Reminiscences: Chapter 3

Reminiscences of Early Peoria
by Odillon B. Slane

Chapter 3
page 15

FRANK HAVENER

ANOTHER story of Mr. Nixon's coffin making efforts was told as an incident of the winter of 1832; the severest winter probably which Peoria has ever known. The year 1832 was known for a long time as the "winter of the great snow." That year a French Canadian, Frank Havener, drifted into the village and stopped at a rude hotel, kept by a man by the name of Craig. One afternoon the innkeeper's wife asked Havener to go to the mill and get her a sack of corn meal as she had barely enough for breakfast the next morning. He readily consented and set out across the frozen lake with a bottle of liquor on his hip, from which he expected to take an occasional drink to keep him warm.

East Peoria may seem a slight distance from Peoria today, but there was no East Peoria in that day, and although the mill was located no further than the outskirts of that little city, it was a long walk at that time. It was nearly dark when he was ready to start back, and they urged him not to try to make the return trip as a snow storm seemed imminent. But Frank Havener had promised Mrs. Craig her meal for the next morning's breakfast and he started home.

The next day searching parties were started out to look for him. He had not returned and it seemed certain that he had been lost on the ice in the storm. His body was finally found frozen and with many wolf tracks round about it. The wolves had not touched the body, however, because of the smell of the whiskey. Jonathan Nixon made the coffin for the French Canadian. No one knew where he had come from nor who his relatives were. He was buried on the outskirts of the village.

Chapter 2 Chapter 4

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