Mound City Weekly Emporium, Thursday, 5 Jan 1860:

FATAL ACCIDENT—A sad and fatal accident occurred in our city this (Friday) morning.  Charles Ferrel, son of C. M. Ferrel, while preparing to go hunting, in company with another boy, placed his mouth to the muzzle of his gun to ascertain if it was loaded, when from some cause the gun went off, lodging the entire charge of shot in his head and killing him instantly.  Charley was about 14 years of age and an only child.

Mound City Weekly Emporium, Thursday, 12 Jan 1860:

Independent Order of Good Templars

North Caledonia Lodge

           Whereas, the remorseless enemy of man has been in our midst and taken one of our brothers beyond the realm of snows and wintry blasts into a spring of eternal bliss, and unfading bloom, and whereas, we believe that the grave has no titles among its sleeping millions, but silently they all repose together—the high, the low, the rich and the poor.  Death has no palace, but the coffin, no purple, but the shroud.  Guilt sees in it but the opening to a dark and dreaded future, religion, but the pathway to a better land—its shadows mingled with the light of hope, which ever gleams athwart the gloom.—

           Therefore

           Resolved, That in the death of Bro. J. N. Little, of North Caledonia Lodge, we recognize a heavy bereavement, the loss of a man of integrity, a kind and generous friend, and an ardent and zealous laborer in the Temperance Reform.

           Resolved, That we extend to his bereaved widow, our earnest sympathy, and recommend that she soothe her grief in thinking that “the briefer the life the longer immortality.”

Resolved, That while we mourn the loss of an efficient co-laborer, there sadly comes home the remembrance of one, who drank deeply in the cup of human affliction, yet we are willing to consign his soul to God who gave it, in Faith, Hope and Charity.

Resolved, That the editors of the Cairo City Gazette and the Mound City Emporium be requested to give these resolutions a place in their respective papers and that copies of the same be furnished the friends of the deceased.

George E. Olmsted

J. B. Crandall, Committee on Resolutions

A man named J. W. Dudley died at Cairo last week, after an illness of but two days.  He had purchased a large number of sheep, which are now in possession of a couple of the citizens.  He came from Carbondale to Cairo, but whether he has relations in this vicinity is not known.

Mound City Weekly Emporium, Thursday, 26 Jan 1860:

DIED:

           In this city, on Wednesday, the 25^th inst., at quarter to 12 o’clock of congestion of the lungs, Charlie Herbert, only child of John J. and Cordelia Freeman, aged six months and three days.

Mound City Weekly Emporium, Thursday, 2 Feb 1860:

DIED:

           At Dongola, on last Monday, at 15 minutes to 8 o’clock p.m., Julia, daughter of William and Elizabeth McKnight, formerly of this place, aged about ten years.

Mound City Weekly Emporium, Thursday, 9 Feb 1860:

DEATH OF A MURDERER—Some months ago, a man calling himself Kirtley put up at the Mound City Hotel accompanied by his wife and child, a little girl of five or six years of age.  He represented to the proprietors of the hotel that he was engaged in shipping hoop poles and wished to leave his wife and child in their care while he went to Anna to prosecute his business.  Becoming slightly suspicious that he was not as “good as the bank,” Mr. Chapman presented his bill for board, which amounted to upwards of $50, to Mrs. Kirtley, who said she had no money, and from the fact that she had not heard from her husband since he left, believed he had deserted her.  The proprietor of the hotel, not wishing to turn her out of the house, kindly offered the situation of chamber maid, but this she indignantly refused, giving them to understand that she would not work for a living and declaring her preference to die rather than “make a nigger of herself.”  She left the house, saying she was going up the river, but she took the cars for Anna.  Mr. Chapman, feeling about $50 interest in the matter, also went to Anna, where he found that the man Kirtley had died the Monday previous and that he was suspected for some time of being a bad character.—On his death bed he confessed that he had murdered a man in Arkansas and had fled from justice.

Mound City Weekly Emporium, Thursday, 23 Feb 1860:

Exciting Affair in Church

Sumner, Ill., Feb. 6, 1860

           A very singular affair occurred in this place yesterday, the particulars of which I hasten to give you.  For some weeks past, a great religious revival has been in progress in our midst, services having been held every day and evening for about two weeks, and, as might readily be supposed, an excitement was created and many hardened sinners joined church (New Lights).

           On yesterday morning, during divine service, which began at 1 ½ o’clock, when the house was crowded, and the preacher in the middle of his discourse, a young man named Win Barlow, seated in the congregation, attempted to commit suicide by cutting his throat with a pocket knife.  He first cut the principal artery in each arm, and then inflicted a horrible gash in the throat, aiming no doubt to cut the jugular vein, but not knowing its precise location missed it.  When first discovered, he was seen holding his head in his left hand, while the blood was trickling down the side of his neck and arms.  When asked about it, he insisted that nothing was the matter and requested to be let alone.  He was carried out and soon fainted.  On being restored to consciousness, he called for his knife, saying, “I will soon finish it.”

The unfortunate man assigned no reason for his rash act, but the general impression is that he was laboring under a fit of insanity, or more probably religious excitement.  Your correspondent had a long conversation with him the evening before and was with him until a late hour during which time he showed no signs of mental derangement.  He had been in Sumner but a year and was doing a good business at his calling (plastering).

           Mr. Barlow is about twenty-two years of age, a strictly temperate man, and much respected by those who know him.  At present his physicians think there is a possibility of his recovering, but, if he should, it would be regarded as almost a miracle.

           As may be expected, this scene threw the congregation into confusion, and the remainder of the morning service was omitted.

           (Sumner is located in Lawrence Co., Ill.—Darrel Dexter)

Mound City Weekly Emporium, Thursday, 1 Mar 1860:

DROWNED OR MURDERED—A young man from Kentucky, named G. H. Caldwell, was drowned or murdered at Leavenworth, Ind., on Sunday night, last.  About ten o’clock he left the house of a young lady he had been visiting to return home, intending to cross the river in a skiff.  Shortly afterwards someone near the river was heard shouting, “Murder, murder! Help for God’s sake!”—The next morning his skiff was found some miles below Leavenworth, with the oars carefully laid under the seats, and Caldwell was missing.  Blood was found on the rocks near where the skiff was fastened.  It is uncertain whether he was murdered and thrown in the river, or whether he fell out of his skiff and was drowned.  His body has not been found. 

[N.B. There are no extant issues for the remainder of 1860, or for the years 1861-1865]