Haunted Stark County by Sherri Brake

Author:Sherri Brake
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2012-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

An old wooden jailhouse typical of the era, Canal Fulton. Courtesy of the Canal Fulton Heritage Society Collection.

The hanging of Christian Bechtel is one of downtown Canton’s darkest moments, as well as the first public execution. Mr. Bechtel was a German emigrant who had come home in the early months of 1833 drunk. He beat his wife to death while she slept in their home. After an attempt to escape the long arm of the law, he finally gave himself up and surrendered. The criminal was convicted of murder and taken to the old jail, built in 1830, located at Cleveland Avenue and Ninth Street. The old jail was two stories tall with the typical barred windows one would expect. Sheriff George Webb took care of the prisoner’s needs until the execution, and he was also in charge of the execution procedure. The prisoner was made to sit on his own coffin in the back of a wagon and wore a death shroud on his head. The crowd was said to scream out for justice, and people threw various items at the criminal as he sat hooded and waiting for death.

The execution of Bechtel took place on a cold and bleak Friday morning, November 22, 1833, in downtown Canton. Reverend Peter Herbruck of the First Reformed Church in Canton was the attending minister and was in charge of the last rites. According to the History of the First Reformed Church of Canton, under a deep sense of duty toward the wretched man, Reverend Herbruck said:

I often visited him in prison, and admonished him to repentance and conversion, and also prayed with him. His sin was a heavy burden upon his heart, and he fervently besought the Lord for pardon. According to his own testimony, he also received mercy and forgiveness.

The confession closed with the following words:

Standing as I do on the confines of two worlds, I would fain raise my voice in the language of warning and exhortation, to all who may hear the tale of my guilt and its consequences. Let them shun the rock on which I split, avoid the intoxicating cup as you would the enemy of your souls. To that I can safely trace my present condition.

The condemned man begged all in attendance to pray for him again. After the prayer, he also began to pray. His prayer was so earnest and fervent that the bystanders were moved to tears. At eleven o’clock that morning, the condemned man was led out to his execution on the scaffold. The gallows had been erected just east of Walnut Street, between Fourth and Sixth Streets, Northeast. A crowd estimated to have numbered at least twenty thousand, coming from far and near, had assembled in the commons area at the intersection of the streets. After an English sermon had been preached, there were last rites preached in German and the event was closed with prayer. According to the notes of Reverend Herbruck, the criminal’s last words were: “May the blood of Jesus Christ the son of God cleanse me from all sin.

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