The first medical school in Illinois was the Franklin Medical School founded in 1842 in St. Charles. Dr. George Richards was director of the school located at the northeast corner of First Avenue and Main Street. The school was the cause of a 1849 riot in St. Charles, which today is known as the "Richards Riot."
Apparently, the 1849 incident was not the first time there was trouble between the community and the school. The school was filled with controversy in its brief history and tension surrounded it prior to the riot. It seems several of the students of the school were well known for their numerous midnight grave thefts.
In April of 1849, however, tension would become violence for St. Charles. Late one evening, two medical students from the school, John Rood and George Richards (son of the director), stole a cadaver from a Sycamore graveyard. It was the body of Mrs. George Kenyon, a deceased young bride from a prominent family. After returning to town, they concealed the corpse in Richards’ barn, awaiting an opportunity to dissect it in class. Soon afterward, their exploit was discovered by the grieving family.
On April 19th, an angry mob of over 100 Sycamore residents journeyed to the home of Dr. Richards demanding the return of the body. A heated riot ensued and John Rood was fatally shot. Trying to calm the people, Dr. Richards stepped outside his home and was shot in the arm. Bleeding profusely and still trying to address the uncontrollable crowd, Dr. Richards was hit by rocks hurled at his head by the angry Sycamorans. While John Rood was instantly killed during the incident, Dr. Richards suffered wounds that would later cause his death.
To add to the strange story, there are competing versions of how the body was recovered. In one version, boys from town retrieved the body from what is now the Red Oak Nature Center. Another more fantastic version tells of Mrs. Caroline Howard, a noted spiritualist in town, being asked to use her psychic abilities to retrieve the body. Apparently, according to the latter version, her powers were strong enough to find the body, which was concealed along a bluff south of town. Mrs. Howard’s alleged association with this incident made her a very popular medium over the next 40 years.
Consequently, the Franklin Medical School was forced to close after only seven years of existence. Although the town was famous because of this incident, ultimately it was detrimental to the prosperity of St. Charles due to the closing of a major medical building.
