Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 January 1891 — A TERRIBLE ORDEAL. [ARTICLE]

A TERRIBLE ORDEAL.

How President Harrison found Hlb Father’s Corpse In a Dissecting Room. • '• A well-known resident of southern Ohio, sphaking to a Washington correspondent of the past life of President. H irrison, realized probably the most tragic event in tho history of the Hurrison family, an event which fired the country with indignation and dishonored the name of the Queen city, a deed so foul and revolting that the. mind shrinks from its contemplation—the desecration of the tomb of John Scott Harrison, tho son of the president of tho United States and the father of the man who now occupies the White house- There is something horrible and repulsive in the robbing of a grove, the violation by human .ghouls when the gentlest hands are too rude to touch the dead face, the desecration of the sacred spot to which cling the memories of a lifetime, the ruthless exposure of the grief that shuns the public gaze after the last formalities are gone through with and tho. flowers and tears have been shed upon the narrow home. But horrible as is the rifling of the grave of the dead, how much more horrible, more tragic is the thought of the dead man's son climbing to the top story of a medical college in search of the stolen body of a young friend and removing •the cloth from the face of a corpse in oue of the dissecting rooms to discover beneath that horrid, mask the of his dead father? Does history afford 'a more dramatic scene? Marie Antoinette’s hair turned white as she viewed her husband’s head upon the block, of the guillotine. Could the shock and agony which she experi-. enced have been greater than that of ono who had the day before looked with grief burdened heart upon the form of a venerable and long loved; father, had seen it lowered into the grave, the features marked with a graceful smile, beautiful even in death, the next day to see it appear in that most dreadful of places, the dissecting room, robbed even of Its shroud, the peaceful smile displaced by distorted, features, the venerable snow white beard rudely cut away to disfigure the body, the head pressed forward, bleeding from the cruel rope by which it had been suspended in the shaft of the medical college!* Yet this is what the grandson of President William Honry Harrison endured. The death of Pros'dent Harrison’s father occurred suddenly at North Bend, 0., a sm ill town fifteen miles west of Cincinnati, in tho latter part of May, 1878. The residents of Cincinnati and vicinity, in fact of all Ohio, were - wrought up over repeated accounts of grave robbing. The very day before tho burial of President Harrison's father tho grave of the son of a widow named l)ovin had been rifled in the burial lot adjoining that of the Harrison family in th 9 North Bend cemetery. On account of these robberies extraordinary precautions were taken. A secure receptacle of solid masonry was built in which the iron casket was placed. Threo immense stono slabs were lowered with great difficulty and cemented before the earth was thrown in. As an additional precaution General Harrison (now president) paid a watchman S3O to keep guard over the grave for thirty nights. All precautions were futile. That night two grave robbers drove to the cemetery in a wagon, the felloes of which were wrapped to prevent noise, rifled the grave and took the body to the Ohio medical college at Cincinnati, where it was sold for $lO. On the following day John Scott Harrison, Jr., and Carter brothers of President Harrison, together with a nephew of Generali Harrison and) a detective, went to tho medical college to search for the body of young Devin, who was a distant relative of the family. The building was searched in vain. Every suspicious box and barrel was examined, the chute into which bodies were dropped by the resurrectionists was inspected, also the furnace in which the putrefying flesh was cremated. As a last resect the investigating party entered a small room on the top floor in which they found all sorts of rubbish incident to the dissecting room, but no body. In the further corner of the room was a windlass and rope which ran down through a square hole in the flocc, connecting with a shaft that descended five stories to the vat where the bodies were kept As the party were about leaving tho room the detective laid his hand on tbe rope. It was taut

“Hero is something,” he exclaimed, seizing the crank belonging to the windlass. Nearer and nearer it came to the surface. It was a naked body, except the head and shoulders. The cupidity of the ghouls, who had rifled the grave, had not been satisfied with the price they got for their prey. They hud even robbed the corpse of its grave clothes. The only covering was an old tattered shirt used for the purpose of avoiding detection should the body be seen. Slowly it was brought to the level of the floor and raised as far as the windlass would permit. “It is not the man." said Mr. Harrison. “Devin died of consumption and was more emaciated than this one ” He turned to give up the search when he was urged by the detective to look at the fuoe which was still covered.

# ' ' - ' " ‘ ‘ I “It is hardly necessary,” said Mr." I Harrison, hesitating and evidently desiring to retreat “Still, if you insist- ” The body was thereupon raised out of the well, the trap door dropped beneath it and the body lowered upon it The rope had been rudely tied about the body below one arm and as it drew upward had pressed the head forward. When the pressure was released the blood streamed from an incision in the neex. Loosening the rope the body 'ell to the floor. The light from the window above shown directly upon the lead and shoulders. Silently the little 1 group awaited until some" one should remove the cloth from the face of the dead. The more restive were preparing to depart, when Mr. Harrison, with a cane which he had in his hand, ! brushed the covering from the face of thq, hpdy. It revealed the face of an j old mats, with full white beard cut. squarely off below the chin, white hair xmt closely at the bank, sightless nr ha staring upward* a face discolored by the pressure of th 9 rope and the rough handling of those by whom the corpse had been dragged from the grave. “An old man.” remarked some one and Mr. Harrison stooped to take a closer look at the face. Suddenly his countenance changed color, the blood rushed to his heart. He reeled and grasped for support. “What’s the matter?” asked some one. • ■' ' ~ - ■ Mr. Harrison said nothng. He was dazed, his blanched face turned to [ ashy paleness and his eyes staring! trom their sockets were riveted upon the dead lace before him. At last he gasped on : “It is father!” and sank unconscious into the arms of the detective. An undertaker was sent for and the body was taken away and silently reinterred the next day. In the meantime the fact that the body had been stolen had been discovered at North Bend. The messengers sent to tho city were met with the circumstances of the discovery of the body by his own son. The excitement at Cincinnati and throughout the country was intense over the outrage. General Hat*- j rison himself personally took charge o(! the case and subsequently had the satisfaction of sending the perpetrators to the Ohio penitentiary.