In Cold Blood on Fair Avenue: The Murder of Mabel Barnes

A life ended in a shocking act of violence when Mabel Seymour Barnes was murdered by her estranged husband, setting the stage for a case that questions justice and accountability. Mabel Seymour Barnes (1911–1947) was born in Ross County, Ohio, to Hiram Seymour (1875-1917) and Sarah Rinehart Seymour (1886-1928). Her father passed away when sheContinue reading “In Cold Blood on Fair Avenue: The Murder of Mabel Barnes”

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”

Bullet in the Night: The 1928 Murder of Charles Eggan

On a September night in 1928, a stable boss at Midvale Mine #4, was found dead with a bullet wound to the head—setting off a decades-long mystery. Charles Orland Eggan (1898-1928) was the son of James Early Eggan (1872-1939) and Olive Matbell Ryan (1870-1940), a farming couple rooted in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. Raised on theContinue reading “Bullet in the Night: The 1928 Murder of Charles Eggan”

Dark Days in Blicktown: The 1914 Grimm Family Murder

Jessie Grimm met a shocking and brutal end at the hands of her own mother in a crime that, despite its violence, has been all but lost to history. The Grimm family’s roots in Tuscarawas County began with the arrival from Pennsylvania, before 1820, of John Grimm (1779-1864) and his wife Maria Elizabeth Ruppert (1778-1855).Continue reading “Dark Days in Blicktown: The 1914 Grimm Family Murder”

Father and Son: The Murder of Jonas Bremer

The Tuscarawas County community was stunned when a father and civil war veteran from one of the county’s oldest families turned his gun on one of his own children. The Bremer family were one of the earliest settlers of Salem Township, Tuscarawas County, having arrived in the county from Pennsylvania before 1811. That early settler,Continue reading “Father and Son: The Murder of Jonas Bremer”