Joseph Hairston (1887-1959) was born in Virginia and moved to Lake Forest sometime before 1910. He initially worked as a laborer before serving in World War I. Following his service, Joseph began work for the City with the Street and Bridges Department. This work was not easy. In fact, in 1921 he almost drowned while working at the bottom of a 23-foot manhole when the “sewer gas” incapacitated him. Joseph suffered from empyema and pneumonia during his recovery from the freak accident. 

 

Joseph married Hazel Lillian Hunter (1901-1993) and they had three daughters, Lillian Narcis (1922-1921), Josephine Vivian (1923-2015), and Margaret (1925-1935). Tragedy struck the family when Margaret died in 1935 at age 10 at Children’s Memorial Hospital following an illness. 

The Hairstons built a home in the Black neighborhood on the North end of Lake Forest at Spruce and Edgewood, at 1373 Edgewood. That property was owned by the family and their descendants for nearly 100 years before being sold and redeveloped in the 2020s. 

 

In 1927, Joseph survived a heartrending ordeal when he was witness to a heinous crime. After clocking out from his job for the city, Hairston went to the Thorne Donnelley residence to tend the furnaces there, contract work he undertook for several area estates. As he arrived, he saw Odo Pueschell, a chauffeur at a house nearby, running from the Donnelley home. Suspicious, he rushed inside and found Wilma Miller, one of the Donnelleys’ maids, lying at the foot of the staircase. Joseph called the police and ran off to retrieve them. When he returned with Officer Earl Dunne, they rushed her to the hospital as quickly as they could but unfortunately, her wounds were too severe. Wilma died shortly after.

In The People v. Pueschell trial, Joseph was called to the witness stand to give his firsthand account to the event. He was questioned and cross-examined, in an attempt by the defense to shake his story. But Joseph maintained his narrative and helped the prosecution determine the details of this atrocity. Over the course of the trial, it became evident that Pueschell, a white man, planned to commit the murder and then pin the crime on Joseph, a Black man. Joseph spoke unfaltering in his testimony while Pueschell grappled with what to say, often contradicting himself. The trial was covered extensively in The Lake Forester. Pueschell was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. 

 

After the trial, Joseph continued his work with the City of Lake Forest until his retirement. He died in 1959 and is buried in the Lake Forest Cemetery. 

 

Joseph and Hazel’s daughters Lillian and Josephine were involved in both community and school-related activities. As an example, a 1940 issue of The Lake Forester highlights their involvement in two plays with the Keep Tryst Club, a group in the Y.W.C.A. They both attended Hampton Institute in Virginia; Lillian went on to get her Master’s in teaching at Michigan State University and taught locally in Waukegan for many years.