USA > Ohio > Richland County > History of Richland County, Ohio, from 1808 to 1908, Vol. I > Part 20
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The month of June, 1854, was remarkable for its floods, which continued from the 10th to the 17th of the month.
On Tuesday, April 3, 1877, a cloud burst near the headwaters of Ritter's Run caused that stream to rise suddenly and to carry destruction in its wake. Bridges were washed away, culverts were torn out and several buildings were moved off their foundations between Adams street and the Pennsylvania railroad. The water was about three feet deep on South Main street at the crossing of First. J. H. Sharp, who then had a dry goods store on Sturges" corner, lived on the west side of South Main street, the first house south of First. He was at home when the flood came, and, hearing the roar of rushing waters, he looked up the valley and saw the flood coming, which looked like a greyish wall from forty to fifty feet in height, the south end of which struck his dwelling house with terrific force, flooding even the rooms on the third
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floor. The kitchen and dining rooms were in the basement, and in the ebb of the receding waters the dining room and kitchen furniture, including the cooking stove, were washed away. A singular incident in connection with this flood is that it was on the anniversary of the cloud-burst which had occurred in that valley twenty-nine years before.
On Monday evening, June 19, 1899, a terrific thunder, hail and rain storm visited Mansfield, coming from the west and doing much damage. People were rescued in boats and wagons from inundated districts. There was a general suspension of business, not only Monday evening, but also on Tuesday forenoon. During this storm not only the largest amount of rain fell in a short time, but it was also the most disastrous in the history of Mans- field. The following excerpts from the Mansfield News of the date following the storm are herewith given :
The terrific and destructive rain and hail stormn which raged here Mon- day night was not only the largest in respect to the amount of rain which fell in so short a time, but was also the most disastrous that was ever known in the history of Mansfield. The damage wrought by the elements will amount to many thousands of dollars. Reports continue to come in today giving par- ticulars of the destruction caused by the floods. A vast amount of property adjacent to streams was washed away, streets were flooded and the water washed into dwellings, ruining carpets, furniture as well as other household goods. Traffic along the railroads was seriously interfered with by the flood- ing of the tracks at different places along the lines and the washing out of roadbeds. Some bridges, culverts, barns, houses and other structures were washed away by the water undermining their foundations. It is rather difficult to estimate with any degree of accuracy the extent of the damage done as the path of the flood was very wide.
It was one of those terrific rains which are characterized by the fall of an immense amount of water within a short space of time. These are, as a rule, of comparatively short duration, but the storm of Monday night differed from these in the length of time during which the torrents filled the streams until their banks no longer confined them and the flood spread to bring ruin and destruction in its wake.
Within the memory of Mansfield's citizens there have been some very hard storms, accompanied by much destruction of property, but this one eclipsed them all. It seemed like a cloudburst, and as the rain, accompanied by flashes of fierce lightning and claps of thunder, continued for several hours it brought apprehension to many hearts, especially in the north part of the city, which is more frequently flooded than any other district of the city. The storm was at its height between the hours of nine and ten and was accompanied by a hard fall of hail. Even after midnight the rain fell at in- tervals and fears were felt that the storm might again break forth and cause the waters, which were beginning very slowly in some of the higher places to abate, to rise again.
This flood has been compared to one which, it is recalled, occurred some thirty or forty years ago in Mansfield, but, from all accounts, that was not nearly so large as this one.
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The north part of the city was a perfect flood and in some places it caused much trouble to the residents on the first floors of the dwellings. On North Adams, North Sugar and other streets in that vicinity the water rose to the height of from three to five feet. On the buildings the marks of the flood could be seen this morning. A great many cellars were filled with water, and in numerous instances the water flooded the best rooms of the homes, causing damage which will be heavy.
The audience which attended Monday night's performance at the Casino will, no doubt, remember their experience with the flood for a long time to come. When the performance closed the storm was at its height and no one ventured forth, even though the cars were standing in waiting. Amid the fierce electrical storm which was prevailing the motormen and conductors sought the Casino to await the abating of the storm. Soon the water was noticed to be rising in Casino park, the stream north of the Casino began to rise and in a short time had overflowed and the grounds from the Casino to the gate became a rapidly rising lake. The Casino was surrounded by water and the ground floor was within a short time overflowed to the depth of a couple of feet. The waters continued to rise, and by 10:30 o'clock the rain began to abate somewhat. The flood rose until the depth of the water in the Casino grounds averaged from two to three feet. The water was over the bridge north of the Casino, and when a considerable amount of the debris had lodged there it looked as if the bridge must go with the whirling, eddying torrent. A regular falls came from the Baltimore & Ohio tracks and joined the stream at the Casino. It carried with it portions of the fence which sep- arated the park from the railroad. There was a fascination in watching the waters sweeping down as section after section of the fence yielded to the pressure and fell into the stream. The benches in the park began to float about and then down stream, where they were followed by numerous other articles, including a bicycle which had slipped its moorings. The swans enjoyed their enlarged lake and swam about most contentedly.
It looked for a time as if the Casino might be in danger, but no alarm need to have been felt, for the building is strongly constructed. One of the men braved the waters, and, having telphoned to the city for cabs, soon one arrived, took away a load and then came back for another. Other cabs and conveyances were telephoned for, and a few at a time the people were taken home. Forney's and Newcomers' cabs.
A vast number of people visited the flooded district in the northern part of the city this morning and gazed with considerable astonishment at the wide extent of the flood. Everyone agrees that Mansfield never saw anything to compare with it. There are those who were somewhat surprised this morn- ing at the extent of the damage done, and say that while they thought it was quite a storm they had no idea that it would be attended by so much damage.
MORMONS IN RICIILAND COUNTY.
The investigation of Mr. Smoot by the United States senate a few years since caused a great deal to be written about the Mormons. There is a
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Richland county chapter in connection with the history of the Mormon church that is well remembered by our older citizens. Seventy years and more ago the Mormons had a small following in the southern part of Rich- land county, and in 1838, a number of families from the vicinity of New- ville joined the Mormon exodus to the West. The decade from 1825 to 1835 was one of great religious activity, especially in the eastern part of Ohio. This was called a gospel movement and was largely outside of denominational organizations. Gifted, eloquent men went forth on foot or on horseback, without any thought of pay or remuneration, except their food or lodging which were freely given them by the settlers. Prominent among those preachers were Alexander Campbell, Sidney Rigdon, Thomas Rigdon and others, each preaching the gospel as he understood it, but all agreeing upon the doctrine of water baptism by immersion. The Rigdons were gifted men, as was also Mr. Campbell. Sidney Rigdon has been described as a most charming and convincing speaker. He was then about thirty-five years of age and his personality drew a following.
This gospel movement resulted in the organization of several religious societies or churches in the southern part of the county. A Disciples church, or more properly perhaps, a "Church of the Disciples of Christ," was organ- ized at Newville, another at Bellville, and another called Caesarea, in Wash- ington township. The two latter are still in existence. A Christian church was organized in Monroe township. This was the only church of the "Christian" denomination ever organized in Richland county. It existed but a few years. The denomination, however, is quite strong in many towns in southwestern Ohio, and also in a number of the southern states, where it had its origin about the beginning of the nineteenth century. The dif- ference between the Christian denomination and that of the Disciples of Christ consists largely in the different views held by them relative to con- version and change of heart. These sects were locally called "Campbellites" and "Newlites." The denomination then called "The Disciples of Christ" is now known in Mansfield as the "Christian church."
After the Rigdons had preached successfully in Newville for several years, Sidney Rigdon went to Palmyra, New York, and became associated with Joseph Smith and assisted him in the translation of the gold plates that Smith claimed he had found in 1823. It has been stated that it was after Rigdon and Smith became associated that the "divine" part of the alleged plates were claimed. Rigdon was regarded as the brains of the move- ment and seemed satisfied to be the power behind the throne. The Mormon church was organized April 6, 1830, by Smith and Rigdon. In looking about for a See or headquarters for the new church, Kirkland and Newville were considered. Rigdon favored Newville as the site, but Smith preferred Kirkland, Lake county, to which Rigdon at last yielded because they were more converts in Kirkland than in Newville.
After Rigdon joined Smith at Palmyra his visits to Richland county became less frequent, but after the Mormons located in Kirkland, Rigdon again resumed his work in Richland county, and to his "gospel" preaching of the years before. he added the "latest revelations" claimed by Joseph
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Smith. As church buildings were but few at that time, religious services were held in the homes and barns of the neighborhood, the preachers thus getting into closer touch with the people. Sidney Rigdon antagonized no one, but swayed his audiences by his great and persuasive eloquence. There- fore, it was not surprising that he gained converts in his new doctrine. As a result of Mr. Rigdon's work in that locality, ten or twelve families sold their homes and their belongings and followed their leader to Nauvoo, Illinois, saying like one of old, "where thou goest, I will go, and thy people shall be my people."
After the death of Joseph Smith at Nauvoo, June 27, 1844, Brigham Young became the prophet and leader of the Mormons. In time, as es- trangement sprang up between Brigham Young and Sidney Rigdon, result- ing in the retirement of the latter, who returned to the East and founded another Mormon church, the members of which were called Rigdonites. The fact that Sidney Rigdon was a prominent factor in the founding of three religious sects, shows that he was a born organizer and leader of men. He died in 1876, aged eighty-three years.
A feature of the Book of Mormons which readily caught the attention of the people was the history it professed to give of America from its first settlement by a colony of refugees from the crowd of people dispersed by the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel, down to the year 5, A. D., and incidentally giving what purported to be a history of the American Indians.
Newville lost its opportunity of becoming famous in history by not gaining the prize of becoming the See of the Mormon church.
THE BUSHONG MURDER.
The Bushong murder was one of the most atrocious crimes ever com- mitted in Richland county. It is seldom referred to, not simply that more than sixty years have intervened between then and now, but because the minds of men revolt at the heinousness of that bloody deed.
Samuel Bushong came from Pennsylvania to Ohio in 1837 and settled on Chestnut Ridge, in Jefferson township, Richland county, where he bought thirty-five acres of land for eight hundred dollars. Of this he paid four hundred dollars cash and gave notes secured by mortgage on the land for the other four hundred dollars. Chestnut Ridge is in the south part of Jefferson township and has an elevation of one thousand and fifty-nine feet above Lake Erie, making it a notable "landmark" in the topography of the great "divide." In the summer of 1808 a tornado swept over Jefferson township, from the northwest to the southeast, with great fury. mowing down the forest, making a swath about a third of a mile in width. The storm was especially severe on Chestnut Ridge, where the trees were. blown down without number. For years afterwards the Ridge was often called the "Region of the Fallen Timber." In after years the Ridge made a fine appearance, the young chestnut trees forming a beautiful grove.
The Bushong place was upon a plateau on the south slant of the hill. and the improvements were well advanced for that day, and the house was
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large and roomy. But although the place always looked homelike and the surroundings attractive, there was trouble in the household. The mortgage- notes were coming due, and money could not be obtained to pay them. Bushong, at best, was not an amiable man, and his financial embarrassments caused him to become more cross and morose. At times he abused and upbraided the family, it was said, on account of his financial trouble.
On the 3d day of October, 1840, Bushong attended the election at Bell- ville and no one noticed anything wrong with him. In the evening he returned home and before he retired, stated that he intended to go to Mansfield the next day to try to get an extension of time on his note, and that he wished to get an early start. Before daylight the next morning Bushong and wife rose to prepare for his departure, and in the preparation for the breakfast meal, the wife had to roast coffee in a skillet on coals before the open fire-place. While she was thus employed, Bushong went to the woodpile in the yard and brought the ax into the house on the pretense to "whet" it, and while his wife was in a stooping position over the skillet. he struck her with the ax, splitting her head open, filling the skillet with her brains and blood. Her death was instantaneous.
The inhuman father then went up stairs and made a murderous assault upon his four children-two girls and two boys-whom he assaulted with the ax, inflicting almost fatal wounds, first upon the girls, after which he went to the boys' room, but they succeeded in wrenching the ax from him, but in doing so the boys received serious injuries. The girls were aged respectively twenty-two and fifteen years.
Bushong then took to the woods, but was soon captured and roughly handled. He was then taken to Bellville where he was threatened with lynching. He was arraigned before Squire Heath, was bound over to the court of common pleas without bond and was given over to constable Reuben Everts, with instructions to have him put in the county jail. In a conversation with the constable, Bushong stated that, considering their financial condition, he thought "we had better all be dead." Bushong requested the constable not to handcuff him when taking him to jail. The constable and prisoner made the trip from Bellville to Mansfield in a single buggy, but when they got to the ravine a mile south of Mansfield, the prisoner tried to get away, but the constable at once covered him with his gun and said, "Bushong, you gave me your word as a brother Free Mason that if I would leave you unhandcuffed you would not attempt to get away, and now I give you my word as a Mason that if you repeat the attempt I will give you the contents of this revolver." Bushong saw he was up against it, to use a common expression, and made no further effort to get away from the officer.
Bushong's trial before the court of common pleas lasted six days, but it is seldom, if ever, referred to by attorneys in quoting rulings or in referring to precedents. The trial began July 1, 1841, with Judge Parker on the bench. James Stewart and Jacob Brinkerhoff were the attorneys for the state, and Thomas W. Bartley and Columbus Delano, for the defense. Note the names of the attorneys in the case. Stewart afterwards served on
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the common pleas bench; Brinkerhoff became a member of congress and a supreme court judge; Bartley, three years later was the acting governor of Ohio, and later one of the judges of the supreme court; Delano was consid- ered one of the greatest orators of his time and won both state and national fame.
A plea of insanity was entered for the prisoner, and the jury, after twelve hours of deliberation, returned a verdict of "not guilty." Soon after his acquittal, Bushong left the county, and it was rumored that he died a few years later in the west. His children returned to the east. It is claimed that the crimes of a country are as much a part of its history as are its deeds of heroism-that the brutality of Nero, the shameless intrigues of Messalina, and cruelties of Domitian are as much a part of the annals of Rome as are the patriotism of Cincinnatus, the valor of Cæsar and the self- sacrifice of Curtius. And in this view the foregoing is given.
MURDER MYSTERIES.
Among the unsolved criminal mysteries of Richland county, that of the murder of Mary Jane Lunsford, is the most apalling, for the victim was a woman and horrible mutilation was added to murder.
On the fateful night of March 12, 1870, Olive street, Mansfield, was the scene of one of those horrible bloody deeds that stain pages in the criminal calendar of the county.
The city was startled by the report that a murder had been committed, and when the people beheld the scene and saw the evidences of the struggle that had ensued in the poor woman's tragic efforts to save her life, many turned away sickened by the awful bloody spectacle.
Mrs. Lunsford, the murdered woman, was a seamstress, was young and good looking, and while upon her life there rested the blot of social sin, she was popular among her few acquaintances, and it was not known that she had an enemy-surely not one of sufficient deadly hate to take her life, and as it was apparent that robbery had not even been attempted, the author- ities were at a loss for a theory to account for and to ascertain the actuating motive that led to the commission of the murder.
Mrs. Lunsford had been a resident of Mansfield less than a year, having come from Cincinnati at the instance of Ansel L. Robinson, then superin- tendent of the Blymer, Day & Co. works. About a month before the murder Mrs. Lunsford became engaged to a Mr. Ebersole, and the wedding was to take place the next week. Robinson, it was said, was opposed to her mar- riage. At the time of the murder Ebersole was taking care of a sick man at Shelby. Upon searching the murdered woman's trunk, letters were found . from Robinson which betrayed the relations that had existed between them and led to his arrest. A long imprisonment followed, but at the final trial- one of the most memorable in the criminal history of the county-he was acquitted.
Soon after his acquittal Robinson removed to the northwest. accompanied
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by his wife and children, who had faithfuly stood by him through all his troubles.
Early Sunday morning, September 18, 1881, the community was thrown into a high state of excitement by a report that a dead body had been found in Sherman's woods-now a part of the Sherman-Heineman park-a few rods south of Park avenue west.
The marshal, coroner and a large number of citizens were soon on the ground, and the body was recognized as that of Charles Leonard, brother of W. L. Leonard. Charles had been employed as a clerk in Finfrock's drug store and had mysteriously disappeared on the evening of the 9th. He had left the store between eight and nine o'clock and had been seen a little later on Third street, going west. When found the body was lying in the edge of the woods with the head against a tree. In his pockets were found the store key and some change. Upon examination of the body it was found that he had been stabbed in the back, and it was evident that the deed had not occurred where the body was found.
Charley was a young man of the most exemplary character and was universally popular and the motive for his death and by whom the deed was committed remain in the list of unsolved criminal mysteries of the county, although the offer of one thousand dollars reward for the apprehension and conviction of his murderer is still open and held good by W. L. Leonard.
The cowardly and premeditated assassination of John Fox occurred Thursday evening, March 8, 1883, about two miles south of Bellville, on the road leading east from Honey Creek schoolhouse.
John Fox was about forty years old, was a prosperous farmer, and lived within a half mile of the place where he was killed.
John and Daniel Fox were brothers. On the morning of the day of the fatal tragedy they had come to Mansfield together in a two-horse wagon, and at the City mills exchanged wheat for flour and bran. They left Mansfield about five o'clock for their home, fourteen miles distant, and at about eight-thirty o'clock, when in a slight hollow a half mile east of the Honey Creek school- house, an assassin fired two shots, killing John instantly. Dan claimed that he jumped from the wagon when John was attacked, and that as he essayed to run he was shot in the leg. The postmortem examination of John's body showed from the course the bullets had taken, it was evident the assassin either stood on the back end of the wagon or in it, the shots having been fired from the rear, and as the hair on the back of John's head was singed, the latter seemed the more plausible theory. John was sitting in front driving the team when attacked. Dan reached the house of a neighbor by going across fields, where he gave the alarm and was given attention as he was suffering from loss of blood.
A searching party found the wagon standing at the cross roads, distant about midway between the scene of the tragedy and the Fox residence, the horses having become frightened at the shooting, ran that distance when the pin of the doubletree jumped out, and the team became detached from the wagon and ran to the barn. John was found lying as he had fallen, with his face upward and his head in a pool of blood.
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The people for miles around were aroused over this cowardly murder, but no evidence was ever obtained sufficient to justify an arrest. Dan Fox is now dead.
On Sunday, September 20, 1885, Clara Hough was murdered at the western outskirts of the city, in a ravine a short distance south of the B. & O. railroad. Her body was not discovered for several days. She had been a domestic in the family of J. W. Dougal, of West Fourth street. The theory that she was murdered by a tramp was generally accepted. Recent developments, however, may throw some light upon the mystery in the near future.
Samuel Chew was assaulted and robbed on the night of August 25, 1887, and died without regaining consciousness. He and his wife were alone at the time, and she claimed the deed was committed by masked men. but there was not sufficent evidence to fasten guilt upon any one. Mrs. Chew died within the past year. She was Mr. Chew's second wife.
Samuel Chew lived at the top of the Mohawk Hill, on the road leading from Lucas to Perrysville, on the farm now owned by the Rev. Mr. Grau. Samuel Chew was well advanced in years; was an exemplary man, and his tragic death cast a gloom over that whole community. It is now generally conceded that this mystery will never be revealed upon earth.
Frederick Boebel was killed and robbed while coming on a freight train from Crestline to Mansfield, on the night of April 28, 1895, and his murderers, supposed to have been tramps, were never apprehended. Boebei was a contractor and lived in Mansfield.
William Kern left Mansfield July 30, 1895, on eleven-fifteen morn- ing train for Perrysville to buy stock. He walked from Perrysville back to Lucas, arriving at the latter place between four and five o'clock in the afternoon. Upon learning that he would have to wait about three hours for a train to Mansfield, he concluded to walk home and was last seen alive near Chew's crossing at about five-thirty o'clock. His dead body was found the next morning by a freight crew going east. It was evident there had been foul play, as his pockets had been rifled of over one hundred dollars, which he was known to have had with him at the time. Mr. Kern was a highly respected citizen of Mansfield, and one of our most prosperous business men.
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