A drunken shooting spree leads to a fatal police pursuit, a murder indictment, and a hopelessly divided jury. On a Monday night in February 1888, Charles “Dock” Canter (1863-1888), a railroad brakeman from Buchtel Furnace, Ohio, arrived in Dennison. Though his fellow employees typically considered him a peaceable man when sober, he frequently became cantankerousContinue reading “The Fatal Pursuit of Charles Canter”
Tag Archives: railroad workers
The 1906 Somerdale Riot: A Tragic Tale of Immigrant Strife
A gathering of railroad workers in Somerdale ended in violence, culminating in the death of one man, the wounding of another, and a murder conviction that marked the end of one immigrant’s American dream. Throughout Tuscarawas County’s history it has attracted people from elsewhere, at first to farm its fertile land, and later to workContinue reading “The 1906 Somerdale Riot: A Tragic Tale of Immigrant Strife”
A Local Tragedy on the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad
Five local railroad workers boarded their train in New Philadelphia early on a Saturday morning in October 1910 for a routine trip to Cleveland and back. Only two of the men would return home alive. The Cleveland & Pittsburgh train crew gathered in the early morning hours of Saturday, October 8, 1910 for a freightContinue reading “A Local Tragedy on the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad”
Tuscarawas County Stories 