The Mae Eberly Mystery of 1911

After vanishing from an Ohio country road, Mae Eberly protected her stalker’s identity until her death.

In January 1911, the brief and mysterious disappearance of Edna Mae Eberly (1889-1912) dominated front-page headlines in the New Philadelphia press for days as the newspapers tracked every dramatic revelation. The disturbing backstory began around 1907, when Mae, the daughter of Josiah (1856-1935) and Minerva Eberly (1857-1919) of Sugar Creek Township, Stark County, Ohio, met an unidentified young man at a dance in Beach City. For four years, the man hounded Mae with threatening letters demanding her exclusive affection and warning her against seeing other men. The harassment escalated to near-violence; Mae once stepped between her tormentor and another suitor to prevent a shooting. Then, in December 1910, the man forced her onto a streetcar bound for Canton and compelled her to travel to Akron, where she managed to escape. Shortly after, the stalker confronted Mae while she was at a Strasburg ice cream parlor with favored suitor Harry Gonzer (1893-?), causing her to faint. The terror reached a breaking point on Saturday, January 14, 1911, when a note was dropped through a window of the Eberly home while Mae and Harry were inside, commanding her to meet the sender in the yard.

On the late afternoon of Wednesday, January 18, 1911, Mae drove her horse and carriage into Beach City to visit her sister, Grace Williamson (1886-1942). After visiting with her sister, Mae set out alone in the horse-drawn rig to return to her family’s farm. At approximately 5:30 p.m., the horse arrived alone at the Eberly farm lane, trembling and covered in foam. Mae’s gloves were discovered lying in the road near the house alongside a torn carriage curtain, indicating a potentially violent struggle had taken place. Believing Mae had been kidnapped or murdered, local authorities and neighboring farmers scoured the countryside throughout the night. The Massillon Police Chief joined the investigation upon learning that a woman matching Mae’s description had been spotted boarding a traction car bound for New Philadelphia. Mae’s father traveled to Akron in search of his daughter, while her mother went to Massillon to consult a palmist, who assured Mrs. Eberly that Mae was alive though distressed.

The frantic search concluded around 12:40 p.m. on Thursday, January 19, when Mae placed a phone call to her parents from the New Philadelphia residence of Mrs. Pleasant Seibert (1868-1931) on North Broadway. Wearing a black coat, hat, and furs and carrying a handbag, Mae requested to use the phone and informed her family she was safe. She asked her sister to meet her at the Northern Ohio Traction depot with the family carriage. Mae returned to Beach City at 2:40 p.m., accompanied from Strasburg by Harry Gonzer, and was driven home by her sister.

Mae told her family and reporters that a jealous suitor had ambushed her carriage along the road, brandished a revolver, torn the curtain, forced her to walk to Welty’s crossing, and compelled her to ride streetcars and a rig through Canal Dover and New Philadelphia while demanding she marry him. However, the interurban streetcar conductor directly contradicted her claim of abduction, stating that Mae ran to board the car entirely alone at Welty’s crossing, acted completely normal, and exited unescorted at the Dover car barns.

Despite intense questioning from police officers, her family, and the Beach City Mayor, Mae steadfastly refused to identify her alleged captor, claiming he promised to leave her alone permanently if she kept quiet. Her father suggested Mae had been hypnotized during the incident, while the Mayor noted no legal prosecution could occur without a formal complaint from the family. Rumors persisted that the mysterious man was either a New Philadelphia resident or the youth she had met years earlier in Beach City.

Just over a year after her disappearance, Edna Mae Eberly died at her family’s home on February 14, 1912, at twenty-two years of age. Her attending physician certified her primary cause of death on her death certificate as Bright’s disease lasting four years, listing physical exposure as a contributory factor. She was buried four days later on February 18, 1912, in Navarre, leaving the true circumstances of her 1911 ordeal permanently unresolved.

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© Noel B. Poirier, 2026.