Robert M. Hundley
According to census records, Robert was born in Tennessee in 1821. Milo Erwin in his history of Williamson County recalls him, “Colonel Robert M. Hundley came into this county in 1838, a penniless boy, and is now one of our wealthiest citizens. He is a man of talent and great shrewdness.” In November of 1839 the county had only just established Marion’s location as the county seat. The southeast corner of the soon to be square was covered with a heavy growth of hazel brush. R. M. Hundley, Daniel Stroud and Jesse Sanders were employed to “shrub off” the square.
In 1846, when the call for troops was made to fight Mexico, this county responded promptly. In 1847, John M. Cunningham made up a company of one hundred and twenty-five men, and left Marion, May the 24th, for Alton. On arriving there, Jackson Damron took forty of the men and joined company E, from St. Clair County. Cunningham’s company was Company B, of the first regiment of the second call, or 5th Illinois regiment. B. F. Furlong was First Lieutenant, R. M. Hundley was Second Lieutenant, and D. L. Pulley was Third Lieutenant, W. H. Eubanks, Orderly Sergeant; Wm. Sykes, Chief Musician; Harvey Russell. They left Alton June 17th, 1847; left Leavenworth, July 7th, and marched through to Santa Fe on foot, where they arrived December 12. They returned home October, 1848, and were received with a public dinner in the Court House.
On November 25, 1848 Hundley married Harriet Allen, daughter of Willis Allen (congressman, judge, sheriff). They have their first child Florence in 1849. The 1850 census lists Hundley as a physician, 28 yrs old and a real estate value of $2,000. His wife Harriet is 8 yrs his junior.
In 1854, Harriet dies and leaves Robert a widow with two girls to raise. In March of 1856, he and 11 other men of prominence including Robert Pulley (county treasurer) and James Pulley (drainage commissioner) were indicted for “unlawfully and willfully disturbing the peace”. They were charged with “loud and unusual noises, tumultuous and offensive carriage, threatening and quarrelling”. It seems the behavior occurred when these young men about town serenaded with traditional charvari the newly married George W. and Hannah (Lowe) Binkley. The bridegroom and his lawyer George Goddard went before the grand jury to lodge a complaint. John A. Logan as prosecuting attorney wrote the indictment but there was never a prosecution.
An act to incorporate the Carbondale and Marion Plank Road Company was approved on February 18, 1857 by James M. Campbell, Henry Sanders of Carbondale, James D. Pulley, Robert M. Hundley and J.M. Cunningham of Marion with a capital stock of $40,000 in shares of $50 each. The road company was contracted to build a road from Carbondale to Marion commencing at the east end of Main Street in Carbondale and thence to run as practicable on the survey of the state road from Carbondale to Marion, by way of Eight Mile Prairie.
This was presumably a wooden plank road as was not uncommon in the day. Unfortunately, it is doubtful that this contract ever manifested. In 1926, the Illinois Attorney General dissolved 132 corporations chartered in Williamson County because none of them had ever filed a report since they were chartered. This Plank Road Company was one of them. Also, no historical notes about a wooden road located here has been found.
On April 2, 1857 Robert marries Emeranda Huffstutler 18, who was 20 years his junior. They had another girl born to them and by the 1860 census they were shown as having 3 girls ranging in age from 10 to 2 years old. He is now listed as a banker but is known to also practice medicine. His real estate value is now valued at $40,000 and a personal estate of $30,000, a very large amount of money for that time. An 1860 agriculture census taken that year also illustrate that his land holdings were not sitting idle.
On the 19th day of March 1858, R. M. Hundley took the contract of building a new court-house for $9,500, $7,700 in county orders, and $1,800 out of the swamp land fund. He gave bond in the sum of $19,000 to have it completed by the 15th day of November 1858, which he did. He then got $245 for painting it and N. B. Colvert $305 for furnishing the court room. It was burned down May 30, 1875. All the houses on the block on which it stood were also burned, the loss being about $25,000.
In the 1860 census, Hundley is listed as a banker with a real estate value of $40,000 and personal estate of $30,0000. The bank referred to is suspected of being the Agricultural Bank located in Marion, Illinois. This bank is listed in Milo Erwin’s history of the county as being one of four original banks in the county,” There have been four banks in this county—Agricultural Bank, Bank of Southern Illinois, in 1860, and Menahaway Bank, in 1863; Bolton Bank, in 1858.” A bill secured on ebay has the name RM Hundley signed on the note.
In the early years of the Civil War, there was a great deal of turbulence in Williamson County. Most everyone living here had immigrated from Kentucky, Tennessee or North Carolina. A large number of residents were outspoken about the southern cause. Fears of reprisal by organizations like the Knights of the Golden Circle were rampant. In August 1862 a group of businessmen and a judge by the name of A.D. Duff were arrested and taken to Cairo and held for three weeks. They were then transferred to Washington and held in prison for three months. These parties were charged with making rebel speeches; with belonging to the Knights of the Golden Circle, and stirring up sedition and treason. They claimed that they had committed no overt act against the Government, or any other crime, and that while they thought the Knights of the Golden Circle was a good and loyal society, they did not belong to it. They denied making rebel speeches, but insisted that they were for peace. They were arrested and charged with these offenses. After their release on December 15th Judge Duff wrote a scathing editorial claiming that it was all politically motivated by the Republicans. This had a devastating effect on the moral of the county and impugned the reputation of honorable businessmen. Out of a reaction to this atmosphere, R. M. Hundley and James D. Pulley went to work, in August and September 1862, and raised the One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Regiment Illinois Volunteers. Robert enlisted in the 128th on 18th of December 1862 as a Colonel. The 128th had huge morale and discipline issues and lost more men to infighting while stationed at Cairo than actual combat. The Regiment was disbanded in April 1863 and Robert was mustered out of service.
From 1866 to 1868, Robert Hundley was President (Mayor) of the Marion Board of Trustees and served as alderman in 1879.
In 1869 Hundley was a Republican candidate for state senate but was defeated. A financial problem in 1871 involving a county bond issue that was dependent on completion of the first RR into town was about to be a problem for investors. They came to Hundley overnight for money to back the problem up and avert a crisis. He did so and was accused of bribery by county judges. Whereas he was never tried for it, he was thought guilty of undue influence.
In 1875 Hundley’s partner in medicine Dr. J Davidson passes away as does his wife Emeranda in Feb of 1879. In 1878 it was recorded that Hundley was a member of the Murphy Club a.k.a. Blue Ribbon club, a local temperance league.
On May 2, 1881 Hundley succumbed to stomach cancer. He was buried in the old Marion cemetery and later interred at Rose Hill Cemetery in Marion.
(Excerpted from Bloody Vendetta, Milo Erwin; Pioneer Folks and Places, Barbara Barr Hubbs; Census records, IRAD and information from the Williamson County Historical Society, compiled by Sam Lattuca 12/08/2012)