Fifty years and over of Akron and Summit County : embellished by nearly six hundred engravings--portraits of pioneer settlers, prominent citizens, business, official and professional--ancient and modern views, etc.; nine-tenth's of a century of solid local history--pioneer incidents, interesting events--industrial, commercial, financial and educational progress, biographies, etc., Part 112

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department
Number of Pages: 1228

USA > Ohio > Summit County > Akron > Fifty years and over of Akron and Summit County : embellished by nearly six hundred engravings--portraits of pioneer settlers, prominent citizens, business, official and professional--ancient and modern views, etc.; nine-tenth's of a century of solid local history--pioneer incidents, interesting events--industrial, commercial, financial and educational progress, biographies, etc. > Part 112

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AMBROSE W. BLISS.

George Bliss, formerly president judge of third judicial district of Ohio, and later, from 1852 to 1854, represen- tative in Congress of the 18th district, of which Summit county then formed a part, and whose portrait appears on page 551 of this volume.

NORTHFIELD IN OFFICE.

In county affairs, also, the township has borne a highly honorable part. GEORGE Y. WALLACE (brother of the late James W. Wallace, Esq., of Macedonia,) was sheriff of Portage county for four years, immediately' preceding the erection of Summit, and, on the death of Summit county's first treasurer, William O'Brien, Esq., of Hudson, in February, 1842, Mr. Wallace was appointed by the Commissioners to fill the vacancy, which he did with great acceptance for nearly a year.

THOMAS WILSON, of Northfield (a brother-in-law of Mr. Wallace), was Summit county's first sheriff, holding that office four years and seven months, and it is safe to say that the office was never more ably and faithfully filled than during his incumbency; Mr. John C. Wallace, of Northfield, acting as Mr. Wilson's chief deputy. A fine portrait and biography of Mr. Wilson will be found on page 99 of this volume.

902

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

COL. MILTON ARTHUR, of Northfield, was Summit's second' regularly elected treasurer, holding the position for three consecu- tive terms, from 1842 to 1848. Though Mr. Arthur was as upright and honest a man as ever breathed, yet his administration of the office was sadly unfortunate-a shortage of several thousand dollars appearing against him on his transferring the office to his successor. It was believed by those best informed upon the sub- ject, that he was victimized by parties in whom he had confided, and whom he had permitted to manipulate the books and funds, which were not then under the efficient system of checks that at present obtains in that office. Every dollar of his property was turned over to his bondsmen, who, under a special act of the Legislature, made a satisfactory settlement of the matter with the Commissioners; but, though Mr. Arthur was believed to be entirely guiltless of any intentional wrong, by the entire com- munity, he was greatly humiliated by the affair, and doubtless carried down to a premature death thereby.

AMBROSE W .. BLISS, EsQ., a native of Chittenden county, Ver- mont, still living, hale and hearty, where he located fifty-two years ago, at the Center of Northfield, Has not only been one of the most intelligent and enterprising citizens of that township, but has also, in various ways, rendered valuable service to both the County,. State and Nation; filling, most acceptably, the important position of county commissioner for two consecutive terms, of three years each, from 1854 to 1860. Mr. Bliss was born December 6, 1806, and is consequently, at this writing, nearly 85 years of age.

CAPTAIN JOHN A. MEANS, a native of Allegheny county, Pa., in 1833, then 22 years of age, settled on an uncultivated farm, a mile or so south of the center of Northfield, not only proving an industrious and model farmer, but also devoting much time to the profession of a surveyor, receiving the appointment of deputy sur- veyor for Portage county in 1836. In 1860, Mr. Means was elected clerk of the Court of Common Pleas for Summit county for three years. On the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion, in 1861, leaving the office in charge of his son and deputy, Nathan A. Means, he organized Company C, 115th Regiment, O. V. I., of which he was elected Captain, serving three years. In 1869, Capt. Means was again elected Clerk of Courts for three years, serving his full term with marked fidelity and acceptance. See portrait and biography on page 373.

AUGUSTUS CURTISS, one of Northfield's volunteer soldiery, but after the War, settled in Portage township, was elected sheriff of Summit county in October, 1868, re-elected in 1870, and on the expiration of his own second term, continued in the management of the office during the regulation two terms of his successor,. Lieut. Levi J. McMurray, who was in poor health during a good portion of his incumbencey. Portrait and biography on page 665.

ABOUNDING IN THRILLING INCIDENT .- Yet, notwithstanding the generally peaceable and order-loving character of its inhabitants, Northfield has furnished a larger share of exciting and thrilling incident than the average of her sister townships of either Portage or Summit counties, not counting the many perilous encounters of her early pioneers with Indians, wild beasts, etc.

One of the earliest events, after the departure of the Indians from the township, to convulse the community, and thrill the

903

THE VIERS-CHARLESWORTH EPISODE.

public mind of Northfield and vicinity, and which, though hereto- fore pretty fully narrated by the writer and others, it is highly proper should be here reproduced, occurred substantially as fol- lows :

NORTHFIELD'S FIRST SENSATION.

Dorsey W. Viers was born on the territory now covered by the city of Steubenville, May 19, 1790, and is said to have been the first white male child born in what is now Jefferson county, over seven years before that county was organized, and some twelve years before Ohio became a state. Mr. Viers was enrolled as a soldier in the War of 1812, at the close of which he lived a short time in Pitts- burg, working at the tanner's trade. Sometime previous to 1820, he removed to Northfield, the town records of that year (1820), showing that he was then elected one of the supervisors of the township. ·

On coming to Northfield, Viers purchased, and settled upon, a quarter section of land in the northwest portion of the township, in handy proximity to the Cuyahoga river and the contemplated Ohio canal, building for himself and family the regulation log cabin of the period and other farm buildings to match. In addi- tion to his farming operations, young Viers -- stalwart, active and enterprising - figured quite extensively as a contractor and speculator; being at the time this chapter opens (1826) a sub-con- tractor upon quite a large section of the canal.

Upon the completion of his job on the canal, he built a large number of bridges over the canal and other water courses of the vicinity, erected school houses, private residences, stores, etc., one of his contracts, a few years later, being the erection in Akron, for Messrs. May and Brown -- Thomas P. May, of Cleveland, and Jacob Brown, Esq., of Akron-of the large brick block at the corner of South Main and Exchange streets, known for many years, as May's Block, but now known as the Clarendon Hotel, and owned by Mr. Ferd. Schumacher.

This diversified employment naturally brought Mr. Viers into companionship with much of the rougher element of the commu- nities in which he operated, and while not especially dissipated or profligate himself, his genial good nature, and his open-handed liberality and zealous hilarity, in all private and public social gatherings, caused him to be regarded as a "hail-fellow well-met," by the jolly bloods by whom he was surrounded.

RUPERT CHARLESWORTH .- A year or two previous to this, there had come into the vicinity, a rollicking young Englishman, by the name of Rupert Charlesworth, who soon became a great favorite in the social circles of the neighborhood. With no visible employ- ment, he yet appeared always to have plenty of money, and was lavishly liberal in its distribution, whenever " treats" were to be paid for, or other expenses of fun and frolic were to be provided; his givings-out, as well as his general bearing, conveying the impression that he was a scion of English nobility, in disgrace at home, and temporarily exiled until his offense should be condoned by his aristocratic father.

Between this wild but agreeable young Englishman and Viers, a mutual friendship immediately sprung up, and in a short time he became a regular boarder in Viers' family, though often

904

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

absenting himself from the house, and the neighborhood, for days, and sometimes weeks at a time. But suddenly, in the month of July, 1826, Charlesworth entirely disappeared. His absence from his accustomed haunts soon began to be noticed and commented on. Inquiries were made of Viers and his wife, the answers to which, it was alleged, were contradictory and improb- able. In addition to exaggerated repetitions of these questions and answers, one of the constables of the township asserted that, having a warrant for the arrest of Charlesworth, and going to Viers' house early in the morning, he not only did not find his man, but did find Mrs. Viers vigorously engaged in scrubbing the floor; a very unusual proceeding at so early an hour.

RUMOR ON RUMOR PILED .- As time passed on rumors of the most damaging character against Viers multiplied. One person had distinctly heard the report of a gun from the direction of Viers' house on the alleged night of Charlesworth's disappear- ance. Another reported that, having occasion to visit the premises soon afterwards, he had noticed blood upon the bars of the fence, between the house and the woods. The girl, who was employed as a domestic in the family at the time, asserted that simultaneously with Charlesworth's disappearance, a blanket was missing from the bed he had occupied, which was afterwards found under a pile of rubbish, covered with spots of what appeared to be clots of dried blood, but which was immediately burned up by the family; while another party had discovered, under a pile of logs and brush in the woods, a short distance back of the house, what was supposed to be a human skeleton, but which, on afterwards returning with a companion, to examine it, was found to have been removed.

These and a hundred other similar stories were rehearsed and reiterated with such persistence, and such apparent truthfulness, that they finally came to be accepted as facts, and the excitement and suspicion against Viers and family increased with each passing month, being greatly augmented by the alleged fact that Charlesworth was known to be in possession of quite large sums of money while boarding with Viers, and that whereas, Viers, previous to the disappearance of Charlesworth, was very short of money, immediately thereafter he was very flush, and was making lavish expenditures in building himself a nice large brick house, and making other improvements upon his farm that his legiti- mate earnings did not warrant.

VIERS ARRESTED FOR MURDER .-- Finally these rumors and reports, like the mountain avalanche, increasing in volume as they onward rolled, and gaining in velocity, as they increased in size, culminated, in January, 1831, four years and a half after the disappearance of Charlesworth, in the apprehension and arraign- ment of Viers, on the charge of murder. .

The affidavit was filed before, and the warrant issued by, George Y. Wallace, Esq., of Brandywine, then one of the justices of the peace for Northfield township, afterwards sheriff of Portage county for two terms, and subsequently treasurer of Summit county for nearly a year, as above stated.

The trial proper, before the examining magistrate, lasted over a week, though some 17 or 18 days elapsed between the arrest and the final conclusion of the investigation. All of the above alleged

905

WONDERFUL PLUCK AND PERSEVERANCE.

" facts" were duly and solemnly sworn to, and many other extremely damaging "circumstances" adduced during the trial, and it was supposed by the large crowd of people in attendance, that a clear case of homicide had been established, when two witnesses from the western part of the State were brought forward by the defense, who swore positively that they knew Charlesworth well, minutely describing his personal appearance and characteristics, and most emphatically asseverating that they had seen him alive and well, subsequent to his disappearance from Northfield. This testimony turned the scale in Viers' favor, and he was accordingly discharged by Justice Wallace.

REMARKABLE SEARCH FOR THE MISSING MAN .- The greater number of those in attendance were greatly dissatisfied with the result, believing that the two witnesses alluded to had been bribed by Viers, or his friends, to testify in his behalf. True, there were many good men who did not believe Viers guilty of so heinous a crime; but the rumor-mongers of the neighborhood thought otherwise, and were so clamorous for blood that, had Lynch Law been in vogue in those days, it would undoubtedly have fared hard with him. It was, indeed, a terrible ordeal for both Viers and his family to pass through; the arrest and trial being even more endurable than the continued suspicion and obloquy which followed.

But though comparatively unlearned, Dorsey W. Viers possessed, in those days, the pluck and perseverance of a blood- hound, and immediately inaugurated a vigorous and comprehen- sive scheme for the restoration of his good name; while his devoted wife-greatly his superior in education and culture- rendered the most valuable aid towards lifting from the family the dark cloud of disgrace that had come upon them.

HOW THE SEARCH WAS MADE .- To this end Mrs. Viers, with the pen of a ready writer, wrote hundreds of letters, to public officers and others, in all parts of the country, from whence it was supposed any tidings of the missing man could be obtained, while Mr. Viers, himself, commenced a most diligent personal search for him. Following up the clue obtained from the two witnesses who had come to his relief upon the trial, he tracked him from point to point, in the West, where he finally learned that Charles- worth had returned to England. To England he went, only to find that Charlesworth had again sailed for the United States, destined to New Orleans. Returning home, after a brief sojourn with his family, he went to New Orleans, and after a protracted search, not finding his man, he visited and thoroughly explored all the principal river towns between that city and Cincinnati.

THE " MURDERED" MAN FOUND ALIVE .- Thus was the search persistently kept up by Mr. and Mrs. Viers, both by correspon- dence and personal excursions, between nine and ten years, when, nearly fifteen years after his disappearance, Viers accidentally stumbled upon his man in Detroit. They were both so changed by time that they did not at first recognize each other; but Charlesworth, hearing Viers inquiring for him of others, at a hotel where they were both stopping, and thus learning who he was, took him aside and disclosed his own identity to him. His story was, substantially, that having passed a counterfeit bill upon a prominent citizen of a neighboring town, and surmising (what was

906

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

indeed true) that proceeding were being instituted for his arrest, he had secretly left the house of his friend, and gone West, under an assumed name; still another name having been taken on his return from England, and under which, having married, he was then living in one of the interior towns of Michigan.

CHARLESWORTH REVISITS SUMMIT COUNTY .- On learning of the dire trouble and disgrace which his clandestine departure from Northfield had brought upon his old friend and family, he volun- teered to come with him to Ohio, and exhibit himself to his old cronies and acquaintances, on condition that his then place of residence, and his assumed cognomen should be kept secret.

Thus, in about the year 1840 or 1841, Rupert Charlesworth and his alleged murderer, together visited Northfield, Boston, Akron, and other points in this vicinity, where the former conversed freely with, and was fully recognized by, a large number of persons, who had known him well before his disappearance, and the mystery was fondly supposed, by its victims, to have been wholly cleared up. After a few days' sojourn in the neighborhood, Charles- worth again took his departure, and returned to Michigan.

GOSSIP TO THE FRONT AGAIN .- No sooner had Charlesworth left the vicinity than vile rumor, and virulent gossip, again asserted themselves in the intimation that the Rupert Charlesworth that Viers had exhibited, was not the missing Rupert Charlesworth, at all, but a cousin, bearing a strong resemblance to him, that Viers had hired to personate him, which it was held could readily be done, by a little posting up from Viers. This theory was industriously promulgated by the enemies of Viers, and within a few months the alleged imposture was pretty generally believed in, and the guilt of Viers thus doubly confirmed in the minds of quite a large portion of the community. Under these circumstances, some two or three years later, about 1843 or 1844, Viers again hunted up his man, and again brought him to Ohio, determined, this time, to settle the matter at once and forever.

CHARLESWORTH AGAIN EXHIBITED .- Hand-bills were posted in Northfield and adjoining townships, announcing that on a given day, Rupert Charlesworth, the man that Dorsey W. Viers was- supposed to have murdered, in 1826, would exhibit himself at the Methodist Church, at the Center of Northfield, and that all persons who had known him, while a resident of that neighborhood, were invited to be present and make a thorough examination as to his identity.

The meeting was largely attended by a curious and deeply interested audience. A regular organization was effected, with George Y. Wallace, Esq., before whom Viers had formerly been tried, as chairman of the meeting, and the entire day was consumed in the investigation. Not only were Charlesworth's physical features and peculiarities closely scrutinized, his voice and manner of expression carefully noted, but questions and cross-questions were plied by those who had formerly been intimate with him, in such a manner that no attempted imposture could possibly have escaped detection. Not only did he recognize and readily name persons that he had not seen for seventeen or eighteen years, but, in reply to their various interrogatories, incidents and circum- stances known only to himself and each individual questioner, were promptly and truthfully related.

907

CHARLESWORTH FULLY IDENTIFIED.

COMPLETE VINDICATION .- At the close of the examination, late . in the afternoon, a vote was taken as to whether the man then and there present, was, or was not, the Rupert Charlesworth, whom Dorsey W. Viers was accused of murdering? The affirmative vote was overwhelmingly and enthusiastically unanimous, only a single negative vote being given, and that from the brother of a man who several years before had been executed for the murder of another brother's wife, and in whose behalf secret and persistent efforts had been made to cast suspicion upon Viers, because of the cloud of obloquy that had so long rested upon him. From the date of that meeting that cloud was raised, and the reputation of Dorsey W. Viers was fully vindicated.

REMOVAL FROM NORTHFIELD) TO COVENTRY .- In the meantime the three sons of Mr. Viers-James McClintock, Elisha J. and Edward H .- had grown to manhood and had become settled as prosperous farmers in the township of Norton, whither the father, having disposed of his possessions in Northfield, followed them, a few years later, occupying a small farm in the township of Coventry, opposite to that of his son Elisha J., in Norton, where he continued to reside until his death, on the night of March 10, 1884, at the ripe old age of 94 ; his youngest son, Edward H. Viers, a highly respected resident of Norton, only, surviving him.

The principal items of the foregoing account of the very. remarkable experiences of this remarkable inan, were furnished the writer, by Mr. Viers and his wife nearly fifty years ago, soon after his final vindication, with a view to their publication then ; but before getting them into shape the notes were mislaid, and are now reproduced mainly from memory, aided, as to one or two of the earlier dates, in the brief mention thereof, by General L. V. Bierce, in his historical reminiscences published in 1854. ·

CHAPTER XLII.

NORTHFIELD'S SECOND GREAT SENSATION-MURDER OF CATHARINE M'KISSON -DEADLY ASSAULT UPON HER DAUGHTER, LUCINDA CRONINGER-ARREST OF SAMUEL M'KISSON, FATHER-IN-LAW TO THE MURDERED WOMAN- SUBSEQUENT ARREST OF DAVID M'KISSON, THE BROTHER-IN-LAW OF CATHARINE AND LOVER OF LUCINDA-THE FATHER TRIED AND ACQUITTED - THE SON TRIED, CONVICTED AND EXECUTED - CIRCUMSTANTIAL STRONGER THAN POSITIVE EVIDENCE-FULL HISTORY OF THE CRIME, TRIAL, SENTENCE AND EXECUTION-DYING SPEECH UPON THE GALLOWS -BITTER COLD DAY, ETC.

THE GREAT NORTHFIELD TRAGEDY.

ON the night of July 24, 1837, one of the most shocking tragedies of the time was perpetrated in the township of Northfield, then the extreme northwestern township of Portage county, and now a portion of Summit county. Several years previously, there had settled in the western portion of that township, and about midway between the center and the Cuyahoga river, one Samuel McKisson, who had quite a large family of grown up sons and daughters.

The eldest son, Robert, having married a widow, Mrs. Catharine Croninger, with a grown up daughter, Lucinda, had settled upon a farm adjoining that of his father upon the west, on which he had erected the regulation log cabin of the period, with but a single room upon the ground floor; and a low sleeping apartment in the loft overhead. Having been bred a mechanic, Robert was frequently absent from home, for considerable periods of time, employing a young man named Johnson to do his farm work. The younger brother of Robert, David McKisson, was a tailor by trade, working, for longer or shorter periods in Hudson, Akron, Middlebury, Canton and other towns and villages in North- eastern Ohio, but, by reason of his reckless and dissipated habits, being unable to hold a situation for any considerable length of time.

THE BEGINNING OF THE TROUBLE .- Notwithstanding his tramping propensities, and because of his inability to retain a situation for any great length of time, David was in the habit of bringing up at his father's every few months, during which visits he was thrown much into the society of his brother Robert's step- daughter, Lucinda Croninger, between whom and himself a mutual attachment was soon formed, and mutual tokens of affec- tion exchanged. In this case, however, as in many others of like character, the "course of true love" did not run entirely "smooth," for his sister-in-law, the mother of Lucinda, vigorously opposed the match. Warm words between the mother and the suitor were frequently indulged in, which at length engendered virulent ill- feeling, and in which crimination and recrimination were freely . bandied; the husband and brother, Robert, in his occasional visits home, on being informed of the status of affairs, taking sides with

909

THE MURDER OF CATHARINE MCKISSON.

his wife, and severely reprimanding and chastising his brother for the course he was pursuing, and virtually, if not in positive terms, forbidding him to come upon the premises. In these discussions other members of the McKisson family had also become seriously involved, and the ill-feeling was particularly bitter between Samuel McKisson, the father, and his daughter- in-law, Catharine McKisson.

MEDITATING VENGEANCE .- In this condition of affairs, with the old gentleman at bitter enmity with his daughter-in-law, and David in a state of ferocious wrath, at the interference of his sister-in-law and her husband in his love affairs, the latter, early in the Spring of 1837, left the neighborhood, and engaged to go to Turtle Island, at the mouth of Maumee Bay, to chop cord-wood. On his way thither, he called upon a married sister, then living in Cleveland, to whom, in rehearsing his troubles, he was alleged to have said that he would some day go back to Northfield and kill Robert's wife, and then if Lucinda would not have him she might " go to hell." This threat, however, was thought by his sister, and other friends cognizant thereof, to be a mere ebullition of anger at his disappointment, which absence would soon abate, and as several weeks elapsed without any recurrence of the troubles, all fears of personal injury to Robert, or his family, had been entirely dismissed from their minds.

THE BLOW SUDDENLY FALLS .- The single-room log house, occupied by the family of Robert, fronted east, the large stone fire- place being upon the south end, and two beds occupying the north end of the room; that occupied by Robert and his wife on the west, and that occupied by Lucinda upon the east side of the room. Robert being absent from home working at his trade in Cleveland, on the night of July 24th, 1837, the beds thus situated, were occupied by the mother and her two little boys, and by the daughter, respectively, so that a person, passing from the front and only door of the house, would have to pass the bed of the daughter to reach that of the mother.

The family retired about 9 o'clock, the hired man, Johnson, in the loft, as before described, reached by means of a ladder in the ' southeast corner. As was customary, in those early days, before friction matches had come into general use, the embers of the fire, which had cooked the evening meal, had been carefully "raked up," on the capacious hearth, and from them some slight glini- mers from the charring coal produced a sort of dim illumination of the apartment, after the "tallow dip" had been extinguished for the night. The entire household had fallen asleep, with no thought of impending danger, nor dream of fear, the door being left unfastened because of the momentarily expected arrival home of the husband and father from Cleveland.

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Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905 Publication date: 1892 Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department Number of Pages: 1228

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department
Number of Pages: 1228