The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
By: Virginia Ross, Special for The Quill
Life was rough in the early years on the Illinois frontier, hard money was almost non-existent and barter of grain, livestock, and other commodities paid the bills.
Only a few had actual coin and it tended to be in the possession of trader-merchants such as the Phelps Brothers of Oquawka or John Curts of Shokokon a little later.
In about 1839 three families arrive to become a part of the growing area near the Mississippi River. Sidney Owens and his family locate in section 22 of present day Gladstone Township with his near neighbors being the Lusk family in section 15 and Burnside family section 21 and 27, all were from Kentucky.
In 1843 John Burnside appears in the records suing Mr. Catlin for trespass and again in 1846 he sues David Strahan for the same thing. Thus he must have been in possession of land, but it is not until 1845 does he actually have a deed for it.
For this is when Alexis Phelps puts up the money ($400) on Sidney Owens’ guarantee that it will be paid back so John Burnside could buy his two parcels in 10N5W (Gladstone Township).
The town of Sagetown (later know as Gladstone) did not exist and all business was conducted in either Oquawka, Olena, or Warren (known today as Hopper).
Since the last two were in the growing stage, Mr. Burnside and his family including Walter, possibly his brother, went north across the bottoms to the steamboat landing to attend to their affairs.
Walter Burnside is known to be in the county by 1845 when he is called to Oquawka to be on a petit just, a job that paid real money.
During all this period times were hard, the Illinois State bank had closed its doors and farmers and merchants were still recovering from the Panic of 1837.
But in 1850 John and Walter Burnside and Jonathan Shaw, who had married a sister, had a plan. They would mint spurious (counterfeit) money and recruit their poor neighbors to help pass it off. Thus they began to manufacture American dollars, half dollars and quarters, and five Franc pieces, all in a very rough state at a location about two miles southeast of present day Gladstone in a hollow near Sidney Owens’ farm.In fact, they had been doing so since February last and had passed counterfeit coin since April.
Walter was arrested for doing so and held for bail so he would show up at the next term of court.
On the appointed day, Walter duly appeared but faced no witnesses so the charges were dismissed. Not so in September when Walter and John Burnside were arrested when Joseph S. Fronk appeared before Judge Rice charging them with making, uttering and passing counterfeit coin.
A pair of old saddlebags and a sack were brought into court which contained a large quantity of unfinished bogus coin and a number of tools, metal, etc., used in the making of the spurious money.
Fronk had all this in his possession because about a week before Walter had made him a deal. He, Walter, would furnish a room to work in if Fronk would manufacture the coin.
Walter went on to describe how he had been selling the money, sometimes 50 cents on the dollar. Fronk further stated that he knew of the Burnside operation in February and had known Walter to pass counterfeit coin repeatedly . His testimony was supported by O. Eames who said that Walter had repeatedly offered to pass him counterfeit coin.
At the same time Brother John was charged only with passing the spurious money, not making it. Both were held to bail which they did not have so were sent to the jail in Carthage as Henderson County did not have one at this time.
The next day their brother-in-law, Jonathan Shaw, was arraigned on a similar charge of passing counterfeit and held to bail in the sum of $100. Not having the money, he went to Carthage too.
The county board minutes for 1851 shows that W. A. Patterson paid $20-75 (depending on time period which the bill covered) for housing the prisoners in Hancock County.
The defendants would be hauled to Oquawka for next term of court and the case continued to the next term until finally Jonathan Shaw’s charges were dismissed in Sept. 1851 and John Burnside was found “not guilty” two days later.
In April, 1852, Sidney Owens who had put up bail of $500 for Walter is added to the defendants when Walter fails to show up in court.
By the next term (Sept. 1852) Walter is there and the court decides to change the venue to Hancock County and save Henderson County the money of hauling him back and forth.
What happens to Walter? Somewhere in the vaults of the Carthage courthouse probably is a motion to dismiss the case, for witnesses are hard to come by and they don’t want to travel to Hancock County, a costly trip in time and money.
As for the others, in January 1850, John Burnside sells his property to John L. Pollock and Isaiah Brook for $500. Evidently,John could see that their operation might be in trouble and was converting his assets to cash.
As Alexis Phelps had lent the money for the property, his administrator, Stephen Phelps, issues a deed to Pollock (another form of Pogue) and Brook.
Quickly escaping criminal justice John Burnside and Jonathan Shaw probably move West; for in the 1860 census of Henderson County only William Burnside, possibly a son of Walter who was only three years old at the time to the counterfeiting, is found living with Sidney Owens in Gladstone Township.
Another son John serves in the Civil War and like many veterans whose health was ruined by conditions of army life, dies in 1870 and is buried in South Henderson Cemetery near the Owens graves.
Thus goes the true tale of Bogus Hollow. For some reason these facts were ignored in the three county histories of 1882, 1911, and 1988. Perhaps the families involved were personal friends of the 1882 author and the 1911 and 1988 authors merely repeated what the earlier one had written. Nevertheless, now you know what happened.