ASHLAND MEMORIES: Zimmer family was murdered near Mifflin
On Sept. 10, 1812, three members of the Zimmer family and Martin Ruffner were murdered by a passing group of Native Americans. This was widely considered to have been retribution for the removal of the Native Americans at Greentown and the burning of their village several weeks earlier.
Frederick Zimmer was an older man when he moved to the Mifflin area with his wife and two youngest children, Catherine (or Kate) and Philip.
Martin Ruffner was described as “a bold and fearless backwoodsman, and an uncompromising enemy to the Indians, having had several of his friends and relatives murdered by them.”
Ashland Memories: Forced removal and destruction of Greentown
He also settled on the Black Fork, near present-day Mifflin, where he lived with an indentured servant named Levi Berkinhizer. His wife and child planned to join him later.
Robbery was the motive for the murders
According to some accounts, robbery was the motive for the murder of the Zimmers, as Mr. Zimmer was reportedly well-off and it was rumored that he had a cache of money hidden within his cabin.
Another tradition was the Zimmer family had been unfriendly to the Native Americans in the area. Reportedly, the Zimmers had tied clapboards or firebrands to the tails of ponies belonging to the Native Americans when they found them grazing in their corn fields.
On the afternoon of Sept. 10, 1812, a young man met a group of Native Americans, who asked him whether the Zimmers were at home. He hurried to tell Martin Ruffner about the encounter.
Ruffner took down his rifle and rode quickly to the Zimmer cabin. He sent Philip Zimmer to get help.
Zimmer ran to the nearest neighbors, and returned at twilight with James Copus and John Lambright to the Zimmer cabin to find it still and dark. Copus went cautiously to the front door but he was unable to open it because of something wedged against it.
Reaching inside, he put his hand in what appeared to be blood, and the three men left without further investigation.
Families walked to Lucas, Mansfield
They hurriedly gathered their families and walked to the village of Lucas, where they spent the rest of the night. In the morning, the entire group proceeded to a blockhouse, about three miles southeast of present-day Mansfield.The next day the settlers returned to the Zimmer cabin where they found the Zimmer parents and daughter Kate dead and “dreadfully mangled” inside the cabin. Ruffner’s body was in the yard.
His gun was bent nearly double from using it as a club. His fingers were cut off by a tomahawk blow and he had been shot twice. All the victims had been scalped. The table was set for dinner, but the food remained untouched.
They buried the four victims near the Zimmer cabin. Not long afterward, three Native Americans, including one by the name of Kanotche, were arrested and jailed at New Philadelphia. Kanotche confessed to being at the Zimmer cabin and detailed the events, although he spoke only bits of English, supplemented with gestures.
While the three were in custody, a company of Wooster militia arrived, ready to lynch the three men.
Sheriff Henry Laffer called on the citizenry to defend the prisoners’ rights to a lawful trial, but only two men, Captain McConnell, and a traveling lawyer, John C. Wright (who later served on the Ohio Supreme Court), stood guard with him at the jail door.
Having averted a lynching, Kanotche and his companions were transferred westward. They also survived an attempt to poison them, and eventually were part of a prisoner of war exchange.
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Ashland Memories: Zimmer family murders thought to be retribution
