The long, steady stream of loggers coming to Cheboygan and Duncan city (located near Duncan Bay on the east side of the river) in the late 1800s and early 1900s included some unsavory characters.

Alcohol was a huge problem when the lumberjacks came to town exhausted and looking for a good time in Cheboygan’s many saloons. They worked hard and drank much when they headed into town Saturday nights.

In 1853, when the county was founded, the first courthouse was established in Duncan. Sixteen years later, the county built a new courthouse on Court and Huron streets. It was built by J.F. Watson at a cost of $3,000. This old courthouse and nearby county jail are now the home of the Cheboygan History Museum.

The second courthouse was in heavy use until 1899, when a new, majestic courthouse made of red stone was built at the northwest corner of Main and Court streets.

One of the first major criminal trials in the new courthouse involved an itinerant logger, Irishman John Riordan, who arrived in Duncan on a boat in November 1902. He was a rough-looking character. He was traveling with a group of men who were looking for work in the woods. They were heading to Frank Lalonde’s lumber camp at Cordwood Point, about 10 miles away, when Riordan and his traveling companions had a spirited quarrel. He left them to walk alone from Duncan to Cheboygan.

According to the Nov. 29, 1902, edition of the Cheboygan Democrat, Riordan soon encountered Eva Featherstone, 15, walking alone.

Eva was a refined and modest young lady who lived with her parents, James and Carrie (Eady) Featherstone, who had moved to Duncan from Newaygo County a few years before. They operated a boarding house on Duncan Bay.

Riordan accosted Eva and ordered her to come with him. Eva was terribly frightened and ran away while shouting desperately for help.

Riordan yelled at her to stop running. But she kept running and he shot her in the back with a .38 caliber bulldog revolver which packed a powerful punch.

The bullet hit Eva in the back, near her shoulder, and exited out front, a little to the side of her stomach.

Riordan ran to the nearby woods.

Bleeding, Eva stumbled home.

Sheriff Fred Ming, and Drs. Marks and St. Amour, were called.

Ming found Marshal Lalonde and the two started to the scene. Witnesses pointed to where the shooter had run.

Riordan had a one-hour head start. Ming and Lalonde took up the chase and asked everyone they encountered if any had seen Riordan fleeing.

Travelling down Lafayette Avenue to Black River Road, the lawmen came across two hunters, McManigal and Combs, coming from the tannery further out on Black River Road. Ming described Riordan to them and offered a $50 reward if they found him.

They soon found Riordan not far away on Lafayette near Calvary Cemetery.

They ordered him to put his hands up and marched him to Ming and Lalonde.

Sheriff Ming and Marshal Lalonde took him to the Featherstone home. Eva was still traumatized and in great pain, yet she identified him immediately.

Riordan denied shooting Eva. She was adamant he was the shooter.

She told them she was walking to Cheboygan when she saw Riordan and he started to yell and come after her.

Judge Boucard also came to the house. Eva was able to talk. She said she would never forget Riordan and would identify him in court. Eva told the judge that after Riordan accosted her, she ran nearly half a mile and was totally exhausted when she sat down on a log.

Riordan was arrested and ordered to stand trial.

The shooting and chase left Eva in a dangerously weak condition. It took her months to heal and get back her strength.

In 1907, a re-energized Eva married Francis A. “Frank” Barlow, a beloved postal clerk and Boy Scout Leader in town. In 1908, they welcomed a daughter, Frances Constance “Connie” Barlow. Connie later married Sam D Fralick, Sr. In an act of selfless patriotism, Frank joined the Army in 1915. He rose to captain and was a heroic leader to his “boys” from Cheboygan. Frank was killed in action in France in 1918.

After grieving for six years, Eva married William W. “Bill” McLaughlin, an engineer on the Great Lakes boats, March 22, 1924. They would enjoy 49 years together on South E Street, merely blocks from where she was shot, when Bill died in 1973. Eva went to her eternal rest Dec. 21, 1979.