Don't Whitewash History!

Beautiful mural of W.H.L. Wallace located across the street from The Lone Buffalo Restaurant.

If anyone tells my story when I’ve been dead for 100 years I implore them to tell my whole story, the good, the bad and the ugly. If General William Hervey Lamme Wallace, pictured above, were alive today, I believe he’d ask the same of us. Click on his mural above for more information about his accomplishments via wiki (not the best source but, it’s a start for our purpose).

Awesome Ottawa Tours is known for sharing the good, the bad and the ugly or Starved Rock Country’s past. I want that applied to my history too. For every success I’ve had in life, I’ve had at lease a handful of failures and many more errors of judgment, mis spoken words and other dumb shit! So have you, so has W.H.L. Wallace, so has everyone! That’s what makes us human, relatable and realistic. Telling only the success’ is cherry picking our past. It’s lying. It turns history into propaganda.

Click on the above clipping to see the Supreme Court decision.

Above is the Illinois Third District Supreme Court decision in the case of the People vs. Wesley B. Fisher. Mr. Fisher was found guilty of murdering his wife Clarissa Fisher in 1858 and was sentenced to hang. The judge in his case was Judge M.E. Hollister and the prosecuting attorney was W.H.L. Wallace. I featured this case on our Haunted Ottawa History Tour 2019. I’ll summarize the research I’ve found point by point.

1. Wesley Fisher killed his wife in front of witnesses. 2. The citizens of Ottawa put together a posse and gathered at the jail to demand the sheriff hand Mr. Fisher over for an immediate public hanging. The sheriff calmed the crowd guaranteeing a guilty verdict through the normal course of law ending in a legal hanging. 3. Mr. Fisher and attorney were not allowed to offer into evidence witness’ and evidence as to the state of mind of Mr. Fisher at the time of the murder. (click the clipping above for more info) 4. Mr. Fisher was found guilty and sentenced to hang. 5. The Third Grand District of the State Supreme Court overturned that verdict due to multiple errors in court. 6. Due to the Civil War, Mr. Fishers new trial was delayed many times. He died of illness in Morris Illinois awaiting a new trial.

With historical research you almost always have to logically fill some voids. I will now give you my OPINION based on all the information I’ve found. Due to the public outcry of the people of Ottawa, there was pressure on prosecuting attorney Wallace and Judge Hollister to get the guilty verdict on first degree murder and the hanging. That pressure caused Wallace and Hollister to object and sustain witness’ and information that would have aided Mr. Fisher in presenting a case for insanity and a manslaughter verdict.

W.H.L. Wallace was a great man. I respect his service, his contribution to Ottawa, Illinois and Starved Rock Country. (Hell, I have dreams of meeting General Wallace, seeing Lincoln at the debate even driving the carriage that took slave Jim Gray to freedom. NERD!) I believe my OPINION that General Wallace may have colluded with Judge Hollister to succor the first degree conviction does not detract from his legacy or his accomplishments. It shows him as a human. As a man feeling the pain of the people of Ottawa and wanting to give them the justice they expected.

Remember when I said I want my whole story told? After I’ve been gone for 100 years, include this blog in one of these columns. The Good. The Bad. The Ugly. My history will probably correct my words written above and I love that.