Show THE WHIPPING POST IN ILLINOIS ax story of a institution ution in in early dyr id journal j JH 11 time judge there was a it when the no mathany said yesterday penitentiary was wits an ius iusti t I 1 aution in illinois and evil doers were pull punished dished at the whipping post every crime or misdemeanor I 1 according aci to the crude laws we bad at that time was paid for with so 80 many lashes on the bear back of the guilty man well do I 1 remember when tho the whipping poet post waa wall established in springfield that was in 1828 and the poet post waa was set in the ground on the northeast corner of the square the publicity of the whipping being one of the features odthe of the punishment we had DO no public whipping post before that aime time an impromptu r 0 D a tu post answering the purpose when b elp one was needed this post was about six feet high and was a good strong post the first whipping occurred a short time after it was put up the townspeople turned out in goodly numbers asa As a boy I 1 hailed the whipping post as a picnic and I 1 was theio there with the rest the victim was a man by the name of robinson he bad stolen a bar of iron from elijah ah ilef ve the first merchant of sp springfield g eld and famous among early settlers robinson was wag tried and sentenced to twenty lashes on tho the bare back the day for the whipping h in came robinson was w brought abt forth and tied to the post and his back was wall stripped I 1 it t fell to the lot of the sheriff to do the whipping the Sher fat iffat that time was james D henry who afterward became famous as a general in the Blackb blackhawk awk war and who was the real conqueror of blackhawk henry was a tender hearted man and as he had never officiated ata at a whipping before he natural naturally ly went to work with some trembling ing and trepidation in this rattled state of mind the first blow no he struck robinson was a one the victim uttered a fierce yell and started around the post his arms were i simply thrust around the post and his lis hands tied tc gether he ile was thus enabled to go around the past put as many times as be pleased the sheriff followed him and excitedly struck at him with a rawhide the scene was a very grotesque one and a shout of laughter went up from the spectators X when the last of the twenty lashes had bad been dealt out the fiber sheriff iff had not struck the criminal more than twice and robinson was released without having any mark to tell of his whipping except tle welt raised by the first blow hen the next morning dawned a rude wooden figure of a womans comans bead with a bonnet on it was baled to the top of the post under this figure was written the following inscription THE WIDOW RoBiN ROBINSON sox ever afterward that post was known as the widow robinson Ro binon and when anybody did anything bad people said that man will have to bug hug the widow with the next whipping thera there was connected a romance and a mystery yet unsolved about a 1 year after the whipping of robinson a young man came to 8 springfield and stopped at the oly old indian queen tavern kept by archie J herndon father of our will william ism 11 hendon the Is law w partner ter of lincoln the stranger said part his is game name was huntington he ile was a nice looking young man wore good cloth and to all outward appearances was well bred he ile was very closes mouthed however and took few people into his confidence and ou on that account nobody knew what part of the country he hailed from 61 shortly after his arrival another k J young man put in an appear appearance lince for some time after that each cut quite a swell it was generally understood that both were paying attentions to a young lady ad I 1 who lived four or five miles out of Yf town tow and that there was more or less us rivalry between them one morn ing the community was shocked by the arrest of huntington Hunting tou on the charge of horse bone stealing it soon became noised about that the stolen 1 1 horse borse was war the property of the dash ing ug young man who had bad been rival ing huntington in his affair atair of the heart and d that the horse borse was stolen at bath over on the illinois river in mason muon county A trail took took 9 v ilk place rival was put T on the stand and while appearing rather reluctant in giving his teti toony mony swore that Hu huntington had taken hia his horce horve and never returned it this was enough for conviction and huntington was sentenced to fifty lashes he ile was tied to the poet and whipped he ile stood it without a it murmur and when his bands hands were untied he be turned to the spectators and said you haye hato witnessed the punishment of a man as innocent as a child As he said thi thit a woman dressed in black with a veil over her face rushed through the crowd threw a shawl oker over Hunting tons bare and bleeding back took hia his arm and hurriedly getting gettin into a carriage V I 1 drove away huntington was wag never seen in 8 springfield ringfield again till and where he it and ut abo woman in black went forever afterward re bained a mystery but about three weeks abw the whipping of huntington the natives were startled one morning on getting up and finding Hunting tons rival tied to the whip whipping ing poet with his bare bian back covered with bleeding welta welts he was unable to give any intelligent account odthe of the affair the woman in black was wag the young 1 lady y whom the tile two young men inen had been 1 u courting and tho the verdict of the public was that Hunting tons rival had bad made a false charge against him in order to end his prospects with the young lady and nd that huntington after receiving bia his whipping and taking his hi mysterious departure came carne back in the night and by some means getting hold of bis his rival avenged himself hin iselt by whipping him at the same saine post at which he be himself was whipped but to this day nobody knows where huntington and his lady love went and how he managed to get back that night and get away again endisc undiscovered the next in man an who bugged hugged the widow robinson was an old man hy by the nanie name of watson vincent A dog bogue ue a it roan man from cincinnati had a store where the ridgely bank now stands bogue by the he way is the man who chartered a swam am boat bt at cincinnati and loading it with goods brought up the sangamon river to the place where the illinois central now crosses the river river everybody went wild over that feat and thought that the sangamon Sao gamon river would be made a big navigable stream was W well ell B bogue agu e was in his store late one night all 11 alone lauon came in and aked asked him to change a 5 bill aa As bouge stooped down to get et the change watson pulled a sledge begge hammer and struck at the merchants bead it happened however that the hammer struck bogues jaw and did not greatly injure him watson was at once arrested tried and sentenced sen tencel cei to fifty lashes he was to get them in two installments thirty days apart he received the first twenty five and was then put in jail juit to await the next he ile was a feeble old man and on the night before the day on which he was to receive the second twenty five lashes the jail door waa was thrown open and watson walked forth and left the town the old whipping post stood there until 1836 during that year the legislature in session at vandalia passed as ed a bill removing the state capit capital 1 from springfield when the news reached here the people went wild they put in the day drinking whiskey and going through the streets shouting and singing that bigit bonfires were built all over town A great crowd of men and boys piled goods around the old 1 whipping hipping post poured a barrel of tar on top and set it on fire and the biddow robinson inson went up in a blaze of glory the penitentiary had bad then theu been established and the whipping post from that time forward was a thing of the past |