A dispute at a Canal Dover, Ohio saloon turned fatal when a one-armed stranger was forcibly ejected onto the pavement.
William A. Ziegler (1855-1917), born to German immigrant parents Peter (1835-1919) and Genevieve Ziegler (1830-1914), grew up in Franklin Township, Tuscarawas County. Ziegler married Mary Gross (1857-1931) in November 1878, and, by 1880, the young couple settled in Dover, where William established himself as a local saloon keeper on Second Street near Factory Street. In the mid-1880s, Ziegler managed his tavern while beginning to raise what became a large family.
On the afternoon of Thursday, May 13, 1886, a stranger named Adolph Meyer (also recorded as Adolf Meier or Myers) entered Ziegler’s saloon. Meyer was a one-armed man around forty years of age who hailed from Steubenville, Ohio. Upon entering, Meyer ordered and drank beer, but a heated dispute erupted when he refused or failed to pay for his drinks. The confrontation escalated rapidly until Ziegler forcibly ejected the patron, throwing or slamming him onto the hard brick pavement outside, where Meyer’s head allegedly struck the hard brick surface with severe force.
Following the commotion outside the saloon, a town marshal arrested Meyer for disorderly conduct around 4:00 pm and placed him in the village lockup. When the deputy checked the cell at 9:00 pm that evening, Meyer appeared to be sleeping soundly, masking the critical trauma beneath his scalp. At approximately 8:00 am the following morning, Friday, May 14, the marshal returned with breakfast only to find Meyer lying dead on the floor. An autopsy conducted by the county Coroner, assisted by local two doctors, revealed contusions on his right temple and cheek, a fractured skull, and a massive blood clot pressing directly against his brain.
The Coroner formally ruled that Meyer had met a violent death at the hands of William Ziegler. Seeking to establish the stranger’s identity and locate surviving kin, the coroner published an official notice detailing the personal effects found in Meyer’s pockets. Among his belongings were a smoking pipe, a pocket comb, a handkerchief, a small muslin sack containing $7.68 in cash, and a notebook filled with written charity appeals in both English and German. Despite these details and inquiries in Steubenville, no relatives or friends were ever located.
Neighborhood in Dover, Ohio where the killing of Adolph Meyer took place, 1887. (Source: loc.gov) 
Coshocton, Ohio newspaper article on the killing of Adolph Meyer, May 1886. (Source: newspapers.com) 
Detail from the criminal court records of William Zeigler, May 1886. (Source: familysearch.org) 
New Philadelphia, Ohio newspaper announcement from the Tuscarawas County Coroner, May 1886. (Source: newspapers.com)
On May 14, 1886, the Coroner filed a sworn complaint charging Ziegler with murder, leading to his arrest. A Justice of the Peace granted short procedural postponements while Ziegler posted appearance bonds. At the preliminary examination on May 17, eleven state witnesses testified, but the Constable returned subpoenas unserved after traveling sixty-three miles to Steubenville in an unfulfilled search for more witnesses. The Justice found probable cause and bound Ziegler over to the Court of Common Pleas on a charge of manslaughter under a $1,500 bond.
Although official criminal court records end with the magistrate’s transcript certification on May 19, 1886, subsequent demographic records clarify the trajectory of Ziegler’s life. With no further court records or convictions noted, Ziegler remained in Dover Township with his wife Mary, where they raised nine children together. Federal census records show that Ziegler continued to work locally over the following decades, first as a day laborer and later as a night watchman at a sheet mill. He resided in Tuscarawas County until shortly before his death in Cleveland on November 13, 1917, concluding a life marked by that brief, fatal encounter thirty-one years earlier.
Enjoy the stories?
© Noel B. Poirier, 2026.
