Looking Back - Dresden Not Peaceful in the 1800s

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Dresden, Muskingum, Ohio, United States
Surname/tag: dresden_ohio

Looking Back
By Glenn Longaberger

The murder of Mrs. Bernice Johnson, Saturday night, April 1, 1972, for which Wayne Untied has been remanded to the Grand Jury, brings to mind similar crimes over the years. Of the five murders recorded since 1888, three of them occurred in saloons.

DRESDEN NOT PEACEFUL IN THE 1800’s—

Dresden nowadays seems a peaceful, quiet village, but in the 1800’s it was not so. Any canal or river town had a following of rough and tough bullies who would fight for the fun of it. During the canal building a lot of Irish were imported right from the “auld sod,” and after fighting the English so long they had to fight somebody.

Dresden had four distilleries along the canal and a saloon on about every corner, with most grocery stores also selling whiskey—fights and drunkenness were commonplace. Rev. Hildreth wrote in 1847 that there were 13 affrays on Main St. in one day.

But for all that, there were only a few crimes of violence, such as murder. One November day in ? Coulter, on the way to hunt and carrying a shotgun, went into a saloon run by George Hahn near the northwest corner of Main and 10th Sts.

Coulter had had his chin shot off in the Civil War, and as a memento, carried a piece of jawbone, with two teeth attached. (This has nothing to do with what happened, but was a part of Coulter’s life). After the only other customer left, a shot was heard, and Coulter came out, saying that Hahn had accidentally shot himself while examining his (Coulter’s) gun. The court did not believe him and sentenced him to life.

In 1895 an effort was made to get Coulter out. but he had reportedly killed another man before Hahn, and made the remark, ‘‘when I get out there’ll be two or three more murders in Dresden.” He was pardoned in 1899 by the Governor in a general amnesty.

About 1893, a man named Wolford, who lived in a cabin on the Copland land in Madison Township, came to town one Saturday on his usual business. Charley Vickers, a member of the numerous Vickers Clan around Adams Mills, had warned Wolford not to come to Dresden or the Vickers would run him home. Wolford was tired of being set upon and said he wouldn’t run anymore. When Vickers approached him at about where the Curtis Shoe Store is now, Wolford pulled a pistol, warned Charley not to come any closer. As he had always backed down before, Vickers kept coming, and was shot dead.

The Vickers Clan searched for Wolford all night, but tho it was bitter cold, Wolford swam the river and hid in a ? all night. He surrendered to the town marshal next day. After a short term in prison he was released. In reading the news of that time, (Sept. 5, 1895), it noted that George Blackburn, the outlaw who served 30 years off and on in the State Pen., had escaped. Blackburn was 75 years old then and was captured three months later near Athens.

I have noted before that among the buildings that stood where Certified Service Station is now, was a saloon known as the “Office,” run by Allen Hahn and later by “Happy” Shaver. “Happy” was a jovial, well liked man and ran a dead place. He had collected a great amount of relics over the years, such as old guns, Indian relics and other trivia, and displayed them in his front window. A boy could stand and look for hours.

“Happy,” who incidentally played in the town band, passed on, and later his widow married a man named Gus Moefield of Kentucky. Gus was as surly and cantankerous as “Happy” was the other way. One snowy Christmas morning in 1935, although the saloon wasn’t open officially, several were there to celebrate. One of these was Mike McFee, who when full of the “spirits,” was pretty quarrelsome. Whatever happened, no one seems to know, but Mike was shot and Moefield went to prison for a few years. When released he left Dresden.

Probably the worst murder committed in Dresden occurred Jan. 29, 1949. Nellie Ferrell, a widow, whose husband, Brice, had died about a year before, was doing her shopping and stopped at the Library to get some books.

She remarked that she wanted to get home soon and bake a pie for her son, Alfred, who was visiting her. That was about 1:30 p. m. on a rainy, cold day. At dark the neighbors noticed that her light was not on and the radio was very loud. On investigation, she was found badly beaten, tied hand and foot, wrapped tightly in blankets and a cloth tied about her neck. Mrs. Ferrell had died of suffocation after being tied up and robbed.

The son, Alfred, was gone but was traced that night by Marshal Jim Lacy to a hotel in Dennison. Brought back to Zanesville, he later was put on trial and found guilty of the murder of his mother. After serving about a year in prison, a new trial was ordered, largely because one of the jurors, a woman, had written an article for a lurid magazine questioning whether she had helped convict an innocent man. Alfred “Spooky” Ferrell was acquitted on the second trial and a couple of years later killed an old man in Cleveland, by beating him, and went back to prison. After serving a term, he was released and died of a heart attack in. a Salvation Army Hall in, Cleveland.

Source: Longaberger, Glenn. "Looking Back," The Transcript (OH: Dresden, 27 April 1972). Shared with permission.