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HISTORY OF HOCKING COUNTY,
OHIO
Source:
History of Hocking Valley, Ohio -
Published Chicago: by Inter-State Publishing Co.
1883
CHAPTER XXX.
AGRICULTURAL AND MINERAL - LOCAL EVENTS.
IRON
MANUFACTURERS - PROGRESS AND FLOOD - YIELD OF 1859 - LOCAL
HISTORY -
VALUATION AND TAXATION - 1867 TO 1875 - JAIL - BIRTHS AND
DEATHS, 1873 - COUNTY INFIRMARY -
ITS COST AND OFFICERS - ASSESSMENT RETURNS, 1874 AND 1876 -
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS AND STOCK FOR 1870, 1875 AND 1880 -
HOCKING COUNTY ASSESSMENT, 1882 - COAL OUTPUT - TWO ITEMS -
HOCKING COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY - FROM 1853 TO 1882 -
SUSPENDED - THE RECORD OF A CRIME
- MURDER OF THE WELDON FAMILY -
PATRONS AND HUSBANDRY - OIL WELL - A CURIOSITY - THE HOLLOW
POPLAR TREE -
POSTAL ROUTES AND TALLY HO! - NORMAL INSTITUTE - FROM 1868
TO 1882.
IRON
MANUFACTURERS
PROGRESSING -
FLOODS
LOCAL
HISTORY.
VALUATION AND
TAXES OF 1864 AND 1865.
VALUATION,
1867.
JAIL.
DEATH OF
DENNIS M'CARTY.
BIRTHS AND
DEATHS.
COUNTY POOR
FARM.
SUPERINTENDENTS.
FROM THE
RETURNS OF 1874.
INCREASE OF
ASSESSMENT IN 1876.
AGRICULTURAL
PRODUCTS - 1870.
AGRICULTURAL
PRODUCTS - 1876.
AGRICULTURAL
PRODUCTS - 1880.
STOCK
STATISTICS, HOCKING COUNTY.
VALUATION.
ASSESSED
VALUATION OF HOCKING COUNTY FOR 1882.
PRODUCTION OF
COAL.
HOCKING
COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
THE FIRST
FAIR.
A HORRIBLE DEED.
There has been no crime for years more devilish in
conception, or more sad in its results, than the murder of
the Weldon family by William V. Terrel on the
afternoon of Friday, June 22, 1878.
A beardless youth only eighteen years of age, but old
in sin, has given to Hocking County the darkest page of her
history - a deed for which the angry demands of justice
would require his own life blood and then not be satisfied,
while he has gained for himself an infamous notoriety by
carving this bit of history which has placed him among the
foremost villains known to any history. Born and
reared in a sober and industrious family, and surrounded by
the influence of an enlightened community, William
Terrel voluntarily placed upon his own forehead the
brand of Cain and made himself an outcast to the world.
The Welden Family, consisting of John Welden,
aged about fifty-one years, Mrs. Susanna McClung, his
sister, aged about fifty-three, and her daughter, Miss
Nancy Hite, aged about eighteen, lived on a farm not far
from the village of Gore. William V. Terrel
lived with his father's family in the immediate
neighborhood, and had been, to all appearances, a friend of
the Welden family. No one witnessed the
deed but the assassin and his victims, so that the "whole
truth" will probably never be told. The supposition,
however, as evolved by the trial, and the one on which the
prisoner was convicted, is that Terrel, on very
slight provocation or none at all, accomplished the murder
of the family alone. The deed was committed late in
the afternoon, but was not discovered until the afternoon of
the next day. The body of John Wenden was found
in a cornfield, the probable scene of his murder, several
rods from the house, with bullet holes in his body and
wounds made by a corn-cutter. The bodies of the two
women were found near the house with unmistakable evidences
of having been killed with an ax which was found lying near
one of them. Through the efforts of his attorneys
Terrel was tried first for the murder of John Welden
and was convicted of murder in the second degree, for which
he is now serving a life-sentence in the State's prison at
Columbus.
It is supposed his only provocation for this most
heinous crime was the refusal of Mr. Welden to
loan him money as he had been in the habit of doing.
The circumstance which led to a suspicion of Terrel's
guilt was his telling of his own accord the story of the
murder, but in which he implicated an associate of his as
the assassin.
PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY.
THE HOLLOW POPLAR TREE.
OIL WELL.
POSTAL ROUTES.
NORMAL INSTITUTE.
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