john evans - Honeysuckle Farm, LLC

He Refused Them More Drink

Mom’s family was thick as thieves in the Poconos area of Pennsylvania! That includes the families of my 5th great grandparents, John SEELY and Katrin (Katherine) BRINKER. I talked about the BRINKERs in the previous post. Now I want to talk about the SEELYs.

John SEELY’s parents were Samuel J. SEELY, Jr. and Mary DeHAVEN. Samuel was born 4 April 1710 in Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut. Mary was born in 1714 in Trappe, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Trappe is now a suburb of Philadelphia. Samuel and Mary married sometime in 1729-1730 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. They had 6 children that I am aware of – William, Isaac, John, Samuel, Sarah, and Jonas. The line from Samuel and Mary is: Samuel and Mary’s son John, John’s son George, George’s son Charles, Charles’ daughter Mary and Mary’s son (and my great grandpa) Albert BATES.

Just for background, all the stories I’ve been telling recently about Easton and the Indian raids, etc. – all of that still applies to Samuel so keep it in mind. You can find a brief history and one researcher’s interpretation of the documentation available on Samuel SEELY here. This particular SEELY cousin (Sandra McGINNIS) has a very interesting Facebook blog where she celebrates hers and her husband Ed’s ancestors with biographical Facebook blog posts. In the post I linked above she gives a brief biographical sketch of Samuel SEELY. She and I haven’t come to all the same conclusions but I respect her work and contributions to the family history and encourage you to go take a look at her post about Samuel SEELY. You can also find information about Samuel SEELY on Kevin SHOLDER’s website at https://sites.rootsweb.com/~rdrunner/web_data/p52607.htm.

Some researchers say Samuel was an Ironmaster. He served as a wagon master during the French and Indian Wars. He owned a considerable amount of land including 196 acres plus 68 “perches” of land. At the end of his life, he was a tavernkeeper. This job as a tavernkeeper is what would take his life and that’s what I want to talk about today – the tragic end of Samuel SEELY. Samuel SEELY’s murder was the earliest recorded murder in Monroe County, Pennsylvania.

Smithfield Township map showing the Seely land with Seely Grove and Seely Pond marked. Image found at Ancestry.com.

The Tragic End of Samuel Seely

There is a place in Easton, Pennsylvania called Gallows Hill. Lehigh Valley Live confirms that it takes it’s name from the public hangings that used to take place there very early in Easton’s history. Today you’ll find St. Bernard’s Catholic Church there. It’s on South Fifth Street if you ever get a chance to go to Easton. The most famous executions that took place at Gallows Hill were the executions of three soldiers from General John SULLIVAN’s expedition. Their more immediate commander was Lieutenant Colonel Adam HUBLEY. If you’ll remember, John SULLIVAN was the one that basically took over Brinker’s Mill in Sciota when he went through there on his “take-no-prisoners” quest to quell the Iroquois uprising. Andreas BRINKER’s granddaughter, Katrin or Katherine – my 5th great grandmother – married John SEELY, the son of this post’s Samuel SEELY. It all connects.

The Lehigh Valley Live website briefly mentions the execution of the three soldiers but it’s so sanitized it would be easy to read over it and forget it but don’t! It has so much meaning to our family history.

The most famous executions were the hangings of three soldiers in the Sullivan Expedition. William McCoy, Patrick Drogan and Daniel Monaghan were hanged on June 12, 1779, for the murder of a tavernkeeper near Stroudsburg.
Lehigh Valley Live, accessed on 17 June 2022.¹

That tavernkeeper that was murdered? That was my maternal 6th great grandfather, Samuel SEELY. Why was he murdered? Who were the people that murdered him? I had so many questions when I learned of his murder.

Off the Beaten Path

Samuel’s tavern was “off the beaten path” – at least for Sullivan’s Expedition, it was. No one that I’ve read or studied is really sure how 3 soldiers from Sullivan’s Expedition ended up at Samuel’s tavern, but they did. Looking at a map, Brinker’s Mill (which, if you’ll remember was taken over by Sullivan for his campaign’s/soldiers’ benefit) is 19 miles away from Echo Lake where Samuel lived (about 30 minutes’ drive time but considerably longer if you’re walking or on horseback). At the time of his murder, Samuel owned 196 acres plus 68 “perches” of land in Lower Smithfield Township.

Locations relevant to Samuel SEELY’s life and murder. Google maps screenshot with my edits.

I want to show you what the Seely Grove/Seely Pond (now Echo Lake) looks like just so you have an idea.

Seely Grove video 1, Middle Smithfield, Pennsylvania.

Seely Grove, Middle Smithfield, Pennsylvania.

Seely Grove/Seely Pond area, Middle Smithfield, Pennsylvania.

I tried researching the three men. It’s as if they dropped onto Earth to murder Samuel and then vanished again. No trace of them whatsoever. They were said to be from Colonel Adam HUBLEY’s regiment. Whatever happened, the men ended up at Samuel’s tavern wanting drinks. Samuel, for whatever reason, refused to serve the soldiers the alcohol they demanded. For this, William McCOY, Patrick DROGAN, and Daniel MONAGHAN killed him.

The Documents That Remain

Only a couple of documents survive from the court case according to Monroe Legal Reporter. In this handful of documents we receive all the information we may ever know about Samuel’s murder. We know he was killed in 1779. The murder happened less than 2 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In fact, one of the Supreme Court Justices who upheld the guilty verdict and death sentence was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence (Chief Justice Thomas McKEAN). We know the Justices met on 17 May 1779 in Easton, Northampton, Pennsylvania for the May term of the Oyer and Terminer Court. In the original trial, all 3 men (McCOY, MONAGHAN, and DROGAN) pled not guilty. The jury was called 18 May 1779. They found all 3 men guilty and the men were sentenced to be hung. The justices upheld the verdict and sentencing and the hanging was set for 12 June 1779. All 3 men were hung on that date at Gallows Hill in Easton, Northampton, Pennsylvania between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.

Page 1 of Samuel SEELY’s story from the Monroe Legal Reporter.

Outcome of the case where the three soldiers were ordered to be executed on Gallows Hill in Easton, Pennsylvania.

As far as I can tell, the three men who were Justices at that time were Thomas McKEAN, William Augustus ATLEE, and John EVANS.² Other attorneys and judges were named but these were the Supreme Court Justices. I was surprised that all the jurors were named in the documents. Just something I noted: the anniversary of the hanging of these three men was a mere 5 days ago from the day I started writing this blog post.

In addition to the names listed above, the book Pennsylvania’s Traitors and Criminals During the Revolutionary War³ and also in the Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania⁴ (from which I’m quoting), lists the following Esquires so I’m not sure if they’re attorneys or judges:

PHILAD’A, Wednesday, May 26, 1779.
PRESENT:
His Excell’y JOSEPH REED, Esq’r, President. Hon’ble GEORGE BRYAN, Esq’r, Vice President.
Joseph Hart, John Macky, James Read, Jac’b Arndt, & Matt’w Smith, Esqu’rs.
A Transcript of the record of conviction of William McCoy, Dan’l Monaghan, & Patrick Drogan, late of the County of Northampton, before the Judges of the Supreme Court held at Easton, for the County of Northampton, on the seventeenth day of May, inst., of Murder, and the sentence of the Court thereupon “that they, the said Will’m McCoy, Dan’l Monaghan, & Patrick Drogan, be hanged by the Neck ’till they be dead,” being read;
On Consideration,
Ordered, That Saturday the twelfth day of June next be appointed for the execution of the said sentence between the hours of ten of the Clock of the Forenoon & two of the Clock in the Afternoon of the same day, at the usual place of Execution, & that a Warrant, under the less Seal of the State, signed by the President & attested by the Secretary, be accordingly issued.
The Hon’ble the Congress of these United States having transmitted to this board the following resolution, Viz:
“In Congress, 22d May, 1779.
The final word in the sentencing related to the murder conviction of the men who murdered Samuel SEELY in Smithfield, Pennsylvania, in 1778. This information is also available in the Colonial Records, Vol. 12.⁵

Digging Deeper: The Officers’ Journals

I decided to continue looking one last time before I published this post and I found a book of Officers’ journals. The journal entries were written at the time of the hanging so I feel the information is more reliable than what I had previously found. Harvard University has a copy of the book of journals online at Hathitrust. It’s entitled, Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan Against the Six Nations of Indians in 1779 with Records of Centennial Celebrations.¹¹ Captain Daniel LIVERMORE’s entry for 12 June 1779 gives a few different details about the execution carried out on this date:

Saturday, June 12. This day, at four, P.M., the troops parade to attend the execution of three criminals, inhabitants of this State, convicted of murder and highway robbery. They were tried before the civil authority, and have been under sentence eleven months. Nothing more worthy of notice this day.
Harvard University/Hathitrust¹¹ Journal of Captain Daniel LIVERMORE, page 180.

This was the first time I saw any indication of a crime other than murder. It’s also the first time I’m seeing information that Samuel was killed in 1778, not 1779. If this journal is to be believed (and I think it would be much more reliable since it was written at the time of the event), a robbery occurred in addition to a murder. Perhaps the murderers had their drinks after all. Even more disturbing though was the entry for the following day in this journal:

Sunday, June 13. This day, one of the criminals executed yesterday, was dug up and dissected of which I was a spectator. Nothing further worthy of notice this day.
Harvard University/Hathitrust.¹¹ Journal of Captain Daniel LIVERMORE, page 180.

This is the only place I’ve found any of these details in a months’ worth of researching. So although the details were grim, I’m glad I stuck with it. There is nothing I’ve found that gives details about these men’s burials other than what is written in this journal. There is no record of their final resting place, no record of family, nothing. While I detest the acts they committed, I can’t find it in my heart to wish them an eternity of anonymity. I wish the journal writer had named the one that was dug up or stated where the three soldiers were buried. I suspect they were buried at Gallows Hill which means they are under the Catholic Church that now stands there. However, no one will ever know unless some other documents are located by researchers in the future. While I’m sad that I don’t know exactly where my Samuel (the murder victim) is buried, I’m glad that at least part of the information is now out there as to the final resting place of the murderers.

Sergeant Thomas ROBERTS gave his account of the triple execution in a journal he kept. I retained the spelling used in the journal:

12th. theare was three Solgers hanged for Murder I never saw so many Specttators in my Life I think. According to my opinion theare was 4,000 that night one was taking up again [the Doctor] Cut his arm and Leg and Examined him and the next night then buried him again.
Harvard University/Hathitrust.¹¹ Journal of Sergeant Thomas ROBERTS, page 240.

Lieutenant Samuel M. SHUTE gave his account stating:

June 12th. There were executed three soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line for murdering a man who refused to sell them more drink.
Harvard University/Hathitrust.¹¹ Journal of Lieutenant Samuel M. SHUTE, page 268.

The triple hanging caused quite a stir in Easton. Sergeant Major GRANT noted that the “whole of the Troops on the ground were present at this melancholy occasion”.⁹ I am thankful that all these officers kept journals no matter how brief their entries were. It provides just a couple of extra details that would not have otherwise been retained about the murder.

One additional thing I noted in the records were that two of Samuel’s sons, Jonas and Isaac, were called as witnesses in the case. It’s horrifying to think that Samuel’s sons witnessed his murder and then had to testify about it.

Final Notes

While I have not found any information that I can say is definitively about the three men who murdered Samuel SEELY, I have found some intriguing information that future researchers may want to follow up on. I believe the possibility is strong that this book talks about the same William McCOY who murdered Samuel. The book is William McCoy and His Descendants by Lycurgus McCoy. You can find the book online at the link. I believe the correct William McCOY can be found beginning on page 22.⁸

I like to walk away from a story with a lesson or principle to make your life (and mine) better. The thing that’s on my mind tonight is that life is so precious and so fleeting. Treat everyone as though you’re speaking to them for the last time because when it really is our “last time”, we don’t typically get advance notice of that. You never know when the last time is THE “last time”. So speak with love, show charity to others, and pray for forgiveness for yourself and others. Life is so short. Love your people.

Until next time,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Resources

https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/news/g66l-2019/01/a7e3ea84774575/how-15-lehigh-valley-places-got-their-weird-names.html, accessed 17 June 2022.
https://www.pacourts.us/learn/history/historical-list-of-supreme-court-justices, accessed 17 June 2022.
Corbly, Don. Pennsylvania’s Traitors and Criminals During the Revolutionary War. Accessed on Google Books on 18 June 2022.
Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania. Supreme executive council, Minutes. 1853. Accessed online at Google Books on 18 June 2022.
Colonial Records, Vol. 12. 1853. Accessed online at Google Books on 18 June 2022.
Hayburn, Timothy. Who Should Die?: The Evolution of Capital Punishment in Pennsylvania,1681-1794. Accessed online at the Lehigh University Library website on 18 June 2022.
The History of Easton, Penn’a, from the Earliest Times to the Present, 1739-1885. Accessed online at Internet Archive on 18 June 2022.
McCoy, Lycurgus. William McCoy and His Descendants. Accessed online at Forgotten Books on 18 June 2022.
Zellers-Frederick, Andrew A. “Maj. Gen. John Sullivan and the Occupation of Easton, Pennsylvania, May 7-June 18, 1779.” Journal of the American Revolution, Frontier, Native Americans, The War Years (1775-1783). February 13, 2020. Accessed online at https://allthingsliberty.com/2020/02/maj-gen-john-sullivan-and-the-occupation-of-easton-pennsylvania-may-7-june-18-1779/ on 18 June 2022.
Hoffman, Luther S. The Unwritten History of Smithfield Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania. Accessed online at Digital Books and at Penn State University Library. Both accessed on 18 June 2022.
Cook, Frederick. Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan Against the Six Nations of Indians in 1779 with Records of Centennial Celebrations. Accessed online at Harvard University/Hathitrust on 7 July 2022.

LIVE BY THE SWORD, DIE BY THE SWORD, PART 3

MOST DESPARATE AND SUCCESSFUL PRISON MUTINY EVER IN THIS PART OF THE COUNTRY!
Reporters wrote some stellar headlines in the coming days. They declared the prison break “the most successful prison mutiny” and compared it to the “border ruffian days”. The guards were hyped up and ready for the manhunt. Twenty-six prisoners had escaped. The twenty-seventh (Quinn FORT, one of the three ringleaders) lay dead at the new prison construction site having been shot by WALDRUP. Guard Joseph B. WALDRUP died shortly after being shot in the forehead by Quinn FORT. The escapees made it to the edge of town and released their hostages. As fate would have it, Warden R. W. McCLAUGHRY was gone when the riot broke out. He was in Kansas City arranging for the annual convention of the National Prison Reform Association’s convention planned for the following day. When he learned of the escaped prisoners he immediately came back. He arrived three hours after the escape and right away began planning for the recapture of the convicts. He laid no blame on his guards but rather blamed the fact that the prison did not have a sufficient number of guards. He made sure to let the press know that he had as many guards as he was allowed to have and was hopeful that in the next congressional session the number of allowed guards would be increased. He claimed he should have had twice as many guards as he currently had.

Meanwhile the convicts were headed for Indian Territory at “breakneck speed”. They used relays. Their relays consisted of stealing a farmer’s horse (and/or wagon), riding it at high rates of speed until the horse gave out then abandoning the horse and stealing another. In this way they were keeping ahead of the guards and police who were searching for them. As I said before, on the evening of the escape the hunt was called off due to rough terrain and darkness. Through the night the warden had the prisoners’ photos and descriptions telegraphed out to surrounding towns and districts. He asked that the districts have police out looking for the prisoners all night and that guards be posted at bridges in order to cut off the escapees at the Kansas River. There were not enough police so farmers were armed and posted to guard bridges. There were $60 rewards for capture of the convicts. Work on the new prison was suspended and the remaining prisoners were kept in their cells in order to have the largest number of guards to participate in the manhunt.

This is likely the photo and description of Willard that would have been telegraphed out to other districts.

Willard Nelson "Red" Drake — Willard Nelson “Red” Drake.

Article giving physical description of Willard Drake.

Leavenworth Times, 8 November 1901- found at Newspapers.com.

As word got out that the escapees were infiltrating the countryside, citizens became fearful and armed themselves. Everyone was on edge and on the lookout. The prisoners were stealing what they needed wherever they could even if they had to hold up people at gunpoint to get it. The prisoners were armed with the guns they had taken out of the guard towers during the riots. They were stealing horses, vehicles and wagons, clothing, and food as needed. The warden advised that the majority of the prisoners were headed for Indian Territory and surely Willard was too since that’s where his family was. The prisoners had over 100 miles of rough and increasingly guarded terrain to cover to get there.

SHOOT OUT BETWEEN FARMERS AND PRISONERS! 8 NOVEMBER 1901
On the day of the escape (November 7th) the weather was forecast to be fair and cooler. On November 8th, the day of the shoot out, the weather was forecast to be “partly cloudy and colder”. Temperatures that day (November 8th) were in the low 50’s for a high and dipping down to freezing at the coldest. Willard was originally traveling with a group of 8 men. On the evening of the escape, the men stopped Mail Carrier FERGUSON on the west end of Leavenworth and stole FERGUSON’s horse and mail cart.

This is an image of a circa 1901 rural horse-drawn mail cart I found online (Pinterest).

By November 8th, the 8 men had in their possession some of the weapons stolen from the prison and one weapon stolen from a farmer which they obtained while they were on the run. The firearms included two shotguns and a Krag-Jorgensen rifle.

An 1898 Krag-Jorgensen rifle.

While other groups headed west or southwest out of Leavenworth, Willard’s gang decided to go northwest into the countryside. A few miles west of Leavenworth, the group split up into two groups of 3 and 5 men each. Willard’s group was the group of 5. These five men were described as:

Willard DRAKE, white man, convicted of Larceny at age 19 and sentenced to 5 years. Willard was listed as being 23-year-old white man but I believe he was only 21 years old at the time based on the date of birth on Willard’s death certificate and his tombstone.
James HOFFMAN (who was named by one guard as playing a prominent role in the mutiny although he was not named as a ringleader), 25-year-old white man, convicted of Robbery at age 20 and sentenced to 5 years.
John GREEN, 25-year-old white man, convicted of Larceny at age 21 and sentenced to 7 years.
Fred MOORE, 17-year-old negro man, convicted of Larceny at age 16 and sentenced to 5 years. He was the youngest of all escapees at 17 years old.
Jay J. POFFENHOLZ (sometimes spelled POFFENKOLZ) was a white man. He was a German soldier who had come to the United States and enlisted in the army at the start of the Spanish American War. He was a military convict- unlike the others who had been sent to Leavenworth by non-military courts. He was the only one of the group for whom there was no physical description published in the newspapers. He was convicted of Burglary and Violating Article of War 68 (Failure to Suppress Mutiny) at age 25 and was sentenced to 5 years. He was 25 years old at the time of the escape. The oldest escapee was 28 so J.J. was one of the older escapees.

Willard and his group took refuge in farmer John WEISHAAR’s barn about ½ mile southwest of Nortonville, Kansas- about 28 miles from Leavenworth. About one o’clock in the afternoon, Fay WEISHAAR (John WEISHAAR’s son) saw the five men enter his barn. Fay didn’t know about the prison escape. However, John WEISHAAR had already been alerted to the escaped convicts so when his son told him about the five men who went into the barn, he knew right away what he was dealing with. John rushed to town and gathered a posse of six men to go get Willard’s gang out of his barn. At 2:30 that afternoon, the seven men- Walter MOXLEY, John HAYES, Henry W. SKINNER, Clarence “Cal” DILL, Ren WAGGENER, Roy KIRKPATRICK, and John WEISHAAR- rode out to the WEISHAAR farm armed with Winchester rifles and shotguns. The plan they devised was that Fay WEISHAAR and another citizen, John EVANS, would enter the barn on the pretext of Mr. EVANS buying some hay. The two men entered the barn as planned. The convicts brandished their weapons and ordered the two men out of the barn or they would be killed. The two men retreated and met up with the rest of the posse to discuss the situation. The posse was positioned where they were covering the door of the barn. The men chose to make one more attempt to get the convicts to leave the barn on their own and surrender. EVANS and the younger WEISHAAR entered the barn again. They told the escapees they were surrounded and it would be wise for them to surrender. The convicts refused. WEISHAAR and EVANS again retreated from the barn and met up with the posse to discuss how best to proceed.

Suddenly the barn door flew open! John GREEN made an unarmed dash for freedom. The posse shouted a warning cry and then began firing. James HOFFMAN came out of the barn door immediately after GREEN and was carrying the Krag-Jorgensen rifle. Both sides were firing at each other. J.J. POFFENHOLZ and then Willard came out of the barn immediately after HOFFMAN. POFFENHOLZ and Willard were both armed with shotguns. A running firefight ensued. About 150 yards out from the barn, HOFFMAN suddenly dropped his weapon and threw up his hands. He stumbled and staggered forward a few steps and then dropped to the ground, dead. A rifle ball had pierced his heart. POFFENHOLZ ran past the dead man another 50 yards before he, too, fell dead. He had also been shot in the chest. John GREEN made it about 300 yards before he was brought to the ground with a shot to his right leg. Willard was the last man out of the barn. He made it less than 50 yards out of the barn. While his comrades were being shot down, he raised his gun to shoot posse member Roy KIRKPATRICK. Cal DILL saw Willard raise his gun. Cal took aim with his rifle and shot Willard in the right arm. Willard dropped his gun but picked it back up and ran into the barn where the remaining convict, Fred MOORE, remained.
The shooting subsided. The posse called in to Willard and Fred MOORE to surrender. Fred MOORE walked out with his hands held above his head in surrender. Willard, carrying his weapon with his uninjured left arm, came out with his hands above his head in surrender also. In later versions of the story it was reported that Willard told the men, “If you fellows had not winged me I’d given you a fight yet.” That same later report also claimed Willard was “in an ugly mood”; his injured arm was hanging limp and he was in pain from his wounds. Both men were taken to town by some of the posse. MOORE was taken to jail and placed under guard there. Willard was taken to Dr. GROFF where his wound was treated. The other members of the posse stayed behind to guard GREEN until he could be taken to the doctor to be treated too. The two dead men were taken to a warehouse room in town until the law could come and get the bodies.
The three men who splintered off form Willard’s original group of 8 men had been spotted elsewhere and were being trailed when Willard’s gang of 5 was caught. No one in the posse that caught Willard’s gang was injured or killed in the shootout- at least not according to the newspaper accounts. Each posse member received $50 for the capture of Willard’s gang. The whole firefight was said to have only lasted about 5 or 6 minutes. The 17-year-old (MOORE- the youngest escapee of all) never left the barn and was never injured. He was said to have talked freely after his surrender about the location of the three ringleaders and about stealing the mail carrier’s horse and cart. After the fight, Willard and his group were described as being “utterly without fear”. As more prisoners were recaptured and details came out, it was learned that one prisoner was shot but not killed as he was escaping. Willard would later identify that prisoner as his friend, Lol SOUTHERLAND.

By the end of the day on 8 November 1901 (or at least by the time of publication for the local newspapers) a total of 11 men (including Willard) had been recaptured or killed. Warden McCLAUGHRY vowed he would capture them all. He almost succeeded. In the end, he and his men recaptured all but five escaped convicts as of the fourth anniversary of the prison break. Because of Willard’s escape attempt, he forfeited any chance of early release for good behavior. He returned to the prison on 10 November 1901. Because of his wounds he spent time in the infirmary as opposed to solitary where the other prisoners went.
By the time the November 8th edition of the Leavenworth Times came out, 11 of the 26 escapees had been accounted for and that included Willard. The story of the shootout ran in the papers for days alongside stories of the captures and exploits of the other inmates. No doubt some embellishment of the stories crept in here and there. For instance, later versions of the story said that Willard and J.J. scaled a barbed wire fence before J.J. was killed and Willard surrendered. I find the original story more credible therefore that is the story I told in this blog post. Later versions also state that Willard was shot twice- in the wrist and in the arm (which I do believe to be true), that J.J. lived for 40 minutes after being shot in the heart, and that James HOFFMAN was shot twice as well. Later versions also have a few different names listed for the posse members who caught Willard’s gang. However, the names of who shot the men in Willard’s gang remained consistent. Willard did try to shoot Roy KIRKPATRICK and Cal DILL did shoot Willard to stop him from committing murder. Another change in story was of how Quinn FORT died. Initially it was reported that he was shot by the same guard he shot (the guard who later died)- they shot each other at the same moment. Later the story was changed to say Quinn was shot by “a fellow mutineer”.

More details came out as more men were recaptured and began talking. It was also reported that the day of Jay J. POFFENHOLZ’s escape, he received a letter from his mom who lived in Chicago. He didn’t get the letter because he chose to escape. The letter implored him to be on his best behavior because she was trying to convince one of the Illinois senators to take up Jay’s case with the war department and secure a pardon for Jay. The love of a mom, right? I’m not sure we ever consider beforehand how our decisions will affect our loved ones, do we? By the end of the ordeal, the total count of the deceased was one guard (WALDRUP), one prisoner shot before escaping (FORT), and two men from Willard’s gang (POFFENHOLZ and HOFFMAN).

You might think this is the end of Willard’s story. It isn’t. I’ll leave the remainder of his story until next time, though. There are more exciting moments to come so don’t miss it!

Until next time,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives

Tag: john evans