Flipside: Historic Event--The Trials of Isaac Knapp

Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to give a try for the second year.

The prompt for week # 12 (March 19-25) is Historic Event.

Continuing the Brothers Knapp story of Isaac shooting Walter to death on September 1, 1877 at the family home in Riley Township, Sandusky County, Ohio. Family Secret--The Knapp Brothers.

The Clyde Sentinel
Clyde, Ohio
November 23, 1877
page 6

Isaac was apprehended that day and taken to the city of Fremont jail. According to an article in Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County Ohio (Meek, 192), Isaac appeared before Judge T. P. Finefrock in the Court of Common Pleas and a jury at the October Term 1877. The jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the second degree and Judge Finefrock sentenced Isaac to the penitentiary for life. He was taken to the Ohio Penitentiary on October 18, 1877.

The Stark County Democrat
August 11, 1883
Front Page

While incarcerated, Isaac devised a plan to be released from prison. He began to eat only soap and after awhile he was sent to the penitentiary hospital thinking he had consumption and I have also read, tuberculosis.

Isaac was pardoned on October 19, 1882 by Governor Charles Foster based on certification of the penitentiary and Fremont doctors. They felt that Isaac was going to die and should be returned to his home.

The Clyde Enterprise
Clyde, Ohio
February 1, 1883
page 3

Isaac spent time at home recuperating and when his health was fully restored, continued his life of crime in Fremont. He bragged that he had fraudulently obtained his release. Residents of Fremont wrote to the Governor letting him know that Isaac had gained his release by fraud and misrepresentation. The Governor declared that Isaac's pardon was void and sent officials to Fremont at the end of January 1893 to arrest him and return him to the penitentiary.

Reports of Cases Argued and Determined
in The Supreme Court of Ohio
Volume 39
pages 377-398

Isaac filed a case of habeas corpus with the Ohio Supreme Court and they declared that the pardon grated him in 1882 was irrevocable even if obtained by fraud and he was released.

The Clyde Enterprise
Clyde, Ohio
February 1, 1883
page 3

What made the Isaac Knapp case is historical event was that it was the only time in the State of Ohio where a Governor revoked an unconditional pardon. The Isaac Knapp case became precedent in Ohio legal case history.

Getting out of Dodge, he and his mother, Catherine Huffine Knapp, removed to Bristol, Elkhart County, Indiana in the spring of 1883. Catherine had been enumerated with her son, John W. Knapp, living in Sandusky Township, Sandusky County, Ohio on the 1880 Ohio census.

In the end Isaac learned the lesson, if you live by the sword, you die by the sword. From announcements of his death, it appears that Isaac continued with his disorderly behavior.

There is one obituary that paints a "born again" picture of Isaac. I wonder if his mother provided the information. 😇

Democratic Messenger
October 11, 1883

He died in Bristol, Elkhart County, Indiana on July 26, 1883. Two different versions of the death are presented in various accounts. One is consumption perhaps caused by his soap eating days. The other is dying from a knife wound after pulling a gun on another Bristol citizen. To date, I have not located an actual death record.

He was buried at Oakridge Cemetery, Bristol, Elkhart County, Indiana. He has a respectable grave marker. Begs the question--who paid for it?

Addendum: Isaac Knapp's behavior was salacious news of the day. I was surprised when I searched in the Historical Newspaper site that it was covered from the murder until his death in many newspapers across the United States.

Works cited

Meek, Basil ed, Twentieth Century History of Sandusky, Ohio and its Representative Citizens, Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co, Chicago, 1909, page 192-193

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