Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/610

 550 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI and then returning to Cape Girardeau to take up the practice of law. Since 1899 he has been city attorney of Cape Girardeau. William B. Wilson was born near Apple- ton, January 12, 1831, his family having been residents of Cape Girai'deau county since 1808. Dr. Wilson was educated in private schools and in the medical school of the Uni- versity of New York, from which he gradu- ated in 1852. After his graduation he be- gan the practice of medicine in Cape Girar- deau and continued it until his death in Oc- tober, 1900. He was a very prominent citi- zen of Cape Girardeau and was well known especially for his connection with the Masonic order, in which he held high rank. He was regarded as a very upright and able man and ■while never engaging in politics, held a num- ber of positions, having been a member of the council, school director, and member of the board of regents of the State Nomial School. Judge John W. Emerson, a native of New England, came to Missouri as a millwright ; he made his home in Arcadia and after a time be- gan the study of law with Judge Pipkin ; after his admission to the bar he became a very successful lawyer. He was a soldier during the war and at its close was appointed a judge of the 15th .judicial circuit, serving for only a short time, however. Judge Emerson was not only a good lawyer but possessed consid- erable literary ability, having written several poems and a number of essays and addresses. His former home in Arcadia is one of the most beautiful places in Missouri and it was under a tree at this place that Grant received his commission as a brigadier general. The troublesome period of the Civil war and the times immediately following it produced a number of men whose names became widely known on account of their exploits as leaders of bands, sometimes of soldiers and sometimes of guerrillas. No man in Southeast Missouri achieved a wider reputation of this sort than Samuel S. Hildebrand, who was a member of a pioneer family of Missouri, the Hildebrands being some of the earliest settlers of Jeffer- son county. At the time of the breaking out of the war a brother of Samuel Hildebrand, named Frank, was hanged by a vigilance committee in Ste. Genevieve county. This and other wrongs stirred the sense of injus- tice in Hildebrand and he set out to achieve a desperate revenge. The men who were in- stiiunental in hanging his brother Frank, were shot and killed one after another. He took part in the war on the southern side and became very famous on account of his oper- ations; he held a major's commission in the Missouri State Guard, issued by General Jeff Thompson. At the close of the war he con- tinued his depredations and finally left Mis- souri and made his way to Arkansas and then to Texas. His later history is in doubt ; some say he became a resident of Illinois where he was killed, other accounts have it that he is still living. Hildebrand was tall, rawboned with high cheek bones, a pallid complexion and blue eyes that were cold and expression- less. He was a man who probably had no fear, possessed great determination and was a most excellent marksman. He became thor- oughly acquainted with the country in which he operated and possessed some of the Indian ability to know the country and to make his way about it from one place to another. There is a cave on Big river near the north line of St. Francois county, known as Hildebrand 's cave ; its entrance is about 40 feet above the head of the stream and it can be approached by only one man at a time. It is said that