Sandburg's Hometown

December 14, 2015

B.F. Holcomb, Company K - History of Knox County, Illinois (1878)
Capt. Benjamin F. Holcomb,
Company K,
45th Infantry Illinois Regiment
History of Knox County, Illinois (1878), p. 325.


Justice of the Peace B.F. Holcomb

by Barbara Schock

On that hot Sunday afternoon when Carl Sandburg and six boys from his neighborhood went skinny dipping in the brickyard pond, there was more than one new experience awaiting them.

 

They rode in the police paddy wagon, they spent several hours in the stinking jail and were told to appear before the Justice of the Peace on Monday morning.

 

On Monday morning they appeared before Justice of the Peace B.F. Holcomb and pleaded guilty to the offense of swimming naked inside the city limits on a Sunday. In a grandfatherly way, Justice Holcomb spoke to each of the boys and told them they should understand what they had done was against the law. He made each boy promise never to do it again.

 

Afterward, they walked home as free as the breeze and were ready for their next adventure.

 

Benjamin Franklin Holcomb was born July 24, 1821, in Westport, New York. He was one of the seventeen children born to Dr. Diodorous and Sylvia Loveland Holcomb. Dr. Holcomb had served in the War of 1812 and followed his profession until his death in 1860.

 

At the age of sixteen Benjamin started clerking in a store near his home. Then he learned the tailoring trade. He married Elizabeth A. Towner, a native of St. Johns, Canada, on May 14, 1844. Eight children were born to them. In 1855 the  family came to Galesburg. He worked as a cutter in a tailoring business. In 1859 he was elected city treasurer. On December 24, 1861, he resigned the office and enlisted in Company K of the 45th Illinois Infantry Regiment. He was made captain of his company. The regiment was called the Washburn Lead Mine Regiment in honor of Elihu B. Washburn, who represented the northwestern part of the state in Congress. Since a number of the men in the unit were from Galena, the name also described the mining of lead in that place.

 

The regiment went into battle at Fort Donelson on February 11, 1862. The weather had been warm and sunny several day before. Some of the soldiers had thrown away their heavy coats and blankets. On the night of the twelfth there was snow and the temperature dropped down to ten or twelve degrees. Equipment froze to the ground as well as supplies and the wounded soldiers. Fires could not be lighted for warmth for fear that enemy snipers would shoot down the soldiers around them.

 

Two months later the regiment fought at Shiloh, one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war. Holcomb was wounded in the right side, which removed him from the battlefield for three months. The wound never completely healed.

 

In July 1862 Holcomb became an aid-de-camp on General John Logan's staff and later on General M.D. Leggett's staff.

 

After his war service, Holcomb returned to Galesburg and served as constable of the city. In 1882 he secured a contract from the city of Galesburg to provide street lights on the outskirts of the city. In the spring of 1889, he became Justice of the Peace. He was a member of the James Shields Post of the Grand Army of the Republic. He died June 22, 1899.

 

In the years afterward, Carl Sandburg remembered Justice Holcomb had dispensed “the quality of justice” to the members of the Dirty Dozen who had sought to cool off with a swim on a hot Sunday afternoon inside the city limits.

 

 

Sandburg's Hometown
Date Title
December 14, 2015 Justice of the Peace B.F. Holcomb
November 30, 2015 Standardized Time
November 23, 2015 Joseph H. Knutson
November 16, 2015 Wells and Cisterns 
November 2, 2015 Willis E. Calkins
October 26, 2015 Galesburg Pottery
October 19, 2015 Private Lewis H. Kay
October 12, 2015 The Klondike Gold Rush
September 28, 2015 Charles L. Bloomgren
September 21, 2015 The Gilded Age
September 14, 2015 Oliver Optic
August 31, 2015 The "Spanish" Cannon
August 24, 2015 The Company C Men
August 17, 2015 Jacob A. Riis
August 10, 2015 Mason Jars
August 3, 2015  October 7, 1896
July 27, 2015 The Soldier's Monument
July 20, 2015 Ice
July 13, 2015 Moses O. Williamson
July 6, 2015 Sweet Little Alix
June 29, 2015 Sharlie's Shickens
June 22, 2015 Anna Held & John Drew
June 15, 2015 Hartel & Secker Meat Market
June 8, 2015 Girls
June 1, 2015 Old First Church - Part II
May 25, 2015 Old First Church - Part I
May 18, 2015 Marbles
May 11, 2015 Pawnee County, Kansas
May 4, 2015 Detective Stories and the Real Thing
April 27, 2015 Professor Isaac A. Parker
April 20, 2015 Celluloid Collars
April 13, 2015 Asparagus
April 6, 2015  Mayor John C. Stewart 
March 30, 2015 Basket Ball
March 23, 2015 The Courthouse of Knox County, IL
March 16, 2015

“Trifles make perfection...”

March 9, 2015 Uncle Tom's Cabin
March 2, 2015 Martha Sandburg Goldstone
February 23, 2015 Devotion
February 16, 2015  Gumbiner's Pawn Shop 
February 9, 2015 White Bread
February 2, 2015 The Monarch Club
January 26, 2015 The Silver Dollar
January 19, 2015 The Fulton County Narrow Gauge Railway
January 12, 2015 The Four Corners
December 22, 2014 Swedish Christmas
December 8, 2014 Christmas 1878
December 1, 2014 Bunker Boots & Shoes
November 24, 2014 Galesburg, Illinois
November 17, 2014 It was Buffalo Bill's Day
November 10, 2014 The Election of 1896 (A follow-up story)
November 3, 2014 The Election of 1896 (continued)
October 27, 2014 The Election of 1896
October  24, 2014 The Rissywarn
October 20, 2014 The Parlor Stove
October 13, 2014 Ashes to Ashes
October 6, 2014 Jesse James
Sept. 29, 2014 Lester T. Stone, Public Servant
Sept. 22, 2014 It's Who You Know
Sept 15, 2014 Mother of the Illinois Flag
Sept 8, 2014 The Scissors Grinder
Sept 1, 2014 Baseball
August 25, 2014 Howard K. Knowles, Capitalist
August 18, 2014  Alcoholic Beverages
August 11, 2014 Soda Water
August 4, 2014 Sweet Corn
July 28, 2014 Marching Through Georgia
July 21, 2014 The Knox County Fair
July 14, 2014 The Panic of 1893
July 7, 2014 The Rev. T. N. Hasselquist
June 30, 2014 The Knox County Courthouse
June 23, 2014 The Family Photograph Album
June 16, 2014 Parades
June 9, 2014 Lingonberries
June 2, 2014 Where We Live
May 26, 2014 Old Main
May 19, 2014 Rhythms of the Railroad
May 12, 2014 Spring Tonic
May 5, 2014 The Milkmen
April 28, 2014 Gray's "Elegy..."
April 21, 2014 Off to War
April 14, 2014 Swedish Easter
April 7, 2014 A Father's Face
March 31, 2014 Secret Societies
March 24, 2014 George A. Murdock, Merchant
March 10, 2014 Trade Cards
March 3, 2014 The Demorest Medal
February 24, 2014 Rip Van Winkle
February 17, 2014 Cabbage Soup
February 10, 2014 Lincoln's Birthday
February 3, 2014 4  The Colonel
January 27, 2014 The Lincoln Penny - A Little History
January 20, 2014 Walking to Work
January 13, 2014  A Small Abode
January 6, 2014 Birth of a Poet
December 30, 2013 Christmas 1880
December 23, 2013 Swedish Christmas
December 16, 2013 The Reporter Sees Santa
December 9, 2013 The Coming of Christmas
December 2, 2013 The Fire Boys Talk
November 25, 2013 Galesburg Will Feast on Turkeys and Cranberries - Thanksgiving 1893
November 18, 2013 Mary Sandburg Johnson
November 11, 2013 Carl Sandburg's Bicycle
November 4, 2013 Lace Curtains
October 28, 2013 The Front Room
October 21, 2013 A Warm Breakfast
October 14, 2013 Marion D. Shutter
October 7, 2013 Cigars and Consumption
September 30, 2013 Forrest F. Cooke & August Sandburg
September 16, 2013 Forrest F. Cooke, Mayor
September 9, 2013 Dusty Streets
September 2, 2013 Typhoid Fever
August 26, 2013 Coffee and Water
August 19, 2013 A Horse! A Horse!
August 12, 2013 Gaddial Scott
August 5, 2013 The Racetrack
July 29, 2013 John Peter Algeld - Part II
July 22, 2013 John Peter Altgeld - Part I
July 15, 2013 Tramps, Tramps, Tramps
July 8, 2013 Lady Liberty
July 1, 2013 Galesburg's Fourth
June 24, 2013 John H. Finley
June 17, 2013 The World's Columbian Exhibition
June 10, 2013 Fruit Short-Cake
June 3, 2013 Horatio Alger, Author
May 27, 2013 Memorial Day, 1887
May 20, 2013 Professor Jon W. Grubb
May 13, 2013 Beginnings of Lombard University
May 6, 2013 Young Sandburg’s View of Lombard College
April 29, 2013 Thinking
April 22, 2013 Robert Colville, Master Mechanic
April 15, 2013 The Galesburg Opera House
April 8, 2013 Grocery Stores and Sample Rooms
April 1, 2013  A Hearty  Breakfast 
March 25, 2013  The Lost Wallpaper Legend 
March 18, 2013 Martin G. Sandburg
March 4, 2013 The Edison Talking Machine
February 25, 2013 Joe Elser, Civil War Veteran
February 18, 2013 Remember the Maine...
February 11, 2013 Lincoln's Birthday
February 4, 2013 Curiosity
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