Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1897 — RIOTING AT FULTON. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

RIOTING AT FULTON.

REMOVAL OF WOODMEN OFFICES CAUSES TROUBLE. 1 . Fulton Loses the Modern Woodmen Records, a Mob Threatens the Lieutenant Governor and Adjutant General and Troops Arc Sent. Militia in the Fight. The controversy over the removal of the head offices of the Modern Woodmen from Fulton to Rock Island came to an end Thursday in a sensational manner. The Lieutenant Governor of the State was kept a prisoner for four hours by a mob, the Adjutant General of the State was roughly handled and both feared that their lives were in danger. Gov. Tanner was called on for troops, both Lieut. Gov. Northcott and the sheriff of the county declaring that the civil authority was powerless to preserve order. Militia were ordered to the scene, but later the order was countermanded, but the countermand came too late to stop one company. In the meantime the seal and iirineipal books of the order were removed to Rock Island. -—Judge Gust of the Circuit-Court; who has been dissolving the injunctions re straining the removal of the offices to Rock Island as fast as they were issued, Thursday dissolved the sixth injunction at Morrison. Anticipating his decision, forty residents of Fulton chartered a special train to Aledo, where Judge Ramsey, who resides at Morrison, is holding court, to get him to interfere in their behalf, but he refused to do so. A telegram was at once sent to Rock Island telling the interested men to come and get the books and records. They came forty strong on the little steamer Hennepin, among them Lieut. Gov, Northcott and Adjutant General Recce.

The visitors were compelled to carry the paraphernalia from the office to the river, as no drayman would haul them. They took a portiop of the books to the steamer and then decided to send the remainder by express at 0 o’clock. When Lieut. Gov. Northeott and General Reece started for the depot to take a train, they were followed by a crowd and pelted with tomatoes. They took refuge in the Woodmen office. Afterward they attempted to board the Burlington train going south at 6:10. The crowd was at the depot, and when Mr. Reece showed himself it was a signal for the opening of hostilities. Mr. Reece was pounded and cuffed, but succeeded in boarding the train, where he was further assaulted while on the way to Clinton. Mr. Northeott was frightened at the outbreak and succeeded in returning to the waiting room, which was surrounded by the crowd, which kept growing. He was kept a prisoner there until 8 o’clock, the citizens preventing serious outbreak. Sheriff Fuller requested Gov. Tanner to send militia. Major Anthony of Sterling, Captain McGrath and forty members of Company G of Dixon, and fifty deputy sheriffs from Sterling arrived at 9:17 o’clock. All was quiet when the company arrived. At 10:10 o’clock Mr. Northeott boarded a north-bound train for Savanna, after being detained for four hours. The militia, under Mr. Northeott’s orders, were sent to the head clerk’s office to guard it and assist with the remainder of the removal. History of the Trouble. The controversy of the Modern Woodmen is an old one. In 1883 the several camps then in convention at Fulton, 111., organized what was termed the Head Camp. A charter was secured and the perpetual office of the Head Camp was located by the charter granted by the Secretary of the State of Illinois at Fulton. There was a board of eleven directors or executive committee, charged with the administration of the order. The order prospered and the Head Camp at Fulton became a matter of local importance. All of the money received for death benefits was sent to the town. The postoffice increased in business and classification. The local banks reaped the benefit of the deposit of the money and a large number of people were given employment. In 1890 the organization had a number of State camps and an element in the order began to chafe over the Head Camp. It was claimed that the State organizations forming a national organization had an undoubted right to administer the business of the order, and the result of a convention at Springfield was the prevalence of the opinion that the camp headquarters should be removed to Rock Island. The old board of trustees, by amendment, was cut down to five and the outsiders, as the people of Fulton term the members at large, secured control of the order. Repeated efforts to remove the headquarters to Rock Island were foiled by the rival organization at Fulton, which asserted that the old hoard wag still in power by virtue of the charter, and the building erected at Rock Island has never yet been occupied. The people of Rock Island began to take an interest in the controversy. They wanted the headquarters, and after legal obstructions were placed in their way they resorted to force. One night three months ago a train load of Rock Island people made an attack on Fulton. The sally was repalsed, a number of people being injured in the riot that followed the attempt Capture the headquarters. Since then

injunctions end counter injunctions have followed one another in rapid succession, until hardly anyone knows the exact legal situation. Just as the affair looked darkest to the Fulton people it was decided to appeal to the Federal courts. Someone not a resident of Illinois would have to bring the bill to get it into the jurisdiction of the Federal court. William A. Penn of Clinton, lowa, volunteered to lend his name as complainant in the bill. In the bill he asked the court to restrain the present board of trustees or executive committee from further interference, pending the adjudication of the court on the issue raised. The court decided in favor of Rock Island, and since that time the battle of injunctions has waxed tierce.

“THIS BONE IS FROM A HOG.”