Emily McCusker McLean County Museum of History
In 1903, Andrew and Anna Jordine lived in a small house at 1105 W. Miller St. with their seven children: Maude, Ida, Bert, Willie, Floyd, Bertha, and the baby of the family, Mabel. Their home was in Pone Hollow, an economically disadvantaged neighborhood of west Bloomington.
Andrew worked as a teamster at the Chicago and Alton Railroad, and 17-year-old Maude, the oldest of the children, worked at the Bloomington Caramel Company. The oldest children attended school during the week and Sunday school over the weekend.
They were a typical lower-class Bloomington family.
On July 9, 1903, Andrew left for the day to run errands, then planned to meet up with his wife, Anna, at Houghton's Lake, where she had attended the theater. This left Maude to care for her younger siblings, as she often did.
At around 8 o'clock, Mabel had fallen asleep at the home of their neighbors, the Brewers. Maude left the other children with the Brewers while she returned home to put Mabel to bed.
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After settling the 2-year-old, Maude placed a lamp on the table, left the door open so that she could see inside the home, and returned to fetch the rest of her siblings. When they got back to their house, Maude believed she heard a cry, and went to check on her sister.
Instead, she entered the room to find it empty. Mabel was missing.
The community became frenzied and immediately began looking for the child. Someone phoned the theater to inform Anna, who rushed home, but Andrew did not know anything had happened until he returned home later that night. He soon joined the search for the missing girl, which lasted until 2 a.m.
After a few hours of respite, the search for Mabel picked up again at dawn on July 10, and Mabel was found by 2 in the afternoon. Andrew found the body of his toddler in the Stautz pasture, just half a mile from their home.
She lay in tall grasses, and had been brutally attacked. It was a sad, graphic scene.
As soon as Mabel was found, she became the focus of all of Bloomington. Soon, the question became "who would have done such a thing?" Investigations into the attack began immediately, as community members and police officers searched for clues.
At one point, a comb worn in Mabel's hair was found in the pasture, and it was determined that her body could not have been out in the field more than an hour or two before she was found. It was a hot, summer day, and extended exposure to the sun would have had an obvious effect on the girl's body.
Still, the clues pointed to no one in particular.
When prominent local detective James Preston Butler took on the case, he pointed his finger at just one person: her sister Maude. In Butler's opinion, Maude was angry that she was in charge of caring for Mabel. With so many children at their West Miller Street home, Maude's babysitting duties often seeped into her life outside of the house.
According to the Daily Gazette and Bulletin in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Butler believed that Maude "would have profited by (Mabel's) absence." Butler also alleged that Mabel was "crippled and unable to walk," and that Maude had complained about her home life to co-workers, stating that "there was going to be a change soon."
On Monday, July 13, Maude was arrested by Butler and his son. After assuring the Jordine family that Maude was only being brought in to give a statement, the Butlers brought her to the newly built McLean County Courthouse, read the warrant for her arrest, and dropped her off at the county jail.
The story of a girl arrested for killing her baby sister took headlines by storm. Information on a brutalized baby had been gruesome enough to grasp media's attention, but this accusation added another layer of intrigue.
Newspapers from Chicago to Washington, D.C., to Nebraska pumped out stories with headlines that blamed Maude for Mabel's cruel fate. She became an overnight sensation.
Soon enough, it became clear that much of Bloomington did not agree with Butler's theory, including the Jordine family.
They were outraged at Maude's arrest, even using their limited resources to hire a firm to file a writ of habeas corpus. This questioned the legality of the arrest in the hopes that the court would have no choice but to release Maude.
The community also began poking holes in Butler's theory. The Jordines explained that Mabel's difficulty walking was due to her unusually large size for her age, not because she was "crippled." Workmates of Maude stepped up to say that she loved her baby sister, bragging about her every chance she got.
Locals started asking how the young woman could have been arrested with only circumstantial evidence. It seemed much more likely to them that some "tramp" or other lowlife was to blame for the baby's tragic fate.
The Paxton Record of Paxton, Illinois, made known on July 16, the day of Maude's preliminary trial, that the "general belief is the innocence of the accused sister." This belief rang true in the McLean County Courthouse, as it was decided there was not enough evidence to convict Maude for her sister's murder.
The case was dismissed, and Maude was discharged even "before half of the prosecuting witnesses were examined," according to the McLean Lens.
Crowds rejoiced as the young woman was released from prison. "Some declare that the arrest is an outrage and ... the shame will follow (Maude) all her life," said The Pantagraph on July 14.
They were right. Even Maude's 1904 wedding announcement made mention of her gaining "some prominence in the public eye" following the suspicious death of her sister Mabel.
News coverage stopped as quickly as it had started. By late July, it seemed that the public abandoned the Jordines. There are few, if any, mentions of Mabel's death in the local papers after the fall of 1903. There are no police updates, no reporters digging for more, no pleas for help from the community.
Still, pedestrians would come up to the Jordine household and ask for directions to the field where Mabel had been found. Onlookers stared at their house as if waiting for something tragic to happen.
The systems that could have solved Mabel's case instead fed on the tragedy and trauma. In 1957, the editor of The Pantagraph declared that the 54-year-old cold case "was irreparably bungled by a pathological public hysteria, and by brutal police methods, while the Jordine family ... was savagely hurt in the investigation."
James Preston Butler never wavered from his belief that Maude was the killer, and he never investigated anybody else for the crime. Police routinely declined to comment on their assessment of Butler's theory, though they seemed to disagree with the man.
The crucial few weeks after Mabel died, which could have been used to rally the community and gather information, were instead full of arguments over Maude's guilt. The Jordines themselves did not have the resources to aid in the case or hire their own investigators. If they did, Anna insisted, the family "would not be obliged to suffer so."
To this day, the extended family of the Jordines maintain Maude's innocence.
"I feel like someone took the baby, and her sister and family were poor, so she got the blame," said Andrew Jackson, descendant of William Howard Hobson Jordine. William was the biological child of Ida, the Jordines' second child, but was adopted by Anna and Andrew after Ida died in 1919, becoming the couple's 13th and final child. William was 2, the same age as Mabel at the time of her death.
We may never know what happened to Mabel Jordine, or who was responsible for the crime. We cannot know what would have happened if the crime was given the attention it deserved. What we do know, though, is that the Jordine family persevered, living in and around the original West Miller Street home for decades to come.
To learn more about Pone Hollow, James Preston Butler, and other cases tried in the Old McLean County Courthouse (today the McLean County Museum of History), visit www.mchistory.org or email education@mchistory.org with your questions.
Honoring Icons: Photos from the 2024 History Makers Gala Steve Dobski, 2024 Honorees Bob and Julie Dobski, Laura and Michael O'Connor Larry and Chris Mertes, Mary Penn, 2024 Honoree John Penn Tom Smith, 2024 History Maker Honoree Jan Lancaster, Thom Rakestraw Vicki Tilton, Pam Eaton, Tim Tilton 2022 History Makers Dee Frautschi, Al Bedell Michael Williams, Steve Dobski, Jon and Ed Voegele, Bob Dobski, Rod Spadinger Maryn Michael, Michael Williams Dan and Tommy Brady Jan Lancaster 2021 History Makers Carole and Jerry Ringer Brock and Katie Porter Cindy Ross-Ringer, Pat Grogg Angie and Frank Hoffman, Vickie and Steve Mahrt Frank and Alice Sanders Women of Sunrise Rotary: Tracy Patkunas, 2024 History Maker Honoree Julie Dobski, Ann Harding, Kim Schoenbein, Pat Messinger 2023 Honorees Mary and Hank Campbell Laura and Michael O'Connor Jeanie and Clete Winkelmann, Kent King-Nobles Eric Hansen, Cody Hendricks, Noah Tang, Emily McCusker, Museum Director Julie Emig Jan Wilson, Mike Matejka, Patty Kernes Marlene Gregor, Jan Holder Jennifer Armstrong, David Morris Dudley Burgess, Albert Beaver, Courtney Greenlee Tom Lamonica, Drs. Tom Nielsen and Kathy Bohn, ISU President and first lady Aondover and Rose Tarhule 2024 Honoree Julie Dobski (center) with nominators Dee Frautschi and Al Bedell 2015 Honoree Sonja Reece, 2019 Honoree Judy Buchanan, Kaye Andrews Friends of Honorees Bob and Julie Dobski Ann Harding, Leanna Bordner, Pat Messinger, Jeff Stevens Micaela Harris, Barb Dirmontaite Nate Thomas, Robert Howard Friends and Family of 2024 Honoree Jan Lancaster Jan Lancaster, Laura O'Connor Arlene Hosea, Chef Phillip Cade Museum Board President Carolyn Yockey Illinois Voices Theatre Honorees Julie and Bob Dobski, Dee Frautschi Honorees Julie and Bob Dobski, Steve Dobski Duane Yockey, Jana Edge, Honorees Bob and Barb Hathway Bob Hathway Dave Bentlin, Honoree Jan Lancaster Shawn Eiker, Tim Ryan, Honoree John Penn John Penn, Tim Ryan, Shawn Eiker Museum Board President Carolyn Yockey Friends and family of Honorees Julie and Bob Dobski Tony and Karen DeAngelis Musuem Board chair Carolyn Yockey, ISU President Emeritus Larry Dietz Josh Barnett, Sonja Reece Cindy and Mark Segobiano McLean County Museum of History Staff Honorees Julie and Bob Dobski Dave and Barb Selzer Cindy and Don Myers Jonell Kehias, Tom Smith, Thom Rakestraw Anina Engelhorn, Carol and Roger Elliott Chemberly Harris, Jeanne Morris Museum Director Julie Emig Jan Lancaster, Dave Bentlin Tom Smith, Thom Rakestraw
Pieces From Our Past is a weekly column by the McLean County Museum of History. Emily McCusker is director of youth and family education at the museum.
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