The Hanging of Eliphalet Green
Madison County ILGenWeb Coordinator - Beverly Bauser
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.
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 Indians 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). Reynolds was also 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 town, 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 (Hail, 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).