[Illustration: {uncaptioned}]
The photographer surprised us with this attractive picture of the
Lancaster county courthouse, a testimonial to his art or to our lack of
perception. Our initial impression of the courthouse was gained from the
third story of The Journal building in the days when it still wore a
conventional round dome, on top of which was perched a sad castiron
statue of Abraham Lincoln. Once a painter clambered up and gave the
statue a coat of bright red paint. Protests poured in. It developed that
the red was only preliminary to a more suitable bronze. But eventually
dome and statue disappeared, with pleasing results.
In its 55 years the courthouse has seen drama. The most sensational
trials held within its walls were during the tumultuous 90’s—the John
Sheedy, Irvine-Montgomery, George Washington Davis and Lillie cases.
Sheedy was Lincoln’s kingpin gambler of the 90’s, a large handsome
person who was found at his office with skull crushed. His beautiful
young wife and a Negro, Monday MacFarland, were tried and acquitted. W.
H. Irvine was tried for the fatal shooting of C. E. Montgomery, a
Lincoln banker, and exonerated. Mrs. Lillie, found guilty of killing her
husband at David City and later pardoned by Governor Mickey, here forced
the Woodman company to pay her insurance for the death of the husband
whom a jury had convicted her of killing.
George Washington Davis, a Negro, loosened part of the Rock Island track
southeast of the penitentiary with the idea of notifying the company and
securing a job as a reward. He notified them too late. There was a train
wreck and 12 were killed. Davis was convicted.
A later incident was the trial of iron-faced Frank Sharp, found guilty
of the brutal hammer murder of his wife.