Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-12-15

his wife, four sons, three daughters, one
daughter-in-law-all of whom were al
home during the night of the supposed
murder, except two daughters-one mar
ried and one single.
A few miles out from town Wheat
held a tract Of land, which had been
mortgaged to the State School Fund,
default having been made in the pay
ment of which. he was about 10 lose II,
when to the utter surprise of everybody,
he paid its membranes in gold.
This renewed the suspicious Of the
public, for no one even heard of his hav-
ing any gold, but still none had the
moral courage to move for an investiga-
ton, and the subject gradually dropped.
Wheat continued his ministrationsin the
pulpit, for many OF his congregation, be-
ieYing him innocent, considered him
the subject of the vilest persecution.
But that ''eye that never slumbers'' had
witnessed the deed of blood. and as
vengeance is mine, saith the Lord" il
was speedily visited upon the Wheat
family, all of whom, except the two
absent daughters above mentioned, were
witnesses to the deed; wen the son, who
took the horses to Cincinnati, was cogni-
ant of his fathers intentions. In less
than one year from the committal OF the
deed the entire Wheat family Except
the daughters already referred too, who
are still living were swept from the
earth-some by accidents the most hor-
rid and frightful, and some by sickness
the most intense and agOnizing. The
old man died suddenly in church from a
fit Of apoplexy.
Some ten years subsequent TO these
events we find the old Wheat tavern
passed into the hands OF one Mr.. Black,
who is presuming to do the honors of
landlord, and about this time the follow
ing circumstance occurred: A Mr.. B.
w. Heller, a banker from Leesburgh,
Highland county, Ohio, having business
in Portland, stopped for the night with
this Nj. Black. Upon being show to
his lodging room, Mr.. Heller closed the
door and turned to walk away, when it
instantly flew open. He stepped up and
again closed il. Again it flew open, in
spite of its fastenings, which were rent
asunder like glass. Again he closed it,
and again it flew open with such violence
as to jar the house, when he hastily re-
treated from the room, and declared he
would not stay in the house, and it was
only when he had taken quarters else
where that the recital of his adventure
with the door" reminded the bystand-
ers of the supposed murder in that house
some years previous. But what that had
to do with forcibly opening the door,
and wrenching it from its fastenings by
some invisible power, remains to be I'M
ravelled- The occurrence of this adj
venture Of Mr.. Heller spreading rapidly
upon the streets in the morning, and
with no fear of old Wheat, with his rifle
to confront them, and refuse them adj
mission to his grounds, the citizens, after
a lapse of ten years, proceeded to reVict
for the remains of the missing, and set
to work rumaging the premises. Their
efforts were rewarded by finding a box,
back of the old house, and some three
feet under ground, containing the bones
of two human beings, some of which
had been sawed once and twice in two
in order to pack them. Thus was the
mystery solved long after the Wheats
had gone to their long homes, and after
the affair had rested for ten years in
comparative silence. L should have
before that Wheat, the day
before he died, had sold at auction the
wagon and harness of his unsuspecting
guests, as he alleged to defray expenses.
The chest is still in the possession of Mr..
Haines, though he had been repeatedly
requested by Wheat to deliver it up to
upon opening II, some cloth
and a few carpenters tools was all
it contained.
1t is now but a few months since a
gentleman residing in Trumbuu county,
Ohio, accidentally made the acquaintance
Cincinnati, of a citizen of Jay county,
Indiana, and made some enquiries of
him, as to whether he had ever heard of,
Or known a man by the name of Miller,
who with his son, emigrated to that
JAY some thirty years ago.
THAT man." continued the enquirer,
seas mv brother" But the "Hoosier,'
but recently settled there, was
unable to give the required information,
and should this meet the eye of that
brother, sad though the intelligence it
conveys, it may afford him some relief
from those feelings of suspense and
experienced so many, many
years, for the whereabouts Of his broth
M