Belleville, depicted here in 1859, was the scene of a duel shortly
before the town was officially chartered in 1819.

Nicole Dinkelmann
Belleville Township High School West, Belleville

In 1927 the state of Illinois introduced the electric chair as its tool to carry out capital punishment. For 106 years preceding the passage of the law that changed the form of capital punishment in Illinois, death by hanging was the state's mode of execution. The first use of capital punishment in the state was the result of a duel that took place in Belleville. Actually, the duel between Timothy Bennett and Alonzo Stuart was supposed to have been a joke.

On March 27, 1819, the Illinois General Assembly granted the town of Belleville a charter to be incorporated as a village. This was the first time Belleville, which had been founded in 1814 as St. Clair County's seat of government, had an organized government. Shortly before this on February 8, 1819, Timothy Bennett killed Alonzo Stuart in what was the first and last duel fought in the state of Illinois.

At the time of the duel, Alonzo C. Stuart was one of three lawyers in Belleville. Even though he had not been a lawyer very long, Stuart was already well established in his profession. Stuart also owned a small farm on the outskirts of Belleville. One of his neighbors was Timothy Bennett, also a Belleville farmer. Unfortunately, Bennett was known to be a target of frequent pranks.

Bennett had a horse that on several occasions had broken loose and run through several neighboring farm fields, including Stuart's cornfields. Stuart became annoyed with this and warned Bennett that his horse would be shot if these intrusions continued. The problem persisted. Consequently, on one occasion after his warning, Stuart had a hired hand shoot the horse with powder and salt. This caused the horse to run home bleeding. The wounds were not fatal. However, Bennett was angered at Stuart for wounding one of his favorite horses, and several times he threatened revenge.

On one such occasion, two of Bennett's friends, Jacob Short and Nathan Fike, suggested that Bennett challenge Stuart to a duel. However, since the two men planned to act as seconds, they planned to load the guns, which were muskets, with only powder, therefore making the whole thing a big joke. These two men enjoyed playing pranks, especially on Bennett. They told Stuart of their

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plan. Stuart, being a lawyer, knew that dueling was illegal. This was the case since a law had been passed by the legislature of the Territory of Illinois that made dueling illegal. This law remained on the books when Illinois became a state. Many states and territories had passed such laws since Alexander Hamilton had been killed in a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804. On the other hand, since the guns were not to have musket balls, Stuart decided to go along with the prank.

The arrangements were made in the courthouse. Each man was to have a rifle and stand twenty-five paces from the other. Fike was Stuart's second, and Short was Bennett's. Prior to the day of the duel, several young men in Belleville harassed Bennett by telling him that he would not be able to shoot accurately. To prove them wrong, Bennett shot the head off a chicken in a nearby yard.

On the day of the duel, the men were given their guns. Some drinking had occurred at Tannehill's Tavern, across from the courthouse, prior to the duel. The spot chosen for the duel was a vacant lot in town. The agreed signal was "Fire." However, Bennett fired his rifle slightly before the signal. Stuart fell. The crowd, which was ready for a big laugh, stood horrified. Stuart did not move. He was fatally wounded by a shot near his heart. Immediately, Fike rolled Stuart off his gun and discharged it into the air. Controversy arose as to whether or not Stuart's gun was also loaded. Some witnesses claimed they heard a bullet discharge when Fike fired Stuart's gun. However, this will never be known since the gun was fired quickly after Stuart's death. Prior to the duel, while Bennett was walking to the vacant lot, he decided to check his gun. When he discovered that it had no musket ball, he stepped into an alley and loaded his weapon with live ammunition. Raechel Tannehill, the ten-year old daughter of the local tavern owner, witnessed this action.

Immediately, Fike, Short, and Bennett were arrested. However, the seconds were soon released on bail. Due to the infancy of the state, it did not have legislation or officials to try court cases in St. Clair County. Therefore, the Illinois General Assembly appointed officials and passed laws very quickly to deal with the situation. Once the laws were passed, it was decided that a court session had to be called. Short, Fike, and Bennett were all indicted for murder by the grand jury.

However, the night before the trial, Bennett escaped to the Arkansas Territory. Bennett was able to escape the log prison by drilling his way out with an auger. For nearly two and a half years, St. Clair County officials searched for Bennett with little success. However, local authorities began to notice that on several occasions Bennett's family left town. Therefore, they decided to follow the family members. The family traveled to St. Genevieve, Missouri, where Bennett was found and arrested. After two and a half years, he was finally tried for murdering Stuart.

On July 27, 1821, Bennett's trial began. John Reynolds, the Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court and a resident of Belleville who later served as governor of Illinois, was the presiding judge in the case. Illinois Attorney General Samuel Lockwood assigned the duties of prosecuting attorney to Daniel P. Cook. Thomas Hart Benton, a future and famous United States Senator from Missouri, defended Bennett.

Eight witnesses, including Raechel Tannehill, testified against Bennett. He was found guilty and sentenced to death on September 3, 1821. He was hanged from a tree near the present 1200 block of West Main Street in Belleville, which at that time was outside of town limits.

Justice Reynolds actually opposed the death penalty since he had witnessed the hanging of a Native American in 1802 and a man by the name of Emsley Jones in 1804. However, the 1810 law passed by the legislature of the Illinois Territory clearly prohibited dueling. Therefore Justice Reynolds was determined that no future duels would take place, and that the best way to enforce the law was to issue the death penalty. Shadrach Bond, who was Illinois' governor, refused to pardon Bennett. Due to this, dueling became unpopular and dishonorable in Illinois. No other duels took place within the state. Prior to Bennett's capture, Fike and Short were also tried for the murder of Stuart. However, they were not found guilty. Raechel Tannehill's testimony that helped to convict Bennett had cleared Fike and Short of the blame.

What began as a harmless prank, ended in a murder, a conviction for murder, and the use of the death penalty. This unfortunate event involving Alonzo Stuart and Timothy Bennett began the use of capital punishment in the state of Illinois and ended dueling.—[From John Allen, Legends and Lore of Southern Illinois; Belleville County Advocate, (July 2, 1927); Belleville News Democrat, (Oct. 3, 1927, Mar. 3, 1961, May 6, 1964); Brink, McDonough & Co., History of St. Clair County; James R. Maxim, Belleville: The First One Hundred and Fifty Years; John Moses, Illinois, Historical and Statistical; Alvin Louis Nebelsick, History of Belleville.]

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