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CHAPTER IX
OLIVER TOWNSHIP
p. 453
This township
lies in the north central portion of the county and was
organized from territory taken off Wayne, Scott and
Tiffin, Mar. 8, 1853. It is one of the two inland
townships of the county, and its figure is that of an
irregular oval. It was named in honor of John
Oliver, a highly respected citizen, who was at the
time a member of the Board of County Commissioners.
Early Settlers.
John Clark,
who settled on the old Clark farm west of the
present village of Harshaville in 1805, is said to be
one of the first settlers of the township.
Samuel Wright settled in 1806 where Harshaville now
stands, and Robert Finley located on the
Nathaniel Patton farm in the same year.
James Hemphill settled near the mouth of George's
Creek about the same date and operated a small mill
and a still-house where a good quality of whiskey was
made. The celebrated "Whiskey road" was cut from
New Market to Hemphill's, as is told in the
chapter on Roads and Highways in this volume.
Villages and Postoffices.
DUNKINSVILLE, near
the mouth of Lick Fork on the West Union and Peebles
turnpike, is the oldest village in the township.
It was laid out Dec. 14, 1841. Postoffice same
name.
HARSHAVILLE is a little hamlet grown up about the
celebrated Harsha Flouring Mills on Cherry Fork
in the northwestern portion of the townships. The
postoffice was established June 30, 1864, with George
A. Patton postmaster.
UNITY is a hamlet on the Harshaville and Dunkinsville
pike near the center of the township. The name of
the postoffice is Wheat, formerly Wheat Ridge, and was
established in January, 1851, William B. Brown,
postmaster.
Churches.
THE U. P.
CHURCH at Unity was organized at the house of George
Clark in 1846. The church building, a frame,
was erected in 1847. The present frame edifice is
a very comfortable building.
LICK FORK BAPTIST CHURCH was organized in 1840.
The first building was a log structure which stood on
the site of the present frame building which was erected
in 1857.
There is an M. E. Church in Dunkinsville.
REMINISCENCES.
Murder of the Senter Family.
Near the little
hamlet of Unity, there resided in 1855, William H.
Senter and Nancy, his wife, a daughter of Aaron
Roebuck, in a little round-log cabin on the farm now
owned by the widow of William Davis.
In the autumn of that year, Clinton Dixon,
of Brown County, a relative of the Senters,
introduced to them Alexander Milligan, a native
of England, who had lived, so he said, several years in
Pennsylvania prior to his coming to Ohio. He has
been employed as a farm laborer by Dixon for some
months, and at this time said he desired to purchase a
small farm, such as Dixon represented the
Senter premises to be, and which had been offered
for sale. This was about the first of November,
and while at Senter's, Milligan bargained
for the farm in the sum of $1,000 to be paid on the
first day of December following, when the deed was to be
delivered to him. The contract for the sale of the
farm was drawn up by William B. Brown, then a
merchant at Unity, and it was witnessed by him and
Dixon.
It was agreed that Milligan should take with
the farm the live stock, farming implements, and of the
household goods and utensils such as would be necessary
for his use in keeping a rude sort of "bachelor's hall;"
and that he should be permitted to make his home with
the Senters until he could make some collections
due him to comply with the terms of the agreement for
the sale of the farm.
During his stay with the Senter family,
Milligan familiarized himself with the farm and its
surroundings, formed acquaintances in the community, and
took a part in the social and friendly gatherings, such
as choppings and huskings, occurring in the
neighborhood. It is said of him that he was of
rather pleasing personality. He is descried as
being of good stature, fair complexioned with blue eyes,
sociable, but quiet in his manners, with a broad
Yorkshire accent in his speech, and seemingly
intelligent in the ordinary affairs of life. He
was at this time about twenty-five years of age, and had
borne among the people with whom he had been associated
in Brown County for the year and a half prior to his
coming to Senter's, the reputation of being a
quiet, hardworking young man. Nothing of his
former life was ever learned excepting what has already
been stated.
The fact of the sale of Senter's farm and
chattels to Milligan soon became noised over the
neighborhood, and George A. Patton, then a
merchant in Harshaville, whom Senter owed a sum
of money, upon inquiry was told by Senter that
the report of the sale was correct, and that on the
first of December he would settle his account with him
when he received the cash for his farm.
Within a few days following this conversation with
Senter, Patton learned that Senter and
his wife had gone from the neighborhood without
informing their relatives and friends of their
intentions to leave. Accordingly, Patton,
somewhat annoyed about his claim, rode over to Senter's
place to make inquiry concerning the rumor of their
departure. He found no one at the Senter
residence but Milligan who said Senter and
his wife had gone away without making him a deed for the
farm; but, that he expected them to return the next day,
December first, so comply with their agreement, as he
had been to Ironton to collect his money and was ready
now to make the payment for the farm and chattels.
Mr. Patton returned to the Senter
residence the next day and found Aaron Reobuck
and wife, parents of Mrs. Senter, there whom
Milligan informed that Senter and his wife
had gone "out among their friends some days before" and
had not yet returned.
Two days later Patton went to West Union to take
legal advice about his claim. Learning that
Milligan had been to Squire William Stevenson's,
of Monroe Township, a few days prior, he, on the next
day, December fourth, went there and learned that
Milligan had been to Stevenson's and had
represented himself as William Senter, and had
had a deed written for his farm to Alexander Milligan.
On the next day Patton again went to the
Senter home and saw Milligan, who informed
him that Senter and wife has returned with the
deed, that he paid them the purchase money, after which
they again went away to visit some friends up the river.
On being requested to produce the deed, Milligan
said he had lodged it with James B. McClellan,
and after much persuasion went there with Patton
and others, when it was discovered that the alleged deed
had not been acknowledged, Squire Stevenson
having refused to certify the acknowledgement until
Mrs. Senter came before him as he afterwards stated
at the trial of Milligan for murder.
Strange as it seems, Patton, Brown, and
McClelland all of whom Senter owed money, and
whose claims Milligan agreed to secure, came to
West Union that day with Milligan, where he gave
notes and mortgages to the amount of $250 on the farm to
secure the several amounts owned them by Senter.
But when Brown returned to his home in Unity
that night he found his shop and store crowded with
people of the neighborhood who demanded that Milligan
be put under arrest for murder. A. J. Roebuck,
a brother-in-law of Senter, was sent for, but he
refused to make the affidavit until Brown brought
Patton who related the facts in the case to
Roebuck as he knew them. Squire J.
C. Milligan, of Oliver Township, was then aroused
from his slumbers, and the affidavit was made and a
warrant was issued to old Johnny Moore, the
constable, to arrest Milligan on a charge of
murder. Milligan was found eating his
breakfast and refused to go with the officers until he
finished his meal. By this time, a search of the
premises was begun. Blood spots on the pillows and
bed-clothing in the cabin were discovered. Then,
some bloody clothing was found in some wheat barrels in
the smokehouse. And finally the bodies of the
murdered couple were discovered buried under some logs
and brush in the spring branch below the cabin.
They had been killed with an ax while asleep in bed, and
then dragged to the spring branch, their hair being
matted with blood, burrs and leaves.
Upon closer inspection, the poll of the ax yet had
traces of blood on it, and bits of hair from the heads
of the murdered pair, and there were marks on the joists
of the cabin over the bed where the blade of the ax had
struck when uplifted to crush the skulls of the victims.
Yet in face of all this, Milligan declared his
innocence of the murder, even when taken into the room
where the deed had been committed and placed before the
bodies of his victims with their ghastly wounds exposed
to his view.
He had committed this horrible crime on Sunday night
the twenty-sixth of November, and had slept in the bed
in which he had murdered Senter and his wife,
every night until their bodies were discovered on the
sixth of December. And he had, in the meantime,
entertained visitors at the cabin, and one young man,
William Johnson, had stayed all night with him on
December fourth.
Milligan was indicted
for murder in first degree and was tried before Judge
S. F. Norris and a jury in November, 1856. He
was defended by James H. Thompson, J. R. Cockerill,
Thomas McCauslen, and J. M. Wells. The
attorneys for the state were J. W. McFerren,
Joseph McCormick and T. J. Mullen. The
trial consumed a week and after a day and night's
deliberation the jury returned a verdict of murder in
the second degree. Milligan was sentenced
to the penitentiary for life where he died in a few
years after his confinement.
The following named persons
constituted the Trial Jury: George W. McGinn, Daniel
Kenyon, Starling Robinson, Michael Roush, Simon Dunn,
James Abbott, Samuel Phillips, James Vandergrift, John
Scott, John Plummer, James Middleswart, and
Joseph McKee.
While in the jail at West Union, Milligan attempted
to escape Oct. 22, 1856. As the jailor opened the
door of the cell in which he was confined, he rushed out
past him, made his way through the house, got into the
street, and was making off as fast as possible.
The jailor pursued him, and after running a few rods,
Milligan fell and he was secured and returned to the
jail. He had been hobbled, but had cut his irons
in two near one leg, and had fastened the long end of
the chain up so as to enable him to run, but this came
down and he tripped and fell. John Cochran
was sheriff at that time.
While Milligan was being tried for murder, "Old
Bill" Terry, a negro who had outraged
Mrs. Morrison, of Manchester, was taken from the
jail by a mob from that town, and hanged on the lower
island. See Manchester Township.
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