Jealousy leads to murder, false hanging 155 years ago in Grundy County

In the southwest corner of the Millington-Newark Cemetery sits a gravestone that is very worn and has been repaired after being broken in half.

It bears the names Thomas Page and J. Tibbetts, along with an intricate carving of an oak tree with people standing around it.

Dave Johnson, board chairman of the Norsk Museum in Norway, shared research he conducted over the summer of the tragic, but fascinating, story behind the names and the carving.

New Year’s Day marked the 155th anniversary of a murder that was followed more than a year later by a cross-country manhunt, ending with a mob lynching the wrong person.

About noon Jan. 1, 1866, Thomas Page was brutally murdered by Joseph Tibbetts between Mazon and Verona near the John Reynolds residence. Then, on July 27, 1867, Joseph’s brother Alonzo Tibbetts was taken from the Morris jail by a lynch mob of about 400 people who threw him in a wagon, trekked across the Illinois River, and then hung him by the neck from an oak tree.

The reasons for the murder and hanging weren’t robbery or greed – they happened because of a love triangle, the court system and brotherly loyalty.

The story begins in 1865 on the Nancy (Bunker) Parker farm in Highland Township, located in the southwest corner of Grundy County, about 10 miles south of Morris.

Originally from the timber country of Athens, Maine, Nancy was a widow and mother of a baby girl, Eva. She operated a 240-acre farm along with her parents, Elisha and Elizabeth Bunker. Her husband, Amos, had joined the Union Army to fight in the Civil War but was captured in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and died while being held in a Confederate prison.

In spring 1865, the Bunkers hired Thomas Page, a 47-year-old bachelor of French descent, as a farmhand. Page was known to drink, had a jealous disposition and had an eye for Nancy, who was good-natured but also owned an excellent farm with valuable livestock worth thousands of dollars.

In August 1865, Nancy returned to Athens to visit relatives. Before the trip, Thomas gave Nancy $1,000 for farm improvements and funds for her trip. While Nancy was away during the trip, Thomas arranged with Elisha and Elizabeth Bunker his engagement with Nancy upon her return; meanwhile, Nancy reunited with Alonzo. They knew each other from when they were young at school, and their relationship soon kindled. In October, they returned together to Grundy County. Nancy was angry when she learned of the engagement to Page and made it clear she would never marry a man who drank. Another factor was that Nancy and Alonzo were close in age – 23 and 24, respectively – while Page was 47.

With all three living at the Parker farm, jealousies sprang up quickly.

That fall, Alonzo – who was relatively poor but owned a fine span of horses – took Nancy to many parties and dances in the area, which irritated Page greatly. The morning after Alonzo and Nancy attended a Christmas ball in Dwight, Alonzo found his horses dead from poisoning. He was devastated and immediately reported the crime to the magistrate in the county seat of Morris and sued Page in court. However, the case was dismissed because of a lack of evidence Dec. 29 – the same day Alonzo’s brother Joseph came to town after being released from serving in the Union Army. The brothers had discussed the incident.

On New Year’s Day, Joseph happened upon Page on a rural road hauling a wagonload of corn and fired five bullets into Page’s head using a Smith & Wesson revolver he borrowed from Alonzo. Joseph told Alonzo of what he had done and that he was returning to Maine to work in the lumber trade on the Dead River.

Page’s body was found on the road about 4 p.m. the same day, with his pockets rifled through, pantaloons unbuttoned and his clothes disarranged. There was no doubt that the person who committed the crime had searched for Page’s money belt, in which he was known to always carry about $1,000.

A surgical examination in Morris found four bullet wounds, with the balls from a cartridge used by new patent pistols. A jury was impaneled, all deemed excellent choices, and made it clear that no effort would be spared to find the murderer. Numerous witnesses were subpoenaed, and the investigation found a track leading from Page’s body that showed peculiar heel plates.

Suspicion centered on Alonzo, despite his proven alibi before the coroner’s inquest had taken place, because of the poisoned horses and troubles on the farm.

About 10 days after the murder of Page, Alonzo and Nancy were married. All was well until September 1865, when difficulty ensued between the couple and Nancy’s parents. As a result, Nancy and Alonzo ordered her parents to leave the farm. Later in September, Joseph finally headed for Maine, but before leaving, he stopped at a shoe store in Morris to repair a heel of one of his boots and sold the Smith & Wesson revolver to Fred Thompson for $5.

Months after Alonzo heard of the transaction, he bought back the revolver from Thompson, trading 50 bushels of corn (about three times the value) and asking that it be kept confidential.

In November 1866, the circuit court brought Alonzo before the grand jury for questioning. He swore that he knew nothing about the murder nor had anything to do with it. He was asked if he knew Thompson and said he did not, but Thompson swore that six weeks before, Alonzo had bought back the gun.

A warrant was issued charging Alonzo with murder, and he was arrested and jailed. The next morning, Alonzo was again in front of the grand jury, informed of his perjury and told that if he told all he knew about the murder, he would not be harmed. He then said his brother Joseph had come to him the day of the murder and told him what he had done, but that is all he knew. He offered up the gun, which the deadly bullets matched. A requisition for the return of Joseph from Maine quickly was ordered.

In January 1867, Joseph was returned to Morris by Sheriff John Schroder. Public opinion was that all three men, Page and the Tibbetts brothers, were equally responsible: Page for poisoning the horses, Alonzo for ratting out his brother and Joseph for taking Page’s life.

The trial began in March 1867 and lasted two weeks. During the trial, Alonzo twice refused to testify on the grounds of self-incrimination and was again put in jail, but the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. That didn’t satisfy the moral sense of the community.

The matter stood until July, when William Pierce of Highland Township hosted an Independence Day ball at his residence. When Joseph Tibbetts showed up without invitation and was asked to leave, he reluctantly did so, but not before making threats. Later that night, the harness of every party guest’s horse was cut; teams were mismatched; and a plank was removed from the bridge, which many used to return home.

Two weeks later, a committee was formed to notify the Tibbetts (Alonzo, Joseph and their father, Greenleaf) that they were no longer welcome in the county. They were told they had five days to leave and never return. They also were told that if they failed to leave, they all were subject to hangings. Joseph immediately fled south, but Alonzo said the five-day timeline wasn’t enough time and asked for an extension to allow him to sell corn crops. He was told five days is five days.

Over the next couple of days, another warrant charging Alonzo with murder was sworn out, and he was arrested before he could leave Morris. However, it was thought that the jailing was only to save Alonzo from the growing mob that was forming to take justice into their own hands.

On July 27, 1867, the group gathered near the jail and began using sledgehammers and crowbars to break into the jail. The sheriff, Schroder, was absent, having been sent south on a wild-goose chase looking for Joseph.

The mob finally broke into the jail and dragged Alonzo out, hustled him into a waiting wagon and drove across the Illinois River to a tree just off the bridge.

With the noose already around his neck, Alonzo didn’t ask for mercy – just a little time for prayer. One member of the crowd, Alonzo’s brother-in-law Warren Bunker, asked for a vote from the crowd if the hanging should take place. The majority said “no,” but before any action could take place, someone struck fear into the horses and the wagon left him hanging. A couple of men in the crowd tried to save Alonzo but were overpowered by the crowd.

Alonzo’s last words were: “My horses were poisoned by Thomas Page. Had I desired to kill him, I should have done it then. I did not kill him. I can prove that I was not near there that day. I know nothing about it, my wife knows nothing about it, and I’m innocent.”

Someone from the crowd then asked if Joseph had committed the murder, and Alonzo replied, “Since then, Joe has told me that he meant to kill Page and did so.”

When asked why he didn’t say that at the initial trial, Alonzo answered, “Because he was my brother.”

Shortly after the death of Alonzo, Joseph was lynched in Missouri for stealing horses. Then, nine months later, Nancy gave birth to a son, Frederick Alonzo Tibbetts.