The Case of Mistaken Identity and Murder: The Story of Jacob and Samuel Bushong

If you would visit Grand View Cemetery in Carrollton, Ohio, you will find the grave of the cemetery’s only Revolutionary War Veteran.  Underneath an impressive marble slab lies the body of a man who fought for this nation’s independence and blazed a trail into the frontier; building a solid foundation for his family and the newly formed village in which they lived. However, the name etched into the weathered marble headstone is not the name of the man buried beneath it.

Upon discovering the burial place for this Veteran of Independence, you will read will read carved into the tarnished marble: “Samuel Bushong Died 1829 Fought Under Baron Steuben in the Revolutionary War.” Not only is that the wrong name but also the wrong service record. The name of the true Revolutionary patriot is not Samuel Bushong, but his father Jacob Bushong.

In all of the early histories of Carrollton and Carroll County, the same oft-repeated mistake is made, and therefore, built upon and recognized as fact.  In the Carrollton Centennial published by the Free Press Standard it states, “Samuel Bushong – A native of Hesse Darmstadt, Germany; came to America with Baron Steuben and fought for the colonies in the Revolutionary War; he died here in 1835 and was buried in “the honors of war”; his unmarked grave is near that of Peter Bohart. He built the two story log house still standing east of Robert’s Park, in 1820.” This simple paragraph was repeated in many subsequent histories causing the truth to fall between the cracks. How and why this occurred is not clear, but it is finally time to right this wrong, and to do this all of the facts need to be looked at.  Since this is the story of two men it is only proper that both of their stories be told.

Jacob Bushong was the born on February 18, 1754, in Christ Church, York County, Pennsylvania to John and Elizabeth (Sprenckel) Bushong. He soon moved with his family at a tender age to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. During this time period in the valley, the looming threat of Indian raids was always in the forefront, along with the seemingly never ending threat of the French on the frontier. As a boy growing up on the proverbial front lines of the French and Indian War, Jacob Bushong acquired a profound knowledge of guns, which would serve his a few short years later when war broke out with England.

In 1780, Jacob Bushong followed in the footsteps of his father and joined the Continental Army in its quest to gain independence from England. Jacob served in the2nd Regiment of the Virginia Line in a company commanded by Captain Francis Cowherd. To best understand Jacob Bushong’s service record, its best to look at the pension application he filed on May 15, 1818. He states that sometime in 1780, he enlisted with Captain Ransdal, but was transferred to the company commanded by Captain Francis Cowherd after Ransdal resigned. He served with Captain Cowherd as both a private and as a gunsmith for the duration of enlistment. He further related in his pension application that he was never paid for his service as a soldier, but just irregularly when performing the task of artificer of a gunsmith and blacksmith. Moreover, he served in the battles of Guilford, Camden, Eutaw, and at the Siege of Ninety-Six. Furthermore, during the Battle of Camden his shin bone was broken and never properly healed. This led to a running sore which cost him a lot of money, and was the driving force behind him filing for a pension.

In response to this pension application he was awarded $72.53 and his name was dropped from the Pension Roll under the Act of May 1, 1820 due to owning several pieces of property. After a new pension act was passed by the government on May 15, 1828, Jacob Bushong went before the court in Stark County on October 13, 1828 and again applied for a pension. Again, Jacob was denied his pension.

After Jacob returned home following the war in 1783, he began to court Eva Catherina Bossert, the daughter of George Bossert of Shenandoah County, Virginia. They were soon married on January 1, 1784. Jacob and Eva then purchased land in Shenandoah County on the banks of the north branch of the Shenandoah River. Here was born eight of their nine children; John (1785), Elizabeth (1786), Catherine (1791), Samuel (1794), Sarah (1797), George (1804), William (1805) and Jacob (1806). They sold off a portion of this land in 1796, and completely moved to Unity Township in Columbiana County, Ohio in April of 1807. It was here that Jacob and Eva’s final child was born in 1807, a boy named Peter.

While residing in Unity Township, Jacob was elected as a representative in Ohio’s General Assembly in 1812. He was an important member as once again America was engaged in a war with England. Therefore, not only was his experience in the Revolutionary War invaluable with passing legislature involving the state’s war effort, but Jacob’s oldest son was serving a lieutenant in the Ohio militia and provided firsthand accounts of the war to his father in Chillicothe.  During this same tenure Jacob sold his newly married son John, a portion of land within Unity Township. After his service in the General Assembly, Jacob soon began looking for new opportunities in the growing state.

Bushong Home on Lot #71

In 1819, Jacob moved his family to Centerville, Columbiana County (present day Carrollton, Ohio), and purchased lot #55 from Peter Bohart. Jacob purchased additional lots (#71 and #76) in 1820, from Andrew Moore and George W. Butler. On lot #71 Jacob built a two story log cabin for his family, while simultaneously helping his son Samuel build a house next door on lot #73.  In 1829, Jacob purchased additional land from Dickerson Roberts, lots # 73 and #74. It was on lot #73 that Samuel erected a two story log cabin for his family to live in 1820, and it was this structure that was described in the Carrollton Centennial. He had sold the lot on April 1, 1820 to Dickerson Roberts who in turn sold it to Jacob, thus adding to the confusion of the two. On the 9^th of January 1830, Jacob sold lots #26, 94, and 95 to his son, Samuel for $175.

Jacob passed away in August of 1830, as his will which was dated May 9, 1827, was probated in Stark County on August 16, 1830. At this point Jacob owned a large piece of land within Section 2, Township 15, Range 6, this land was located just northwest of Centerville by a quarter of a mile and was in Stark County. (This is along current day Canton Road, in the corporation limits of Carrollton.) This land would ultimately be involved in a court battle involving Jacob’s heirs in 1832. Eva Catherina Bushong would survive for six years after Jacob’s death, passing away on July 5, 1836. She was laid to rest beside her husband in an unmarked grave in Grandview Cemetery.

All of this information not only proves that Jacob was the true Revolutionary War, but that he did not die in 1829, was not a native of Germany, and furthermore did not serve under Baron Steuben (the 2^nd Continental Line served under General Nathanial Greene). The question is then, what happened to Samuel Bushong.

Samuel Bushong first appears in the records after his father’s death in 1832, listed as a defendant in his sister suit against the heirs of Jacob Bushong. The next time he appears on record is when he and his wife, Margaret, along with their four children moved to Richland County, Ohio in 1837. Samuel purchased thirty-five acres of Section #26 in Jefferson Township for $800. He paid $400 down and secured the additional $400 by getting a mortgage.

However, in the summer of 1840, Samuel had defaulted on his mortgage and his property was up for Sheriff’s sale. Samuel tried to obtain the needed money to pay off his debt from his friends and family, but came up short. On October 3, 1840, Samuel was seen in the town of Bellville casting his vote in the election, before returning home.

Early the next morning, news was spread throughout the area that Samuel Bushong had gone mad and murdered his family. What was soon discovered by Samuel’s neighbors was a gruesome site, as no non-Indian related murders had ever occurred in Richland County before this day.  The first person found in the house was the body of Margaret Bushong. She was discovered lying before the fire upon the hearth, in front of the chair she was sitting in browning coffee in a skillet. Samuel had approached her from behind and struck her head with a fatal blow from an axe knocking her out of the chair. Samuel then went upstairs to his daughters’ room. His twenty-two year old daughter received a heavy blow across her face from the broad-end of the axe, yet her skull was not broken. His fifteen year old daughter was his next victim, receiving a blow across the face from the blade of the axe causing a deep wound spanning from above her left eye to beneath her right eye. After Samuel finished in this room he went to the adjoining room where his sons were sleeping.

However, the boys were awakened by their father’s rampage in the room next to their and saw him enter their room. Upon seeing the head of the axe glimmer in the moonlight as it was raised above the youngest son, the boys jumped their father and wrestled away the axe from his hands. The oldest son received a horrible cut across the arm while the youngest was hit from the poll of the axe. However Samuel did not give up on his assault, as he pulled out a razor blade and resumed the deadly struggle. After again losing his weapon to his sons, Samuel fled the house for the woods, while the two boys sought help from their neighbors. Surprisingly all of Samuel’s children survived the ghastly encounter.

Samuel was soon captured by a small posse of neighbors and led to town after narrowly escaping a lynch mob. The group was met a mile out of Bellville by the Constable and led to Mansfield for questioning. Upon interrogation Samuel admitted that the financial burden was the cause of the murderous rage, as his wife refused to sell the farm to get out of the debt and Samuel felt they were better off dead than to be beggars. All through the questioning Samuel remained calm about the ordeal, yet upon the route to the jailhouse he tried once again to escape and upon capture began to moan uncontrollably like he was in great agony and distress.

Samuel’s trial began July 10, 1841 and lasted six days before a quick verdict was handed out. Samuel was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and forced to leave the county. Samuel then disappears from all records, and it is not known if he died b

 efore the 1850 census or if he changed his name and faded into oblivion.

Today, Samuel’s name only lives on as a murderer in Richland County and a patriot hero in Carroll County, thanks to be mistaken for his father. The marble headstone was placed to the “patriot” Samuel was installed around 1915, sometime after the Carrollton C

entennial. The one justice that has been corrected is two bronze markers have been installed in Grandview Cemetery for Jacob and Eva Catherina Bushong. However, the common mistake of mixing the two up still persists. Along with the markers in Grandview Cemetery, one of the homes built by the Bushongs can still be seen today on lot #73 in Carrollton. (Another mix up often occurs here as another log cabin built by Jacob Bushong located on the adjoining lot was torn down in 1982, so it is often assumed that none of the Bushong’s homes still remain).

It is the simple hope of the writer, to wish that for once and all; the patriotic service and recognition is finally bestowed upon Jacob Bushong. Moreover, that his true service and history is realized, for he was a veteran of the Revolution, Representative in the General Assembly, and a true pioneer.



Grandview Cemetery, Carrollton, Ohio



Bushong House (2011)





References:

Daughters of the American Revolution Patriot Number A017540

Graham. History of Richland County, Ohio. 1880, page 437.

The Free Press Standard. Centennial Edition. 1915, page 53.

The Official roster of the soldiers of the American Revolution buried in the state of Ohio. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio Adjutant General's Dept., 1929-1959

The Ohio Repository. Canton, Ohio. August 24, 1832

Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files (NARA microfilm publication M804, 2,670 rolls). Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Recorder of Columbiana County. Deeds Files for Centerville 1819-1833.