Oakland Illinois Genealogy

October 1924-

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Finding the body of Mr. Stiff clears up the circumstances surrounding his death and will set at rest the many wild tales which have been circulating not only throughout this section of Illinois but will bring a close a nation wide search for his person, as many contended he did not drown but had chosen this was of disappearing.
Story of the Tradgedy
It was on the afternoon of Dec. 10, 1923 that Ben Duzan, a live stock buyer , went to the Stiff home on the banks of the Embarras river, six miles north and east of Hindsboro, to by cattle. Mr. Stiff told the stock man that the cattle were across the river but he would get would get them if he could wait a few minutes. Duzan went and sat down on a bridge where he devoted himself to figuring up his day’s buying while Stiff mounted a horse and rode off toward the ford after the cattle.
Duzan from where he sat on the bridge, could look down on the ford and might have seen the accident had he not been absorbed in his figures. He waited for about half an hour and then went to Stiff’s home. About the same time the horse Stiff had ridden away on galloped back to the …
…there as Stiff.
Probably Injured
It appears now that Stiff’s body must have floated down the river over the top of the net, unobserved on the flood waters that came a few days after his drowning and lodged where it was found Sunday. Evidently it had laid there for months while an eddy of the current piled the sand over it. It is likely that in crossing the ford the horse fell on Stiff injuring him and wedged his body in the mud.
From December last year, all through the winter, the spring and the summer the frequent rains have kept the river at a higher stage than usual and it is only within the last month or so that the water has fallen low in the channel.
His Survivors
Surviving Mr. Stiff are his widow, Mrs. Minnie Stiff, a daughter, Erma, employed as a school teacher and two sons, Orville and Lloyd Stiff about fifteen and eighteen years of age, respectively.