Mayor
Wealthy Elgin Youth Shot by Caddie Master – 1929
*****
Chicago Daily Tribune
April 28, 1929
Wealthy Elgin Youth Shot by Caddie Master
Wilder M. Bosworth, 26 years old, member of a wealthy Elgin family, was shot and critically wounded early this morning as he sat with a party of friends amid a crowd of dancers and diners in El Rora Inn, on the Lincoln highway, in North Aurora. Emmett Lyons, 24 years old, caddie master at the Aurora Country club, was seized as Bosworth’s assailant and locked up at Geneva.
Café Crowded with Dancers
Bosworth, with Miss Evelyn Kingsley, 24 years old of Elgin, and three couples, went to the Inn shortly before midnight. The party was seated at a table in the large room where an orchestra was playing and the dance floor was crowded. Witnesses said that Lyons, who appeared to have been drinking, was strolling among the tables chatting with other guests. Suddenly he approached the Elgin party’s table and addressed Bosworth.
“How would you like to get shot?” he is reported to have said.
Rushed to Aurora Hospital
Then without another word he drew a pistol and fired as Miss Kingsley ran screaming across the floor. The bullet struck Bosworth in the abdomen. Two deputy sheriffs, Clarence Sayre and Charles Anderson, who were in the place, dashed through the terrified crowd and seized Lyons. Bosworth was hurried to St. Joseph’s hospital in Aurora.
Bosworth is the son of the late F. H. Bosworth, coal and lumber merchant of Elgin. His uncles Henry I. and Alfred Bosworth, are retired Elgin bankers. It is believed Bosworth and Lyons were strangers.
*****
Seattle Daily Times
April 29, 1929
Seattle, Washington
Caddy Master Takes Eight Drinks and Shoots Stranger
“What Happened?” Asks Golf Club Employee When He Wakes Up in Jail; Victim Smiling When Hit by Bullet
By Associated Press
Aurora, Ill., Monday, April 29.
“Where do you want it?” asked Emmett Lyons, 25-year-old caddy master of the Aurora Country Club, pointing a revolver at Wilder M. Bosworth, 23; “in the stomach or in the head?”
Bosworth, one of a party of young men and women seated in the El Rora Inn smiled. He did not think this man he never before had seen would shoot. He was still smiling when the weapon sent a bullet into his abdomen.
Lyons awoke in jail yesterday wondering why he was there.
“I must have been pretty much under the weather to be brought here,” he said to the jailer. “What happened?”
The jailer told him that Bosworth, member of a prominent Elgin family, had been seriously wounded.
George Carbary, prosecuting Attorney of Kane County, said he would pay particular attention in the investigation to the liquor angle, but believed no liquor angle, but, believed no liquor had been sold at the inn. Lyons told arresting officers that he had eight drinks from a friend’s bottle shortly before the shooting. He carried a pistol, he said, because he sometimes acted as night watchman at the country club.
*****
Decatur Evening Herald
Monday, April 29, 1929
Decatur, Illinois
CADDIE MASTER HELD FOR SHOOTING STRANGER
AURORA—April 29—Emmett Lyons 25 caddie master awoke in jail here to be told that he had sot and probably fatally wounded another youth, a stranger to him.
The victim of the shooting Wilder M. Bosworth, 23 was reported near death with a bullet wound in his abdomen.
The shooting occurred at a dance hall. Witnesses told police that Lyons apparently intoxicated approached a table where Bosworth was seated with seven girl companions and demanded one of the girls to dance with him.
Thy ignored him and Lyons drew a gun and shot Bosworth.
*****
Sterling Daily Gazette
Friday, May 10, 1929
FORGIVING MOTHER MAY SAVE THE CADDY
AURORA, ILL—(A.P.)—A mother’s capacity to forgive may save Emmett Lyons, young caddy master, from prison.
Last April 27 Lyons shot and seriously wounded Wilder Bosworth at a dance. Bosworth was a stranger to him. Lyons was drunk for the first time in his life.
“It was the liquor, not the boy,” the mother of Bosworth told State’s Attorney George D. Carbury in asking him not to prosecute Lyons.
Bosworth is recovering from the wound.
*****
Franklin Smith Bosworth (1832-1919)
Franklin Smith Bosworth (1832-1919)
Franklin S. BOSWORTH – a native of Boston, Erie Co., New York, and son of Benjamin F. and Almira SMITH BOSWORTH. The father was born in Greenfield, New York, and was the son of Alfred BOSWORTH, born in Bristol, Rhode Island, of English parentage. Alfred came west in the fall of 1839, to Dundee, Ill. where he died in June 1861. He followed the hatter’s trade, and later farming. He married Olive CHILD of New York, and they had 6 children: Benjamin F., Oliver C., Increase C., Lucinda C., Mary C. wife of Harry WEED, Lucinda wife of Alfred EDWARDS and Abbie M, wife of Benj. SIMONDS; all are now deceased.
Dr. Benjamine F. BOSWORTH the father practiced medicine til his removal to Illinois; locating in Chicago in 1856, he engaged in merchandising in that place until his removal to McHenry, Ill where he conducted a mercatile establishment until his death in Sept. 1843. (transcribers note: these dates are as given. Perhaps reversed?)His wife was the daughter of Amos SMITH, of NY.
Franklin S. BOSWORTH, their only child, was born Dec. 17, 1832. He began merchandising in 1852, in connection with I.C. BOSWORTH, at Dundee, Ill. until June 1871, when he removed to Elgin. There he pruchased [sic] interest in an east side hardware store, until Sept. 1883 when he sold to Metcalf and Reed. 1888 he purchased part of a coal and lumber yard – 1896 he became partners with his son Frank H. BOSWORTH.
Jan 1859 he married Miss Sarah E. HUNT of Dundee, daughter of Ward E. and Mary HUNT, her father a native of Vermont. 4 BOSWORTH children: Reuben H., Edward, married to Bertha McCLURE of Elgin; Mary, wife of Walter SKEELE; and Frank H.
Mr. BOSWORTH was elected mayor of Elgin in 1880, for 2 terms.
Biographical Record of Kane Co., Ill.S.J. Clarke Publishing Co.Chicago, Ill 1898 page 42
Republican Liberal, Mayor of Elgin, Illinois. He was elected a member of the city council in 1879, and in 1880 was elected mayor of Elgin, filling that office for two consecutive terms. Progressive administration.
The good, the bad and the ugly truth…
Relationship between Franklin Smith BOSWORTH & Me
Franklin Smith BOSWORTH (1832 – 1919)
2nd great-grandfather
Frank Hunt BOSWORTH (1870 – 1919)
son of Franklin Smith BOSWORTH
Dr. Wilder Morris BOSWORTH Sr., D.D.S. (1905 – 1990)
son of Frank Hunt BOSWORTH
son of Dr. Wilder Morris BOSWORTH Sr., D.D.S.
Mayors of Biloxi
Biloxi Daily Herald
October 31, 1934
MAYORS OF BILOXI — The earliest records available begin with the ‘50’s. L. E. Pradat was “president of the town” and “selectmen” served with him in 1857. The next record now at City Hall states that James Fewell was mayor in 1861 and James Blythe served as mayor protem during that year, and the selectmen had become “aldermen.” Other mayors of which there are records are:
1866 – John L. Henley
1868 – Lyman B. Holley
(There is a loss of records for a few years)
1875 – H. J. Meaut
1877 – Lyman B. Holley
1878-1880 – R. Caillavet
1881-1882 – F. W. Elmer
1883-(part) – J. R. Harkness
1883-1884 – Emile Laudner
1885-1886 – J. A. Bousquet
1887-1888 – Emile Laudner
1888 – John Walker
1889-1890 – Harry T. Howard
1891 – F. W. Elmer
1893-1894 – John A. Bousquet
1895-1913 – Edward Glennan
1914-1933 – John J. Kennedy
1933-1934 – R. Hart Chinn
Mayor J. R. Harkness was my Great Great Grandfather:
The Tenderly Rose Collection 