Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/452

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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY,

��followed behind, as a precaution against his escape.

On the way to Mansfield, in answer to ques- tions, he said he had been so troubled about his affairs that he did not sleep much for sev- eral weeks, and not any the last three nights. He said last night he and his wife talked about matters until after midnight — he could sell out and pay the debt, but his wife would not sign the deed, and said she would never leave the place. ^lar}- had caused him some trouble also.

He further said he had invested all his money in that place and now could not make the pay- ments, and in a few daj^s their home would be sold and they would be turned out as beggars — " we had better nU he dead,' he exclaimed. The day of the murder he intended to go to Mansfield, and he and his wife got up early, to make ready. The Constable inquired whether he remembered all the transaction, to which he answered, " It seems like a dream — something I did while asleep."

About one mile south of Mansfield there is a deep depression near the road, which contained a dense thicket at that time. Here the pris- oner made an effort to extricate his arm from the arm of the Constable and escape. The officer said to him, " It is your honor or your life. If you attempt to leave this buggy, I will kill you." He remained quiet, but moaned, as if in gi-eat distress.

His trial opened in the Common Pleas Court July 10, 1841, and lasted six days, Judge Par- ker presiding. Brinkerhoff and Stewart were Prosecuting Attorneys, and Bartley and Delano conducted the defense. The jurj-men were Jonas Stought. James Drennan, Pascal Whit- ing, John McCool, George Bull, Uriah John- ston, John Harman, William Cadwell, Jacol) Stinneman, Jonas Gerhart, David Robinson and William Boggs. The witnesses were nu- merous. There were several old acquaintances and relatives of his from Pennsylvania, and

��physicians who had made insanit}' a study, present. The physicians testified that they had before them a well-defined case of monomania. Insanity being the only issue, the pleas and the charge to the jviry were short, and inside of twelve hours a verdict was returned of " Not guilty."

Amos Hartl}' entered the southwest quar- ter of Section 31 in an early day. He was of rather an impatient turn of mind. One sum- mer, the weather was very showery, and to cure hay was next to impossible. He emploj'ed labor to mow several acres of grass for him, which he turned several times and had it about ready to draw to the barn or stack, when a rain- storm would soak it again. The next day, the turning was repeated, the wagon was brought to the field, a thunder-shower was on hand, and Mr. Hartly, seeing that he would again be caught, lifted the wagon-hammer from the tongue, threw it heavenward, and ran to the house, got fire and burned the haj'. Mr. Hartl^^'s mother and first wife committed suicide on the farm he owned.

The Ebersoles came to Knox County at a very early day, and settled near Fredericktown. There were six or eight children in the family, and were possessed of peculiar ways. The father was very wealthy. Catharine, the her- mitess, received, as a part of her inheritance, over two hundred acres of land in Jefferson Township, the greater part of the south half of Section 32. She caused a house to be built on it, and, about 1840, she moved to it. For a number of years she lived somewhat after the manner of people in general ; but as she grew older, the more abject she rendered her own condition, until her hovel became an object of curiosity and her doings the gossip of the com- munity. The frame house she had built was located near the road, which made it too pul)lic for her love of seclusion ; and while she yet occupied it, pigs out on the commons occasion- ally passed along the road, and she told her

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