USA > Ohio > Champaign County > The history of Champaign and Logan counties : from their first settlement > Part 7
USA > Ohio > Logan County > The history of Champaign and Logan counties : from their first settlement > Part 7
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I forgot to say they encamped at West Liberty. James Black informs me he saw Gen. Hull's son fall into Mad River near where Mr. Glovers' Mill now stands, he being so drunk he could not sit on his horse.
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PHENOMENAL.
There has been, as the reader will see elsewhere, two dreadful tornados in these counties; one at Bellefontaine, the other at Ur- bana. In addition to these phenomena this country was visited by several earthquakes. These shocks were distinctly felt in Cham- paign and Logan counties. They were in the winter of 1811-12. See Patrick's and my accounts of tornados elsewhere in this volume.
On the 7th day of February, 1812, at an hour when men were generally wrapt in the most profound slumbers, this country gen- erally, was visited by another shock of an earthquake. It was of greater severity and longer duration than any previous one yet. It occurred about forty-five minutes after three o'clock in the morning. The motion was from the south-west. A dim light was seen above the horizon in that direction, a short time previous. The air, at the time, was clear and very cold, but soon became hazy. Two more shocks were felt during the day. Many of the inhabit- ants, at this time, fled from their houses in great consternation. The cattle of the fields and the fowls manifested alarm. The usual noise, as of distant thunder, preceded these last convulsions. The shock was so severe as to crack some of the houses at Troy, in Mi- ami county. The last shocks seemed to vibrate east and west.
This shock was felt with equal severity in almost every part of Ohio. Travelers along the Mississippi river at that time were awfully alarmed. Many islands, containing several hundred acres, sunk and suddenly disappeared. The banks of the river fell into the water. The ground cracked open in an alarming manner. Along the river, as low down as New Orleans, forty shocks were felt, from the 16th to the 20th. At Savannah, on the 16th, the shock was preceded by a noise resembling the motion of the waves of the sea. The ground heaved upward. The people were affected with giddiness and nausea.
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TORNADO AT BELLEFONTAINE.
Tornado at Bellefontaine, June 24, 1825, as related to me by those who witnessed it: About one o'clock, there was a dark mass of «louds seen looming up in the west and seemed to increase in volume and in terrific grandeur as it approached the town. The mass of flack clouds now intermingled with others of a lighter hue of a wapory appearance, all dashing, rolling and foaming like a vast boiling cauldron, accompanied by thunder and lightning, presen- ting a scene to the spectator at once most grand, sublime and ap- walling. A few minutes before its approach there seemed to be a death-like stillness, not a breath of air to move the pendant leaves on the trees. It seemed as if the storm king, as he rode in awful majesty on the infuriated clouds had stopped to take his breath in order to gather strength to continue his work of destruction. Man and beast stood and gazed in awful suspense, awaiting to all a p- pearance, inevitable destruction. This suspense was but for & moment; soon the terrible calamity was upon them, sweeping everything as with the besom of destruction, that lay in its path. Fortunately this country was then new and almost an unbroken forest, consequently no one was killed. It passed a little north of the public square, however within the present limits of the town, struck Mr. Houtz's, two story brick dwelling, throwing it to the ground, and a log spring-house, carryingit off even to the mud sills ; ât picked up a boulder that was imbedded in the ground, weighing about three hundred pounds, carrying itsome distance from where it lay. Mr. Carter, who was there at that time, informs me it stripped the bark off a walnut tree from top to bottom, leaving it standing ; it carried a calf from one lot and dropped it into another. Mrs. Carter says she saw a goose entirely stripped of its feathers. Passing through town its course lay in the direction of the Rush- creek Lake, passing over that little sheet of water, carrying water, fish and all out on dry land. The fish were picked up the next day 3, great distance from the Lake; even birds were killed and stripped
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of their feathers. The writer of this has followed the track of this storm for thirty miles. Its course was from the south west to the north east, passing through a dense forest. I don't think it varied from a straight course in the whole distance. Its force- seemed to have been about the same. It did not raise and fall like the one that passed through Urbana some years after, Last summer the writer visited the track of this storm where it crossed the Scioto near where Rushcreek empties into that stream in Mar- ion county, where the primitive forest stands as it left it. There as elsewhere it is about one-half mile in width. In the out skirts of the track there are a few primitive trees standing shorn of their tops looking like monumental witnesses of the surrounding desola - tion. But for fivehundred yards in the center of the track there is not one primitive tree standing, they having fallen like the grass before a;scythe. If such a storm should pass over Bellefon -.. taine now, there would be nothing left of it.
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LOGAN COUNTIES.
THE LOST CHILD.
About two miles directly west of Lewistown, in Logan county, on the farm now owned by Manasses Huber, was the scene of this melancholy event. Abraham Hopkins, son of Harrison and Christiana Hopkins, about five years old, was lost November 13, 1837.
"Heaven to all men hides the book of fate, And blindness to the future has kindly given."
How cosily this little fellow slept in the arms of his mother the night before this sad event. The father and mother likewise slept sweetly, unconscious of the sad calamity that was then at their very door. They got up in the morning, ate their breakfast as cheerfully and with as great a relish as they ever did; the father goes singing to his daily toil, while the mother attends to the ordin- ary duties of her house, cheered by the innocent prattle of her happy boy. Everything passed off pleasantly till about 2 o'clock, when Mrs. Hopkins started with her little son to visit a neighbor, about a half mile distant-a Mr. Rogers. She had to pass by a new house, now being built by Charles Cherry, an unele to the boy. When they got there, they stopped for a few moments. The little boy wished to remain with his uncle; he did so, and the mother passed on to Mr. Rogers. The little fellow got tired playing about the house, and said he would go after his mother, and started. There was a narrow strip of timber between the new house and Rogers', and nothing but a dim path through it. Mr. Cherry cautioned the boy not to get lost. It seems he soon lost the dim path, for he hollowed back to his uncle, saying, "I can go it now ; I have found the path." These were the last words he was ever heard to say, and the last that was ever seen of him, Mrs. Hop- kins having done her errand, returned to the new house where Mr. Cherry was still at work, and inquired for her boy; and what was her surprise, when she was told he had followed her and not been seen since! Immediate search was made by the frantic mother and father, and Mr. Cherry. They immediately went to Mr. Rogers'
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and to another neighbor living but a short distance from him, but no tidings could be had of him. It was a pleasant day, and he was barefooted. They could see the tracks of his bare feet in the dust in a path that led through a field to the house ; it seems he had gone to the house, and not finding his mother there (for she, find- ing the family absent had gone to another house) he attempted to return to his uncle at the new house, where his mother had left him. Soon the alarm was spread far and near, and people collected from all parts of the country. There were at times over a thousand people hunting him. They continued their search for three weeks. Every foot of ground for three miles from the house was searched, even the Miami river was dragged for miles : but all in vain-not a track could be seen in the yielding alluvial soil of the neighbor- hood-nothing, save the imprint of his little feet in the dust of the path in the field above-mentioned; not a shred of his clothing was to be seen any where, and to this day his history is a profound and melancholy mystery It is, however, the opinion of Mr. Cherry, the uncle of the child, that he was stolen by the Indians. He says there was an Indian who, for many years, had been in the habit of trapping in the neighborhood, and suddenly disappeared, and hass never been seen there since. There was a deputation of citizens sent out where the Indian lived, and accused him of the crime, but he resolutely denied it. Mr. Hopkins has been singularly un- fortunate with his family ; one son died in the army, and another was crushed by the cars, near Champaign City, Illinois, where he- now resides.
ANDREW HELLMAN,
ALIAS
ADAM HORN:
HIS LIFE, CHARACTER AND CRIMES.
His birth-Travels in Europe-Arrival in this country-His opinion of women-Good character-His courtship and marriage-Jeal- ousy-Charged with attempting to poison his wife-Sudden death of his two children-Charged with poisoning them-Murders his wife -Is committed to prison-Breaks jail and eludes pursuit-Evid ence on his trial for the murder of his second wife-Conviction.
In all the list of crimes recorded in the annals of the law, none has ever existed, which, in all its terrible features, displayed a more ruthless disregard of the laws of instinct, or so utterly vio- lated and set at defiance the common bond of human nature, as the bloody acts of Andrew Hellman, alias Adam Horn! The dreadful enormity of them must not be concealed, for they serve as a warning, and show us to what a length our bad passions may lead us, if suffered to master us,
From the most authentic sources we have collected the following particulars of Horn's life, which may be relied upon as correct.
Andrew Hellman, alias Adam Horn, was born on the 24th of June, in the year 1792, at the ancient town of Worms, on the river Rhine, renowned as the place where the German Diet assembled in the year 1521, before which Luther was summoned to answer to the charge of heresy, and is a portion of the Hessian State of Hesse Darmstadt. He is, therefore, a Hessian by birth, and the son of
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Hessian parents. We have before us a certificate, signed by a priest, and dated at the town of Worms in the year 1792, giving the names of his parents, and certifying to the day of his birth and baptism under the name of Andrew Helhnan ; there can, therefore, be no doubt as to this being his true name. His parents gave him a good education, and at the age of sixteen he was bound an apprentice to a tailor at Wisupenheim, in Petersheim county, Germany, where he remained until he became of age, when a de- sire to roam induced him to start off with only his thimble and his scissors in his pocket, with the aid of which, according to his own representation, he worked his way through all the German States, as well as various other parts of Europe, returning again to Wisupenheim.in the fall of 1816, after an absence of nearly three years. He could not long content himself there, however, and hearing of the golden harvest that was to be reaped in America, and having a desire to see a country that he had heard so much of, he took passage for Baltimore, where he arrived in the year 1817, being then about twenty-five years of age. As far as can be learned after his arrival, he worked for a merchant tailor of that city, for nearly three years, when he started for Washington, and passing through the ancient city of Georgetown, soon found himself in Loudon county, Virginia.
It may be proper here to remark that during his stay in Balti- more, he so conducted himself as to secure many friends. He was then a young man of good personal appearance, sober, steady, and industrious, well-behaved, and mild in his demeanor, and withal in- telligent and well-informed. He seemed, however, to have imbibed a lasting dislike to the whole female race, looking upon them as mere slaves to man, whilst he considered man, in the fullest. sense of the term, as the "lord of creation." Woman, accord- ing to his opinion, was only created as a convenience for the other sex, to serve in the capacity of a hewer of wood and drawer of water ; to cook his victuals, darn his stockings, never to speak but when spoken to, and to crouch in servile fear whilst in his presence. He regarded the scriptural phrase applied to the sex, as a "helpmeet for man," in its literal sense, whilst he would deny her all social privileges and rights. That this is still his opinion may be aptly illustrated by a conversation held with him a few days ago, since his conviction, by a gentleman who was starting for Ohio, who asked him if he bad any message to send to his som
LOGAN COUNTIES.
Henry. He replied, "Yes, tell Henry if he should ever marry, to marry a religious woman." The gentleman replied that he thought he ought also to advise hin to embrace religion himself, as it was as necessary on the part of the man as the woman, in order to secure permanent happiness. "No! no! no!" passion- ately exclaimed the old reprobate. "Woman must know how to hold her tongue aud obey. She has nothing to do with man."
He arrived in Loudon county, Virginia, in the fall of the year 1820, and stopped at the farmhouse of Mr. George M. Abel, situa- ted about four miles from Hillsborough, and about seven miles from Harper's Ferry. Mr. Abel was an old and highly respected German farmer, who had emigrated to this country a number of years previous ; and had reared around him a large family of sons and daughters. The old gentleman took a liking to Hellman, and unfortunately, as the sequel will prove, allowed him to stop or board with him, and being a good workman, he soon succeeded in having plenty of work to do from the farmers of the surrounding country. He remained through the winter, and in the spring of 1821 started for Baltimore. He, however, remained in Baltimore for but a few months, and in July again returned to his old quar- ters at Mr. Abel's, where he had so effectually succeeded in con- cealing his opinion of the sex, or had perhaps been lulled from its expression by the scenes of happiness, contentment, and equality that prevailed among the different sexes of the household of the respected old Loudon farmer, that he was allowed to engage the affections of one of his daughters.
Mary Abel was at this time in the twentieth year of her age, a blithe, buxom, and light-hearted country girl, with rosy cheek and sparkling eye, totally unacquainted with the deceitfulness of the world, and looking to the future to be a counterpart of the past, which had truly been to her one continued round of innocent pleasure and happiness. With a kind and affectionate disposition, and a thorough and practical knowledge of all the varied duties of housewifery, she was just such a one as would be calculated, if united to a kind and affectionate husband, to pass through the chequered scenes of life with all the sweets of contentment, and but few of the bitters of discord. But such was not her lot. Deceived by his professions of love and promises of unceasing constancy, and with the approval of her father and family, in the month of De-
CHAMPAIGN AND
cember, 1821, she became the wife of Henry Hellman. They con- tinued for two years in the family of Mr. Abel, during only a por- tion of which time the presence of relations and friends was sufficient to restrain the fiendishness of his disposition. After the lapse of a few months he appeared to be gradually losing all affec- tion for her, though for the first sixteen months, with the excep- tion of this apparent indifference, everything passed off quietly. On the 8th of August, 1822, Louisa Hellman, their first daughter, was born, which, however, he looked on as a serious misfortune, and, had they not been under the parental roof, sad would doubt- less have been the poor mother's fate.
In the month of April 1823, about sixteen months after marriage, an unfounded and violent jealousy took posession of his very soul, and all the pent-up ferociousness of his disposition towards her sex broke forth with renewed violence. He accused her of infidelity of the basest kind, and on the 17th of the ensuing September, when Henry Hellman, their second child, who is now living in Ohio, was born, he wholly disowned it, and denounced its mother as a harlot. From this moment all hopes of peace or happiness were banished, but like poor Malinda Horn, she clung to him, and prayed to her God to convert and reform him, hoping that his eyes would beultimately opened to reason and common sense. But, alas ! it was all in vain. In return for every attention and kindness she received nothing but threats and imprecations. Instead of the endearing name of wife, she was always called "my woman," and his ideas of the degrading duties and dishonorable station of women fully applied to her. He had, however, never used any personal violence, and she consequently felt bound for the sake of her children, not to desert him.
In the spring of 1824, he rented a small place in London, about a mile from her father's, where they lived for nearly eight years, during which time, in June 1827, John Hellman a third child, was born, at which time heopenly declared that if she ever had an- other he would kill her. This, however, was their last child. On one occasion, whilst living on this place, he left her, in a fit of passion, and went to Baltimore, leaving wife and children almost destitute, where he remained about three months, and returned with promises of reformation.
In the mean time her father, having several sons grown around
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him, began to cast about for some mode of giving them all a start in the world, and finally sold a portion of his farm, and bought a section of land for each of them in different counties of Ohio. John Able and George Able went to Stark county, Ohio, and Helman received for his wife a section of land in Carroll county, though he refused to live on the section of ground belonging to his wife, ap- parently through ill feeling towards her. When he left Loudon county he disposed of property to the amount of at least $3,000. How he had accumulated so much in the short space of ten years, when he had come there penniless, was, and still is regarded as a mystery. Although possessed of a close and miserly disposition, denying his family nearly all the comforts of life, with the excep- tion of food, of which he could not deprive them with out suffering himself, it seemed impossible, from the fruits of his needle, so large an amount could have been accumulated.
The five years he passed over in Carroll county we pass over in silence, with the exception of the remark that the lot of the poor wife during the whole of this time, was one of continual unhap- piness, whilst the children also regarded him with fear and trem- bling, particularly poor Henry, whom he wholly disowned. This treatment on the part of her brutal husband of course entwined her heart more closely to that of Henry, who was then in his twelfth year, and the knowledge of this increased his growing enmity towards her and him. When he left Carroll county he was in possession of two fine farms, which he sold for a large amount. They were located within half a mile of the now thriving city of Carrollton.
His removal to Logan county was hailed by his wife with joy and delight, for there resided her two brothers, Gen. John Abel and Mr. George Abel, who had emigrated thither some eight years previously, and were now surrounded by large and happy families. As good fortune would have it, he bought a fine farm, the dwelling of which was within a hundred yards of Gen. Abel's, and but a short distance from her brother George; and now poor Mary expected and did occasionally meet a countenance that beamed on her with affection and kindness. She could there, when an opportunity afforded, seated at the hospitable hearth of one of her brothers, go over the scenes of enjoyment and happi- ness that they had passed together in old Loudon, and the memo-
CHAMPAIGN AND
ry of her good and kind-hearted father and mother, who were long since departed. would often call a tear to the eye of the afflicted mother.
They arrived in Logan county in the spring of 1836, at which time the three children had arrived at an age when they became useful about the farm. Louisa was in her fourteenth year, Henry was thirteen, and John was about nine years of age. They were three tine intelligent children, such as a man should have been proud of, still they appeared to have no share in their father's af- fections. Money and property is the god he worshiped, and al- though in reality he was far better off than many of his surround- ing neighbor-, still he kept all his family dressed in the meanest manger, so much so that they were compelled to remain at home on all occasion -. The children were, however, knit into the very heart of the mother, and she looked on them with all the fond hope with which a mother usually regards her offspring.
About a year after their arrival at Logan, Mrs. Heilman on one occasion had poured out a bowl of milk with the intention of drink- ing it, but before she got it to her lips she found that the top of it was completely covered with a quantity of white powder, which had at that moment been cast upon it. Immediately suspecting it to be poison, and having no mode of testing it, she threw it out, and undoubtedly, from subsequent events, thus preserved her life. There was no one at the time in the house but her husband, and he denied all knowledge of it. She was under the impression at the time that he had attempted to poison her, and it is now gene- rally believed that such was the case.
For the year following this event he apparently became more morose and sullen, but his family had become used to it, and ex- pected nothing better. In the month of April, 1839, all three of the children were suddenly taken sick, and lay in great suffering for about forty-right hours, when Louisa, the eldest, aged sev- enteen years, and John, the youngest, aged twelve years, died, and were both buried in one grave, leaving the mother inconsola- ble for her loss. Her whole attention, however, was still required for poor Henry, who lay several days in great suffering, but he fi- nally recovered. This was a sad stroke to the heart of the already grief-stricken mother, which was doubly heavy on her from the firin belief she entertained that their death had resulted from poi-
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son, and that that poison had been administered to them by the hand of their father-by that hand which should have brushed away from their path every thorn that could harm them. The belief is now general throughout the county that their blood is also on the head of Andrew Hellman, but whether true or false remains to be decided between him and his God. It would seem, if the charge be correct, to have been a miraculous intervention of Providence that poor Henry, the child of Misfortune, the one alone above all others that his father disliked and ill-treated, was the one that outlived the effects of the deadly potion. Happy would he doubt- less now be could he disown such a father, and forever obliterate from memory his existence. He is, however, now loved and re- spected by all who are acquainted with him, having fully inherited all the good qualities of his unfortunate mother, and fully proving the saying that a bad man may be the father of a worthy son. Just entering on manhood, he bids fair to reclaim, by a just and honorable life, a name that has been tarnished by the most detes- table acts of crime and guilt.
It may be stated here, in justice to Hellman, that, since his con- viction of the murder of Malinda Horn, he has been questioned with regard to the death of his children, and though he did not deny the murder of his first wife, he positively asserts that he had no hand in their death. He, however, will find it difficult to sat- jsfy those who witnessed the heart-rending scene, and his utter callousness as to the result, that he is not also their murderer- that the blood of his innocent offspring does not rest on his head, equally with that of the unborn child of his second victim. The bodies, we learn, were not examined, to discover the cause of death, the suspicion as to their being poisoned having been kept a secret in the breasts of the members of the family, for the sake of the poor mother, whose hard lot might have been embittered in case they should have been unable to sustain the charge. As bad as they then thought him to be, they could hardly believe him to be guilty of such a crime, but experience has since taught them that he was capable of anything, let it be ever so heinous and criminal, and not even a denial under the solemnity of a confess- ion can now clear him of the charge.
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