by the fire all night. The woman and her child went to bed in another room. The next morning, he went into her room and talked with her. He complained of her not keeping her promise to him. He claimed that she was not to prosecute him. She said that she did not want to do so but her friends compelled her.

The Doctor, Judith and the baby, Emery, apparently never lived together as a family. In 1860 Judith is back in court with Aaron Shaw as her attorney, filing for divorce on grounds of abandonment. George had chosen to live in Crawford County. He never bothered to show up for the court proceedings and Judith was granted her divorce, after calling Dr. George, ‘a heartless rascal’, as well as $120 per year in alimony on April 6, 1860. Judith went on to marry Smiley Sumner on February 19, 1862.

So it would seem that the Lawrence County men on the jury already knew Dr. George Routt. His death at the hands of a jealous husband came as no surprise apparently, and that could be the reason that Archilles Brown was acquitted of cold-blooded murder.

Thanks to John King for doing this research. (Source: The People of the State of Illinois vs A.M. Brown, Trial for Murder, 11 Aug 1874, Circuit Court Record, Old Criminal Book D, pages 203-204, Lawrence Co., Il, Clerk of the Circuit Court.)