In May of 1864 Col. J. H. Wickizer was in Bloomington on a furlough from the war. He was the Union Army Quartermaster at Vicksburg, Mississippi. Why had Col. Wickizer left his important duties in Vicksburg?
The Pantagraph remains mum on this point, but other newspapers of the time did not hesitate to tell the story. The Kansas State Journal, Ohio Statesmen and the Vicksburg Herald all reported the salacious details.
Col. Wickizer had received an anonymous letter suggesting Mrs. Wickizer was being suspiciously familiar with Dr. A. H. Luce, a close friend of the Colonel's for nearly two decades and the family's physician. In 1864 men did not let such accusations stand -- Col. Wickizer requested and received a furlough and immediately set off for Bloomington, in the midst of the Civil War and all the difficulties of travel it imposed.
In Bloomington Col. Wickizer confronted Dr. Luce and asked him point blank -- have you behaved inappropriately with my wife, Mary? Dr. Luce denied any impropriety vehemently and offered proofs. The two men parted, shaking hands in friendship.
But the letter writer was not satisfied. Another letter was delivered that very day, offering to meet with the Colonel and give him absolute proof.
The proof must have been quite convincing, because the next day Col. Wickizer waited inside the McLean State Bank at Front and Main, watching for Dr. Luce to pass by. When he did, Col. Wickizer stepped out and shot Dr. Luce IN THE BACK!
While on what was supposed to be his death bed, Dr. Luce was deposed under oath and once again denied any inappropriate behavior with Mrs. Wickizer. (Absolutely irrefutable evidence, because who would risk their immortal soul and tell a lie on their deathbed.) The Colonel had given himself up to the police and posted a bond to appear for a trial in September the following year. He returned to his work in Vicksburg -- I wonder if he took his wife along?
The Vicksburg Herald suggested that Mrs. Wickizer was an exuberant if somewhat naive woman who enjoyed company too much "We have long known Mrs. W -- She is a beautiful and accomplished lady, devotedly attached to her husband and child-like in her innocence and unsuspecting nature."
But how did the story get out? The first (digitized) account was in the Ohio Statesman, then the Kansas Journal and finally the Vicksburg Herald. One has to suspect the Bloomington Leader, a paper that delighted in the falls from grace of the supporters of the Union, but the issues of 1864 are not digitized.
Dr. Luce did not die of his wounds but lived many more years, dying in September 1883 of a lingering illness -- an aged and venerable man aged 68. He left a legacy of medical excellence and was remembered as one of the founders of the McLean County Medical Society. He is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery. Col. Wickizer and his wife left Bloomington, living in Salt Lake City and Ohio after the war. He had been one of the expedition in 1849 to the California Gold Rush and a state legislator for our district in 1858. In civilian life he was an attorney, practicing with Reuben Benjamin. He died in Ohio in 1889.