Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1849-03-21


us with a snarling sort of ciyility. He was
thick set, broad shouldered, burley-looking
wretch, with blood-shot eyes, and face bear
ing all the marks of riotous debauchery.-
Our search was for several hours unsuc-
cessful, until Henry by accident found the
place where he had encountered the bearded
ghost, as some one christened him. Here
one of the keen eyed hunters found the tra-
ces of large. moccasined foot. These were
pursued for several miles and lost, but on
spreading our line and continuing the same
general course for some distance further, we
at last found indeed the body of Stoner! 1t
had been SO much mutilated by the wolves
and ravens that httlef.zsf537in tistt,r made
ubaaes ssss,. esea~=ssls ettsef
to carry them home to his family, and in
doing this | noticed the fracture Of bullet
through the back of the skull. 1t had been
stripped bare of flesh, and both eyes pluck
ed out by the birds, and was too shocking
an object for close examination. But what
puzzled all parties most was, the discovery,
short distance off, and the trail of shod
horse. Now there was not one horse in
Shelby county that wore shoes, and certain
ly not one in our party. Shoeing is never
thought of, being unnecessary where there
are no stones. This was as perfect poser
as even Henry's story, and threw yet a
greater air of inexplicability around the
affair! 1t was thought that this track might
be easily traced to any distance-but after
varying about it for several days, it was
given up in despair, and the regulators fa-
tigued and disheartened, scattered for their
respective home.
But one of their number never reached
his. Being missed for two days, there
was a general turnout to look for him,
and Us had been the case with Stoncr his
body was found torn to peices by the
wolves. The report was that he had been
shot through the back of the he d.
These murders, and the singular circum.
stances accompanying them, created great
sensation. Hinch and his troops secured
the country in every direction, arresting
and lynching suspicious persons, as they
called them. One poor inofensive fellow
they hung and cut down four or five times
to make him confess; but nothing was
elected; and they left him with barely @
spark of life.
That evening as they were returning to
their headquarters at the store, one ofthem
named Winter. missed q portion of his
house furniture, which had become ncci-
dentally detached. He said he saw it in its
place mile ack,-that he would return
and get;it, and re,ioin them ct the store, By
the.time they should be ready to commence
the spree they had determined on going in
to that night. He left them and never re-
turned. They soon got drunk, and did not
particularly notice his absence until some
time the next day, when his family, alarm.
ed at the return Of his horse with an empty
saddle, sent to enquire after him. This sort
of inquiries had come to be so significant
of late, that they were instantly sobered
and mounting rode back on their trail
Very soon swarm of buzzards and wolves
near O line Of thicket ahead designated
the Whereabouts of the object oftheir search;
and they found his feshless bones scatter
ed on every side. They were appalled,.
The reddest bloated check among them
blanched! 1t was terrible! They seemed to
be doomed! Three of their number dead
and torn to pieces within ten days: and yet
not the slightest clue to the relentless and
invisible Zoe, but that ghostly story of Hen
ry's, and the tracks which only served to
tantalize them! 1t must be some dread su-
pernatural visitation oftheir hideous crimes!
They shivered while the great drops start
ed from their foreheads, and without think
ing of looking for any trail, or even gath
ering up the bones, they started back atfull
speed, spreading the alarm every where.
The excitement now became universal and
tremendous. Nearly the whole country
turned out for the purpose of unrayelling
this alarming mystery; and the supersti-
tious frenzy was in no small degree heigh-
tened by the report that this man had been
shot in the same way as the others,- the
back Of the head!
These incidents were all so unaccounta-
BILE, that own felt no little sympathy
with the popular association of supernat-
ural agency in their perpetration. Henry
laughed at all this, but insisted that it was
maniac; and to account for the peculiar
dexterity of his escapes and the whole
management, related many anecdotes of
the proverbial cunning of madsnen. The
widest, most absurd, and incredible stories
were now ahoat among the people concern
ing this deadly and subtle foe Of the regu-
lators; for it was now universally believed
and remarked, that it was against them a.
lone that his enmity was directed. The
story OF Henry was greatly improved upon
and added TO, and rs some report had 1.-THE
madman,-as others, the bearded ghost was
seen in q half dozen places at the same
tme;-now on foot, stalking with enor-
nous strides across some open glade from
| thicket to thicket-passing out of sight a.
gain before the observer could recover
from his surprise-then mounted, he was
seen flying. like a shadow of q summer
cloud over the pfairies, Or beneath the
gloom of forests, always haggared and
lean, dressed in skins with tho han. on, and
that long, heavy, terrible riho on his shou.-
der! noticed that there was only one class
Of men who ventured to assert that they
had actually seen with their own eyes these
wonderful sights, and that was constituted
of those who either had suffered, or from
their characters and pursuits, were most
llkelya to- suffer persecution from the reg
ulators-the class of hunter emigrants.-
These men wera most industrious in embel-