Untitled Document

FIRST FIDDLER.

Z. D. Stanbro of Hanna, was Henry county's first fiddler. Stanbro's father built the first bridge over Green River. Stanbro had a genius for the stage. He organized a company, and gave theatrical exhibitions, beginning at Earl P. Aldrich's house, and working south to Peoria. They played in hotel dining rooms. People for a score of miles around attended the show.

Stanbro says that he played for the first dances in Genesee, Prophetstown, Dayton and Milan.

Stanbro tells of a prisoner held for horse stealing, who was chained with a trace chain to a block during the day, and to his bedstead at night. The fellow complained that he could not get exercise enough. Sheriff Tabor fixed his feet a little freer, and gave him a vaulting pole. It was a solemn sight, and a warning to the young, to see Henry county's only criminal hopping about the prairie like a kangaroo, skinning his rascally shins on a penitential block.

One day Sheriff Tabor's father was going to White Oak Mills, Andover. He suggested taking Carpenter, the prisoner, along, hoping to get on the good side of him, gain his confidence, and secure a confession. Sheriff Tabor agreed. When returning, they were passing through a wood, when both men noticed a paper attached to a tree. While old Daddy Tabor was concentrating his intellects upon the paper, Carpenter, from behind, knocked him senseless

. Carpenter left the old man in the bushes by the roadside, turned the team into the jungle, produced a file, got rid of his irons, and fled. A teamster came along and saw Tabor's hat in the road. He took it to Stanbro's house. Stanbro returned with the teamster. They found Tabor and the team, and took them home. The old man recovered from the blow. The teamster said he heard Carpenter filing at his irons when he first found the hat, but for some reason didn't butt in. The sheriff was tired of his grass hopping protege, anyhow, and was as glad to get rid of him as Col. Jim Day of Geneseo, was to part with the baserunner when the colonel was playing third base.

History of Henry County

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Illinois Ancestors