“Murder By Female Fury”: The Mary Senff Killing, Part One

The 1880 brutal murder of 18-year-old Mary Senff by a member of a prominent local family ignited a national sensation.

Note on spelling: Not surprisingly, the Senff surname is spelled differently across many of the historical documents, newspaper articles, headstones, etc. For consistency, I have decided to use the spelling that appeared on the 1850 census record for the family.

The brutal murder of 18-year-old Mary Senff (1862–1880) in the spring of 1880 remains one of the most shocking and heinous crimes in Tuscarawas County history. Her tragic death, and the motives behind it, captivated the nation, with newspapers across the United States reporting on the case in vivid detail. But who was Mary Senff, and why did a woman from a prominent Tuscarawas County family murder her so callously?

In the early 19th century, farmer Daniel Senff (1799–1877) and his wife, Susanna Barnett (1807–1880), left their home in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and journeyed west to Ohio with their growing family. The Senffs settled in Sugar Creek Township, Tuscarawas County before 1826 where they built a life for themselves on their family farm. Their household expanded by 1850 to include eight children, among them a son named William (1831–1914), who was just entering adulthood.

William Senff married Anna Fisher (1835–1898) in 1853, and the young couple initially established their home near their families in Sugar Creek Township. They relocated to nearby Bethlehem Township in Stark County, Ohio, by 1860 and their family had grown to include three young children on a modest farm. Following the Civil War, William and Anna decided to move their family further west into Indiana.

William and Anna moved their family to Daviess County, Indiana, as recorded in the 1870 census. Between 1860 and 1870, the Senff household grew significantly to include nine children. Among them were two daughters, Sarah (1857–1926) and Mary (1862–1880), who eventually returned to Ohio. In 1875, Sarah married Tuscarawas County native John Ressler (1855–1939) in Indiana, and together they returned to Sugar Creek Township before 1880, where they started their own family.

Mary Senff, born in 1862, followed a different path. In late 1879 or early 1880, she returned to Tuscarawas County to live with her sister Sarah’s family and seek employment. Unmarried and described by contemporary newspaper accounts as a “good looking, modest girl” who was well liked by all who knew her, Mary found work as household help for several local families, which meant she rarely stayed at her sister’s home near Barrs Mills.

Among the families she served was the household of respected York Township farmer David Crites (1820–1903), located just outside Stone Creek. The Crites property also housed the family of his daughter, Ellen Crites Athey (1853–1922), and her husband, Henry Athey (1848–1931). While working at the Crites home, Mary Senff often assisted at the Athey residence, helping Ellen care for her three children. This close relationship with the Athey family eventually played a role in Mary Senff’s murder at Ellen Athey’s hands.

Read Part Two

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© Noel B. Poirier, 2024.