John Hart Crenshaw and Hickory Hill: Final Report

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Autumn 2003 by Avila, Wanda

Cornelius defends Crenshaw against three of his accusers by questioning their motivations or their sources of information:

* Samuel D. Marshall, the editor of the (Shawneetown) Illinois Republican in the 1840s, was so critical of Crenshaw, Cornelius says, because he was a political opponent. Marshall was a Whig, and Crenshaw was a Democrat. (83)

* The anonymous author of the History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin and Williamson Counties (Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing, 1887), who also named Crenshaw as a kidnapper, "did not like" Crenshaw. He may even, have been a Marshall, Cornelius speculates. (6 [note 1] and 86)

* N. Dwight Harris names "John C-" as a kidnapper in his 1904 study of Negro servitude in Illinois. However, Cornelius says, the reason may have been that he "met with Henry Eddy's grandson Charles Carroll around 1900, a prominent Shawneetown man also related to the Marshalls who may have had special knowledge of - or animus against - Crenshaw." (86)

In the end, though, Cornelius is forced to conclude that the stories of Crenshaw's kidnapping exploits "are too numerous and long-standing not to be believed now in some degree." (4)

Still, Cornelius tries to mitigate Crenshaw's villainy by arguing that everybody in the county was doing it. He admits that Crenshaw surely had opportunity to abduct blacks, that he had cash motive, and that he had contacts and dealings with people and places that made the operation possible. Yet, Cornelius says, the same could be said of "most whites in the area" and of "hundreds of other residents of Gallatin County." (4, 85)

As to whether Crenshaw kept his victims in the attic of his house, Cornelius admits in his preface that we do not know, (vi) Crenshaw's house is known locally as "The Old Slave House," though Cornelius has tried to sanitize its reputation by consistently referring to it as "Hickory Hill." The attic of this house has twelve small rooms, ranging in size from nine feet square to six feet by two and one-half feet. Some of the rooms contain shelves, which may have been used as bunks. Crenshaw is alleged to have hidden kidnap victims in these rooms until they could be sold to traders, who in turn sold them into slavery in the South.

Finding no proof that Crenshaw kept his victims in this attic, Cornelius blithely asserts, "whatever the merits of the kidnapping charges against Crenshaw, none of them connect to the house." He also writes, "Hickory Hill has historic value-for its age, its associations with pioneer families both white and black, and its connection to the state's first industry." However, "to link it with crimes which occurred in the vicinity is not historically justifiable." (87)

As to whether Crenshaw used a "stud slave," named Bob Wilson, to breed slaves in the attic of this house, Cornelius says in the preface of his report that "this story seems to be entirely false." (vi) Yet, in an appendix, where Cornelius discusses the allegation, he admits that the story cannot be categorically refuted, and he merely details many aspects of Wilson's story that cannot be corroborated (though none can be proven false).