Whiteside County IL Archives Biographies.....Blue, Richard 
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Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 January 31, 2008, 3:16 am

Author: Portrait/Bio Album, Whiteside County IL 1885

Richard Blue, farmer, resident on section 22, Clyde Township, was born on 
section 17 of the same municipality, where he has lived all his life. His 
birth occurred Nov. 7, 1855, and he is the son of Alexander A. and Mary 
(Beswick) Blue. His father was born in Nova Scotia of Scotch parentage, and 
his mother was a native of England. They were united in marriage in the 
township of Clyde, and became the parents of four children. The incident about 
to be related in connection with the history of Mr. Blue, eclipses in 
intensity all others that have hitherto fallen within the province of the 
biographer, whose duty it becomes to place on permanent record a narration of 
terrible suffering and horrible necessity, such as clouds the personal annals 
of but few. Sorrows beset and troubles multiply, but are rarely without some 
shade of mitigation. In this there is but the ghastly reality. In 1859 
Alexander, Daniel and Charles Blue, the first named being the father and the 
others the uncles of Mr. Blue of this sketch, together with John Campbell and 
Thomas Stevenson, set forth from Whiteside County for the new El Dorado of 
Pike's Peak, making their way there across the plains on foot. At Manhattan, 
Kan., they were joined by a party of nine others. When within sight of the 
peaks of the Rocky Mountains, their further progress was impeded by a terrific 
snow storm, and they wandered helplessly, consuming the remnants of food in 
their possession until starvation was imminent. Alexander and Charles were 
sick, the former having inflammatory rheumatism. After the terrible five-days 
storm was over, Charles was completely disabled. Then some of the party left 
them and went on. After proceeding on some days, after a rest for Charles' 
welfare, Alexander sank down exhausted and in extreme pain. In giving a 
description of their awful suffering, Daniel Blue continues the narration as 
follows: "We wrapped Alexander up in blankets, bathed him with snow water, 
and, tearing our shirts into strips, bandaged his feet and head, and did all 
we could, in our weak and almost dying condition to relieve him, and then we 
all lay down in our blankets on the snow and rested till morning. Oh, for 
something nourishing to eat! How hunger gnawed in our stomachs, parched our 
lips, and dried up the moisture of our throats and mouths. How it weakened us, 
consuming, as if by fire, our muscles and our juices! It reduced us to very 
skeletons, and we stalked about, emaciated, with death's hollow sound in every 
word we tried to speak, with death's dull, leaden fixedness in our eyes, and 
with death's pale look in our sad and wretched faces. It was here, in the 
midst of these tribulations, while we were lying on the ground together, and 
feeling that death from starvation was near at hand to all of us, that our 
conversation turned to the subject of eating each other! Horrible thought! And 
yet, the subject having been mentioned, we kept thinking of it, and 
subsequently we again spoke of it, and all then agreed that whichever of us 
should die first, should be eaten by the rest. On the next morning I beheld 
for the first time, dimly up among the clouds, a peak of the Rocky Mountains. 
My heart, faint with weakness, beat quicker then, and a thrill of joy came 
over me, and hope revived. I ran back to my companions, and joyfully announced 
to them my discovery. I carried Alexander a portion of the way. But we had not 
gone over 40 rods, when Alexander fell down exhausted again. I now deemed it 
improper for my brothers to try to go on further, and it was then proposed 
that all of the party who were able, should go on, and if they found help, 
should return to the rescue of the others. All went except Soley, one of the 
party that joined us. He and brother Alexander were now completely prostrate, 
helpless as babes. Charles rallied a little during the day, and he walked 
along slowly, while I carried the two helpless men along, first bearing Soley 
a certain distance, and setting him down,—then going back after Alexander, and 
then again returning for our satchels. My object was to find, if possible, a 
better shelter for them, hoping to find a human habitation of some kind. But 
evening came again, and our condition and prospects were more desperate and 
wretched than ever before. We had now been eight entire days without food, 
except boiled roots and grass and the snow, and even these, what little we 
could get of them, did not in the least satisfy our hunger. The roots were 
bitter and would not digest, and lay heavily on our stomachs, making us more 
miserable than we had felt previously. On that night Alexander suffered 
terribly, and I had to sit up with him, trying to soothe and alleviate his 
excruciating rheumatic pains. Charles and Soley slept soundly till morning; 
but at about seven o'clock that same morning, Soley commenced to sink rapidly, 
and soon expired, bidding us a sad farewell, and requesting us, with his last 
words, to take his body and eat of it as much as we could, and thus preserve 
our lives. The poor, noble-hearted boy had actually starved to death! And in 
his fate, we three brothers, who were now left entirely alone, saw our own; 
for death was surely gnawing at our vitals, and we felt that soon we would 
have to follow our now silent, pale and emancipated companion to the other 
world, 'where the weary are at rest.' We were not strong enough to inter the 
corpse, neither had we pick or shovel with which to dig a grave, even if we 
could muster strength enough to do so. The dead body lay there for three days, 
we lying helpless on the ground near it, our craving for food increasing 
continually, until, driven to desperation, wild with hunger, and feeling, in 
its full force, the truth of the sentiment, that 'self-preservation is the 
first law of nature,' we took our knives and commenced cutting the flesh from 
the legs and arms of our dead companion, and ate it! this was the hardest of 
our trials —this being forced to eat human flesh. We restrained as long as we 
could, but we yielded at last, for it was our last resort for hope of 
preservation." After struggling against fate, all died shortly afterward, 
excepting Daniel, who subsequently became demented through suffering and grief 
and wandered aimlessly about, but was finally discovered by some Indians in 
the vicinity of the Big Sandy River in Colorado. He was utterly without sense 
or knowledge and the red men delivered him to some whites, who took him to 
Denver, where he was cared for with skill and restored to health and reason. 
He has since written an account of his dreadful experience and has become a 
married man and is a farmer in Iowa. The mother of Mr. Blue lived until April, 
1863, when she died, leaving four orphan children, the youngest of whom was 
but seven years old. The son, who is the subject of this sketch, has sustained 
himself since his mother's death. Dec. 25, 1877, he was married to Emma A. 
Alldritt, and they have two children—Wilfred T., born Dec. 16, 1878, and 
Samuel A., born Jan. 6, 1885. Mrs. Blue was born in Clyde Township, Aug. 13, 
1859, and is the daughter of Thomas and Lavina (Heacox) Alldritt. Her parents 
were both natives of England and were married in Clyde Township, whither they 
removed with their respective parents. The father of Mrs. Blue is still 
living. The mother died Sept. 25, 1880.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois, Containing Full-
page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative 
Citizens of the County. Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1885.

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