The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1949-01-06

/
ed speakers to return quietly to their
homes, when the meeting broke up
the bowling mob started for the jail,
joined by hundreds more on the way.
Self-appointed leaders urged the mob
on, shouting Give us Berner!"
Inside the Jail Sheriff Mort Haw-
kins waited with 13 deputies. He
already had sent Berner, in custody
of Deputy Dominick Devots, by
horse and buggy 6Linwood to en-
train for the penitentiary at Columb-
US. The prisoner escaped from the
deputy at nearby Loveland but the
mob did not know that
| Mob Batters Jail
Around the Jail the angry mob
milled and howled. A piece of joist
was used to batter down the base
ment doors and heavy rams and
crowbars soon broke through the
main entrance and the mob swarmed
into the Jail. Hawkins and his
deputies could do nothing to stop
them and the crowd soon filled the
office and corridors, broke down the
iron gratings and swarmed among
the cells. They were looking for
Berner.
| The sheriff had turned in a riot
call and the Is policemen who
responded were thrown aside like
children At 9:55 p. m. the fire bells
sounded the riot alarm. That brought
people from all parts of the city,
most of them joining in with the
mob. Between 5000 and 10000 per-
sons now were in the mob.
Police and patrols came up in two
solid columns and arrested some of
the ringleaders but the rioters
escaped through side streets, jeering
the police and wagons. Then they
closed up the gaps and made another
onslaught on the Jail, armed with
clubs, axes, stones and bricks. One
small building under construction
nearby was torn down a brick at
time.
Battle i'm Jail
| Fists flew, clubs swung and inside
the Jail the sheriff and his deputies
were battling the crowd. The lights
vent out but the fighting went on,
all the while, other rioters were
hunting for Berner. "We don't want
you, Red we're after that Berner,"
they told Red McHugh, cringing in
the cell where he was waiting trial
for the butcher knife murder of his
wife. Palmer, Berner's accomplice,
was passed by after he pretended to
be somebody else. Later he was
tried, convicted and executed.
Desmond was shot when the mob
found him and his so members Of
the 1st Regiment, Ohio National
Guard, blocking 7-by-9-foot tunnel
after they had broken into the Jail.
The mob fired on Patrolman Num-
and Won Seggern, guarding the door
to the tunnel. Num- dropped. So
did prisoner in the tunnel and
several others. Joseph Sturm. Patrol
a, was shot and killed.
Loot Gun and Ammunition Stores
Into the early hours of the morn
ing the rioting continued Now 100
i policemen and 200 soldiers were de-
Tending the Jail The night left five
dead and so wounded. The mob left
at 3 a. m. but came back again next
! day.
1 Saturday, thousands jammed the
/ courthouse and streets, many had
! guns, revolvers and other weapons.
Gun and ammunition stores were
robbed and one man was seen with
| wheelbarrow load Of guns coming
down Main Street.
Armed militia, arriving through
out the day, threw lines around the
courthouse square. Barracades of
barrels, boxes, tables and wagons,
with soldiers behind them, blocked
| the streets. Gatling guns were train
ed and militiamen were on the roofs.
! Militia Arrive
! BY Sunday morning, March 80,
1884, militia from all parts of Ohio
were guarding the smoking ruins of
the courthouse. There were the
First Regiment and Second Battery,
of Cincinnati; the First Battery and
Fifth Regiment of Cleveland; the
Fifth Battery of Springfield; the
Governors Guards and Ninth Bat
talon and regimental units from
Columbus, Coshocton, Chillicothe,
Toledo and Miami County and regu-
lars from the Newport, KY bar
racks.
Army ambulances and private
vehicles rushed the badly hurt to
City Hospital hour after hour. At
Habig's morgue the dead lay in
rows like logs. Wounded men were
everywhere and the dead stretched
out on the floors of nearby buildings.
Gatling guns ended another attack
Sunday night and by midnight the
streets were cleared. Cincinnati's
attempted lynching was over.
Though exact casualties never
] wnro ascorfained IL was announced