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 113

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 113

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Suddenly the daughter was awakened by the opening of the door. Rising up in bed, she saw a · man, in his shirt sleeves, and dressed in dark pantaloons, enter the room with an axe in his hand. As she raised up she received a blow 'from the axe, upon the side of her head, which rendered her momently insensible. On recovering consciousness, she saw her mother lying upon the floor and the man standing over her with the axe, which he struck into her right shoulder. The daughter immediately screamed "mur- der," which awoke Johnson, who sprang out of bed, upon hearing

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which, the assassin fled from the house, giving the daughter another blow with the axe, as he passed, but which, fortunately, produced a flesh wound only.

THE FATHER-IN-LAW DENOUNCED AS THE ASSASSIN .- Johnson, on comprehending the situation, immediately started for assistance, and on reaching the house of a neighbor, Col. Pardon A. Brooks, found that it was just 11 o'clock. On the return of Johnson with help, Mrs. McKisson was found to be still alive, and in possession of her faculties. On being inquired of, by Col. Brooks, if she knew who committed the deed, she replied, "Old Sammy McKisson." Being again asked if she was sure it was Samuel McKisson, she replied, "Oh, yes, Oh, yes," and then almost immediately became unconscious, and a few hours later expired. The daughter, also, asseverated that the inan she had seen enter the room, and strike the fatal blows, was Samuel McKisson.

The old gentleman was accordingly taken into custody, and held for trial, and as the news of the tragedy spread rapidly from house to house, and from mouth to mouth, almost the entire town- ship was upon the ground, and the wildest excitement prevailed by daylight the next morning. It was found, by the examining physicians, that the deceased had received three blows from the axe; one on the right side of the head, the whole width of the blade penetrating the brain to the depth of one inch, and from which the brains were oozing; one on the back of the head which had cleaved off a large part of the scalp and a piece of the skull the size of a silver dollar, leaving the brain bare, but without wound- ing it; and the third, the blow which the daughter had witnessed, in the right shoulder, and passing through the shoulder bones and ribs into the chest. It was supposed that, being awakened by the blow upon the back of the head, Mrs. McKisson sprang out of bed when she was felled to the floor by the burying of the blade of the axe in her brain, as stated, the blow upon the shoulder, penetrating the chest, immediately following her fall upon the floor.

A NEW PHASE IN THE TERRIBLE AFFAIR .- Though still believing the old man, Samuel McKisson, to be a party to the murder, if not the actual perpetrator thereof, the investigations by the neighbors and officers, the next day, put an entirely new aspect upon the tragic affair. The axe with which the deed had been perpetrated, belonged to the family, and had been taken from the cleat, on which it hung, upon the outside of the house, between the door and the southeast corner. This axe, covered with blood, was found some distance from the house, on a foot path running north- westerly from the house to the canal, and in an opposite direction from where Samuel McKisson lived. It was soon afterwards learned that a man was seen or heard running on that path, from the direction of the murder towards the canal, at about 11 o'clock that night, and also that about an hour before sunset, on the even- ing of the murder, David McKisson was seen to leave Kittlewell's grocery, at 18 mile Lock, on the canal, without a coat, and dressed in dark pantaloons, and go in a northeasterly direction towards the scene of the murder. The path on which the bloody axe was · found, let it be remembered, was a mile or more in length, through dense woods, and over quite a precipitous hill, descending from the house of the murder to the canal. It was also shown that about 1 o'clock in the morning, David McKisson, in the same dress,

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FATHER AND SON UNDER ARREST.

had boarded a packet boat bound for Cleveland, at Tinker's Creek, seven miles distant from the scene of the murder.

These facts, coupled with the circumstance that he had left his work at Turtle Island, and had come into the neighborhood of his home, and after going in the direction thereof, without calling upon any of his relatives or friends, had started back to his place of employment, was proof conclusive, in the minds of the most sagacious people of the neighborhood, that David, instead of his father, was the actual perpetrator of the horrible crime, though owing to the bitter enmity known to exist between the old gentle- man and his daughter-in-law, it was still generally believed that he was, somehow or other, mixed up with the affair.

PURSUIT AND ARREST OF DAVID McKISSON .- A," warrant was accordingly issued by Justice George Lillie, and a constable, with two assistants, started for Turtle Island to secure David's arrest. There being no railroads in those days, and no communication by telegraph then as now, all operations of this kind were extremely slow. It afterwards transpired that, on reaching Cleveland, David had, by mistake, taken a boat bound down the Lake, instead of up, and had gone east as far as Fairport, some 30 miles, at which point he had to wait several hours for an up bound boat, on which to return to Cleveland en route to the Island. In the meantime his pursuers had passed through Cleveland, taking a boat bound for Maumee.

On reaching Cleveland, on his return from Fairport, David, still without a coat, accidentally met an old acquaintance upon the wharf, who informed him of the murder, the arrest of his father, and that three men had gone to the Island to arrest him, advising him to return home to see about it. To this he indiffer- ently replied that if that was so, he should probably see the men when he got to the Island. Continuing on the same boat on which he had come from Fairport, he went to Detroit, and from thence to the Island, via Manhattan, and yet arriving there sev- eral hours before his pursuers did.

BLOODY SHIRT FOUND IN HIS TRUNK .- When the pursuing party reached the Island, and took him into custody, he appeared to know the cause of his arrest, and, without asking what the charge against him was, or to be shown the warrant, bid his employers and his comrades good-by, saying that he should never see them again, etc. In his trunk was found a soiled shirt with blood upon the shoulder and several spatters of blood upon the bosom, which he could not rationally account for, and in his attempt to do so, seriously contradicted himself. He remarked to his captors, though not informed by then of the crime for which he was arrested, that he was willing to die except for the disgrace it would bring upon his brothers and sisters, and afterwards, on being told of the death of his sister-in-law and the arrest of his father, as her murderer, said his father was innocent of the crime.

At another time he said that he had committed so many crimes without detection he thought he could do anything without being found out, but that it was "all over with him now." On reaching Northfield, when brought into the presence of his brother Robert, he manifested great agony of mind, and said: "Robert, I little thought what was said when we parted in the lane would bring me to this," and when Robert asked, "Has it ?" he replied,

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after a moment's reflection, "I don't know"-and then, seeming to realize the situation he was in, added: "These hands never did the deed."

FATHER AND SON JOINTLY INDICTED .- Justice Lillie, before whom the preliminary examinations were had, held both of the accused to answer to the crime of murder, before the Court of Common Pleas of Portage county, and both were committed to jail. At the September term of court (1837), a "true bill" was found against both, by the Grand Jury. Though jointly indicted, separate trials were granted by the court, Hon. Van R. Humphrey presiding, and special venires for jurors were issued in each case. Samuel McKisson was tried first, a full ,history of the family troubles, as well as of the circumstances attending the murder, being gone into, the case being conducted with his usual vigor, by Prosecuting Attorney, Lucius V. Bierce, assisted by Eben Newton, Esq., and a most able defense was made by David K. Cartter, and Wylys Silliman, Esqs. Under the clear-cut charge of the court, so characteristic of Judge Humphrey in his prime, the jury, after a very brief consideration of the case, pronounced Samuel McKisson not guilty. Immediately following the acquittal of the father, the son was put upon his trial to a jury impaneled from the special venire issued in the case. Much of the testimony that was given on the first trial was rehearsed, and a large array of additional witnesses were sworn and examined, touching David's actions and utterances prior and subsequent to the commission of the crime of which he was accused. Special emphasis was given, by counsel for the defense, to the dying declarations of the murdered woman, while in full possession of her faculties, that Samuel McKisson had struck the fatal blows, and the full corroboration of that dying declaration, by the surviving daughter, who witnessed the inflic- tion of at least one of those blows, and who had herself nearly shared the same fate; while, by unreliable circumstances, only, could the defendant then on trial, be connected with the horrible affair. Inch by inch was the legal battle fought, not only in the examination and cross-examination of witnesses, and the rules of law governing the case, but in the arguments of both Prosecuting Attorney L. V. Bierce and Eben Newton, Esq., for the State, and Messrs. Rufus P. Spalding, David Tod and Noah M. Humphrey on behalf of the defense. After a repetition of the principal points contained in his former charge, with the addition of such matters as more particularly applied to the case in hand, Judge Humphrey gave the case to the jury, who, after several hours deliberation, returned their verdict, finding David McKisson guilty of murder in the first degree.

A motion was made by defendant's counsel for a new trial, which was promptly overruled by the court. After giving counsel a few days to prepare and file a bill of exceptions, should they desire to do so, Judge Humphrey ordered the sheriff to bring the condemned man before the court for sentence.

JUDGE HUMPHREY'S ELOQUENT SENTENCE.

Commanding the prisoner to stand up, Judge Humphrey, in the presence of a dense crowd of interested spectators, proceeded to pronounce sentence upon him as follows:

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JUDGE HUMPHREY'S ELOQUENT SENTENCE.

"DAVID MCKISSON :- The Grand Jury of this county have returned a Bill of Indictment against you, charging you with the crime of murder. To that Indictment you have pleaded 'Not guilty.' Counsel of your choice, able and learned in the law, have been assigned, to advise and aid you to meet the accusation, and make your defense. Plenary process, the resources of the State, have been at your command to compel the attendance of witnesses, in order to manifest your innocence. A traverse jury, almost of your own selection, and against whom you had nothing to urge, has been impaneled to pass, under a solemn appeal to heaven, between you and the State. Before that jury you have met your accusers, and the witnesses against you, 'face to face'; you have listened to their testimony, and also introduced such proof as was in your power, to exculpate you from the charge. You have heard the arguments of counsel for the State, and also sat under the powerful appeal of counsel in your own behalf; and after a patient, full and impartial hearing, that jury, under the tremendous convic- tions of duty, in view of their responsibility to God and their country, have found you " Guilty of Murder in the First Degree;" and, I regret to say, that the evidence is such as to compel the court to fully concur in the finding of the jury. Upon that verdict arises the melancholy duty of announcing the dreadful sentence of the law; and have you anything to say why that sen- tence should not now be pronounced ?"

PRISONER-"I have nothing to say."

JUDGE HUMPHREY .- " The crime of which you stand convicted is second to none in enormity -the highest known to our laws-and in this instance perpetrated under circumstances awfully barbarous and shocking. Yet your present afflictions excite our sympathy. As individuals we commis- erate your situation. We have all the feeling for you consistent with our relation. But a solemn duty has devolved upon us. No choice of alterna- tives is presented. The laws of God and man attach the penalty of death to the crime of murder. The divine maxim, "whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed"-quoted and appreciated by your counsel-as well as the violated laws of the land, declare that you must die. Your life is forfeited. Unworthy to live with your fellow-man, whose rights you have trodden down with unparalleled cruelty, justice - demands a separation between you and your species, and calls loudly for your extermination.

"In the dead hour of night, with a bosom rankling with revenge ; at that hour when nature was hushed in silence, and sleep had sealed the eyes of your victim, you approached, not the dwelling of a stranger ; not the dwelling of an enemy ; not a dwelling protected by the arm of man ; but the undefended home of a brother, and there, with the deadly axe you bore along, coolly,. barbarously, cruelly murdered your unoffending sister. A more bloody butchery stains not the annals of man ; a more heartless assassination lives not in the history of crimes. I make not these remarks to harrow your feelings, or to disturb the equanimity of your bosom, if, possibly, it remains quiet at this withering crisis; but to apprise you that your time is fixed ; that your days are numbered ; that before another year shall have passed away, you must sleep beneath the "clods of the valley," and that it behooves you to make preparation for that dreadful event.

"Think not any interposition of the Executive will relieve you. Indulge. not the hope of commutation or pardon from any temporal source, but appeal to the Power which is able and willing to exercise clemency indeed; to show mercy worth asking ; to extend pardon to the 'chief of sinners.'

"From your declaration and confessions is clearly shown the fatal error into which you have fallen, in supposing that offenses might be committed with impunity ; that detection would not overtake crime. Too late you learn that

"There is a divinity that shapes our ends, Roughi hew them how we will."

"A period co-extensive with the power of the Court will be alloted you to settle your temporal affairs, and to prepare for another world. Your friends will be permitted to visit you in prison, and such spiritual advisers as you may need, will attend you to point the way to future happiness. Improve, then, the few remaining days you have to live, in preparing to die. You know your fate. You know your time. Not so with Catharine McKisson. No precursor kindly whispered her dissolution; no messenger of mercy warned the devoted wretch of woe and death. But in the vigor of

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life, while reposing in fancied security, you tore her from the side of her sleeping infants, and with that bloody instrument hurried her into eternity, with all her 'sins fresh blown upon her!'

"It is, therefore, the sentence of the law, that you be taken hence to the jail of the county, there to remain until Friday, the 9th day of February, 1838; that between the hours of 10 o'clock in the forenoon and 4 o'clock in the afternoon of that day, you be taken thence to the place of execution, and be then hung by the neck until you are dead. And may He who trod the wine press alone have mercy on you !"

WRITES A HISTORY OF HIS LIFE .- After his conviction and sentence the prisoner busied himself in jail, in writing a so-called history of his life, in which, while detailing a large number of youthful peccadilloes, and petty crimes and offenses, he sought to convey the impression of his innocence of the murder of his sister- in-law, and to direct suspicion towards Mr. Dorsey W. Viers, who, unfortunately, was at that time resting under a cloud of unjust suspicion, in regard to the disappearance from Northfield, of Rupert Charlesworth, several years previously (but which cloud was wholly cleared away some two or three years later, as already detailed in the preceding chapter), and even intimating that his old father, notwithstanding his triumphant acquittal, may have committed the murder, after all, saying, in that connection: "But when I take the testimony of the girl, and the fact that I know his disposition when in liquor, and his clothes being at the fire, and then the dying words of her who saw him every day, and who most certainly did see the man who done the deed, when I put all these things together, to say that I suppose it was not him is as much as I can say." His rambling and disjointed, as well as decidedly illiterate narrative, closes with the following remarkably good advice to both children and adults :

"Thus I have set down the chief of what I am here for, and for what I am about to suffer an ignominious death upon the scaffold; together with all the crimes that I can recollect. I have omitted many things I have done which are not consistent with good conduct in youth, but the untimely end that awaits me I hope will be a caution to youth not to walk in the paths that I have trod. Two things I would impress upon their minds, viz : not to roam about nights, and keep as much as possible out of bad company. * * * Now, let me leave a caution to parents, guardians and masters. I am young and unqualified to do it in style, but as I have traveled consider- able, and been in good and bad company, I know something of the world. If a child is stubborn, never whip it without knowing it is right to do so; never make a promise without fulfilling; never lay up two charges for one whipping ; and never whip in a passion ; by so doing you are not only not punctual yourself but you learn the child to be so. Again, if a child tells a lie, and you tell it to own the truth and you will not punish it, fulfill your promise or it will never own its faults again; and if you have any good article of food on the table, never take it from the children, for this will make them steal. If you pursue a different course you will not bring up a child in the way it should go, but in the way it will go. Thus ends my saying to the world."

THE EXECUTION .- The 9th day of February, 1838, was one of the most bitterly cold days of that remarkably severe winter. The ground was covered with snow, and though bright and pleasant overhead, the naturally frigid atmosphere of the day was many fold intensified by a cutting wind, that pierced one's system to the very vitals. Executions in Ohio, then, unlike those of later years, were open to the general public, and the gallows had been erected in a broad meadow, amphitheatrical in form, about three-fourths of a mile southeast of the court house in Ravenna, and the sheriff

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MCKISSON'S SPEECH UPON THE GALLOWS.

had called together the military organizations of the county, for escort duty, and to preserve the public peace.

The writer, as a newspaper man, was on the ground as early as 7 o'clock in the morning, and even at that early hour the streets and public square of the village, were rapidly filling with a pro- miscuous crowd of men, women and children; pouring in, on foot, ·on horse-back and in almost every style of vehicle then known, through every road leading into the town. In addition to hotels, and other regular places of entertainment, large numbers of booths and stands had been erected for the sale of eatables, and drinkables, too, and in those days there were very few of what are now known as temperance drinks, in vogue, either. And during all that long forenoon, yes, and until three in the afternoon, did that vast crowd, variously estimated at from 10,000 to 15,000, uncomplainingly endure the biting cold and fatigue of the day, though towards the last, from the long delay, and the effects of the whisky imbibed, it very largely resembled a howling mob, clamorous for the hurrying up of the ghastly exhibition, and kept in check from open acts of violence, only by the presence of the military, and the activity of the extra constabulatory force that had been provided.

At precisely 3 o'clock P. M., the condemned man was taken from the jail, by Sheriff George Y. Wallace, and his attendants, and in an open carriage, preceded and followed by a company of militia, was taken to the place of execution. On reaching the gallows, he alighted from the carriage with agility, and walked up the steps to the scaffold with a firm tread. The sheriff having adjusted the fatal noose about his neck, asked him if he desired to address the audience, whereupon, with a slight inclination of the head, he spoke substantially as follows:

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: - You are in a few minutes to witness the departure of a fellow-being from time to eternity, and I hope my life will deter you all from crime of every description, such as lying, stealing, swearing, Sabbath-breaking, etc. Break not the laws of that book (holding up a small Bible) and you break not the laws of man. I am reconciled to my God, before whom I am shortly to appear. I have been charged with the crime of murder. I have been tried before a jury of twelve men of my country, and I have pleaded "not guilty." Circumstances were against me, and that jury brought in a verdict of murder in the first degree. The court sentenced me to be executed, and I am about to receive the penalty due to the crime of murder. And now, when Iam within a few minutes of eternity; when I am about to enter the presence of my creator, the truth must be told. It is said, and gone forth to the world, that, at the dead hour of midnight, I stripped myself, and with an axe, entered the dwelling of a brother, and cruelly murdered an unoffending sister; and now the question is, am I guilty of the crime ?. No, gentlemen, I am not. May iny voice reach the ear of the farthermost person on yonder hill; I AM NOT GUILTY OF MURDER. Is it reasonable to suppose that after committing a murder, I should go to Cleveland, and stay there half a day; through mistake take a boat that was going down the lake instead of up, and on discovering my mistake, get off at Fairport and return to Cleveland, and on being told by an acquaintance that three inen had gone to Turtle Island to arrest me, immediately start for that Island? No, gentlemen, it is not. I intended to have spoken a few words about the testimony, and I believe I will. Does it look reasonable that I should say to Robert, "I hope these hands will smother out of it," and then, in a louder voice, say, "these hands never done the deed." I say does it look reasonable that I should say so to a brother whose wife I had murdered? No, gentlemen, it does not. I have committed a great many crimes; I have led a very wicked life, but am innocent of the crime for which I am about to be executed. Again I would say, break not the laws of that book, and you break not the laws of man. You may all consider yourselves

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accessories in a murder, by executing an innocent man; but may God forgive you, for you know not what you do. I have nothing more to say."

Then, turning partly around, he repeated some poetry, com- posed by himself, which was inaudible to the writer. The attend- ing clergyman then offered a short prayer, and, with the doubly bereaved brother, Robert, shook hands with him and descended from the scaffold. Sheriff Wallace then pinioned his arms and legs, adjusted the rope around his neck, placed him in position, drew the black cap over his face, bid him good-by, descended the stairs, touched the fatal spring, the drop fell, and David McKisson, whether guilty or innocent, was in eternity-a few spasmodic movements of the shoulders and legs, only, being observable after the drop fell.

DISPOSITION OF THE BODY .- When the attending physicians had pronounced life extinct, Sheriff Wallace delivered his body to his brother Robert, and his aged, grief-stricken father, to be taken to Northfield for interment; his age, on the day of the execution being 21 years, 2 months and 21 days.

The funeral services were held at the house of the father, a day or two afterwards, and quite largely attended by sympathetic neighbors, the burial being made upon the home farm, where, also, the father was buried a few years later. The remains of the dead malefactor were not exhibited to those in attendance at the funeral, and it was several years after alleged that, while the party employed to transport the body from Ravenna to Northfield, having driven his team under a shed, was warming himself by a hotel fire in Hudson, certain physicians of that town, extracted the body from the coffin, substituting therefor a log of wood, and that the carefully articulated skeleton, so often seen in the cabinet of a prominent physician of Hudson, for many years thereafter, was none other than that of David McKisson.

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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