The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
CARMAN TOWNSHIP: An early settler to the area was Geo.Howell, who walked here from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Generally speaking, the locality seemed to have borne an unsavory reputation; the river bottoms gathered those who blackened the neighborhood reputation with crime and bloodshed.
One known murder was the "cistern tragedy".
In August 1863 a well dressed man entered the State Bank of Burlington and withdrew a large sum of money.
In the afternoon he crossed river on a ferry boat on which was a man who had witnessed the bank transaction.
After landing on the Illinois shore the proceeded onward on foot. The day was hot and sultry so he stopped at the home of Mr. White to ask for a drink of water.
Mrs. White was so favorably impressed with his genteel appearance that she asked him to sit and rest.
He told her that he was having trouble conducting business in his home state because of the Civil War and that he intended to buy a home in Henderson County.
Rising to go, he asked where he could stop for the night and she referred him to a wayside inn nearby. -to be continued
1911 History of Henderson County.