Grand Tower Police Department, Illinois
End of Watch: Saturday, February 26, 1881
Age: 53
Tour of Duty: Not available
Badge Number: Not available
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: January 4, 1881
Weapon Used: Rifle
Suspect Info: One sentenced
Marshal George Cady succumbed to gunshot wounds he suffered nearly two months earlier while escorting a group of rowdy and drunken lumberjacks out of town.
The marshal had told the lumberjacks, who were creating a disturbance in the late afternoon, to leave the town and followed them on foot to the nearby railroad depot. As they approached the depot, one of the men pulled a rifle and shot Marshal Cady, striking him in the chest.
Marshal Cady, who never carried a gun, was able to make his way to the Tremont House, a local hotel, where he collapsed. Marshal Cady survived nearly two months before he died of his wounds.
A posse located two of the lumberjacks, but not the man who allegedly shot Marshal Cady. They were jailed in Murphysboro to avoid a lynching from angry citizens seeking vengeance, but escaped while awaiting trial. One suspect was recaptured and served a long sentence at the Chester Penitentiary. The other suspect was never apprehended.
Marshal Cady had served in the Confederate Army and was survived by his wife and 4-year-old son, who later went on to serve as the Grand Tower marshal and a Jackson County deputy sheriff. He was known to often wear the vest his father wore which prominently displayed the bullet hole that took his father's life.