Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/385

 HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUN^TY.

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��no lock on the door, and it appeared to me I must, at any rate, go and see if he had thought to stick his knife over the latch so as to keep me out. Accordingly, I sprang from the bed, and, on going to the door, found it was not fast- ened, and I could open it without noise. So I opened it, went softly to the side of the bed, and, as I expected, found him fast asleep. The room was almost as light as day; the moon was shin- ing, and the windows had no curtains. Every- thing was so favorable, that the temptation seemed irresistible, and, leaving the door open, I went down into the bar-room and got an old ax that I knew was kept there, and went back to the peddler's room. He was still sound asleep,, and lying in a favorable position; so I took hold of the ax with both hands, and dealt him a tremendous blow on the top of the head. I struck him only once ; he scarcely struggled, and in a few minutes he was dead. The blow caused but little flow of blood, which was mostly at the nose and mouth, and with a little care on my part, the bed was scarcely stained. He made no noise whatever, and all I had to do was to dispose of the body. This I had not sufficiently considered beforehand, and it pre- sented serious difficulties, but they were soon surmounted. I went down-stairs and got a dr}-- goods box, and, as the body could not be stowed in it whole, I unjointed the legs at the thighs and knees, and, after wrapping the various parts that were bloody in sheets and blankets, so as to prevent the blood from oozing out, I packed it all safel}' in the box, put on the cover, and took the box to my bedroom, where it remained that night, through the following day and the next night. Having disposed of the body, I commenced a search for the money, but found only about fifty dollars. I took such goods out of the trunks as would not be likely to expose me, left the rest in, and and put them also under my bed, covering them up with an old quilt, and left the bedroom, where the peddler had slept, but little deranged in conse-

��quence of the dreadful scene that had just taken place.

" The next morning I arose as usual and took breakfast with the family. Some inquiries were made after the peddler at the table, and I said he was up and off by daylight, not choosing to wait for his breakfast, because he had a long way to travel. During the day I made up my mind how I would dispose of the body. I gave out that I was in need of some money, and that I would go to my father's, at Milan, and see if I could not get it of him, and that I believed I would take the wagon and start early on the following morning. So, before daybreak, I got up and harnessed the horse. No one was stirring about the house and I had ample time and opportunity to load the box and other things into the wagon without being- observed. I traveled through the whole day, directing my course toward the residence of my father, and in the night, about 10 o'clock, reached the neighborhood of Huron River. When within about half a mile of the river, I turned off and went through a lot to the river, so that I might not be seen while unloading. I had previously filled the box with various irons in order to secure its sinking, and finall}' tumbled it into the river, about a mile and a half above Abbott's bridge. It sunk to the bottom, and, getting into the wagon, I returned homew^ard as rapidly as possible. I never heard that the box was found. I should have mentioned, that, on the night I killed the ped- dler, there were but few persons about my house, and no one in that part of the house where he slept. The whole proceeding was conducted ver}- quietl}-, and there was no noise sufficient to awaken those who slept in the house, even if they had been much nearer to .his room. The blow sank into his head with no reverberation of sound, and, as I had taken the precaution to shut the door, it could scarcely have been heard in the next room. Indeed, I was surprised

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