The Massacre at the Zeimer Cabin
The History Ashland County, Ohio 1909
PURSUIT AND CAPTURE.
"They knew no dread of danger, When rose the Indian's yell; Right gallantly they struggled, Right gallantly they fell." The massacre at the Zeimer cabin aroused the feelings of the people, not only in Richland, but in other counties, almost to frenzy and companies were organized at Wooster, New Philadelphia and other places to protect the settlers. Captain Mullen commanded the Wooster company and Alex McConnel the one at New Philadelphia. Of the five Indians who committed the Zeimer-Ruffner murders, two had been killed by the heroic Ruffner in his defence of the Zeimer family ere he himself fell in the murderous assault of the savages. Some weeks later the three surviving Indians of that murderous gang, after having been seen lurking near Odell's lake, were captured at Fern Island, five miles down the Tuscarawas river from New Philadelphia. Fern Island is now a famous picnic resort and is reached by steam and electric cars both from New Philadelphia and Urichsville. The Tuscarawas is, perhaps, the most poem-inspiring river in the state. It courses through one of Ohio's most fertile valleys with an ease and grandeur that is both restful and inspiring. As rays of light shine upon its dark waters they reflect emerald tints as though the bottom was paved with precious stones. But the Indians had not sought that locality for its romantic beauty, nor because the waters of the Tuscarawas were wont to dazzle one with their diamond-like gleams, but for the protection the dense forests of that secluded isle would give them. The mark of Cain was upon them and the avenging Nemesis was following their trail. In that forest-embowered isle stood armies of ferns with nodding plumes and crimson falchions and among these the tired savages laid down to sleep.Captain McConnel, hearing that Indians were upon the Island, marched his company over the "Plains" and when the destination was reached he left.
