KEOKUK – “Felix Hughes, Criminal Lawyer,” a program by Duane Taylor of Warsaw, Ill., will be presented at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Keokuk Pubilc Library, 210 N. Fifth St.
The event is sponsored by the Lee County Historical Society. It is a different time, day of the week, and location than most LCHS programs.
“If Felix Turner Hughes, longtime civic leader of Keokuk at the end of the 19th century, is remembered at all today, it is as the grandfather of eccentric – and eventually insane – industrialist and aviator, Howard Robart Hughes, Jr.,” said Taylor.
But Felix accomplished many things in his lifetime, according to Taylor.
He was chief counsel and later president of a Keokuk railroad, a twice-elected mayor of Keokuk in the 1890s, and a longtime municipal judge “who was always addressed as ‘Judge Hughes’ following his election,” Taylor said.
Felix and his wife Jean Summerlin Hughes had four children. Howard Sr. founded Hughes Tool, the source of his son’s fortune; Rupert was an extremely successful writer of silent screenplays and novels; Gretta had a career as an operatic singer; and Felix Jr., was a successful music teacher.
“His favorite house in Keokuk was the one in which he and his wife raised their children, and stands today next door to the Samuel F. Miller house on Fifth Street, which now houses the Lee County Historical Society,” Taylor said.
Before moving to Keokuk in the early 1880s, Felix had built a reputation as a successful criminal lawyer in Northeast Missouri, where he lived with his growing family in Lancaster.
“Perhaps his most famous role in criminal law was his prosecution of William J. Young for the vicious nighttime murder of the entire Spencer family in rural Luray, Clark County, Mo., in 1877,” Taylor said. “Bill Young was actually acquitted of that crime, but was lynched by a mob three days later. The Spencer murders have never been solved.”
Felix’ role in the case is “exceedingly curious and lends an insight into Judge Hughes’ character that has not been generally recognized,” according to Taylor. “This presentation explains and analyzes the role that he most probably played in the Bill Young trial of 1879.”
About Taylor
Taylor is a retired English composition teacher who taught at Western Illinois University, Carl Sandburg College, and John Wood Community College.
He also served as a community college administrator in Carthage, Ill., and Quincy, Ill.
Taylor has devoted almost 15 years to researching the Spencer murder case and the trial of Bill Young.
He lives in rural Warsaw on the family farm with his wife, Joyce. Taylor is president of the Keokuk Public Library Foundation.
