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Milestones is quite fortunate to have an excellent researcher and writer like Bob Palmquist on the staff Bob has been busy perusing copies of the old Beaver Argus from 1862 and 1863, from which the following article resulted.

On September 18, 1862, Beaver County Sheriff John Roberts emerged from the Courthouse in Beaver. In Roberts' custody was a prisoner, one Eli F. Sheets. Sheets, according to a description Sheriff Roberts subsequently gave of him, was "a young man twenty years of age, about 5 feet 9 inches high, walks very erect; fair hair, light complexion, high cheek bones, hazel eyes and a deep dimple in his chin. His chin and the corners of his mouth were broken out in pimples. He has an e'feminate voice..." Convicted that day of first degree murder, Sheets would in seven months achieve a "first" status in Beaver County history. Although Sheets had already escaped and been recaptured once, it is unlikely Sheriff Roberts could forsee all the trouble this undersized prisoner would cause in an effort to evade his dubious distinction. On September 18, however, Roberts 'led Sheets from the Courthouse to the County Jail without any trouble at all.

The trial had lasted five weeks. Sheets, it was charged, had in March of 1862 stolen two horses from his uncle's barn in Ohio, replaced them with two inferior nags, and then burned the barn to the ground (with the replacement animals inside) in an effort to conceal the theft. Running the two stolen horses across the line into Beaver County, Pennsylvania, where he lived, Sheets sold one of them to a farmer named John Ansley. In the meantime, Sheets' uncle discovered the theft, despite the arson which was supposed to cover the crime. He broadcast descriptions of his missing animals in the newspapers, and Ansley, reading one of these descriptions, realized he had been had. Then Ansley made his mistake; instead of reporting what he knew to the authorities, he rode the horse over to the Darlington farm where Sheets was living, to settle the matter himself. As Bausman's History relates, "that was the last seen of John Ansley alive." The bodies of Ansley and the horse were found in an out-of-the-way spot on the Sheets farm. The man had received six pistol wounds, the horse five. Sheets was arrested, escaped the same day, was caught, tried and convicted. No man had yet been executed by order of a Beaver County court. Judge Daniel Agnew, who had presided over the trial, was to pass sentence on Sheets in November.

Until then, Sheets was confined under Roberts' eye in the County Jail. After Sheets complained about the unhealthy effects of being cooped up in a cell, the affable Sheriff allowed him "to sit and walk about in the corridor or hall of the prison," locking him up each day at dusk.

On October 22, Roberts noted that it had already grown dark, and that Sheets had not yet been locked safely away. Sheets' face, the Sheriff noticed, "was very pale from long imprisonment." The murderer, he decided, could remain in the hall until after Roberts finished his supper. While the Sheriff was eating, turnkey Daniel Dumbarington could keep an eye on Eli Sheets. After ail, Dumbarington had been turnkey for five years, longer than Roberts had been Sheriff.

When Roberts returned from his meal, Sheets was gone. He would have made a better escape had Dumbarington gone with him. For all the evidence pointed to the turnkey. A bolt on one of the locks to Sheets' cell was found to have been cut, an operation Sheets plainly needed some help to accomplish. Sheets' irons had been removed. And the rear gate to the County Jail was found mysteriously unlocked. Sheets was gone, but Dumbarington was soon jailed in his place.

But where was Eli F. Sheets? With the Civil War raging, the Beaver ARGUS supposed that from Union Pennsylvania "he has made his way towards 'Dixie,' as that would be a natural course for a young gentleman of his inclination to tend." The turnkey told a different story. "Becoming greatly alarmed at his situation," as the ARGUS reports, Dumbarington "informed the Sheriff that if he would take him out he would show him the place where Sheets was." Then the turnkey "named the place." At this Sheriff Roberts was incredulous. The Barker place? Widow Barker's house? That house was, as Bausman was later to observe, "within three hundred yards of the prison." And Widow Barker and her family "were ... considered respectable, holding high position, socially."

Nevertheless, Dumbarington insisted that at Barker's Sheriff Roberts would find the murderer, and so on October 29--a week after Sheets' escape--Sheriff John and his posse searched the widow's home. That evening's ARGUS tacked the following onto its latest story on the case:

"P.S. We stop the press to announce that Sheets has been arrested in the house of a highly respectable family in this place, and is again confined in his cell."

The Barkers' motive in aiding Sheets' escape was never satisfactorily explained. On November 13, Sheriff Roberts walked Eli Sheets to the Courthouse to hear Judge Agnew's sentence.

"What have you to say," Agnew asked the prisoner, "why the sentence of death should not be pronounced upon you?"

Sheets replied:

"I am innocent of the murder."

That, the Judge said, was nothing that Sheets had not said earlier, at the trial. Before pronouncing sentence, the Judge reviewed the evidence in the case. He rejected clemency pleas based on Sheets' youth because of the manner in which Ansley had been murdered:

"Think of the cruel wounds you gave him. Not content with the two shots which brought him to the ground, twice you poured the deadly bullets into his back, and twice you put the pistol to his temple, and lodged its contents in his brain."
Roberts and the rest of the crowd listened as Agnew, "in a sad and solemn manner," spoke of Sheets' crime:

"Miserable young man. You have broken laws, both human and divine, and offended against Earth and Heaven. You stand along with Cain of old--a murderer." He urged Sheets to turn to his "one hope, and one hope only--the blood of the Savior of mankind." The sentence would be deferred to give Sheets time to "be reconciled to your offended Creator. Rest assured the Redeemer is your only hope. We pity you; but alas, we cannot save you."

And then, in a more sober tone still, "Prisoner at the bar, receive your sentence." Sheets, Judge Agnew said, was to be returned to the County Jail, and within its walls "be hanged by the neck until you are dead. And God have mercy on your soul."

Judge Agnew's discourse impressed many; some who heard it broke into tears. But Sheets was not among them. Leaving the Courthouse he made his third escape attempt. Sheriff Roberts- and Deputy Sheriff Ledlie chased him through the streets of Beaver, Ledlie finally catching him near the Ohio River.

April 10, 1863 was set as execution day. That morning crowds of people milled about in Beaver. But the Sheriff did not intend to allow Beaver County's first judicial hanging to turn into a carnival. Pennsylvania law in 1834 had prohibited general spectators at executions, and so Roberts admitted into the jailyard where the gallows stood only "his Deputies, a Physician, the District Attorney of the County, and twelve reputable citizens thereof, by himself selected, and two Ministers of the Gospel." These last were apparently the clergymen with whom Sheets "was engaged ... in praying and singing" that morning. Sheets calmly mounted the gallows, the ARGUS reporter was told. And, 11 when just about to be launched into eternity, one of the clergymen put the question direct to him, whether he was guilty or not of the murder of John Ansley. After some considerable hesitation, he made some evasive remarks and declined or refused to answer the question of guilt or innocence. And thus he planted himself firmly up to the last breath, refusing to tell the truth. "

The trap was sprung. Sheriff John Roberts and the witnesses looked on, as required by law. Shortly before the execution, Sheets had thanked Roberts for his kindness to him during his imprisonment. The attending physician now certified Eli F. Sheets as dead. The Sheriff turned away. He had a death warrant to write, to be filed with the court. Beaver County's first judicial hanging was over.