The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1875-02-25
Correspondence of the News.
A Singular Case OF Kidnap-
ping.
BANBRIDGE, O., Feb. 13, 1875.

IA SEh , isAfe4 GSC va 4Ak0AAP
ping.
BANBR1DGE, O., Feb. 13, 1875.
Some four months ago, John W.
Magee, a blacksmith and machinist,
who for the last twelve years has re-
sided at Bains' Steam Saw Mill, q
few miles south of this place, where
his family still reside, went to Hills
boro to purchase material to repair
the boiler to another steam mill,
which the proprietor had employed
him to repair. While in o hardware
store at Hillsboro, looking at the
material he wished to purchase, he
was approached by man who desir-
ed him to go out with himAthat he
wanted to see him. Suspecting moth
ing, Magee went with him. At
certain point, the man laid his hand
on Magee, and told him he was his
prisoner. Refusing to hear anything
by way Of explanation, the man thrust
Magee at once into a buggy, took
him across the country some fifteen
miles to the Marietta Railroad, and
putting him on the cars, conveyed
him to Marion, the county seat of
Grant county, in the State of In
diana, where he was at once lodged
in jail, and where he has been con-
fined about four months. The charge
against him was, that in the month
of August last he was concerned in
the robbery of an Express car in the
said county of Grant and State of
Indiana.
Magee has family, who still re-
side near this place, and until one
day last week, when they received a
letter from him written in Marion
jail, they had remained wholly igno-
rant of his fate. This letter, which
was sent to the writer of this to ex-
anime, stated that he had written
eight or ten letters to his family and
neighbors, but had received no an
swer to any of them, and his neigh
bors who came to see me, and are
known to me as reliable men, state
that no letter or word has been re-
ceived from him since he went away
until the letter received last week,
which was post-marked not at Ma
rion, where he was in jail, but at
'Rigdon."
Now as to the evidence that an
honest and upright citizen of Ohio
has been kidnapped and taken out of
the State, without the authority of
law, and without any evidence what
ever, (even of the slightest character)
that he had committed any criminal
offense, 1 will further state that Ma
gees neighbors who came to see me,
assure me that they personally know,
that for twelve years before he was
taken from Hillsboro as before stated,
Magee had not been out of the State
of Ohio, or absent from home long
enough to have been out of the State;
that during the month of August last,
when the ofense is alleged to have
been committed, he was not absent
from home. They also say that Ma
gee carried on a blacksmith shop and
did general custom work; that they
have examined his day-book during the
month of August last, and find in it,
in Magee's writing, his daily
entries of charges against customers,
on every working day in the said
month.
Magee's neighbors and family have
taken steps to have him released at
once, and gentleman will leave for
Marion, Indiana, on Monday next,
to procure his release. His being
arrested and taken to the State OF
Indiana might be reconciled with the
theory that it was only case of mis-
taken identity, and that no improper
or corrupt motive prompted those
who did it, but can the facts that he
has been kept in jail for four months
not allowed to correspond or com
municate with his family OF neigh
, bors, and that when he wrote to then
his letters were suppressed? 1 say
2 can these facts be reconciled with th,
, theory that those who have commit
ted against him this terrible wrong
: are actuated by either honorable me
tives or sense of public duty?
By reference to the Register G
Post Offices, it will be seen tina
"Rigdon," ," the place to which he wa
. compelled to send the letter receive
. here last week to secure its bein
mailed, is not in Grant, but in Mad
= son county, Indiana A. o. H.