Arson and Aftermath: The 1912 Shooting of Ella Tyler

A lifetime of trouble followed Price Tyler, including a botched arrest in 1912 that forever changed his young family.

Arnold Price Tyler (1878-1941), commonly referred to as Price, was born in Westchester in Perry Township, Tuscarawas County. His father died when Price was fairly young, which left him to be raised by his mother Nancy Carpenter Tyler (1837-1909). Price became a well-known individual to county law enforcement, having been arrested for a variety of crimes during the first decade of the 1900s, including assault and battery. When the 1910 census was taken, Price was a prisoner in the Tuscarawas County Jail. Price married a young woman from Freeport, Harrison County named Ella ‘Sarah’ Stewart (1894-1971) in March 1912, but marriage did not seem to settle down his lawless ways.

Three months after his marriage, Price hatched a scheme to burn down the house of a relative of his wife in order to collect on a $300 insurance policy. When he was questioned by the fire marshal about the blaze, he allegedly admitted to the plot. Before he could be arrested though, he and Ella went to hide out on the farm of Ella’s parents just outside Freeport, Ohio. Eventually he was tracked down by Perry Township’s Constable Frank O. Compher (1874-1957) who, along with a Marshal from Freeport, went to the home in early October to arrest Price.

Price was not going to be taken easily however and, during a struggle inside the home, Price twice attempted to escape. As Constable Compher chased Tyler up the narrow stairway, Tyler allegedly turned, drew a revolver, and threatened to kill them. In that split second, Compher fired a warning shot up the stairwell to stop him. At the very moment the gun discharged, Ella Tyler appeared at the top of the stairs, and the bullet struck her instead. Unaware that she had been hit, the officers secured Tyler and left with their prisoner, only for neighbors to discover a short time later that Ella Tyler had suffered a grave wound.

Ella Tyler was shot in the abdomen and, adding to the trauma of her being shot, was also several months pregnant. While Price was taken to the Tuscarawas County Jail to answer for his arson charge, Ella Tyler was looked after by doctors who did not believe she had much chance of recovery. Price and Ella’s child was stillborn three days after the shooting. The trauma of being shot stressed Ella to the point where she delivered her child, only to discover that the bullet fired by Constable Compher had struck the fetus in the head while still in the womb. Ella Tyler, despite the gravity of her wounds, eventually fully recovered.

Following the shooting of Ella Tyler, Constable Compher was charged with shooting with intent to kill, posted his bond, but was never indicted or tried for any crime. Price Tyler was charged with arson and posted bond so that he could be with his wife as she recovered from her gunshot wound and the loss of their child. Tyler’s trial for arson began in November 1912 and, given the confession he earlier made to the Fire Marshall, the result was never in doubt. However, due to the low value of the property that he set fire to, Price was found guilty of a misdemeanor crime, and was given a $25 fine and released.

Price and Ella Tyler settled in Uhrichsville after the events of October 1912 where they raised a family. Price’s name appears frequently in the newspaper as he continued to have run-ins with the law throughout the remainder of his life. He died in January 1941 after a severe bout of influenza. Ella Tyler continued to live in Uhrichsville after the death of her husband and died in a Dover nursing home in January 1971. Frank Compher, the man who accidently shot Ella Tyler and killed her unborn child, lived the remainder of his life in Perry Township before settling in Dennison in the years immediately before his death in August 1957.

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© Noel B. Poirier, 2025.