Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1859-08-04
An O,er True Tale.

name Of Shea; Patrick, John and Dennis,
living in the County of Donegal, Ireland,
having heard of land of liberty, where
the down troddeu and oppressed Of all ma
tions are received and welcomed, tore them
selves away from their aged parents-the
scenes of childhood and the land of their
birth with the intention of making enough
money to bring their loved parents to the
country of their intended adoption. Two
of them were men, but Dennis, the hope
and pride of his aged parents, was but a
boy of seventeen years, full of youthful ar
dor. After receiving the blessing of their
parents, they rcossed the Ocean and land
ed in New York. They shortly started to
find employment. The eldest stopped in
New Jersey; the next found place in
Pennsylvania, and Dennis came to Ohio
with an acquaintance, and found his way
to one of our public works, near Athens,
where there were number of his country
men employed. Not long after he arrived,
on one of their holy days, two or three cit
izens were passing along the road and found
Dennis Shea, with dying man at a
spring. Dennis had carried him there
and was engaged in washing his face and
cooling the temples of his dying country
man. Those who found him in this posi-
ton, charged him with the murder--ar-
restsd him and conveyed him to Athens
and lodged him in Jail. The man died
without being able to communicate any of
the facts of the case, and the story of poor
Dennis was not belived. He was tried at
the March term of the Court in that coun-
ty, s54,-found guilty of murder in the
second degree, and sentenced to the Ohio
Penitentiary for life. He arrived there on
the 18th of April following, at that time
but eighteen years of age. Immediately
after his confinement he began to dwindle
away, and he told the narrator of these
facts, that he could not survive a year, and
wished his brothers to be kept ignorant of
his misfortune and disgrace.
In the month of September following,
he took bis. bed, and sent message to our
informant. He wished for Priest-said
be could not die without making his peace
with God. Father Meaher was sent for,
and in the presence of the Warden, Mr..
Wilson, and our informant, be told his
simple story. The dying boy was shrived
by the Priest of his religion-said that he
would now die in peace, and in few mo-
ments all was over. His body was taken
by the good Catholics of this city, and
poor Dennis now rests on consecraLed
ground.
He stated on his death-bed, land it is
substantiated by Lot L. Smith, ESQ.,, a
lawyer of Athens, and formerly priva te
Secretary of Gov. MedilD that there ex-
isted an old feud between what they called
the Fard and Corkonians-tha a
few of them had met near the spring on
that day in the absence of Dennis, and had
fight, when they left this man for dead
and made good their escape. Dennis
came along short time afterwards and
found him-dragged him to the spring,
and like "Good Samaritan" was trying
to restore consciousness TO the dying man,
when be was caught in the charitable act
bis story discredited-hurried through
tn, form of trial-without money and
without friends, and sentenced at the
youthful age of eighteen to drag out a mis-
erable existence within the gloomy walls
of the Ohio Penitentiary-and innocent
too! Who wonders that he sickened-
that he died?
AT the request of the dying boy, our in
formant wrote to his parents, informing
them of the untimely end Of their darling
child-and who can realize or appreciate
the agonizing-heart-rending sorrow of the
aged parents as their "gray hairs go down
in sorrow to the gravew- Columbus Jour
nal.