USA > Ohio > Adams County > A history of Adams County, Ohio, from its earliest settlement to the present time, including character sketches of the prominent persons identified with the first century of the country's growth > Part 47
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That must have been a mournful procession of the Judge and his family, he then forty-five, Mary seventeen, Powell sixteen, Kidder twelve, William ten, and Evelyn eight, accompanied by his neighbors, bearing the fair daughter of Virginia, who had graced its best society and seen and known as the father's friend, the immortal Washington, to her last resting place, in the then primitive Ohio forest. There her remains have reposed for seventy-nine years, and though, in that time, the whole face of nature about the spot has changed, and wilder- ness and forest have yielded to plains and fertile fields and pleasant homes, yet if it is aught to the dead as to the scenery about the place of their last repose, there are no finer views anywhere on earth, horizon or sky, than surrounds this hallowed earth, and no fairer place for ·the fulfillment of the decree of "earth to earth" on the mortal part, could have been selected.
After this, the place being intolerable to Judge Byrd, and craving human society, he moved with his sons to the village of West Union, which had been laid out in 1804, and sent his daughters to Chamerie, Ky., to be reared by their grandfather, Col. David Meade. He sold the station to John Ellison, son of Andrew Ellison, of Lick Fork, for $4,000. John Ellison resided there from 1818 to 1829, the time of his death, and here most of his large family was born. His wife was Annie Barr, whose father, Samuel Barr, had been killed in a battle be- tween Kentuckians under Maj. Simon Kenton, and Indians under Tecumseh in March, 1792. Here all but the two eldest of John Elli- son's children were born. Andrew was born in 1808, in Manchester, and spent a long life there. Sarah, the second child, was born in 1818 in Manchester, but was married at the station to the late Thomas W. Means, of Hanging Rock. There John Ellison's daughter, Mary K., was married to William Ellison, her distant cousin, and there her sis- ter Esther was married to the late Hugh Means, of Ashland, Ky. 25a
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Jane Ellison, another daughter was the wife of David Sinton, of Cin- cinnati. She was born there, but was married to Mr. Sinton at the home of Thomas Means, at Union Landing. She died in Manchester, Ohio, in 1853, and is buried there in the Presbyterian churchyard. Her daughter is the wife of Hon. Charles P. Taft, editor of the Times Star. Here the late John Ellison, the banker of Manchester, was born, and here he spent a happy childhood and boyhood, whose joys he never tired of recounting among his friends. While the Ellisons re- sided there, the Station had many distinguished visitors from Cincin- nati, Maysville, Hanging Rock and other points. Among others, Mrs. John F. Keyes, nee Margaret Barr, a daughter of Samuel Barr, before mentioned, spent the summer of 1832 here and remained till after the frost to escape the dread pestilence, the Asiatic Cholera, then preva- lent. She returned to Cincinnati after the first frost in the fall of 1832, and was at once taken with the cholera and died within a few hours. The pioneers who knew this place, who had many joyous meetings here, and their natural foes, the Indians, are all gone to the shadow land, but the beauties of the landscape and of the natural scenery, which charmed the untutored savage, the hardy pioneer and the deer hunter, the early settlers, still remains to produce, like sentiments in those who choose to look upon it.
THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF DAVID BECKETT.
The most noted case in the annals of crimes in Adams County, is that of The State v. Beckett. This is so, not from the fact alone that it records the first homicide committed within the county after its organization, nor from the fact that the trial resulted in the only legal execution of the death penalty ever imposed in the county; but, the circumstances under which the crime was committed, the brutality of the act itself, the inexplicable conduct of Beckett after committing the deed, the momentous questions of law raised by the attorneys for the accused on his trial, and the scenes and incidents attending the execution of the condemned, all conspire to make it the most inter- esting and sensational criminal case in the history of the county.
History of the Crime.
In the autumn of 1807, David Beckett in company with John Lightfoot, started down the Ohio River in a craft called a pirogue, for the purpose of trafficking with the settlers and hunters along the way, exchanging salt, some primitive articles of household, powder and lead, for grain, whiskey and pelts. The trip promised to be a prosperous one, and the prospect of gain so aroused Beckett's covetousness, that he determined to kill his companion and possess himself of the craft and its cargo. On the evening of the 5th day of October, the pirogue was moored to the Ohio shore at "Cook Jennie" bar at mouth of Aleck's Run, on the farm now owned by A. G. Lockhart, in Green Township, and after partaking of a hearty meal of broiled vension, and indulging frequent draughts from a demijohn of whiskey set aside from the stock for the occasion, the traders retired to the boat for the night. Beckett had designedly urged Lightfoot, his companion, to drink copiously
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of the whiskey in order to stupefy him before making the contemplated assault. In the night while Lightfoot lay in a drunken stupor, Beckett arose, seized an ax, or large tomahawk conveniently near at hand, and dealt Lightfoot a murderous blow with the sharp edge of the in- strument on the side of the head, sinking it into the brain up to the eye. Then seizing the limp and bleeding form of his victim, he dragged it to the side of the boat and rolled it overboard into the river. Hav- ing disposed of the body of his victim and whatever articles there were bearing evidence of the bloody deed, in and about the boat, Beckett determined to go to Limestone some miles below, at that time one of the principal landings and marts on the Ohio for western emigrants, and there sell the boat and cargo and flee the country. However the following day, while on the way to Limestone, he stopped at the resi- dence of William Faulkner who kept a sort of inn and trading estab- lishment near the mouth of Brush Creek. To him Beckett disposed of his possessions taking as part pay a horse which he immediately mounted and rode away. Shortly after this, the body of Lightfoot having been discovered, and Faulkner being found in possession of the boat and cargo, he was accused of murdering the traders, arrested and thrown into jail, although protesting his innocence of the crime. About this time, the horse which Beckett had ridden away, escaped from him, and he supposing that it had returned to its former owner, came back to the vicinity in search of the missing animal. He was accused of being implicated in the murder of Lightfoot, placed under arrest and taken to the jail at West Union, then recently made the permanent seat of justice of the county. This was in the latter part of October, 1807, and at the sitting of the grand jury of the county, the following month of November, an indictment was returned against Beckett for murder in the first degree.
The Indictment.
As fully illustrating the form and character of such legal docu- ments of that day and age, the indictment is here given in full, verbatim et literatum.
State of Ohio, Adams County, Court of Common Pleas, Novem- ber Term, 1807, Adams County, ss.
The grand jurors empaneled and sworn to enquire for the body of the county aforesaid, in the name and by the authority of the State of Ohio, upon their oath present, that David Beckett, late of .Green Township, in the county of Adams, aforesaid, Yeoman, not having the fear of God before his eyes, but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil on the fifth day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and seven, with force and arms, at Green Township, aforesaid, in the county aforesaid, in and upon one John Lightfoot, in the peace of God and of the said state, then and there being, feloniously, wilfully, and of his malice aforethought did make an assault; and that he, the said David Beckett, with a certain ax, of the value of fifty cents, which he the said David Beckett, in both his hands then and there had and held, the said John Lightfoot, in and upon the left side of the head of him, the said John Lightfoot, then and there feloniously, wilfully and of his malice aforethought, did
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strike, giving to the said John Lightfoot, then and there with the ax aforesaid, in and upon the above said left side of the head of him, the said John Lightfoot, one mortal wound of the breadth of three inches, and of the depth of two inches, of which said mortal wound, the said John Lightfoot then and there instantly died, and so the jurors afore- said, upon their oath aforesaid, do say, that the said David Beckett, the said John Lightfoot, in manner and form aforesaid, feloniously, wilfully, and of his malice aforethought, did kill and murder, against the form of the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the state of Ohio.
James Scott, Prosecuting Attorney, A. C.
His Arraignment and Plea.
State of Ohio, Adams County, Court of Common Pleas, November Term, 1807.
The grand jury having returned to the court an indictment against David Beckett, for the murder of John Lightfoot, the said David Beckett was set to the Barr and having heard the indictment aforesaid read, and it being demanded of him whether he was guilty of the mur- der aforesaid or not guilty, he said he was not guilty, and made his election to be tried by the Supreme Court next to be holden within and for the county aforesaid. Whereupon the said David Beckett was remanded back to the jail of Adams County.
Joseph Darlinton, Clerk Adams County.
Delay of the Trial.
Through the efforts of his counsel, Henry Brush and William Creighton, Esquires, the trial of Beckett was delayed for one year from the finding of the indictment. The most important question raised by the defense for the consideration of the court, was whether the court had jurisdiction over the place where the crime was com- mitted. Since Lightfoot was killed on a boat upon the Ohio River, the learned counsel for the accused contended that the place of the crime was not within the jurisdiction of the State of Ohio, basing their argument in support of the contention on the language of the deed of cession of the Northwest Territory by the State of Virginia to the United States: "The territory situate, lying, and being to the north- · west of the river Ohio." This raised the question of what constitutes the southern boundary line of Ohio; whether the bank on the north shore of the river, low water-mark on that shore, or the middle of the current of the Ohio? As the question had not been judicially deter- mined till that time, the court took the question under consideration for future decision. [This question was again raised by counsel for the defendants and fully discussed by Hon. Samuel Vinton in the case of the Commonwealth of Virginia v. Peter M. Garner et al, before the General Court of Virginia in 1845.] At the next sitting of the court, it was announced by the court, that inasmuch as the evidence disclosed
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the fact that the boat upon which the crime in question was com- mitted, was fastened by means of a rope to a tree on the Ohio bank of the river, the place of the crime was within the State of Ohio, and that the court had lawful jurisdiction of the offense, and would pro- ceed to the trial of the accused. So accordingly at the October term, 1808, the Supreme Court of Ohio, western division, held in the town of West Union, the Hon. Samuel Huntington and the Hon. William Sprigg sitting, David Beckett was put on his trial for the murder of John Lightfoot, as the following record will show :
State of Ohio, Adams County, ss. The state of Ohio to the sheriff of Adams County: You are hereby commanded to summon thirty good and lawful men of the county aforesaid (in addition to the stand- ing jury of the present term) forthwith to appear before the Supreme Court now sitting within and for the county aforesaid, to make a jury well and truly to try the prosecution now depending in the said court against David Beckett, and have there this writ. Witness the Hon. Samuel Huntington, Chief Judge of the Supreme Court of the State of Ohio, this seventeenth day of October, 1808.
Joseph Darlinton, Clerk S. C. A. C.
The above named persons I have summoned to attend as within directed.
John Ellison Jr., Sheriff, A. C. Serving $2.00.
The Venire for Thirty Jurors.
Needham Perry, David Robe, Joseph Keith, John Ellison, Sr., Moses Baird, Job Dinning, Eli Reeves, David Means, John McColm, Neal Lafferty, William Armstrong, John Finley, George Harper, David Bradford, Andrew Boyd, Daniel Collier, Alexander Campbell, James Allen, Samuel Milligan, David Hannah, Robert Anderson, David Thomas, Levin Wheeler, John Kincaid, Thomas Lewis, Joseph Currey, Simon Fields, Simon Shoemaker, William McIntyre, Isaac Edgington.
From the above venire and the standing jury for the term, the fol- lowing named persons were selected as
The Trial Jury.
David Means, John Wickoff, Daniel Collier, Job Dinning, Andrew Boyd, Eli Reeves, Samuel Milligan, George Harper, David Robe, John Campbell, David Thomas, David Bradford.
The Trial.
The prosecuting attorney, James Scott, himself an able and pains- taking lawyer, assisted by John W. Campbell, a bright young attor- ney who had recently located in West Union, and who afterwards be- came a United States judge, convinced of the guilt of Beckett, spared no effort to bring about his conviction. On the other hand, the attor- neys for the accused, Henry Brush, one of the learned members of the
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bar at that day, and afterwards judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and the brilliant young advocate, William Creighton, the first Secre- tary of State of Ohio, believing the earnest protestations of innocence made by the accused to be true, and urged on by the hope of victory in a contest so. widely observed by the people, and in which the stake was not alone fame and reputation-but a human life-met every as- sault of the prosecution during the trial, steel clashing with steel.
Scores of witnesses were called and examined; and the many sin- gle subpoenas that were issued during the progress of the trial indicate the earnestness with which the contest was waged. A theory of the defense was that William Faulkner was implicated in the muder of Lightfoot to the extent at least of guilty knowledge of the crime. And public opinion was divided as to the guilt or innocence of Faulkner, even up to the day of the execution of Beckett. After consuming nearly a week in the trial of the case, it was given the jury, which after due deliberation, reported the verdict through its foreman, David Brad- ford, "Guilty in manner and form as charged."
Thereupon the court pronounced the death penalty to be imposed upon the prisoner at the bar. His attorneys filed a motion in arrest of judgment and for a new trial, which on consideration by the court was overruled, whereupon the following order was directed to the sheriff having the prisoner in charge:
October term of the Supeme Court sitting in and for the County of Adams, in the State of Ohio, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and eight.
State of Ohio, Adams County, ss.
The state of Ohio, to the sheriff of Adams County; whereas at the aforesaid term of our Supreme Court, sitting in and for the county aforesaid, David Beckett was convicted of the murder of John Light- foot and thereupon received judgment to-wit; that he be taken to the place from whence he came and from thence on the tenth day of De- cember next to the place of execution, and that he be then and there hanged by the neck until he be dead. Execution of which said judg- ment yet remains to be done. We therefore require and by these presents strictly command you that on Saturday, the tenth day of De- cember, next, you convey the said David Beckett now in your custody in the jail of Adams County, to the place of execution and that you do cause execution to be done upon the said David Beckett in your custody so being in all things according to the said judgment. And this you are by no means to omit at your peril. Witness the honor- able Samuel Huntington, Chief Judge of our said court, this twenty- second day of October in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and eight, and of the State of Ohio, the sixth.
Joseph Darlinton, Clerk S. C. A. C.
The above bears the following indorsement: "Executed, John Ellison, Jr., Sheriff, Adams County."
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Scenes and Incidents at the Execution.
On Saturday, December 10, 1808, at the town of West Union, gathered the first of the three notably large assemblages of the people in the history of the county. They came in wagons, on horseback, and afoot, from .every section of this county and those adjoining, and from the region of Kentucky opposite along the Ohio River. It was a won- derful, outpouring of the people, not only to witness the execution of the condemned, but to see and hear that eccentric and sensational itinerant preacher, Lorenzo Dow, who it was said, would be present to try his wonderful powers on the doomed man to elicit from him the facts as to the guilt or innocence of William Faulkner, accused of complicity in the murder of John Lightfoot. By noon of that mem- orable day the straggling village of West Union was literally swal- lowed up by as motley a crowd as ever gathered in the state. Back-" woodsmen, boatmen, traders, merchants, mechanics, lawyers, preachers, women and children, all formed a surging mass, now crowding through the court house; and now engulfing the jail in which Beckett, in irons, was being prepared for his last hour on earth ; now scrutinizing the rude and barbarous gibbet from which the condemned would soon swing by the neck; and now listening with bated breath to the words of his awful confession as they fell from the lips of the doomed man.
The gibbet, consisting of two huge upright timbers firmly planted in the ground, with strong connecting cross-beam at the top, stood to the north of the northeast corner of the public square, near the present site of the Christian Union Church. Here was erected a rough plat- form from which Lorenzo Dow, Rev. William Williamson, then in charge of the West Union Presbyterian Church, Rev. Abbott Godard, and Rev. Robert Dobbins, then residing in Adams County, addressed the people preceding the execution. In the biography of Rev. Robert Dobbins, it is stated that he and Rev. Dow on the morning of the day of the execution went to the cell of the condemned man to elicit the truth from him as to another being implicated in the crime for which he was about to suffer. "Rev. Dow first interrogated the priso- ner, and being dissatisfied with his answers, left the cell. Rev. Dobbins then conversed with the prisoner and urged him to tell the truth, and spoke of the awful consequences of appearing before his Judge with a falsehood upon his soul. He finally succeeded in eliciting from the prisoner the fact that the implicated man was not guity."
The condemned was then made ready, bound, and placed in a vehi- cle bearing his coffin, and driven to the place of execution. Here the Rev. Williamson preached a sermon from the text, "Oh! Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help."
Rev. Dow then delivered an address from the words, "Rejoice, young mạn, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, etc.," after which Rev. Abbott Godard delivered an ex- hortation, and then Rev. Dobbins addressed the people.
"The prisoner then made a confession three-quarters of an hour long, and exhorted the young people to avoid the paths of vice. He said that intemperance,. gambling, and base company had been the cause of his downfall."
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Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Mercury of January 5, 1809, contained the following: "On Saturday, the tenth ult., was executed in the town of West Union, Ohio, between the hours of two and three o'clock, in the presence of about fifteen thousand (?) people, David Beckett, for the murder of William (John) Lightfoot.
" Season return ; but not to me return.
" Day on the sweet approach of even or morn."
"At twelve o'clock he was conducted by a strong guard to the place of execution, where a solemn address was delivered by Lorenzo Dow. He was succeeded by two other gentlemen, after which the culprit arose and addressed himself to the surrounding multitude for the space of twenty minutes. His countenance was mild; his manner and speech free and unembarrassed. He appeared about the age of twenty-five; the flower of youth glowed in his face, even to the last moment. Dur- ing his address he made the following confession : "I can not say I am innocent. I am guilty of the crime laid to my charge; these hands de -: prived William (John) Lightfoot of his life. These are stained with his blood, for which I freely resign my life, and hope in a few minutes to meet him in a happy eternity." He also said that George (William) Faulkner was innocent of all charges laid to him respecting said mur- der."
At the close of his thrilling appeal, the noose dangling from the gibbet was adjusted about the neck of the condemned, the black cap was drawn over his eyes, the cart in which he was standing beside his coffin was driven from under him, and the murder of John Lightfoot was avenged.
Lewis Johnson says that his mother, then a girl, told him that she stood with others of her family on the high porch that used to front the house where he yet resides, and saw Beckett hanged, and that the gal- lows stood near where the old log jail used to stand, at the northeast corner of the present court house yard.
Beckett was buried in the Lovejoy graveyard near West Union. The following are some of the items of cost in this celebrated case :
John and William Russell, assisting to commit Beckett. $ I 28
Charles O'Connell, attending jury 25
Gaurds for jail 130 00
Witnesses in Beckett case 142 00
Jury in same 48 00
Bolts made by McComas 25
Samuel Smith and David Kendall, guarding Beckett to jail. . 2 00
John M. Wallace, smith work on jail.
6 00
David Bradford, boarding Beckett. IOI 25
John M. Wallace, making bolts for Beckett's hands.
50
Rope, cap, and digging grave. I 621/2
Coffin 5 00
Execution 8 00
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Lynching of Roscoe Parker.
On the waters of Elk Run something more than a mile to the south- east of the town of Winchester, in Winchester Township, in 1893, lived Luther P. Rhine, or "Pitt" Rhine, as he was generally known and his wife Mary, whose maiden name was Mary J. Farquer. They had re- sided on a little farm, their home, for many years, and had reared a family there. They were at this time old and feeble, the husband past eighty and the wife upwards of seventy, and were living alone. With the help of a man or boy occasionally, these old people managed to grow enough on the farm to keep them in fairly comfortable surroundings, and to save enough to pay taxes and their dues to the church at Cherry Fork of which they had been faithful members all their lives.
Living in the vicinity of the Rhine home was a family of colored people named Parker. The family consisted of the mother and several children, the eldest of whom was a boy, Roscoe, at this time about six- teen years of age. He and his mother often assisted the Rhines at odd jobs of work, and were familiar with the affairs and surroundings of the old couple. About the middle of December in the year above named, this boy Roscoe, assisted Mr. Rhine to drive a calf to Winchester where it had been sold to a butcher, for thirteen dollars. Roscoe saw the money paid to Mr. Rhine, and spoke of the amount as he accompanied the old man home. On the Sunday following, December 17th, the old people were seen about their premises alive the last time. On Tuesday, the 19th, they were found by a neighbor in their home brutally mur- dered. They had been assaulted while asleep with bludgeons, and then with the family butcher knife, having their throats cut from ear to ear. The motive had been robbery. The person or persons had been dis- covered in the act. A struggle followed, and to avoid exposure of the attempt to rob, brutal murder had been committed.
Upon discovery of the crime, the greatest excitement prevailed among the citizens. The Parkers were suspected and a search of their premises was made. Some stockings, the property of the Rhines, were found. A five dollar bill was discovered hidden in a bed. Roscoe's clothing had blood stains on them. He was arrested and a preliminary examination had before Squire Gilbert, of Winchester Township, in the town hall at Winchester. The people clamored for young Parker's life. He was secretly taken from the hall and placed in a closed carriage by Constable Bayless, who drove with all speed to West Union, pursued by a mob where the accused was placed in jail.
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