Auglaize County, Ohio - Chapter 15: Political History, 1905

Chapter 15: Political History

In the fall of 1848, the pioneers then residing in the newly organized county of Auglaize were called upon for the first time to record their votes for county, State and Federal officers. Party lines were as closely observed at that time as at the present day. The Democratic, Whig, and Free Soil parties each had its adherents in the county. Political meetings at the villages of Wapakoneta, St. Mary's, and New Bremen were of frequent occurrence during the summer and fall of that year.

In the following record of elections, the names of candidates and the number of votes that each one received are given, as far as can be ascertained.

Probate Judge

By an act of the Ohio Legislature passed in 1864, the soldiers in the army were authorized to vote for county, State and Federal officers. The votes, so polled, were forwarded to the different county clerks of the State.

later. Three well-known candidates were presented for the sufrages of the people. General Lewis Cass, of Michigan, was nominated by the Democrats, and General Zachary Taylor by the Whigs. As the candidate of the new Free-Soil party, Ex-President Martin Van Buren was put forward. The real contest, however, lay between Generals Cass and Taylor. The position of the two leading parties on slavery and tariff were not well defined, and the election was left to turn on the personal popularity of the candidates. In Auglaize county more attention was given to the election of county officers than to state and national candidates. A reference to the record of elections shows that the Democratic ticket was elected by majorities ranging from 569 to 580. The best men of the county were elected to fill the offices, and, under their wise administration, the county grew in population and prospered.

The presidential campaign of 1852 was even less spirited in Auglaize county than it was in 1848. The growing anti-slavery sentiment in the Whig party was ignored in the platform adopted in the national convention of the party in 1852. The strength of the dissatisfied element was shown in the overwhelming defeat of the party. The Democratic majority over the Whig and Free- Soil parties in the county was 866. After the defeat the dissensions in the old party became so great that it soon ceased to exist. Following the disruption of the party, members of the dissatisfied elements assembled in Michigan and established a secret, oath-bound organization, said to have been called "The Sons of '76," or "The Order of the Star Spangled Banner." Those of its members that had not been admitted to the higher degrees were kept in ignorance of the aims and name of the organization, and their constant answer of "I don't know" to questions regarding the society gave them the title of "Know Nothings." All meetings of the party were secret. It carefully avoided the subject of slavery, and attempted to draw the voters who were tired of agitation on that subject, by confining itself to a vigorous opposition to Catholics and aliens. Its principle was "Americans must rule America."

The factions composing the Know-Nothing party agreed in nothing except in their opposition to the Democratic party. It soon became apparent to them that a- more permanent union, based upon national policies, must be formed. Accordingly, late in 1855, meetings were held in the different northern states preparatory to the organization of a new political party. Early in 1856, a union of state organizations was effected under the name of the Republican Party. In June, 1856, the Republican National Convention convened at Philadelphia, and nominated John C. Fremont for the presidency. In June of the same year, the National Democratic Convention at Cincinnati nominated James Buchanan for president.

The political campaign that followed the nominations was the most spirited one since the campaign of 1840. The mass meetings held in the fall of that year have never been surpassed in point of numbers and enthusiasm in the history of Northwestern Ohio. The Democratic party, true to its past history in the county, gave Buchanan an increased majority over the previous presidential election.

The year following the inauguration of James Buchanan the slavery agitation was intensified by the Dred Scott Decision, the opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law, and the passage of "Personal Liberty" bills by the legislatures of several of the northern states. The Democratic party was doomed to split on the same issue that had divided the old Whig party.

The fall elections of i860 turned on the question of slavery. The Democratic party divided, and made two nominations for president : Stephen A. Douglass, who favored popular sovereignty, and John C. Breckenridge, who claimed that slavery could be carried into any territory. The Republican party nominated Abraham Lincoln, who held that while slavery must be protected where it is, it ought not to be carried into any free territory. Lincoln was elected. The South now declared that it was time to withdraw from a government which had fallen into the hands of its enemies. By February, 1861, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had passed ordinances of secession.

On the nth of April, an attack was made on Fort Sumter, which was the commencement of the greatest civil war of modern times. It would be beyond the province of this work to enter into the details of the five years' struggle that followed. The bitterness of party contentions, the intemperate use of language by civilians, and the unauthorized acts of intimidation by returned soldiers led to turbulence and acts of violence in the county during the con- tinuance of the war. Public improvements in the county came to a stand-still with the commencement af the war. The withdrawal of so much available labor paralyzed the productive industries. There was a diminution of the acreage under cultivation, and of the produce of agriculture, proportionate to the number of laborers withdrawn.

Soon after the close of the war agricultural pursuits and other business enterprises began to recuperate, and ere long, resumed the conditions that prevailed before the war.

The services of the county officers during the fifty-four years of our history have been eminently satisfactory to the public. The political leaders of the party in power have been men of integrity and character. A party under the direction of such men as William Sawyer, Edward Phelps, Hugh T. Rinehart, Marmaduke Smith, Joseph B. Craig, Charles Boesel, Samuel Mott, Jerome McFarland and George Van Oss, was, of necessity, worthy of confidence.

The Republican party, though in the minority, has been led by men of perhaps equal ability and integrity. Judge Michael Dumbroff, Joseph Plunkett, Philip Jackson, John Walkup, Henry Moser, Andrew Zanglein, George W. Holbrook, Shadrach Montgomery, and John C. Bothe, were all men of high standing and influence in the community.

From 1848 to 1877, there was no event worthy of note to disturb the public mind with regard to the efficiency and honesty of the public officials of the county until the morning of the 7th of September, 1877, when the citizens of Wapakoneta were startled by the announcement that the County Treasury had been robbed. Immediately following the discovery of the robbery the following editorial, from the pen of Attorney George W. Andrews, appeared in the Auglaize County Democrat :

"In an interview, Myers reports that on the evening of September 6th, at ten o'clock as fie was passing a dark alley near his house a blanket was thrown over his head, and that he was car- ried back along the alley to the river bank where he was kept about an hour, and then carried across lots to the Court House, which was opened by the men having him in charge, by some mysterious means. When in the hall he was, with revolvers pressed to his head, commanded to open the doors of the safe. With hopes of relief by delay, he denied having the keys ; but the fiends had planned their devilment with too much certainty to be baffled - they knew he had the means of getting to the money, and so he was forced to the work. The masked villains whispered with forked lightning words : 'Open the safe.' Summoning his departing strength, he denied his knowledge of the combination to enable him to open the doors, but the answer came hissing in his ears : 'We know you took money from the safe without help this afternoon.' As he stubbornly refused, they tied his hands behind him, made a fire on the stone floor under his legs, and as the flames burned through the clothing on his extremities, they pressed revolvers to his temples and told him : 'Open the safe, or you live but a little while longer.'

"In this moment of supreme horror, in the inner court of improvised hell, Lewis Myers, whose unblemished name for a quarter of a century was unchangeably the synonym of integrity, did, probably what every man in the county would have done - he opened the safe, and the three embassadors from Tophet took the county's money and bore it boldly away to make returns thereof to their master in hell. Certainly so, for of their approach and departure they left no material sign.

"We spoke of three; the fourth demon remained for two hours, a hellish specter keeping watch with cocked revolver pointed near the head of Myers, as he sat bound to a chair, with a gag in his mouth and his arms pinioned behind him and the chair lashed to the stove of the office. And then, like a weird fiend, as he was, he vanished, to take his place in Satan's convocation."

On the seventh, the day following the robbery, a meeting of the county commissioners was held, and a reward of a thousand dollars was offered for the arrest and conviction of the robbers. As a result of the offered reward, a number of detectives appeared, and were soon engaged in investigations that ended in barren results. The excitement and distrust of the people were intensified to such a degree that some of the detectives were taken before the municipal authorities and required to show their credentials.

John T. Norris, of Springfield, Ohio, the only successful one of the number, secreted himself under Myers' house at night, to note any movement of the family that he might consider suspicious, and to overhear any conversation that might occur in the room above him. After remaining in his place of concealment for a time, the family above retired for the night. When everything became quiet the detective threw open the door of his dark lantern, and proceeded toward the aperture through which he had entered. When near the point of exit he found a portion of a broom handle, from which a part had been cut off. This relic he carried away with him. Upon comparing it the next day with the gag reported to have been used upon Myers, the evidence was considered sufficient to warrant his arrest. A warrant was accordingly issued, and he was placed under arrest.

A week later, James F. Smith, the county auditor, was arrested on the charge of being an accomplice in the robbery, and was confined in the county jail to await the meeting of the Grand Jury.

Theodore Dickman had been elected the previous year to succeed Myers, and was present at the time specified by statute to take charge of the office. Myers and the auditor asked the commissioners for a delay from day to day to enable them to compare and correct the books. The delay continued until the morning of the seventh, when the robbery was reported.

The commissioners took charge of the office on the morning of the seventh and proceeded to investigate the condition of the treasury. The examination revealed* a deficit of $27,155.59. At the conclusion of the investigation, Mr. Dickman, treasurer-elect, took charge of the office.

Lewis Myers and James F. Smith were indicted at the October term of Court. When arraigned in court, Myers pleaded guilty as charged in the indictment and was sentenced to three years of imprisonment in the penitentiary. James F. Smith pleaded "not guilty," and after the third trial was acquitted. In his last trial, at Lima, he was defended by John McSweeny, of Wooster, and W. V. M. Layton, of Wapakoneta.

A meeting of the county commissioners was held immediately following the conviction of Myers, to consider the proper steps to be taken in the collection of the money embezzled. After due

After much agitation by the bondsmen and their friends, in the months that followed, the propriety of relieving them of their liability on the bond was submitted to a vote of the people at the April election in 1880. Unexpectedly to the advocates of the measure, it was defeated by a majority of over seventeen hundred votes.

Ten years later, August 29th, 1887, the citizens of Auglaize county were again startled by the report that Israel Lucas, county treasurer, was an embezzler of the county's money to the amount of $31,643,94.

On Saturday, the 27th, he left the office in charge of his nephew, Gemmi Lucas, saying that he and his wife would spend Sunday in Toledo, visiting friends, and would return on Monday. He did not return on Monday. On Tuesday the deputy became suspicious that something was wrong, and consulted his father, Middleton Lucas, concerning the situation of affairs. In the evening of the same day the commissioners were called in, and an examination was made of the contents of the safe, when it was discovered that a robbery had been committed, amounting to

The excitement in the county, following the departure of Lucas, was even greater than it was ten years before. The public feeling was greatly intensified when it became known that a number of sureties on his bond had also been bondsmen for Lewis Myers.

On the second of September the commissioners declared the office vacant, and tendered the position to a citizen of St. Marys, who, for certain reasons, declined to accept it. Two other citizens of known integrity were solicited to accept the office before a man was found who had the courage to take charge of the trust. C. C. Pepple, of Wayne township, was prevailed upon to accept the appointment. He served the county faithfully and efficiently for three years.

quin, of New Bremen. With the assistance of Reuben Burrows: and Cuddy, detectives of Toronto, he arrested Lucas and his wife on the charge of bringing stolen money into Canada. Prior to the arrest, Detective Borquin telegraphed to the prosecuting attorney and sheriff of Auglaize county, asking for directions of procedure in making the arrest. A reply was sent, ordering theimmediate arrest of Lucas and his wife. A few hours later, C. A.. Layton, prosecuting attorney; William Schulenberg, sheriff; George Van Oss and Henry Koop, commissioners ; Charles Huebner, J. Romshe, and Christian Heisler, bondsmen, departed from Wapakoneta for Toronto, arriving there on the morning of the 12th. A preliminary hearing was set for Tuesday, at which time Layton, on pretense of wanting time to secure evidence for extraditing the prisoners, secured the postponement of the trial until Friday. At this stage of the proceedings Layton consulted the Attorney for the Crown, and the two went to work systematically to frighten Lucas, by causing him to believe that irregularities had been discovered on the books at Wapakoneta on which a charge of forgery could be made, and thereby secure his extradition.

The prosecutors were assisted very much by the city press of Toronto, in which the charge of forgery was reiterated from day to day until Lucas became alarmed. On Thursday evening he proposed to compromise. At first he proposed to return one thousand dollars, but was gradually worked up to twelve thousand dollars. On Friday the prosecutor and commissioners, in consideration of twelve thousand dollars, deposited by Lucas in a bank of Toronto, relinquished all civil demands against him. Immediately following the agreement and payment of the money, Lucas and his wife were released.

In accordance with the reward of twenty-five per cent, offered by the commissioners for the recovery of the whole or any part of the money embezzled, C. A. Layton received $2,848.61.

It may seem to the general reader that an undue amount of attention has been given to the two robberies. The writer feels that the interest taken in them at the time they were committed, and since then, warrants the notice given them in this connection.