USA > Ohio > Licking County > Granville > The history of Granville, Licking County, Ohio > Part 23
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Granville was long a well known station on the Great Northwestern Underground Railroad, from which place it branched, one track running up Loudon Street, the one by which John went, and the other over the hills to Utica. Trains would stop sometimes thirty minutes for meals ; some- times all day, rather than all night, for rest; sometimes longer to have the track repaired. If danger threatened, the conductors and track viewers were careful to have everything looked after, and trains were seldom delayed, and never thrown from the track.
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SLAVE IS FREED.
[More than half a century has now passed (1889) since those memorable events. Few of the actors in those scenes survive, and the living who sympathized with either side were at the time too young to enter intelligently into the motives of those actors. All to-day would wonder at the impetuosity that displayed itself in profanity, violence and bloodshed. To-day the slave is freed and everybody is glad.]
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OUR CRIMINAL RECORD.
CHAPTER XLVII.
OUR CRIMINAL RECORD.
This should not be passed over, lest Granville bear a better name than she deserves; neither is it well to wound the feel- ings of any by unnecessarily calling to memory that which were better left in oblivion.
In very early times there were two cases of criminal offence against society. In 1819, G- was accused of forgery, having been before guilty of petit larceny, was tried, con- victed and sent to the penitentiary for a short term. He had long failed to enjoy the confidence of the community.
About the same time (not far from 1814) L- was guilty of altering bank notes from the denomination of one's to ten's. He was of a singular disposition, loving to be much alone, studying his father's library; but, as it afterward appeared, for the sake of finding the secret mechanical and chemical arts which he used in his work. He kept a private room which was always under lock and key, where were found the evidences of his crime. He was assisted to leave the country, starting from home on horse-back, going south never to return.
The most gigantic crime perpetrated in our community was that of M -. In the winter of 1834-5, the merchants missed small amounts of money or goods from the stores. Families missed small articles from their premises. Locks were found tampered with. Paints, groceries, dry goods, syrups, hams, cash, mysteriously disappeared. It was evident there was mischief around, but no trace of the perpetrator could be found.
One Saturday evening, April 4, 1835, M- came into the store of Mower & Prichard just as it was to be closed for the . night. Sherlock Mower and a lad who assisted him, were the only persons present. M- sauntered around, seem- ingly having no errand, and was inclined to be near the back
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door which opened into a large ware-room, in one corner of which, just to the right as one entered, was the office room, and in the office the safe was kept. On the west side was another more open ware-house for rough storage. On the counter near this back door of the sales-room was a case con- taining candy, of which M- bought six and a fourth cents worth, (an old fashioned piece of silver). Soon after Mr. Mower went into the ware-room to see that all was right, and M- slipped in after him to examine the premises. Next morning (Sunday) the key hole of the front door was observed to be filled with mud. That evening the boy clerk was about the open shed when he observed M- go stealtlı- ily and examine the key hole to find if any one had entered the store. While he was doing this, Otis Wheeler came riding rapidly down Prospect Street, turning round the store into Broad, on his way for a doctor. As he rounded the corner he noticed a man coming hurriedly away from the front door, which excited his attention. M- then went into French's tavern and sat by the bar room fire.
In the night, Sunday, April 5th, M- with an auger cut out the lock of the west door by boring all around it, effected an entrance into the office, rolled out the safe through the wareroom and to the east door, loaded it upon an old- fashioned hand truck, (much used in those days for drawing water in barrels from the town spring), and started with it through Broad Street, and down Main, toward the old burial lot. When opposite Mr. Sereno Wright's dwelling, just be- yond the town square, the safe fell from the truck into the mud. M- was a powerful man, but he could not manage to get the safe any further. He then went back to the black- smith shop of A. Sinnet, just back of the store he had burglarized, but found it fastened. He then went to the shop in olden times conspicuously labeled in great white letters "OUR SHOP," where Mr. Montonye's shop now is, and there procured a heavy sledge hammer. With three well- directed blows he sprung the lock of the safe and opened the
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door. It is one of the marvels of the case that he should make so much noise right in the middle of town and be heard on every hand, and awaken no suspicion of what was going on. The rolling of the safe on the floor was heard on the street back (Bowery), and it was afterward described as like distant thunder. The heavy blows that opened the safe were heard by Mr. Sereno Wright and at Deacon Bancroft's, yet no one thought of mischief. The quiet little town slept so unconscious of evil that the deed fell like a thunderbolt among thein.
Next morning the town was early astir. The safe was found lying bedaubed in the mud and rifled of its contents. The store was found opened. The tracks in the mud were closely observed, and some of them ·protected for future ref- erence. The burglar was tracked from place to place. The prints showed very large boots, and one of them had a tap on it.
From where the safe was lying he went directly to the burial lot. There, under a flat stone which leaned against the wall, were found the personal notes, which, being of no use to the thief, he had rid himself of them. Inside the yard, stones and bricks were freshly disturbed, but this was only a blind; there was nothing deposited there. The account books were hidden in different places in the wall, stones being taken out here and there to make room for them.
The sharp ones of the village were immediately at work as detectives. As some suspicions had already lighted upon M-, it was not long until a search warrant was out and he was under surveillance. All his premises were ransacked, and then the neighboring hill. In the cellar-way the boots were found, freshly washed, which fitted the tracks. Between the ceiling and the chamber floor were found inany packages tucked away, which merchants recognized. Many false keys were discovered. In a secret place of an out-building was a shingle loosely tacked which held a package of money. In the crack of a boulder, the top of which lay a little above
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· the surface of the ground, the bulk of the money was found. The crack had been recently filled with small stones to the depth of a foot or two. It was the marks of this recent work that drew attention to the spot. Under the loose stones was a stocking foot which contained the money, and the leg of the stocking was found in the garret of the house, while on his face was a black spot from the blacksmith's shop. His night's work had come so near the morning as not to give him time for his morning's ablutions, before he was sus- pected and tracked.
Previous to this a ten dollar bill which M- passed was identified as having been lost from one of the stores, and a peculiarly small, round ham was found boiling in the pot, so strikingly like one lost as to produce confusion at a neigh- bor's call. This chain of evidence seemed enough. He was indicted, the case came up in the April term of court, 1835, · and was continued to the October term. The verdict was given by a jury of eleven, one having been taken sick, and the parties mutually agreeing to go on with eleven. The . witnesses called were Sherlock Mower, B. E. Vial, Otis Wheeler, Andrew . Merriman, Andrew Dunlap, Sally Stephens, Leonard Humphrey, Joseph B. Gaylord. M- was found guilty and sentenced to the penitentiary.
September 10th, 1850, an altercation between a young man, a student of the college, and the steward of the insti- tution, led to the student's snatching a pocket knife from the steward's hands and stabbing him near the heart. The result was not as serious as the heat of the moment might naturally have led to.
On the morning of Tuesday, September 11th, 1877, when the people began to stir upon the streets, the east window of the First National Bank, northwest corner of Broad and Prospect Streets, was found to be open. Looking in they saw that the outer door of the iron vault, in which stood the safe, was open, and the inner door had been tampered with. The first had been blown open with gunpowder, and the
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same had been tried upon the inner door. There was a space of about four inches both above and below this door, and the explosion finding vent had produced no effect. A sledge hammer, though it produced great indentations on the iron plate, also failed to open it. People said it was so old- fashioned an affair that modern burglars did not understand it. The inner lock was so tampered with that it took several hours to open it, and meantime it was uncertain whether the robbers had succeeded and borne away the treasure, locking the door after them to gain time, or whether all was safe. It was found to have resisted all as- saults and proved faithful to its trust. All the plunder they got was a gold pen and a few similar articles from the bank office. Quantities of carpets and coffee sacks were found, which had been used to darken the room and deaden the sound. Still the noise was heard across Broad Street, and the light was seen from the old hotel across Prospect Street, but. no one suspected what was going on. No clue to the . perpetrators was ever obtained.
Close upon this there followed a series of burglaries that led to the establishing of a night watch.
On the morning of Thursday, October 4th, the store of Mr. H. B. Green was found to have been opened, but if any thing was taken it was not missed.
On the morning of Wednesday, the 7th of November, the store of Mr. George C. Parsons was found to have been en- tered and inany goods abstracted. He estimated his loss at $600. The marks on the goods were removed, many of them being found on the floor. Next spring when a hay stack on the Infirmary farm was removed, tags and marks were found secreted in the stack, and identified by Mr. Parsons as his marks.
On the 8th of November, the night watch was established by the Town Council, the expense of which is paid by tax.
On the morning of Wednesday, the 14th of November, an attempt was made to break into the house of Mr. Elihu
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Hayes, three miles southwest of town, but the burglars were heard and foiled.
Friday, December 7th, the cellar of Mr. Henry Kendall was found to have been entered by an outside door, and sev- eral cans of fruit were taken. Mr. Green's store had been tried again, the casing of the front door being taken off, and Mr. Alfred Jewett's horse was found saddled and bridled ready for a ride.
About the same time one of the inmates of Mr. Cole's family, on the McCune farmn (formerly Joseph Linnel's) on Centerville, heard a carriage drive away from the house. In the morning the old family carriage and two farm horses were missing. They never came back, nor has any trace of them been found to this day. It could not even be found which way they turned when emerging upon the road.
July 2d, 1878, Mr. Enos Wilkins, on Centerville Street, found a burglar had entered by a window and taken posses- sion of his house while all were away on the day of the sol- diers' reunion. He had collected a pile of things to carry away, but surrendered, plead guilty before a magistrate, and was sent to jail.
Beyond these, there is an ordinary record of accusations of crime on the justices' dockets, from the larceny of a jack knife to horse-stealing, running through the list of larceny, house-breaking, forging, assault and battery, disturbing meet- ing and so on; but nothing unusual that fixes crime on citi- izens of Granville, or demanding record.
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FATAL ACCIDENTS.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
A review of the death record of the township makes the impression that an unusual number came to their death by accident.
The first occurred at the explosion of Goodrich's distillery. The boiler was a wooden tank, or a cut from a large hollow tree, set upon an iron bottom without sufficient fastenings. It was thrown off by the force of the steam, several being badly scalded. One little girl died during the following night. This occurred Wednesday, February 26th, 1812.
Thursday, October 7th, 1813, James Thrall was killed under the following circumstances: He was standing on a tree that had been blown over, cutting it in two ten or twelve feet from the roots. When it was severed the bent roots forced the stump violently back to position, hurling him into . the air. In falling his back was broken, and he survived but a few days.
Mr. Ethan Bancroft died Monday, May 9th, 1814, from the kick of a horse. He was coming in from the field where he had been furrowing for corn with a horse he had just bought. His little boy had been twice thrown from the horse during the forenoon, and calling his hired man he had him hold the plow while himself rode. Going to the stable to feed at noon, he was riding past where the horse had been in pasture when the creature reared almost straight up. Mr. Bancroft was sliding off his back when he sprang to the left and away as far as he could, falling on his hands and knees. The liorse quickly turned and gave him a kick in the face, covering the right eye, cutting the cheek, nose and brow, tearing the eye and injuring the skull. This was on Friday. He lived till Sunday night eleven o'clock. On Sunday afternoon he was sitting up conversing with his neighbors. In the evening he was taken much worse and sank rapidly. He was thirty- four years of age.
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1815, Tuesday, September 12th, Mr. Christopher Avery died by falling into a well he was digging on his own prem- ises, a couple of miles southwest of town. Mr. Gideon Cor- nell and others were helping. Gas had troubled them for some time, and Mr. Avery gave the signal that he wished to be drawn up. He came so near the top that Mr. Cornell seized him by the hand, grasping only three of his fingers. Mr. Avery was losing consciousness and self-control, and his weight was more than Mr. Cornell could sustain. Mr. Avery slipped from his grasp and fell backward to the bottom, a distance of forty feet, and was killed.
1816, September 29th, Moses Boardman was on his way from Zanesville with a heavy load of building materials, when he was thrown from his wagon, and lived but twelve hours after it.
The same year, while the furnace buildings were being erected a stick of timber that was being lifted to position, swung round and gave one of the inen a blow which proved fatal. Some time afterward while one of the bellows tubs was being repaired, a heavy weight fell from the top, strik- ing a workman below, and another life was sacrificed. These bellows arrangements were great wooden cylinders bound with iron hoops, eight or ten feet high, and set up from the ground; having leather tops and bottoms, the bottom having a valve playing in it as the power worked it up and down, and the upper one was loaded with weights.
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1817, Tuesday, February 25th, Mrs. John Jones, living on North Street, was riding on a sled drawn by oxen, when they took fright and ran, and she was killed. With her husband she was going to spend an evening at a neighbor's. Being takeu up for dead "she revived a little, groaned, prayed and expired."
Thursday, September 4th, of the same year, one Freeman Williams, seventeen years of age, was killed by lightning, on the farm of Elkanah Linnel. Mr. Linnel, Erastus Allyn, and young Williams were engaged in gathering ashes from
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the fields. A shower coming up, they took refuge under the wagon. Williams remarking that he had left his jacket under a tree which stood near, started to get it. Instead of return- ing to the wagon he put on his jacket and remained standing under the tree. A heavy charge of lightning soon struck the tree, and his head was seen to drop. His companions imme- diately went to him and found him dead. The occurrence was the beginning of seriousness among the young. The revival of 1818 followed when eighteen united with the church.
There was a similar occurrence a few years later on the farm of Justin Hillyer, Sr. A young man working in the hay field was struck and instantly killed. Others near were prostrated by the shock, of whom one was a son of Mr. Hillyer.
1818, July 16th, Paulina Danforth, six years of age, while out playing, ate a poisonous root which caused her death. The family lived a little way north of town. Her father had pulled up the root as he was passing through a recent clear- ing, and thrown it into Clear Run to get rid of it. Instead of this it was washed down the run a quarter of a mile to attract his little daughter's attention. She mistook it for a sweet root the people were accustomed to eat.
In September of the same year, another little girl of the same age, Sarah Swim, [or Swaim,] was run over by a horse and killed. The family lived on the bank of Clear Run, on Centerville Street. She was on her way to school, going up the hill toward town, when an older brother came riding rapidly toward her, calling to her to get out of the way. He had nothing on the horse by which to guide or curb him. Probably both were confused, and the child was trampled down by the horse and killed.
1820, Monday, March 4th, a daughter of Levi Rose, one year of age, was drowned. Toddling along a path by which she sometimes followed her mother when she went to the spring for water, she fell face downward into a shallow pool
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of water. Her mother missed her almost immediately, but not in time to save her life.
1822, June 9th, Hon. Jeremiah R. Munson was drowned, at the age of forty-two, while under temporary insanity. He had been showing signs of aberration for some time, and it was resolved that morning to call a physician for examina- tion and advice. Some of the family went to meeting, it being Sabbath, bearing the message to the doctor. Having helped them off, he went into the house and read aloud to his mother from the Bible for some time. Presently he came to the passage, "it were better for him that a mill stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea." He stopped, closed the book, looked up at his mother, and went up stairs. When the family re- turned from meeting they brought with them Dr. Richards; but Mr. Munson was nowhere to be found. They searched the barn, the hills and woods north of the house, and all the premises. At that juncture a neighbor came in with Mr. Munson's hat in his hand, which he had found by the mill pond. In it were papers by which he knew where the hat belonged. The pond was at once searched, but not until next day was the body found.
1827, August 4th, the child of Lewis and Cynthia Fluke, two years of age, was scalded to death by falling into a kettle of hot lye.
Friday, November 16th, of the same year, Mr. Zabina Pierce was engaged in digging a well half a mile east of town on the place now owned by Mr. Wynkoop. The ground was gravelly and loose, and troubled them much by caving. The well was nearly forty feet deep. At noon he sat down to eat a lunch under a board that leaned from side to side to protect him from anything that might fall. A very large body of earth became loosened from the sides and fell upon him, burying him many feet deep. From his position and appear- ance when found it was judged he was killed instantly. There was great danger in going down to rescue him, the
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sides continuing to cave. The neighborhood was roused immediately, and every effort was made that could be devised. Soon a great chasm yawned several yards across the mouth, around which the crowd gathered in excitement and unable to effect anything for his immediate rescue. Timbers were thrown across and curbing prepared and sunk, within which the men worked, sinking the curbing lower as the dirt was removed. Other and smaller curbing, being made ready, was sunk inside the first and lower down. Relays of men entered the well, relieving one another as often as necessary. As they went deeper the inexperienced became fearful of the risks. Then came two experienced well diggers from St. Albans-Elisha Adams and Isaiah Beaumont-volunteering their aid. The work went on with renewed vigor, but not till two days and nights of unremitting toil and anxiety were passed, did they reach the depth at which they might expect to find the body. It was then discovered that in descending they had veered a little from the former shaft, and that they were digging down to one side of him. By making an arch and working sidewise they found the body. It was not made known to the crowd above until all were drawn up together, lest in their excitement they should crowd around the open- ing and cause another accident. Not long after they emerged from the pit there was another caving that would have im- periled other lives with that of poor Pierce.
1828, January 26th, Cynthia Newcomb, aged nine years, met her death by the lodging of a small pebble in her wind- pipe.
1829, August 5th, a child of Richard Stadden, aged eight- een months, was drowned.
Thursday, August 20th, of the same year, George Avery, thirty-eight years of age, was killed by a falling tree. He was cutting the tree down, preparing to build on his land just beyond Major Pratt's. The tree fell between two others in such a way as to become wedged by the force of the fall. He stepped toward the top to free it; and a single blow of
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his axe, with the stress that was produced by the manner of its falling, broke the tree, and the fractured end flew violently around striking him in the abdomen. He died the following night in great agony.
1830, Wednesday, February 10th, Samuel Thrall, aged forty-two, while threshing grain by the tramping of horses, was kicked in the bowels, and survived the accident but a day or two.
1831, Tuesday, March 15th, Aurelius Thrall was killed while working in a stone quarry near Newark. There was considerable earth above, and an oak stump, under which he was working, to get out as much stone as he could before it should fall. His men stopped work, unwilling to incur the danger, but he continued a little too long. The mass fell and crushed him.
Cotton M. Thrall, a brother of the two lest mentioned, as also of James Thrall, the second on this list, having lived here most of his life, removed to the neighborhood of Berk- shire, Delaware county, Ohio. He was hauling wool to the lake, when he slipped off his load and broke his neck. This was just before railroads opened a market for farm products nearer home.
1834, Thursday, July Ioth, died William Barker, a lad of twelve. He was recovering from a fever, and while riding out was thrown from the carriage, and received injuries which resulted in death.
Monday, July 14th, of the same year, Colonel Jonathan Atwood, infirm with age, was killed in Broad Street while trying to stop his horse that had started off before he was ready. He became entangled in the wheel, being wound around with it while in motion, and received injuries that were immediately fatal.
About the same time Mrs. Bigelow accompanied her hus- band to camp-meeting in a conveyance drawn by oxen. The team became frightened and ran, and she received injuries that caused her death.
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1837, Tuesday, July 4th, Mrs. Ruhama Hayes, aged seventy-one, was thrown from the vehicle in which she was riding, and her back was broken. She survived but a few hours. This happened near the foot of lower Loudon Street.
Monday, October 16th, of the same year, Marshall Marsh was accidentally killed while managing his canal boat in some difficult position.
1838, Saturday, October 20th, Samuel Miller was killed by a rolling hog pen, which he was moving to a new location.
Friday, July 6th, of the same year, Mrs. Prudence Tyler, a most excellent and Christian lady, was drowned in conse- quence of insanity.
1839, Joseph Weeks, a lad of eight years, died of hydro- phobia. A large, strange dog came to the premises, and he was playing with it, when it suddenly bit him in the cheek, and in due time the boy was seized with convulsions.
1842, December 7th, a Mr. Mayfield broke his neck by a fall.
1847, May 20th, a little girl three years old, fell into the cistern at Esquire Gavit's house, and was drowned. She was the daughter of a Mrs. Gregory of Alexandria, visiting at Mr. Gavit's.
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