Local History: "A Terrible Tragedy", The Murder of Susie Hoover
- Terri
- Nov 14
- 12 min read
Susie Hoover and Jacob Simon's forbidden romance ends in Susie's untimely death. What caused young Susie's passing? Was Jacob at fault, or was it merely a dreadful accident? What secret was Susie Hoover hiding? Terri delves into what the Pantagraph described as "A Terrible Tragedy."
"A Terrible Tragedy"
The Murder of Susie Hoover
Susie Hoover was born near Ellsworth, Illinois, on 5 Nov 1873, the youngest in a family of seven girls. She was named after her mother, Susan Bane Hoover, who died in 1887 when Susie was 13. Her father, George Hoover, moved the family around quite a bit, but always seemed to return to McLean County sooner or later. He did not remain a widower for long, in fact just five months, then moved his family to Missouri, where he was engaged in the cattle business.
George’s second wife was Mollie Simon Willoughby, a divorcee 12 years his junior with a teenage daughter named Stella. The only Hoover girls still living at home were Susie and her sister Anna, so the family of five struck out for new surroundings. Mollie had a brother, Jacob Simon, who George hired to help with the cattle. It soon became apparent that Jacob, who was about 39 years old, and Susie, who by now was age 14, were paying a great deal of attention to one another. George expressed his displeasure, and that was the end of it… or so they thought.
George’s new wife Mollie died unexpectedly on 30 Sep 1892 after just five years of marriage. The whole family returned to Illinois, and Mollie was buried somewhere near Ellsworth. Susie and Anna were staying with their married sister, Ara Banks and her husband Millard, as were Stella and her uncle Jacob Simon. On October 20th, Jacob appeared at the Banks’ home and secretively asked Susie to meet with him in his room. Anna, who was under the weather and in bed in her own room across the hall, overheard them arguing. Jacob left with his belongings packed in a trunk, and Millard Banks gave him a lift to the train depot in Ellsworth. Within 20 minutes of his departure, Susie came downstairs and had begun having convulsions, one after another, for over an hour, increasing in severity, until Susie declared “I believe it will kill me.” She died around 4:20 in the afternoon, the cause of death determined to be strychnine poisoning.
News of this event spread fast and was chronicled in the Pantagraph newspaper. Less than two hours after Susie’s death, a coroner’s jury was impaneled to investigate. Early articles reported Susie’s surname as Hoobler rather than Hoover and suggested she had consumed a poison banana, the question being whether the poison was administered by her own hand or by another. In an ironic turn of events, her sister Anna, who had been under the weather, was accidentally given a dose of carbolic acid instead of medicine by their older sister Ara, and her life was in danger, too.
As it turned out, Anna recovered from her life-threatening experience, and the coroner’s jury was able to piece together the chain of events leading to Susie’s death from her own account related to those who witnessed it. At 1 am, they issued a verdict of murder stating that she consumed strychnine under threat from Jacob Simon. He was soon arrested, and his trial was scheduled to begin 31 May 1893.
After jury selection, State’s Attorney John A. Sterling presented his case, to which Simon had pleaded not guilty. He said Simon came to Illinois about ten years ago and was a boarder in the home of Phillip Holloway in Farmer City. He did not have a job, but did chores for the Holloway family, which consisted of Phillip, his wife and young daughter, to earn his keep. He had lived there three years when his sister married George Hoover, and Simon entered into a similar arrangement with them when they moved to Missouri. Soon after this move, Simon, who was over 40, began an illicit affair with 15-year-old Susie. When they returned to the Ellsworth area after Mollie Simon Hoover’s death, several family members plus Jacob Simon were staying at the Millard Banks residence. On October 20th, Anna Hoover overheard Susie arguing with Simon in his room, she saying, “Don’t, Jake! Don’t!” and he responding, “Yes! Yes!” Simon soon left the residence, and when Susie came downstairs, she began having convulsions. A doctor was summoned, but arrived too late to save her. In a postmortem exam, he found strychnine in her stomach and a two-month-old fetus in her womb. Meanwhile, Simon was in town asking acquaintances if there was any news of sickness at the Banks’ house. SA Sterling went on to present some theories as to motive before calling witnesses.
First to take the stand was George Hoover, Susie’s father. He confirmed the living arrangement with Simon and that he and his wife had both prevented him and Susie from being alone together. On cross-exam, he admitted that Susie had also seen a young man named Harrison, to which they also objected. George Hoover was in Missouri settling business affairs the day that Susie died.
Next, Ara Banks, Susie’s sister, gave an account of activities that occurred at her residence two miles south of Ellsworth on October 20th. Present in the home were Ara, her husband, sisters Susie and Anna, step-sister Stella and Jake Simon. Anna was upstairs in bed with a fever, and when Ara, her husband, Susie and Estella sat down to lunch, Jake refused to eat. While Susie was cleaning up after the meal, he whispered for her to meet him upstairs in his room. After about ten minutes, Ara sent Estella up after them. They were soon joined by Mr. Banks, who had agreed to haul Simon’s trunk to the train station. Mr. Banks and Simon left for Ellsworth and Susie came downstairs and seated herself in a rocking chair. She soon complained that she felt sick, like “I have no pain, but I am numb all over.” Then her hands and muscles all drew up, and she had a convulsion. Ara laid her on the floor, and the convulsions kept coming. She sent for a doctor, and when she returned to Susie’s side, she exclaimed, “I believe it will kill me!” By the time the doctor arrived, Mr. Banks had returned home, and they moved Susie to a bed in the next room. She lived but a few minutes after that. Court broke for lunch, then Ara took the stand once more for cross-exam. She had known of the affair between Susie and Simon, and the whole family disapproved. While they were staying at her house, Ara suspected Susie was pregnant due to her morning sickness and understood that the two of them intended to get married. No one but Simon kept company with Susie during their stay at the Banks’ house. (The defense may have implied that someone else was the father of Susie’s baby.)
Millard Banks, Ara’s husband, offered his testimony and approved a plat (or sketch) of his house as being an accurate depiction of the relationship of each room to the other as well as the placement of furniture.
The next, and possibly most damning, witness was Anna Hoover. She was lying sick in a room across from Simon’s room and could hear the louder parts of the argument between him and Susie. She heard Susie exclaim three times, “Don’t Jake, please don’t!” and his response each time, “Yes!” Anna had also lived with them in Missouri, and at one point had overheard Simon say he would either marry Susie or shoot her, or put her out of the world some way.
Stella Willoughby testified that when she went upstairs after lunch on the day Susie died, she found Susie and Simon both crying. Mr. Banks soon came up to get Simon’s trunk, which they carried downstairs to the wagon. She and Susie then ate some bananas Simon had given them. He came back up to say goodbye, then a few minutes later, Stella and Susie went downstairs. Stella went outside for a few minutes, then was sent to fetch a doctor. When she returned, she saw Susie on the floor in great agony. Stella went back upstairs and stayed there until it was all over.
Mary Thrush, another sister of Susie, arrived at the Banks’ home as Mr. Banks and Simon were leaving with Simon’s trunk. She entered the house and went upstairs to give some papers to Susie, then went to check on Anna. After a few minutes, Ara Banks called her downstairs due to Susie’s convulsions. As per earlier testimony, a doctor was sent for, he and Mr. Banks arrived at the house about the same time and moved Susie to a bed, then Susie died after just a few minutes.
Miss Ollie Tucker, well acquainted with the Hoover girls and Jake Simon, testified that she encountered Simon at Ellsworth, and he asked her who was sick at Millard Banks’? She said Anna was, but he insisted someone else must be sick there, too. While they were talking, they were approached by another acquaintance who told them Susie was dead. Simon started to cry and said he knew she was planning to take some poison. Ollie asked him why he didn’t tell her folks, and he said, “Oh, I couldn’t.” By now, it was about 6 o’clock and he headed toward the railroad. Thus ended the first day of testimony.
The next day, W. P. Reed testified that he was the one who told Jacob Simon and Ollie Tucker that Susie was dead. Reed had been deputized, so then took Simon into custody on a warrant. A couple different times during the night, Simon told him that Susie said she would take a dose of poison if he left, thereby indicating she committed suicide as a result of being despondent over his departure.
Phillip Holloway of Farmer City, with whom Simon had boarded for three years, testified that Simon and Susie had come to his home the week before her death. Mr. Holloway was not acquainted with Susie, but the couple stayed for lunch and into the afternoon. They were making arrangements to be married at the Holloway’s home on Thursday, October 20th. His wife then testified that during their visit, Simon had at one point looked out their bay window. She had a bottle of strychnine on a shelf in that window with which to kill rats. The bottle was clearly marked and held about ½ teaspoonful of poison. The newspaper account does not indicate if this bottle was missing after their visit.
Several doctors testified that the cause of Susie’s death is consistent with strychnine poisoning. Afterward, a number of Susie’s dying declarations were admitted as evidence, one of which was that Simon had purchased some “medicine” in Farmer City and gave her a capsule, insisting that she swallow it.
On the third day of the trial, 17 letters from Simon to Susie were entered into evidence. These letters had been in possession of Susie, and it was believed that Simon demanded them back prior to his departure so that he could destroy them, but he never had the chance. They were found in his trunk after his arrest. In them, Simon spoke of the young lady in loving terms that also showed there had been much criminal intimacy between them. Transcribed from the Pantagraph, 5 Jun 1893 edition: “They were read in a low tone to the jury, and the public got only an inkling of what they contained. They were extremely disgusting and vile, and are thoroughly unfit for publication.” After this, the defense called Anna Hoover and Stella Willoughby to the stand to ask them about a conversation that took place in Freeman, Missouri. Both women testified that they had no memory of it.
Then Jacob Simon took the stand in his own defense. He essentially verified earlier testimony about his arrival in central Illinois, staying with the Holloways in Farmer City for three years, then moving to Missouri with Mr. Hoover after his marriage to Simon’s sister. He admitted that he and Susie had made plans to marry on October 20th at the Holloway residence. Over the previous week, he had traveled extensively to visit friends and relatives before returning to the Banks’ residence on the 20th. There, he claims Ara Banks told him he was no longer welcome to stay at their house. He says that when he went upstairs, he visited with sickly Anna for several minutes before he went to his room to pack his trunk with the intent of traveling to Champaign. When he went to his room, Susie was there and Stella came in right behind him, with Susie and himself never being alone together. When Mr. Banks came up to load his trunk, he made his goodbyes to all. He bid farewell to Susie in the upstairs hallway, and she remarked, “Jake, you will never see my face again.” He told of learning of Susie’s death and his desire to return to the Banks’ house, but was arrested before that happened. The prosecution grilled him for some time and also presented his criminal history showing a conviction for perjury in 1881. At 6 pm, the court adjourned until Monday morning.
The defense wrapped up its case by interviewing two physicians from Farmer City who swore that they did not sell strychnine nor any compound to bring about an abortion (it was believed that Simon insisted that Susie take the medicine to bring on her “monthly sickness”). A professor from Wesleyan University stated he did not find any strychnine in Susie’s stomach but admitted it is possible to die from strychnine poisoning without it being found present in the stomach afterward. Two more doctors testified that strychnine is not nor has ever been used to bring on an abortion.
A rebuttal witness for the prosecution was a former acquaintance of Simon, with whom he had roomed for some time. Simon once showed him a box in his trunk which he said contained a substance that could do away with anyone he had trouble with. Simon asked him if he knew how much strychnine it would take to kill a person then told him it would only take two grains. Simon admitted rooming with this person, but vehemently denied any talk about strychnine.
Before the closing arguments, the judge in the case withdrew from consideration by the jury Simon’s past perjury conviction. It went to deliberation late in the day, and just minutes after the court reconvened at 9 am on 6 Jun 1893, the jury returned their verdict. Jacob Simon was found guilty with the penalty of life in prison. As soon as the jury filed out of the courtroom, Simon’s defense attorney called for a new trial, which was denied. The judge then addressed the defendant and told him that he was to be remanded to the penitentiary for life, with one hour to be spent in solitary confinement and the remainder at hard labor. For the first time during the proceedings, Simon broke his cool, collected façade and openly wept. He was subsequently transported to the Illinois State Penitentiary in Joliet.
Jacob Simon’s name appears in a Joliet Pen. statistics book in a table chronicling behavior of prisoners with life sentences. There are no conduct issues listed for him, but his age at intake is about 10 years off. He does not appear in the 1900 Federal Census, suggesting that he died sometime between 1 Oct 1896 and June of 1900, likely buried in an unmarked grave on prison grounds. The following “Table No. 24” is reproduced from Report of the Commissioners of the Illinois State Penitentiary at Joliet for the Two Years Ending September 30, 1896.
Addendum to “A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY”
When Jacob Simon came to central Illinois and spent three years boarding in the Holloway household in Farmer City, that family consisted of Phillip, his first wife Nancy and their only child, Maude. On 12 Jul 1886, Maude, age 15, became inexplicably ill, fell into convulsions and died. Her death was attributed to “bad ice cream” even though her parents had also consumed it and did not get sick. Just 14 months later, Jake moved to Missouri with his sister and her new family. Phillip and Nancy divorced in April of 1888. The reason for their break-up is not known, but losing your only child could definitely be a factor. When Simon’s role in the death of Susie Hoover came to light, Phillip Holloway thereafter believed his daughter had met the same fate. He married twice more, but never had another child.
Terri Lemmel was born and raised in DeWitt County near Kenney. Upon completing her education at Clinton High School, she lived in Bloomington for several years before returning to Clinton in 1990. Her interest in genealogy was piqued in the mid-90s when she found unidentified obituaries in her late grandmother's scrapbook that family members could not identify. While she initially dabbled in the subject, it wasn't until her retirement in 2018 that she jumped in with both feet. Terri joined the Genealogical Society and has been serving as its President since 2022. Research is a passion of hers, and there are lots of interesting stories to uncover! You can find Terri in the DeWitt County Genealogical Society room at the Vespasian Warner Public Library every Thursday completing research and helping others with their family and local history research.
To learn more about the DeWitt County Genealogical Society, feel free to reach out to them via phone at 217-935-5174, email at dewittcgs@gmail.com, their website, or their Facebook page.
The Vespasian Warner Library, located at 310 N. Quincy St. in Clinton, IL, features an extensive collection of local history and archives. To learn more, visit our Local History Page on the website or stop by in person! We are always excited to showcase our local history resources and discuss DeWitt County's local history.
