"The trial herein given was reported for and published in 'The Register,' a county paper issued weekley at Cave-in-Rock, Illinois, and edited by author of this book."

"Beginning with his boyhood, and taking up his life from that period the reader is carried through the civil war or late rebellion with him as lieutenant; thence down to his life on a farm near Cave-in-Rock, Ill., and his sentence to prison for the killing of Oldham; then re-arrest and trial for the murder of Luke Hambrink -- his acquittal and finally death by assassination on June 6th, 1887."