BLOODY GULCH ROAD and EARLY COUNTY JUSTICE

The road with the strange name, was it the scene of a battle? An accident? Actually, the name commemorates a mystery and of a murder. This is the story of "The Bloody Gulch."

In the 1800's a group of men and boys would frequently play baseball in the early evenings on Pump Factory Road. They played near the pump factory, a stone building where well pumps were manufactured and located by the Illinois Central Railroad overpass. The building is still standing.

Among the players one evening was a farm worker named Moss. Another was a Bible salesman and college student named Teil. As the game broke up, Moss was heard to say to Teil, "I know where you can sell some Bibles."

The two men were seen to walk south, up a hill, on Pump Factory Road, supposedly so Moss could point out the farm of the customer. Moss was a farm-hand in that area, and so knew the locality well. Teil was never seen again.

A couple of days later a farm boy was driving a herd of cattle through a gulch, probably heading them to the barn for milking. This gulch ran parallel with Pump Factory Road, about a mile to the east. The gulch included an under-pass that ran under a road that lay at right angles to Pump Factory Road. The under-pass allowed cattle to go from one pasture to another on the other side of the road.

When the cattle came to the under-pass, they refused to enter it, even though it was familiar ground. The farm boy soon saw why. Either a hand or a boot was protruding from the sand of the under-pass. An over-night rain had exposed it. The Sheriff was called, and the Bible salesman's body was recovered from the gulch.

Suspicion immediately fell upon Moss, since he had been seen leaving the ball game with Teil. The Sheriff found Moss on top of a load of hay at a nearby farm. "Come on down, I've got to take you in," the Sheriff told Moss. Moss jumped down off the load of hay and said, "Just let me get a drink of water first." The Sheriff watched as Moss went to the well for a drink, and saw him throw something into some bushes. A search of the bushes turned up Teil's watch and ring.

"He knew then that he was the one," said Walter Levan, who told this story. "Moss was put in prison for the rest of his life. I've heard my folks tell about it over and over again." Levan, now deceased, farmed in South Dixon Township for many years.

It is not know if Moss stole any money in the robbery. But it was learned that the murder weapon was the bat Moss was carrying home from the ball game. As they passed the gulch, Moss hit Teil on the head with it, then went nearby for a shovel, and buried his victim on the very farm where he himself was employed. For many years after that, it is said, neighborhood children were afraid to pass the spot where "something terrible" had happened. The road over the overpass came to be referred to as "The Bloody Gulch Road."

Early Lee County Justice

During the 1800's it was common for farm families to take children from orphanages to help on their farms. Some families practically made slaves of the children on the pretext of giving them homes. During this time, a family in South Dixon Township brought home a child from a poorhouse in Buffalo, New York. "Her hair was matted and she was dressed in coffee sacks," according to a county history.

N. G.H. Merrill, overseer of the poor for Lee County at the time, reported that the child was "unwashed and treated shamefully." He took her to his house and prosecuted the farmer for kidnapping. On the day the case was to be heard, the farmer brought his lawyer to court with him. During a noon recess they went to dinner at the Western Hotel on Hennepin Street. They were seen there by persons familiar with the case. As the two men left the hotel, they were grabbed and hustled to an area nearby where a roof was being repaired with tar. One man poured a kettle of warm tar over the farmer's head. Another tore open a pillow, probably procured from the hotel, and shook feathers over the farmer. Then they rolled him in sand.

Witnesses said the farmer "lay with closed eyes thinking he was dead, then opened his eyes, ran to some bushes, and finally ran home." The administrators of pioneer justice then tried to tar and feather the attorney, but found the tar was too cold. The attorney tried to shoot one of his harassers, but the man pushed the gun muzzle upward. When last heard of, the attorney had joined the Confederate Army. It was not recorded how this case was decided in court.

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