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They finally found the body in 1924. But by then, so much time had passed that the murderers were probably dead themselves. Workers excavating for a new store building on Rollins Road at Squaw Creek near Fox Lake found a human skeleton in a sitting position, two to three feet below the ground, of a man past middle age, who was not buried in a coffin.
Elmer Victor Orvis, who grew up on a farm on Wilmot Road in Spring Grove and was by then a Waukegan attorney, recalled the story his father, Sam Orvis, told him when he was a little boy that he could never forget...
Around 1875 (although some papers reported the year as the late 1840s), Sam Orvis was around 35 years old when he was an eyewitness to an assault in which Dan Batchelder, a wealthy peddler, was believed to have been killed. Sam ran to the home of a neighbor for assistance but when they returned Batchelder, and his assailants, had vanished. Batchelder was never seen again. His money and packs were gone, too. The only thing found was his hat near the spot where Sam last saw him.
Batchelder was about 45 – 50 years old and a bachelor at the time of his disappearance. He lived with the Miles Cole family at Wilmot Road and Main Street. He was also known as the hunchback peddler and had considerable cash and owned much property in the Fox Lake region.
Sam always insisted Batchelder was killed that day, and his body buried in a partly filled well. He reported the matter to the state’s attorney who refused to prosecute the persons who were supposed to have made the attack unless the body could be produced.
The newspapers reported the found skeleton was in a good state of preservation and it was removed to Strang’s morgue at Antioch. An investigation was launched in an effort to identify it and to trace ownership of the property where it was found.
There were a number of “Indian burial grounds in the Fox Lake district” the newspaper reported, but the odd way the body was interred - in a sitting position - indicated that it was not Native American. Also, the Deputy Coroner Edward Conrad thought it was too recent and the bones in too good a state of preservation for it to be that old. But, just a week later, it was determined that there would be no coroner’s inquest as Deputy Coroner Conrad “was convinced in his own mind that the skeleton is that of an Indian”.
The newspaper continued, “There have been many who believed that the skeleton might be that of Daniel Batchelder, a peddler who was believed to have been murdered and buried by his slayers about fifty years ago, but a thorough investigation has been made and the authorities have not been able to find any way of checking up the correctness of such a theory. While the bones may be those of Batchelder, there is an equal chance that they may be the skeleton of an Indian. It is doubtful if the matter ever could be solved positively.” Coroner Conrad gave the order to have the bones buried in Antioch.
In a strange twist to the story, sometime after Batchelder’s disappearance, his brother and sister, Moses and Dolly Batchelder, who were from the Rockford area, went to Waukegan and spent a lot of money to solve the mystery of the disappearance, but their efforts were in vain. After much difficulty, the property rights were cleared up (including land only a short distance from the spot where the skeleton was exhumed) and the siblings came in possession of it. They had hired Attorney Elmer V. Orvis, the son of the man who had last seen their brother alive.
Story by Laura Frumet
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