Grave Robbers' Cache Multi-Cache

Begin your caching adventure by travelling to N41 58.721 W88 37.459.

In 1849, the road you are on was the main route for travellers between Sycamore and St. Charles. The building at this location was a tavern where road-weary travellers could stop for food and drink and perhaps rent a room for the night. This particular tavern was known as the "Lovell Tavern".

One April night in 1849, the tavern owner's daughter was serving three young male travellers and overheard their conversation. Alarmed by what she heard, she told her father that the three apparently had plans to rob a grave in the vacinity. The owner sent his son outside to check the strangers' wagon. The boy came back and reported that the wagon contained shovels, ropes and other equipment used for excavating and robbing graves!

The trio consisted of John Rood, a medical student at St. Charles' Franklin Medical College who, apparently, paid for his education by supplying the school with bodies for medical dissection (the going rate for corpses was $10 each), George Richards, Jr., son of the Franklin Medical College's founder and director, Dr. George Richards, and a third unnamed student. Grave robbers usually unearthed the graves of those recently deceased, both to avoid detection of their crime with the evidence of newly overturned earth, and because those seeking corpses to use as cadavers for medical study needed fresh specimens.

The innkeeper and his daughter identified two probable targets in the vacinity: the body of a "friendless German" man, who had recently been buried in Sycamore's south burial ground and young Marilla Kinyon. Marilla, the 16-year old bride of George Kinyon had recently died (most likely from the cholera outbreak rampant in the area at the time) and had been laid to rest in nearby Ohio Grove Cemetery in Cortland township. Being careful not to alert the trio, the innkeeper sent two messengers to alert Sycamore's constable and Marilla's family of the plot.

Location Clue #1: At the current location, count the number of telephone poles between the west side of the "tavern" and Lovell Road to the west. (Include the one at the intersection.) This number equals A in our final cache coordinates.

In Sycamore, the constable quickly gathered a posse who went to the Sycamore cemetery to await the graverobbers. They surrounded the fresh grave of the German man and watched and waited silently behind the brush. Soon, the trio arrived with their wagon. They had been joined by a fourth man, who several of the posse members identified as a local Sycamore physician. The doctor, himself a graduate of the Franklin Medical College, likely came along to lead the robbers to the location of the grave. (He was possibly the one who alerted Rood and Richards of the potential cadaver in the first place.) Just as the men began to unload their tools from their wagon, one of the constable's posse members had an unexpected fit of coughing which alerted the robbers to their presence. The local doctor quickly escaped. The men emerged from hiding and surrounded the three robbers, taking them under arrest.

The party aroused the local judge and brought the suspects before him. The judge concluded that there was not enough evidence to hold the men, but strongly suggested that they leave Sycamore immediately and never return. The posse escorted them to edge of town, where the frightened robbers made haste toward St. Charles.

In the meantime, Marilla's husband, father and friends had kept a nocturnal vigil at her graveside. Some of her friends had even laid strings over top of her grave and covered them with dirt, to be able to easily tell if the grave had been disturbed. Upon inspection in the morning, the strings appeared untouched. However, one of them noticed that the ornamental comb that had been in Marilla's hair when she was buried now laid on the ground near her grave! Alarmed, they dug down to Marilla's coffin and found it empty!

Continue your caching adventure by driving to N41. 54.692 W88 24.080.

The building you are now in front of was also a road-side tavern in 1849. Legend has it that the trio had stolen Marilla's body the night BEFORE they appeared at Lovell Tavern, travelled part-way back to St. Charles and hidden the body in a haystack somewhere near this tavern while they returned to Sycamore to collect the body of the "friendless German man." Apparently, after being driven out of Sycamore by the posse, they returned here to collect Marilla's body and then continued on to the medical school in St. Charles.

Location Clue #2: Count the number of individual window panes on the front of the tavern. (Only those facing East. Do not include the basement windows.) Subtract 205 from this number. The resulting number equals BC in our final cache coordinates.

Now proceed to N41 54.836 W88 18.751.

George Kinyon, Marilla's husband, and David Churchill, Marilla's father, upon learning of the robbery of Marilla's body, hastily went to St. Charles to the Franklin Medical School along with a dozen friends and neighbors. There, they found the horse of the Sycamore doctor "splashed with mud and foaming with perspiration". Apparently, after the incident at the German man's grave, the doctor had ridden ahead of the posse to alert Dr. George W. Richards, founder and director of the medical school.

The group demanded the return of Marilla from Dr. Richards, who claimed to know nothing of the woman's body. Marilla's husband then noticed a lock of hair on the floor that matched that of his dear departed Marilla. The angry group stormed the school in search of the body. Although they discovered various other human remains, they did not find Marilla. They left St. Charles and returned home to regroup.

Location Clue #3: What is the route number of the street you are on? Subtract 2 from this number. The resulting number equals DE in our final cache coordinates.

Now, proceed to N41 54.780 W88 18.465.

The small house at this location (which is now a Chiropractor's office) was the home of Dr. Richards in 1849. The following day, Kinyon and Churchill returned to St. Charles seeking the return of Marilla's body. By the time they reached St. Charles, the angry mob had grown to more than 100 people. They sought out Dr. Richards at his home and again demanded the corpse. Dr. Richards and many of his students had taken refuge inside the residence. When Richards claimed, again, not to be in possession of the woman's body, the mob began throwing stones at the residence, breaking out all of its windows. An indignant Rood (the leader of the graverobbing trio) fired a shot into the crowd that ricocheted over their heads. Members of the mob returned fire and Rood was shot and killed. Another bullet hit Dr. Richards, injuring his right hand and piercing his lung. (As recently as the 1970's, it was said that a bullet hole was still visible in the front door of this residence.) The doctor and his students were able to escape out the back of the house as the mob entered the home. They searched the residence but still found no sign of Marilla's body.

Location Clue #4: How many windows (not individual panes) are there on the front of the house? (Do not include the windows surrounding the door.) This number equals F in our final cache coordinates. The first digit of the house number equals G in our final cache coordinates.

A local judge, Judge Barry, was able to calm and disperse the crowd, promising to locate and return Marilla's remains the next day.

There are two accounts of what happened next. One was that Judge Barry spoke to the two surviving grave robbers who led him to the location where they had hidden Marilla's body. The second account was that a local "spiritualist" named Caroline Howard led lawmen and Barry to the location where they found Marilla's body. (Incidently, Mrs. Howard gained great fame from the event and became very popular in the next two decades among Civil War widows due to her ability to "speak to the dead." Her clientele grew to include Mary Todd Lincoln, widow of slain President Abraham Lincoln, who travelled to St. Charles in 1871 to consult with Mrs. Howard.)

Travel to N41 53.9087 W88 18.0713.

This is the approximate location where Marilla's body had been hidden in a shallow grave. Judge Barry and two other men recovered the body and washed the dirt from it in the nearby river. They then placed it in a coffin and took it to a location in the woods west of St. Charles. They left an anonymous note on the doorstep of one of Marilla's relatives who lived in St. Charles, telling him where the body could be found.

Location Clue #5:How many letters are in the name of this present-day park? (This should be a single-digit number.) This number equals H in our final cache coordinates.

Now travel to N41 57.043 W88 39.6834.

This is the location of Marilla's first AND (hopefully) final resting place. You will find Marilla's stone about 5 rows from the western edge of the cemetery about half-way back, next to that of her father, David Churchill. Marilla's body was finally recovered and a second (and much larger) funeral was held. She was again laid to rest in her original grave.

Location Clue #6: Find Marilla's gravestone and note the date of her death. The number corresponding to the month equals I in our final cache coordinates. To the number for the day, add 32. The resulting number equals JK in our final cache coordinates.

The incident led to the permanent closure of the Franklin Medical College. Dr. Richards reportedly moved to the Dubuque, Iowa area to open another medical school, but due to the injury to his right hand, he was never able to perform surgery or demonstrate surgery techniques to his students again. He is said to have contracted pnemonia and, due to the injury to his lung, subsequently died from the illness a few years after the 1849 Riot.

To double-check your answers, A+B+C+D+E+F+G+H+I+J+K= 56

The final cache location is N41 JK.HDEA W88 IF.GBC.

Thank you for seeking our cache! We hope you enjoyed it! :)

NOTE: Historical information was gathered from several sources, including "Our Community, St. Charles" by Hazel Clauter, (c) 1976; "St. Charles, Illinois" by Wynette A Edwards, (c) 1999; "The Franklin Institute, Illinois' First Medical School: A History of Resurrection and a Primer on the Art of Grave Robbing" by Rodney B. Nelson III, M.D., F.A.C.P., (c) 1991.