The Mysterious Tillman

The Wittenberg, Missouri, Summers are descended from James Jordan and Lucinda (Russell) Summers. But Lucinda had been married once before. On 23 Jan 1870 in White Co, Illinois, Lucinda had married Tillman Andrew. And Tillman left sufficient mysteries to keep a dozen Sherlock Holmeses busy.

The first mystery is Tillman’s origins. According to Illinois census data he was born c1844 in Maryland. The Illinois Roll of Honor, a secondary database maintained by the State of Illinois showing residents who served in the military, claims that Tillman “Andrews” served in the Maryland infantry during the Civil War; however, no reliable military records are found showing such service. Although the database is maintained by the State of Illinois, it was given the State by Fred Delap of Kansas, Illinois. The Civil War entries are said to have come from the Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Illinois. The name “Tillman Andrew” or a variant thereof, however, does not appear in any of the eight volumes of the adjutant general’s report. The creator of the database is now deceased.

Los Angeles death certificate for a different Tillman Andrews

And Tillman’s parentage is unknown. He is sometimes said to be Tilman (also, “Tilghman,” a known variant of the name) D. Andrew, born in Maryland c1845 to Richard and Rebecca Andrew as seen in 1850 and 1860 census records; however, Tilman D. is known to have moved to California, where he married in 1872, lived, and died in 1911. The death certificate shows his parents to be Richard and Rebecca.

The Illinois Tillman, who appears with the surname “Andrew” in earlier documents but as “Andrews” in later (mostly secondary) records, and Lucinda had six known children, all named “Andrews.” Then, around the time the last child was born, 1886, Tillman walked out the door and vanished.

Lucinda waited a couple of years or so and then, assuming that Tillman had died, she married again, with James Jordan Summers, on 30 Jan 1889 in Macedonia, Illinois. James was widowed, his wife Rosetta (“Rosie”) had died, leaving him with two young children, William and Mary Elizabeth.

James died young, around age 38, on 14 May 1890 according to Betty Jenkins Summers, the wife of James Jordan’s grandson Michael, though how she (or Michael) would know is unknown, and both are now deceased. James and Lucinda’s brief marriage produced a single child, John William Summers Sr, born 4 Sep 1889 in Macedonia.  When James died, he left a house full of children for Lucinda, two from James’s previous marriage, six from Lucinda’s first marriage, and newly-born John William Summers, who would not have remembered his father.

And then the unthinkable happened. Tillman returned! In Nov 1892, he walked in the door unannounced, claiming that two detectives were after him. And then, after a few days, on 21 Nov 1892, he put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. The incident made newspapers across the country. Many with headlines mentioning “Enoch Arden.” (I leave it to the reader to figure out why.) Tillman is said to be buried in Macedonia Cemetery, though no marker is found.

Pension Index Card showing the alias

Following the loss of two husbands, Lucinda married a third, John H. Cozart, on 8 Sep 1894 in Franklin Co, Illinois. Lucinda’s last marriage was short and childless. She died around 1897. But before that, in 1895, John Cozart applied for a Civil War pension based on Tillman Andrew’s service to help support the many minor children John inherited when he married Tillman’s and James Jordan's widow. And this brings us to a final Tillman mystery. The National Archives Pension Index Card for John Cozart’s application states that Tillman Andrews served with the 3rd Regiment, Massachusetts Cavalry, not the Maryland infantry, which is shown in the Illinois Role of Honor. And much more mysterious is that the card states that Tillman had an alias — William W. Downes! There was a William Downes, of Delaware, who served in the 3rd Regiment of the Massachusetts Cavalry. And William's approximate year of birth, based on his enlistment age, was 1843, very near that of Tillman Andrew. Furthermore, Tillman’s children often listed Delaware, rather than Maryland, as their father's birthplace on their censuses, possibly having heard something from their mother. Lastly, it is interesting that Tillman’s first-born child was named “William” and none were named “Tillman.” But nothing else connects William Downes of Delaware and Tillman Andrew of Illinois. If only a descendant of Tillman by an all-male line would take a yDNA test, we might have an answer, or at least a clue. But that hasn’t happened yet.

Tillman leaves us with a passel of mysteries:

      

    WHO WAS TILLMAN? 

     WHY DID HE VANISH FOR SIX YEARS?

     WHO WAS WILLIAM DOWNES?

     DID AN ALIAS BRING ON THE DETECTIVES?

We may “soon" have some answers. The entire pension file for Tillman Andrews/William Downes has been ordered from National Archives. Look at this blog in a couple of months, for that is how long it takes for orders to be filled.

The Summers Clan (or is it Klan?)

Common Sense is not so Common
                                            Voltaire

The Cairo Bulletin, Cairo, Illinois, Wed 1 Sep 1875

Following the battle of Maddox Lane, John Duckworth, shot from his horse, was the first member of the KKK group to be arrested. Then Green Cantrell was captured because his horse with its saddled filled with buckshot was found and recognized. Next was George Proctor, who was captured after his dead horse was identified. Eventually, forty-eight Franklin Co men, involved in the Maddox Lane incident or suspected of being KKK members, were arrested. The list is most interesting.

Thirteen of those arrested had the Summers surname and were descendants of Joseph Summers, born in Kent Co Delaware! And many others who were issued writs had Summers connections. John Duckworth was a son of Cassander Summers. George Proctor would later have a child with Elisha Summers’s daughter, Sarah E., though they were apparently never married. William Plasters Jr. was married to Sarah Collins, a daughter of Martha Summers. Williamson Briley was a son of Rebecca Summers, daughter of Joseph. John Launius, son of the preacher at Mt. Etna Methodist Church, was married to Rebecca Summers, daughter of Alexander, and James Launius was their son. Aiken Plasters Sr. was the husband of Eliza Summers. At least twenty of those arrested were members or in-laws of the Franklin Co Summers family.

And what happened to the captives? An attempt to try them in a Mt. Vernon, Illinois, Federal Commissioners court on charges of conspiracy to prevent citizens from exercising their constitutional rights failed. Even Aaron Neal, the “Grand Master” of the Franklin Co Klan, who was found guilty of the minor charge of disturbing the peace in a Benton, Illinois, trial, was never punished. But, though the conspirators went free, the power of the KKK in Franklin Co was broken, at least until the 1920s when it reemerged throughout Southern and Central Illinois. But that’s another story, and we hope one that doesn’t involve Summerses.

On 10 Oct 1875, John Duckworth, who nearly lost his life at Maddox Lane, married his second cousin, Elizabeth Ann Summers, and then immediately left Illinois. A St. Louis newspaper story of the 15 Jan 1876 Benton, Illinois, trial of Aaron Neal, the “reputed captain of the Ku-klux klan,” for his role in the Maddox Lane incident stated

"A much stronger case could have been made for the people but for the absence of Jacobs and Duckworth, the chief prosecuting witnesses. The whereabouts of the last named gentlemen is not exactly known, but it is thought they are traveling for their health.”

John and Elizabeth Duckworth in Kentucky, c1935.

Like John Duckworth, William Washington Jacobs, a participant in the Maddox Lane incident, had been an informant, claiming that he had joined the Klan only to expose its activities. Jacobs and Duckworth were certainly “traveling for their health.” They had made enemies not only due to their KKK connection, but also because they had squealed. They had antagonized both sides.

John and Elizabeth first fled to Posey Co, Indiana, where the Duckworths had lived before moving to Franklin Co. But then traveled on to Union Co, Kentucky. John Duckworth died in Henderson Co, Kentucky, 10 Oct 1938. Jacobs and his wife headed to Perry Co, Illinois, where he died 3 May 1921.

And that’s our final blog about the KKK of Franklin Co. It is planned and hoped that future tales of the Delaware Summers will be much more favorable.

The Battle of Maddox Lane

The beginning of the end of KKK activities in Franklin Co (at least for a while) occurred at the “battle of Maddox lane,” There, it is said, “the Klan met their real Bull Run, Appomattox, and Waterloo.”

In the summer of 1875, the Klan was planning two Franklin Co “hits”—Capt. John Hogan and John B. Maddox. Hogan had earned Klan wrath because he had the audacity to prosecute Hiram Summers, a Klan member and liquor dealer in the village of Speakeasy, for selling Hogan’s son whiskey. Hogan had been ordered by the Klan to reimburse Hiram for his $100 fine and for costs. Maddox was on the Klan’s hit list because he had “been a little too free with women and with Rice’s wife.” We don’t know who Rice was, but he probably had Klan connections. A Klan member, William Washington Jacobs, turned informant and let Maddox and Hogan know of the Klan’s plans. They, in turn, asked authorities for help.

Very early the morning of 17 Aug 1875, a group of armed and masked men on horseback were caught approaching the farmhouse of John Maddox a few miles north of West Frankfort and just east of what is today Deering Road. A sheriff’s posse, waiting in ambush along the lane, opened fire with shotguns. One masked rider, John Duckworth, tumbled from his horse. The others, several also wounded, fled but were hunted down and eventually arrested.

Believing he was on his deathbed, the downed rider told all he knew about the Klan, continuing to spill the beans even after he survived. He had been initiated into the Klan by Hiram Summers, the Sneakout liquor dealer, at the farm lot of Elisha Summers. Some contemporary newspaper articles listed Elisha as Eli, but for a variety of reasons, we know it was probably not Eli. And who was the downed KKK rider, John Duckworth? It turns out he was John Wilson Duckworth, a son of Cassander Summers, Thomas Summers’s granddaughter! Hiram and Elisha Summers were brothers and Cassander’s cousins. It was all in the family. 

All in the Family

Were these members of the Summers family really KKK participants? Probably, though they may have just been ruffians, lawless individuals with a streak of cussedness. Let’s hope that was all it was because, as we will see, Summers participation was much, much more extensive than indicated here.