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Ho Wrecks a Train and His Life.JFrom the Clcvdtud Plulu Dv-tler.JOld residents of Cleveland will recall the circumstance* that thirtv-two years ago a fanner named Horace brooks, living near the city, wan arrested and put on trial, charged with a terrible crime. The Cleveland A Pittsburg Railroad was being built alkjut that time, and it was constructed through the farm of Brooks against his hit ter opposition. His mind was so embittered against the road that one dark night lie went out and pluced obstruction on the truck and a passenger train was thrown off and several persons were killed and a numlier more or leas injured. The deed awakened a terrible indignation against the man and there was talk of lynching at the time. He was put on trial, and it being shownto the satisfaction of the jury tliat the deed was the result of a monomania that absorbed his mind, he was convicted of murder In the second degree and sentenced to the Ohio Penitentiary for life. He was sent there in the late fail of 1851 and saw I he outside world no more. He was a man of middle age then, and lie. died within the prison walls yesterday an old man of eighty-three, having been in continuous imprisonment for thirtv-two years, and was the oldest convict in the state prison.When Brooks entered the penitent iaiy Cleveland was hut a small town, and his farm had not a house on it but the farm buildings, and it was quite a little journey from there into town. Nevertheless Brooks’ old farm was in what is now the Eighteeth Ward of the city of Cleveland, and while the old man has worn out his life behind the prison bars the city has built up all over his farm, and the land, if he had lived and kept it, would have been worth many hundred thousand of dollars.When Brooks went to the prison he left a wife and several children, including a baby of three months. Among the letters is one from his wife. It isa gossipy, home letter, and contained a lock of hair from the baby’s head. Brooks, to the day of his death, preserved this letter and the hair with the most affectionate care. Home years after his wife procured a divorce and married another man. What became of the family and the property no one seems to know.
Newspaper Details
Democratic Northwest
Napoleon, Ohio, US
Thu, Jul 26, 1883
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Andrea B.
NA, 03 Apr 2023
Other Publications Near Napoleon, Ohio
Democratic Northwest and Henry County News
Democratic Northwest
