The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1870-12-22
Recolle ions Of an Old Settler
BIZ CHRISTIAN cAokLER.

III Inc Hfst Judges afier the OrganlZa
tion of Portage County, in 1903, 'wer'
AMI AtwateEA of Mantua, Samne
Forward, of Aurora, and Aaron Nor
ton, of Hudson, (afferwafds of Mid
Ediebury, of the firm of Hart 80 Coz.
THE first County Clerk was William
Wesmore, of Stow Township, and ]
think john Campbell, of aCanapbeHs
fport was elected Sheriff And .thf
Efifst Court that was organized in tht
Ecounty, was held at the DWELLING
house sefs Robert Eaton, abent sWs
Hmiles east of the village OF Ravenna
And the first person executed in, ths
hcounty, was Henry Aunghst, in No.
Hvelnber, 1916, for the wiilful murdei
Eof EpaphIas Matthew's on The Goth sol
August 1874 he was condemned on
HcircumstaniiaI evidence. 1t was Asa
X. Burroughs, as Sheriff, who execut-
Led hih1900h the day ofsexecufion! he
Waas led up, Qn the scat a0fIl by the
HSherif and Timothy BigeIow, of Pal
IIrRyfa, who was aUnivefsalist preach
Ter, and who preached q short sermon
ion the scaRold, his text being q O
lI#tetcheds man that / am; who shall
IldeiiFer me from the BODY Of this
death" 1t was the. first Universalist
lIsermon that 4 ever heard preached
Eand havefheEer forgot the text. Uni
Iyersahsm was looked upon in those
i.days as being outside of the Christian
iChurches, but Aunghst, (or Unks)
heard the sermon through, and then
ijmade prayer in Dutch, and acknowl-
lIedged his guilt of the crime few
minutes before he dropped. Mat
ithews, the murdered man. think. was
"a son-in-law of man living in Ra-
lvenna at the time, by the name of
Fuller Matthews was coming from
1.-THE East with one-horse peddIar's
wagon, and came through PfttsbnroI.
land Aunghst Cor Unks) fell in compa.
llny with him there, and they came to-
ligethers to within a mile and a half of
Ravenna, when he killed Matthews,
lland carried him about ten rods into
the woods and Embarrassed his horse
and let him run, and then drew his
wagon into the woods, came 10 the
llVillage, and got dinner at David
GreeTs, and then disappeared no ong
knowing where. In about ten days
Latter, the murdered man was found
Hby way of the coons aud buzzards
lithat had collected around his remains.
/ When they found the remains, the
Equestion was, how came he there, and
IIwho killed him, and where the muir
lfderera was, no man knew. sue ssi;srsf
Robert Eaton, who lived two miles
east, of Ravenna, and Lewis Ely, a
rpther-inrlaw of John Campbell. of
ICampbellsport, were appointed to fer
ret out the perpetrators. .aa t,s5.Iiifa ~
| They took the back track as thev
supposed, towards Pittsburgh, and
found at different places, where two
men had staid over night with ped
oilers wagon. They got some. des-
criptienqof the men, and went on to-
Pittsburgh, there they hunted around
tand found that a man had been to
work alta Nail Factory, who bore the
description that they. had got. previ-
iously and Obtained his name, which.
twas given as Hunks OF Unks, but did
mot learn where he was. They OBJ
|ltafh6da eomplete description of ;hira,
and made search, but got no trace of
Thin, but ascerfaiaed. that he formerly
|Elived east of the mountains in Penn
|Isylvapia, and came to a blacksmith
shop; where q man had hired outVho
answered the description of the man.
They asked him many questions, and
also asked him if he had not been
working at q Nail, Factory in, Pitts,
|Iburgh. HE answered that he had
been at work there. Then they asked
him if he did not go west from there
with peddlar. He hesitated to an
swer that question: and exhibiting
guilt. They then charged him with
the crime, when he partly acknoWI-
|iedged it, and they arrested him and
brought him back to Rayenna and put
him inlthe jail When Courtlset, he
was asked if he had any counsel, and
he replied that he had not. BENJAMIN
Tappan and Elisha Whittlesey, were
assigned by the Court to defend him.
He was kapt in Jail nearly two years
before he got 8. trialasAs there WAS
some defect in the first Indictment,
aud "a second indictment had to be re-
turned in order to hold him i When
he was tried, he was found guilty of
murder in the first degree, and exc
cuted as before mentioned. ,Unks was
q large and mucuIar man; a. should
think he was six feet and six or seven
inches ingheight, ,re7safI : ssfs5az q s8ssxs
1 HISTORY OF FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP.
The writerseame into this country
on the 10th day of May, 1904, then
vast, unbroken wilderness, filed with
wild men and wild beasts. At this
period there were forty Indians to ev-
err white man, oa1d not. . house in
Franklin township. Stow township
had not been run of, into lots, and the |
solitary house in that district was,
believe, the only one between Hudson
and Canton
/ Franklin township, which contains
|ll6, 5000 acres, was purchased by Aaron
I0fmsted, of Hartford, Conn.,, in the
summer ef.1798. Il think / heard
AMI Atwater,f who helped to run the
lines in 1867, say that the purchase
acre. = -
/ This township has been rather an
lunlucky one. In the summer of 1907
the proprietor, Olmsted, and John
ICampbell, of Campbellsport, came
there to find 9 location suitable for the
county seat of Portag county. After
;canvassihg thoroughly they selected
rise of ground On land now owned by
u. B. Strattoi1, little north Of The up
|per cemetery, Qlmsted dmade.arraage-
Iments with Campbell to use his infiu-
ieHeei I'd Secure the location here when
|sthe locating committee came on, and
torsay that he (Olmste6 would bear
the expense of bnilding the Court
House. He then returned home, was
taken sick and died. He left a will.
bequeathing all the unsold lands to
his grandchildren, so when the To-
eating committee came the land was
not to be had. If it had not been for
this circumstance the couhty-seat
would undoubtedly have been located
here, and we would to-day have been
reaping the benefits thereof. The adj
vantages possessed by this township
were and now, are, unequalled, and
but for its misfortune would have been
far ahead of any place in this section.
! This township was surveyed in 1903
by Ezekiel HOOKER aud, Ralph Buck
land, a brother-in-law of the late
Zenas Kent. The first settler was
John Haymaker,iw who came into the