There are things that have been either forgotten or lost without
acknowledgement that people don’t know or forget. Back on September 9, 1825 a
young man by the name of William Cartmil was traveling the route between Coshocton
where he met a man from Steubenville also named William but with the last name Johnson.
As they traveled they came upon a small river where Johnson had come to rest
and the “Post boy” Cartmil went on a head Johnson then heard gun shots a few
minutes later and ran to see what had happened to find Cartmil on the ground face
first with blood coming out of his mouth. He then started walking and saw
another man with a gun over his shoulder walking towards him. When he had asked
him his name he had lied giving a different one to him, but his real name was
John Funston.
Johnson then ran
to the nearest tavern called Booth’s and pleaded with the owner of the
establishment to tell him about the murder of Cartmill. The owner came along
with two other patrons of the tavern they come upon the post boy’s body and
when they turned him over they had found several guns shot wounds to the chest.
After a while Johnson was taken to the New Philadelphia jail where he was
accused of the murder. The Sheriff had question he and started to believe him
that he wasn’t the man that committed the murder. The Sheriff set up a trial
where all the men in the county would come and Johnston would pick out the man who
had committed the murder. Funston knew he had to go so, suspicion wouldn’t be
on him, but Johnston points he out by a scar on his arm.
Soon a trial began
for the murder of the post boy, but Funston would not confess even though they
had found a ten dollar note in his pocket that was the same one that had some from
the post boy’s saddlebag. He tired hanging himself in his cell and failed,
after that he confessed to the murder of
Cartmill and was sentenced to be hung where the subway is on west high in New Philadelphia
which his death was the first and last hanging in Tuscarawas county.
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