Header Photo: Main Street in St. Charles c. 1900 and Well-Known Spiritualist Medium Caroline Howard
By Tim Kirsininkas, Marketing & Public Engagement Manager
If you are a lover of St. Charles history, it’s likely that you are familiar with the story of the Richards’ Riot. On this date in 1849, the sleepy settlement of St. Charles was turned on its head by an angry mob of protesters who had descended on the town from nearby Sycamore in of the most tragic, wild, and mysterious events in St. Charles’ history.
The building that housed the Franklin Medical College, pictured c. 1900. The building exists as Riverside Pizza and Pub today. SCHM Archives
In 1842, Dr. George W. Richards was part of the early waves of new settlers arriving in St. Charles from New England. Opportunistic entrepreneurs and professionals came out in droves upon learning of these new settlements in the prairies of Illinois, and less than a year after arriving in town, Dr. Richards helped open the new Franklin Medical College at 1st Avenue (Riverside Dr.) and Main Street. The institution was one of the first Medical Colleges in the State of Illinois, and Dr. Richards was selected to serve as its director.
Dr. Richards was well respected in the medical field, and he helped recruit some of the top medical minds in the Midwest to begin providing much-needed medical expertise to a largely unhealthy population struggling to survive the new frontier. Grave records from this time period show many settlers often perished before the age of 30 at the hands of cholera, tuberculosis, and other aggressive diseases.
Although the college was successful in achieving its mission, the institution remained open for only seven years, largely as a result of the events of April 19, 1849.
In the weeks prior to this date, one student working to complete his education at the school, John Rood of Maple Park, had learned of the death of a young bride-to-be in Sycamore, Ms. George Kenyon. The circumstances regarding Ms. Kenyon’s death were mysterious, and perhaps in attempt to win over the favor of their instructors or gain their own medical prestige, Mr. Rood and Dr. Richards’ son, George, made the decision to exhume the bride from her grave in Sycamore and bring her back to the Medical College in St. Charles to perform an autopsy.
Under the cover of darkness one evening, John and George brought a horse and wagon to Ms. Kenyon’s gravesite and snatched her body, keeping it in the Richards family barn until it could be safely brought to the college for examination. The crime did not go unnoticed, however, and when word got out, the residents of Sycamore became enraged.
St. Charles’ Main Street bridge, looking west, c. 1890. Rioters marched over this version of the bridge on April 19, 1849 en route to the Franklin Medical College and the home of college director Dr. GW Richards. SCHM Archives
St. Charles’ Main Street looking East at 1st/Riverside Avenue, c. 1900. The building the Franklin Medical College was located in is visible on the left side of the frame. SCHM Archives
In the days leading up to April 19th, several groups of men descended on the medical college in an attempt to interrogate Dr. Richards for information about the ghastly body snatching. Dr. Richards claimed he knew nothing of the crime, and the men dispersed…for a time. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Richards was informed of the truth of what had happened, and ordered the body of the bride be promptly removed from his property in an attempt to retain his credibility.
The answer wasn’t good enough for the people of Sycamore though, and on the morning of April 19th, a large group of upwards of 200 people set off for St. Charles with the intention of finding the body of the young bride and returning her to her resting place. The mob, consisting of men with pitchforks, rifles, and shotguns, descended on the Medical College and at the Richards’ property on Illinois Avenue.
A gunfight at this historic home, 511 Illinois Avenue on April 19th, 1849 claimed the life of John Rood and seriously injured Dr. Richards. Bullet holes were visible in the side of the building until recently. TK
The mob again demanded answers, and raided Dr. Richards’ barn in search of the body. The group came across a single dissected cadaver (not the body of Ms. Kenyon’s), and in the passion of the moment, attacked the Richards’ home, firing bullets at the house seeking to cause harm to Dr. Richards and his students.
John Rood was killed in ensuing gunfight, and Dr. Richards severely injured. Following the crowd’s dispersal, the search continued for the true location of Ms. Kenyon’s body. There are differing accounts of what happened next, but a popular one involves the desperate group from Sycamore enlisting the help of well-known spiritualist medium Caroline Howard.
Spiritualist medium Caroline Howard SCHM Archives
Howard helped run the Howard House Hotel at 3rd and Illinois Streets with her family, and she was so well-known for her skills in contacting spirits in the afterlife that she would be hired by the widowed Mary Todd Lincoln just a few years later in an attempt to contact her murdered husband.
Whether it was the mysterious work of Caroline Howard, or just Dr. Richards’ son looking to avoid further punishment by admitting the location, the body was finally discovered at the edge of the riverbank, nearly two miles south of town, and was returned to her proper final resting place.
The Howard House Hotel as seen today - this building was a popular Civil War-era St. Charles Hotel, and was the location of many of Caroline Howard’s famous seances. Google Maps
In the aftermath of the tragic and wild story, new laws were put in place to prevent medical students from having to claim their own cadavers, instead requiring unclaimed bodies from medical facilities be donated to medical institutions for research use. The Franklin Medical College promptly shut down following the incident, later becoming a dry goods and grocery store. The building exists as Riverside Pizza & Pub today.
The site of the Franklin Medical College as seen today. TK
Dr. Richards meanwhile, believed by the mob to have been killed, relocated to Iowa, where he lived out the remainder of his life and died from complications related to his injuries a few years later.
One thing is for certain, no matter how things truly played out, the Richards Riot of 1849 will always stand out as one of the most wild tales of St. Charles’ rich history.
Sources
Reflections of St. Charles, Ruth Seen Pearson
The Richards Riot, An Early St. Charles Tragedy of First Medical College, St. Charles Chronicle, November 11, 1937
Franklin Medical College, Local History File, St. Charles Public Library Local History & Info, www.scpld.org
