summary

Summary

You may not realize it, but I come from a famous family. Well, famous in its small part of the world. Infamous, really. There are few people outside of the families involved and some history buffs who know of this dark tale of murder, deceit, retribution, and confession. For those in the know, however, the name of Kimmel is forever linked to the name of Mary Arabelle Secaur.

Sometime around 1869, a ten-year-old girl named Mary Secaur came to Liberty Township in Mercer County to live with John Citterly and his wife. Mary's mother had died, and her father was evidently unable to care for her and her brother back home in Lancaster, so he sent them to live near his wife's parents. By all accounts, Mary lived well with the Citterlys, who loved her as a daughter and even planned to adopt her. The Citterlys' home was located about a mile from the original Kimmel homestead.

On Sunday morning, June 23, 1872, 14-year-old Mary left church for the two-mile walk home to the Citterlys. Her grandfather, Strouse May, accompanied her as far as his own home, about half-way. He watched her until she disappeared from view, nearly at her doorstep. Now, I've stood on this road, approximately where Strouse stood looking west; there's a slight dip in the road where Mary probably disappeared from view. This was the last time Mary was seen alive.

The Citterlys didn't miss Mary until Monday morning, which sounds rather negligent on their part until you remember that this was a time before telephones. It was a mile hike up the road to her grandfather's house, and the Citterlys just assumed that Mary had stayed on after church. After enquiring at the May's and then around the neighborhood, the Citterlys organized a search party to look for the girl. They finally found her body in a thicket just off the road near the Citterlys' house. This was around 4:00 in the afternoon. Now remember, this is late June in Ohio, the body's been laying out in the woods for over a day, and the neighborhood hogs—farmers back then just let their hogs run wild to fend for themselves—had been feeding on the corpse. Pretty nasty stuff.

Anyway, this group of farmers examined the body and then took Mary to the Citterly house to await burial on Tuesday morning. After the authorities were notified, people started to realize that they probably should have a proper autopsy, so on Wednesday they body was exumed and the autopsy performed. The autopsy determined that Mary had been raped and then murdered. I won't go into the details, but it was grisly.

Well, imagine this small rural community, farms stretched out along these country roads. The news must have spread like wildfire, and the talk naturally turned to a quest for the killer. Somehow, the farmers began to focus their attention on two tin peddlars, Alexander McLeod and Andrew J. Kimmel, and two of my great-great-great uncles, Absalom and Jacob Kimmel. McLeod and Andy Kimmel were outsiders who had stopped in for the weeked so Andy could visit his uncle, Henry. They made natural suspects—outsiders as well as peddlars. The other two were members of a normal farming family and would probably not have aroused suspicion except for Absalom. The only existing drawing of Absalom, along with descriptions of him as being below normal intelligence lead me to believe that he was mentally retarded in some way. So, again, difference makes an easy target for suspicion—a 16-year-old retarded boy would have caused some concern in that day and age, I'm sure. Sheriff Spriggs raced off Thursday morning to capture McLeod and Andy Kimmel in Fort Wayne and then came back for the Kimmel boys by Friday evening.

Andy Kimmel bought his release from prison Saturday morning by signing an affidavit against the other three. In the course of the ensuing trial, it turned out there was lots of circumstancial evidence pointing to the boys and McLeod. In addition, Spriggs and his men obtained confessions from both Absalom and from his younger brother, George. George's confession was certainly coerced, and it's very likely that Absalom's was, also. It's also clear that the Sheriff, facing an election in November (which he won, by the way) was eager to convict the prisoners and establish his reputation as "the law" in the county.

Now, all during the trial the farmers from the county had been streaming into the courthouse, hot for the blood of the "murderers." As the trial dragged on through the week, past the Fourth-of-July celebrations, the crowd became rowdier and rowdier. Finally, on Monday, July 8, 200 horsement road into Celina and stormed the jail, capturing the prisoners and driving them in a wagon out to the Kimmel homestead. After some discussion, it was decided that Jacob was possibly not guilty and he was spared. But the other two, McLeod and Absalom, were strung up in front of the Kimmel house (where Absalom's father, mother, and younger brothers and sisters were no-doubt watching).

Jacob was taken back to prison where he remained until the Circuit Court came back into session in November. He was immediately released and lit out for Missouri, I think. The rest of the family remained in the area, their relations with their neighbors no-doubt strained, but not enough to prevent many of them, including my great-great grandfather, William, from intermarrying with their daughters and sons.

And that's how the story remained, until 1926, when a man in Denver, Colorado, Thomas Bradwell Douglas, offered a death-bed confession to the murders. He claimed he had been drunk out of his mind when he raped and murdered the girl. Then, to cover his tracks, he suggested the names of the accused and urged the crowd on to their lynching.