1861

1861 saw the only legal public execution in the history of Tazewell County.  John Ott was publicly hanged for the axe slaying of a mother and her two daughters on March 1, 1861.

1861 also saw the beginning of the Civil War.  J.W. Dougherty, in The History of Tazewell County, provides a striking commentary on citizens' attitudes towards the South and the potential conflict until the realities hit home:

When, in 1861, the war was forced upon the country, the people were quietly pursuing the even tenor of their ways, doing whatever their hands found to do —working the mines, making farms or cultivating those already made, erecting homes, founding cities and towns, building shops and manufactories —in short, the country was alive with industry and hopes for the future. The people were just recovering from the depression and losses incident to the financial panic of 1857. The future looked bright and promising, and the industrious and patriotic sons and daughters of the North were buoyant with hope, looking forward for the perfecting of new plans for the insurement of comfort and competence in their declining years. They little heeded the mutterings and threatenings being wafted from the South. They never dreamed that there was one so base as to attempt the destruction of the Union their fathers had purchased for them with their life-blood. While thus surrounded with peace and tranquility they paid but little attention to the rumored plots and plans of those who lived and grew rich from the sweat and toil, blood and flesh, of others.

After the fall of Fort Sumter in April 1861, President Lincoln repeatedly called for Union Army volunteers.

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