USA > Ohio > Logan County > The historical review of Logan County, Ohio > Part 23
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Howard was employed by the railroad company. There had been some bad blood and misunderstanding between them. One morning. when Howard was going to his work, he passed Hall's house. Hall was in the front yard whittling a stick with his penknife and the controversy was there renewed. Howard passed on, but coming back, threatened to whip Hall and jui iped over the fence into the yard. He struck Hall, who was quite an old man, while Howard was a much younger man. Howard was proceeding to put his threat to whip Ilall into execution, and had Hall down, and was on top of him, when Hall stabbed Howard with the knife which he had in his hand. Howard fell and shortly afterwards expired.
Hall was indicted and convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to the peni- tentiary for one year. He died in the penitentiary before his term of service ex- pired.
THE STILES NORVILLE MURDER.
In the year 1867 William Stiles Nor- ville was killed in West Middleburg by Waller Marshall.
There had been some dispute between the parties over an account and a suit grew out of it. The parties went to the office of 'Squire Pool in West Middleburg upon the day of trial and proceeded to the hearing of the case. After the adjourn- ment of the court Norville, with a rela-
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tive, threatened to whip Marshall, and the orable John A. Price, our representative two pitched into Marshall for the purpose i .. the Legislature, secured the passage of a joint resolution by the Legislature in 18og authorizing the confinement of Pow- ers in the Dayton asylum.
of giving him the promised whipping. In the fight that followed Marshall drew a knife and stabbed Stiles Norville, who died shortly after. and badly injured the other Norville.
Marshall was indicted for manslaugh- ter and after a sensational trial was ac- quitted. the defense having established the fact that Marshall had been mentally tin- balanced. and setting up the further ground of self-defense. The jury cleared Marshall and he was permitted to go free.
THE MUPDER OF THE CATHOLIC PRIEST.
In 1800 the Catholic priest of St. Pat- rick's church in Bellefontaine was Father John Coveney, a most estimable and faithful leader of his people.
John Powers was an Irishman and a Catholic, whose relatives lived in Bellefon- taine, but his own home was somewhere in the East.
Powers came to Bellefontaine on a visit to his relatives. Some notice had been taken of his peculiar actions, but it was not considered seriously. Only a short time after his arrival Powers went to the priest's house and after asking for him and being invited in. deliberately pulled his pistol and shot the priest. He gave as an excuse that he had been com- manded to kill off all the priests, and he was doing so.
He was indicted for murder, but on the trial it became evident that Powers was simply an insane person and the jury so found, and he was sent to the asylum.
Powers not being a citizen of the county, could not be admitted to the in- sane asylum of the State and the Hon-
He was so confined for many years as a hopeless lunatic and died only some ten years since.
THE MURDER OF MATHEW HEMPHILL.
Some time in 1860 or 70 Mathew Hemphill was killed by William Carder.
Hemphill had a saw-mill near Rushsyl- vacia and Carder was employed by him in the mill. There had been some dispute between the parties concerning a settle- ment as to wages.
Carder had been to Ruchsylvania and returned in the evening. Shortly after his return the dispute about the settlement was renewed and hot words passed. The parties were near the mill, and it was claimed that Hemphill, who was a large man, assaulted Carder, who was a small man. Carder drew a knife and stabbed Hemphill. killing him almost instantly. No one was present but the two men.
Carder was arrested and bound over to court for murder, but the grand jury failed to indict him. He went south and never returned.
THE MURDER OF ALLIE LAUGHILIN.
The murder of Miss Allie Laughlin in the fall of the year 1872 was one of the most sensational and cruel in the history of the county.
She was a young girl. only seventeen years of age. the daughter of a respected and prominent citizen of Richland town- ship. and her unkindly taking off was a shock to the whole county, and resulted
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in one of those unfortunate cases of mob law which are a humiliation and disgrace to every law abiding community.
James Schell was a tenant upon Mr. Laughlin's farm. and between him and his employer there was the best of feeling and personal friendship. Schell had had some trouble with the tenant upon the adjoining farm and in the controversy which followed Mr. Laughlin had sympa- thized with his tenant. Schell, and so far as known there had never been any ill feel- ing between Schell and his employer or his employer's family.
One morning in October. 1872. Schell, together with his wife and three small chil- dren, went to the reservoir to gather wild plums. taking with them Miss Allie Laughlin, with the consent and approval of Mr. Laughlin and his family.
They gathered plums during the fore- 100!, returning at noon to eat their din- ner at the wagon.
In the afternoon Schell and Miss Laughlin started off in the same direction for more plums, leaving Mrs. Schell and her children near the wagon. About 4 o'clock Schell came back with a basket of plums, and not finding Miss Laughlin, in- quired if she had returned. and upon being informed that she had not, he determined, as it was getting late, that he had better go and hunt for her. After hunting for a time and becoming alarmed. he went to a saw-mill near the bulkhead. and asked some of the hands there employed to as- sist him in the search. They declined be- cause it was late, saying that it was more than likely that any one going into the brush at that time would become lost.
Not knowing what to do and having his wife and children with him, and it be-
coming late in the evening, he determined that it would be best for him to take his wife and children home. secure assistance and come back to hunt for Miss Laughlin.
lle did so and going to the Laughlin home, awakened the family and in com- pany with Mr. Laughlin. returned to the reservoir. arriving about daylight. and they began the search.
The alarm had gone abroad and they were quickly joined by a number of oth- ers who assisted in the search.
About LI o'clock the body of Miss Laughlin was found in a small open space in the brush. About it were marks of a severe and desperate struggle.
It was very plain that Miss Laughlin had been murdered. There were some twenty-three stabs upon the face, arms, back. head and neck and the impress of a heel-mark upon her forehead, all indicat- ing that the girl. who was large and strong for her age. had fought desperately for her life.
Schell was arrested and taken to jail in Bellefontaine and pul-lic sentiment ran strong against him.
He stoutly denied that he had in any manner been a party to the murder and asserted his innocence
The coroner summoned a jury and heard the evidence, and at this hearing Mrs. Schell was a witness .and made many sensation- al statements, saying, among other things. that Schell had killed the girl and had told her so, and that in addition to this he had also burned Mr. Laughlin's new residence, which had been destroyed by fire some time before, and further that he had killed James Torrence, a citizen of Belle Center, who had mysteriously disappeared some time before. and had put his body into an empty freight
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car and sent it away; and further, that Schell had been guilty of a number of other murders in the neighborhood from which he had come to Logan county.
These statements, together with the sus- picions of the people, inflamed the populace. Schell's clothing was examined, and a small spot upon his shirt front was pronounced to be blood.
The funeral of Miss Laughlin was held on Sunday and there was a very large at- tendance. the people were greatly moved by the appearance of the body and there was an expressed anxiety for speedy justice.
The following night a mob of some two hundred persons formed north of Bellefon- taine and marched to the pail. and with a bar of railroad iron beat down the doors of the jail; taking Schell from his cell to a tree at the southwest corner of the court house square, hanged him to a limb until he was dead.
Schell stoutly denied his guilt, and upon the box from which he was swung into eternity cooly asked for Mr. Laughlin, the father of the girl, saying : "If Mr. Laugh- lin is in this crowd I would like to see him. and speak to him." adding: "I know that Mr. Laughlin will not say that I killed his daughter."
Mr. Laughlin was not in the crowd and some one cried out : "Your wife says that you killed her."
Schell cooly answered: "If she made such a statement she did it to shield her- self."
The rope was pulled and James Schell was ushered into eternity. The next morn- ing his body was cut down and was laid upon the court house steps. This was the first case of lynching in Logan county.
There are many who believed that James 12
Schell was not guilty of the murder for which he was lynched, and that his execution was without justification either in law or by reason of the evidence and circumstances in the case : the populace was excited and in- famed by the wanton murder and by the brutality of it, and Schell was the unfor- tunate victim of circuitsances.
It is certain that his own statement was clear, straightforward and convincing, and that if opportunity had been given for a fair trial before a jury of his countrymen, after a sober, second judgment had asserted itself, it is doubtful if they could have found him guilty of the crime for which he suffered.
Some of the circumstances upon which he was tried, adjudged guilty and hanged by his infuriated fellow citizens, were after- wards proven to be without foundation: for instance the blond stain on his shirt front was, upon closer inspection, found to be pluim stain.
Schell was a large, muscular and pow- erful man, with the swing of an athlete, and in the controversies with his neighbor had always come out victorious, and had been justified by the courts in which com- plaint had been made against him.
The cuts upon the face, head. arms and back of Miss Langhlin, while mimerous, did not penetrate more than an inch, and they had evidently been made with the end of a broad-bladed instrument, as with the end of a butcher knife.
In the hands of a man like Schell. with his strength and muscular force, such a knife would have been driven into the flesh and body of the helpless girl to the depths of many inches, and probably to the hilt, and the number of cuts would have been less, and the result would have been quick. conclusive and fatal.
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In the hands of a man like Schell the struggle with a girl of seventeen would have been very brief, and there would have been less indication of the same in the neighbor- hoed of the murder.
The story told by his wife was contra- diete ! by so many facts and circumstances that it was afterwards found to be entirely false.
She stated in her evidence that Schell had killed James Torrence at Belle Center and put his dead body into an empty freight car and sent it away. Torrence afterwards returned to Belle Center alive and well and his going away proved only a little escapade with which Schell had nothing whatever to do.
The claim that Schell had burned Laugh- lin's house, as told by his wife, was unques- tionably false, for Laughlin was Schell's firmest and most steadfast friend in his lit- tle controversy with the tenant upon the adjoining farm.
The other story she toldl about the nu- merous murders committed by Schell in the neighborhood from which he came, were rever verified by any facts, the bodies of his victims were never discovered not had any body been killed as she declared.
Another circumstance which was a most conclusive one was the discovery made by Doctor Cretcher. In one of the closed hands of the murdered girl, with some leaves and dirt, were found some hairs, so tightly wound around her thumb that the hind had to be carefully opened to secure them. These hairs were certainly secured during her last and most desperate struggle for life with the murderer: they either came from her own head or from the head of the person who was present at her murder and partici- pated in it.
Three of these hairs when carefula measured by Ductor Cretcher were found to. be ten and three-fourths and eleven and one- fourth inches in length and one fourteen inches long. The longest hair that could be taken from Schell's head after death, Wa- less than seven inches in length. It was very evident that they could not have come from his head. Again Miss Laughlin's hair was of a dark auburn and when put under the microscope. magnifying a thousand times. was about the size and color of one of the dark red lead pencils. The other hairs were very fine and black in color and when put under the same glass and magnified a thou -- and times, were not so large as Miss Laugh . lin's by one-half. and when they were pliced together with some hairs from Miss Laugh- lin's head under the glass, side by side. the difference was plain, distinct and pronounc- ed. It was, therefore, very evident that these hairs did not come from Miss Laughlin'- head, being neither of the proper color nor of the proper size, and it is equally clear that they must have come from the head of some one with whom she was in a last des- perate struggle.
They did not come from Schell's head. for his hair was only a little more than one- half of the length, and it would have been impossible to find a hair in his head eleven and one-fourth inches long.
Mrs. Schell was arrested upon a warrant sworn out by the prosecuting attorney, and charged with the murder of Miss Laughlin. Upon taking hairs from her head and plac- ing them under the same microscope, they corresponded in color, size and length, with the hairs taken from Miss Laughlin's clasped hand.
Unfortunately these hairs which had been taken from the hand of Miss Laugh-
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lin by Doctor Cretcher had been permitted to pass through several hands, and at the hearing against Mrs. Schell no person could positively identify them as the hairs taken from the hand of the dead girl, and this failure to trace them permitted Mrs. Schell to escape.
The wounds made with the butcher knife, or the end of a blunt knife of some kind. were made by an instrument in the hands of some one not powerful enough to drive it deeply and fatally into the body with a few blows. The heel print on the fore- head did not fit Schell's boot, but it did fit Mrs. Schell's shoe, while a long and desper- ate struggle as evidenced by the condition of the ground and the brush about the scene of the murder, had been with some one not much more powerful than the murdered girl herself.
Taking all of these facts and circum- stances into consideration, the remark which James Schell made when standing upon the box just before being swung into eternity. in answer to the assertion that his wife had testified that he had murdered Allie Laugh- In, that "if she made such a statement she did it to shield herself." may have a signifi- cance which points as conclusively to some one else than James Schell as the murderer of Allie Laughlin.
I give these for what they are worth, and with the belief that when the mob executed James Schell for the murder of Allie Laugh- lin it is more than possible that another mistake was made, as too frequently occurs. when an excited populace takes the laws in- to its own hands.
THE MURDER OF WILLIAM BROOKS.
One very hot day in . August, 1874. there was committed a murder on the streets of
Bellefontaine, when Harry Marissa colored man, killed another colored man named Wil- liam Brooks.
Marts was living with a woman whom he called his wife, and Brooks had inter- fered between them, and it was claimed was endeavoring to entice the woman away from Marts.
They met near the Boyd ware-house, and the quarrel between them was renewed and Marts, gathering up a stone from the gutter, threw it at Brooks, striking him upon the head and crushing his skull: Brooks was felled, and later a friend of Brooks took him into a wagon and started to take him to his home in Northwood. but finding Brocks to be in extremis returned to Belle- fontaine for medical assistance.
Doctor Cretcher being called, found the man in a dying condition and he shortly afterwards expired. The day was extremely hot and the exposure of Brooks in the sun and heat. in the open wagon, most probably hastened his death. A post mortem showed that Brooks' skull had been crushed by the stone and that it had caused his death.
Marts was indicted and, after a trial, was convicted of manslaughter and sen- tenced for three years in the penitentiary. Ilis case was carried to the Supreme Court by his attorneys, Judges Lawrence and Price, and the Supreme Court set aside the verdict because of an error in the charge of the trial judge.
Marts afterwards plead guilty of man- slaughter and was sentenced to the peniten- tiary for two years, the court giving him the benefit of the time he had served in jail.
THE MURDER OF MATHEW POLLOCK.
One of the most wanton. cold-blooded, and unjustifiable murders within the history
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of crime in the state was the murder of Mathew Pollock by James Barr in the year 1878.
The two had been boon companions and associates and had been accustomed to drink- ing and carousing together.
Upon the night of the murder they had. as usual been drinking heavily and both were intoxicated, in this condition they went to a house of a Mrs. Stratzman, a frail, but harmless old woman, who lived near the railroad and where such people were accus- tomed to visit. While in this house they engaged in a drunken controversy but not of a serious nature : after drinking again and furnishing the woman with drink Pollock went from the front room into the kitchen; Barr followed, pulling a revolver and point- ing it at Pollock and in his drunken frenzy threatened to shoot. The old woman was begging him not to shoot and Pollock was trying to get away, begging Barr not to shoot him.
In spite of all this the drunken and liquor-crazed Barr shot Pollock in the head while Pollock was going away from him, begging for his life. Pollock fell and instantly expired. Barr, sobered by the awful crime he had committed, at once threatened to shoot the woman if she should tell on him, and with an ugly bull- dog. which was following him. left the house. He stayed that night at Wilder's and the next morning went out on the C., S. & C. railway track and disappeared.
The weather was intensely cold. and snow some six or eight inches deep was on the ground.
Barr was not found for several days and was hiding in the houses of friends in the northern part of the county. Ile was finally arrested and tried for murder. IIe
was defended by a great array of counsel. Judges West and Lawrence, MeLaughim and Dow, Kernan and Kernan and Jules Price. He was prosecuted by George W. Emerson, the county prosecutor, assisted by Robert P. Kennedy.
The trial was a most notable one and attracted the attention and attendance of a large body of the people.
The prosecution followed Barr from point to point and clearly fixed upon him the guilt of Matt Pollock's murder.
Barr explained his absence and fight by claiming that he had slept in the corn shocks in the open fields for several nights with the thermometer at ro below zero. because he had had a quarrel with a man from Sidney near the railroad; and finally that on the night of the murder, and a: the hour it was committed, he was sleeping upon the open ground in the snow upon the vacant lot near the railroad with the thermometer about 10 degrees below zero.
In spite of all the evidence, which was overwhelming and conclusive against him. and his own testimony, which required no contradiction, the jury under the leader- ship of a relative of Barr's, who had in some manner gotten into the jury box, ac- quitted him.
So indignant were the people at this outrage upon justice that the jury fled from the town, and the attorneys for the defense were effigied by great signs ujem the front of the court house tower, which hung from the hands of the statue of Jis- tice, who begged to be taken down be- cause of this travesty upon justice it-cif.
Barr himself fled the town and quickly went to Canada to escape the indignant threats of the people, where he remained
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until he was assured that it would be safe for him to return. In the meantime be had been indicted for perjury in the testi- mony given in his own case, and upon his return from Canada he was arrested and brought back, tried and convicted for per- jury and sent to the penitentiary for five years. It is perhaps the only case where a man acquitted of a crime has been ar- rested for perjury and convicted for giving false testimony in a murder case where he was the defendant, and where the proof of his guilt as a perjurer rested upon the ques- tion of his guilt as a murderer.
He served his time and still lives to suffer the pangs of a guilty and remorse- ful conscience.
A DOUBLE MURDER.
In the year 1882 a man named George Parmenter and his wife Carrie lived on the edge of North Greenfiekl.
Parmenter had been sick and had not fully recovered. and having become jeal- ous of his wife. after a quarrel with her. suddenly drew a revolver and shot ber dead. He then turned the revolver upon himself and completed the double murder by shooting himself. There was appar- ently no reason for his conduct, and it was generally understood that his sickness had weakened his mind.
THE WHITMORE MURDER CASE.
Early in the year 1884 Jacob Whit- more was married to Orrie Short. a daughter of a widow living in Mc Arthur township.
Whitmore's father and family lived on the Cat Swamp road. just a mile north of the road upon which the Short family re- sided.
The young couple were without means, but were planning to go to house- keeping in a small house on the farm of Benjamin F. Howard, and had been look- ing for householdl articles necessary to that end. Whitmore expecting to get work as a farm hand and do farm work in the neighborhood. In the meantime Whit- more was staying at home and his wife. Orrie, was at her mother's.
Some time after their marriage Whit- more went to Bellefontaine. passing Short's, and came back in the afternoon about 1 or 2 o'clock. His trip had been made on foot. ITe stopped at the Short home and got some overalls and working clothes for cutting corn the next day, and a little later in the afternoon, in company with his wife and two of the Short chil- Uren, went to an adjoining woods to gather wood and hickory nuts. The chil- dren gathered wood in their little wagon, while Short and his wife gathered and ate hickory nuts, sitting at the foot of a tree.
A teamster loading and hauling wood from the same woods saw them, but neither heard nor saw any trouble. Per- sons passing along the road a short dis- tance away, saw them, but heard no out- ery. The children with them neither saw any difficulty nor heard any complaint.
Near to dark Short assisted the chil- den over the fence with their wagon load of wood and they started. accompanied by his young wife, down the road to the Short home, while he took the road north to his father's house on the Cat Swamp road.
Some time after reaching home. Or- rie. Jacob's wife, went up-stairs and was taken sick. She was brought down stairs and when asked what she had eaten. said that she had eaten only hickory nuts.
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into convulsions. A doctor was sent for. but before he arrived she was beyond as- sistance.
It was claimed by some of those pres- ent that during intervals between her con- vulsion- she exclaimedl. "Jake poisoned me; catch him : kill him." Other, did not understand her to make any intelligible statement. Her husband, who had been sent for, came to the house and assisted during her last moments. He was ar- rested and charged with her murder. and the court assigned Honorable Duncan Dow and Robert P. Kennedy to defend him. Judge W. H. West assisted the prosecuting attorney. The trial lasted a week and was in many respects highly sen- sational.
The evidence was purely circumstan- tial and tended to show that Whitmore had purchased strichnia in Huntsville to poison dogs, only getting about as much as would cover the bottom of a bottle. while a white paper found near the tree where they had been eating hickory nuts was claimed to have contained poison.
Upon the examination of her stomach by Doctor Cretcher a white paper of the kind and quality used in drug stores to wrap up medicines and containing strich- nia. rolled into a wad as large as a good- sized hazelnut, was found in her stomach, with a large part of the strichnia still un- dissolved. There was a sufficient quantity to have killed halt a dozen persons, esti- mated by Doctor Cretcher to be about nine grains.
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