Individual Details

A Mysterious Death

Regarding the Details of Which There Now Seems to be an Earnest Desire
For Some Further Information

The Sudden and Unexplained Decease of Mr. Harmon Richards, Who "Just Dropped Dead From His Chair at Two O'Clock in the Morning." -- Two Ugly Wounds That May Have a History

There are portentous mutterings out in Colerain township, relating to the rather mysterious death of Mr. Harman Richards, which occurred on January 11th.

Mr. Richards' death was very sudden and startling, but the circumstances connected with it created very little comment until the day of his funeral, when the people who gathered to follow his remains to the grave, thought they discovered some suspicious circumstances that ought to be explained away, before the dead man was placed under the sod.

Some relatives of the deceased were among those who indulged in this feeling but the funeral hour was at hand, and no one seemed willing to assume the responsibility of causing a delay or of demanding an investigation. Since the funeral however the talk to the effect that Harman Richard's death occurred under circumstances that should be investigated, has been growing stronger and stronger among those most nearly concerned in his fate.

The facts relating to the affair run about this way: Harman Richards, who was a man 62 years of age, had been living for a long time past with Mrs. Gatwood, the wife of Denning Gatwood whose home is about one and one-half miles from Hallsville. Gatwood is still living, but is terribly crippled and is now an inmate of the Infirmary.

Richards, it is understood, lived in about the same relation with Mrs. Gatwood that he would were he her lawful husband. Two children have been born to Mrs. Gatwood, since her husband has been at the Infirmary, and Richards is accredited with their parentage. Mrs. Gatwood is anywhere from 38 to 40 years of age.

At four o'clock on Wednesday morning January 11th, word was sent to Mr. Ed Richards, a son of the deceased, who lives at Hallsville, that his father was dead.

This was startling, for his father, only a few hours before - on Tuesday afternoon - was in Hallsville, well and hearty, talking politics with some of his friends.

Mr. Richards was told at Gatwood's that his father had died two hours before -- at 2 A.M. Wednesday. He was sitting on a chair in their room, Mrs. Gatwood said, when he suddenly fell over, dead. There were two ugly wounds across the man's face -- one long, deep bruise above the right eye, and a gash across the nose -- which Mrs. Gatwood said he had received in falling. Just how the wounds were made -- what he struck in falling -- was not made clear.

When Mr. Richards reached Gatwood's his father had been washed and laid out for burial, and friends outside the Gatwood house had no occasion to dress or examine the body of the suddenly deceased man.

Very little was said about the manner in which the dead man met his fate, further than he fell from his chair, dead.

When the day of the funeral arrived and the neighbors came in to take a last look at Harman Richards' face the appearance of his wounds, which had been very severe, at once began to create comment, and there were whisperings about that those hurts were never made by his falling from a chair.

But the funeral was not delayed by anyone demanding an investigation, and the dead man was laid to rest at Charleston on Friday of that week.

Mr. Richard left six children -- two sons and four daughters -- and now, since their father's burial, and they have had time to think over his singular death, and comment upon the mysterious incidents connected therewith, they have become considerably exercised and there is talk of having the remains of Harman Richards exhumed and of holding a post mortem examination.

Birth	13 Jan 1826	Prussia
Residence	1850	Springfield, Ross, Ohio
Marriage	24 Oct 1850	Ross County, Ohio - Mary Ann Tharp
Residence	1860	Union, Ross, Ohio
Residence	1870	Harrison, Ross, Ohio
Residence	1875	Harrison, Ross, Ohio
Residence	1880	Harrison, Ross, Ohio
Death	12 Jan 1888	Ross County, Ohio
Burial		Chillicothe, Ross, Ohio

Spouse	Mary Ann Tharp (1827 - 1873)
Child	Edgar Newton Richard (1851 - 1927)
Child	Sarah A. Richard (1853 - )
Child	Joseph C. Richard (1855 - 1878)
Child	Francis Monroe "Frank" Richard (1857 - )
Child	Mary Elizabeth Richard (1859 - 1955)
Child	Ella Richard (1862 - 1920)
Child	Laura B. Richard (1865 - 1923)