O’Fallon city marshal killed in line of duty

100 years ago this week, O’Fallon City Marshal Benjamin B. Schmitt, age 41, was killed in the line of duty at the B. & O. train depot just east of Lincoln Ave.

It was an early Tuesday evening, March 21, 1916. At the depot, Schmitt was questioning a suspicious acting Thomas Boreman and Kenneth Ford. Apparently satisfied, Schmitt turned to leave but Boreman said something to make him turn around, gun drawn.

Boreman quickly drew his gun and shot Schmitt through the heart. Schmitt fired twice but missed. Boreman was caught and indicted for murder. At his trial, he argued self-defense. The verdict returned by the jury on Oct. 4, 1916 was “not guilty.”

A former coal miner, Schmitt joined the O’Fallon police department May 5, 1913. He was appointed city marshal May 4, 1914 by Mayor John Seddon and re-appointed May 3, 1915 by Mayor C.E. Tiedemann.

75 years ago, Mar. 27, 1941. Considerable activity has been manifest on the land owned by Victor Rasp (the old William Scott place) one-half mile south of this city, where modern drilling equipment was moved in for the prospecting for oil.

The site is a short distance from the O’Fallon-Shiloh hard road. Promoters of the present well declare they are being guided by numerous geological surveys, which as they term it, “O’Fallon is situated atop large oil deposits.”

50 years ago, Mar. 31, 1966. The annual Easter Egg Hunt sponsored by the O’Fallon Kiwanis Club will be held at 2 o’clock Saturday April 9 in Community Park. Chairman of the event is Charles Dial, principal of O’Fallon Township High School.

The club has arranged for 240 dozen Easter eggs and has a number of stuffed Easter Bunnies for children pre-kindergarten through fourth grade.

This story was originally published March 25, 2016 at 9:02 AM with the headline "O’Fallon city marshal killed in line of duty."