Record Data
Transcription
Eleven Female Rioters Tried and Acquitted.
From the Sandusky (Ohio) Register.
At the late term of the Court of Common Pleas of Richland County, Ohio, the case that created the most interest, as we learn from the Mansfield Herald, was one in which several ladies were indicted and tried for the riot. It appears that some time in November last the ladies of the village of Belleville, in that county, to the number of eleven, some of whom having fathers, and some brothers, who frequented a liquor shop kept by a man named MORRIS, resolved to put an end to the cause of their troubles, and did so, by smashing his casks and decanters, and destroying the liquor. They were complained of by MORRIS, and were indicted as before stated. The case come on for hearing, and, being arraigned at the bear, they plead “Not guilty.” Numerous witnesses were examined, and the case occupied some three days. The Jury was duly charged by the Court, and retired.
In about an hour the bell rang, announcing that they had decided upon their verdict, and the people who had manifested the most intense interest, crowding the Court-room during the whole trial, rushed from all quarters of the town, so that the Court-room would scarcely hold them. When the foreman of the Jury rose to hand in the verdict, the most breathless silence prevailed, and when he responded to the clerk, “Not guilty,” the words were caught up, and such shouting, clapping, laughing, and shaking of hands was never before witnessed in that dignified hall of justice. Although late at night, the young men from Bellesville could not wait for morning, or the cars, but footed it home to tell the news. When the ladies arrived the next day they were received with every demonstration of approval by the inhabitants of the village.