Trending
120 Years Ago, 1906 transcribed as originally published in the Youngstown Vindicator:
"Romance and tragedy, fond ambition wrecked. Daughter's disobedience followed by a father's revenge. Youthful couple. Principals in a sensation born in hills of Pennsylvania. Attempt at murder charged against James Smith - boy husband alleged to have perjured himself…."
"Down in the little town of Smithfield, PA., almost in the heart of the rugged Allegheny mountains, has been born and cradled a pretty and at the same time a tragic romance - a romance worthy of the pen of a Balzac or a Hugo. It has to do with youthful love, with shattered hopes, a fond ambition wrecked by a daughter's disobedience and a father's revenge - a father who is now living in the shadow of the penitentiary. For James R. Smith is charged with an attempt on the life of the boy husband of his daughter, and those who know the sturdy mountaineer and his familiarity with firearms wonder only that the charge against him is not one of murder….
"For 50 years he has resided in Fayette County and is one of the largest landowners in that section of the state. His farms are all on the mountain side. They are not worth much for agricultural purposes, but they are heavily timbered, and it was by the sale of this timber, a little at a time, that the family has been supported. They live the free and independent life of the mountains. There was nothing of elegance in it - nothing but hard work that was made bearable only by the love of home and family.
“But James Smith was satisfied. He was not ambitious - that is, he was not ambitious for himself. But he had a daughter, a pretty little girl, now 17 years old… It was to her that he hoped to give all the advantages that he had himself missed, and so he waited and hoped that some day the time would come when the dream could be realized….
"This girl is an epitome of country simplicity. Her father says that never in her life has she been more than eight miles from home, that is until she came to Youngstown to wed the boy whose life her father would have taken….
"The father might have forgiven them then, making a virtue of necessity. But people who knew James Smith knew he would do nothing of the kind…. He thought he knew a better plan and assuming the spirit he did not feel he invited the boy and girl to his home to partake of a dinner….
"There was only one remark made by Smith when the young couple presented themselves at his door. He asked who was there, and when he was told, standing at the head of the hall stairway he began firing with a Winchester rifle at the boy who had wrecked his hopes for his daughter's happiness…. One bullet struck the boy in the arm and the bone shattered. A second cut off a finger as though the work had been done with a knife. A third grazed the head of the girl. An inch to the side and she would be in eternity….
"Several days after the shooting and arrest, he came to Youngstown in company with Cook McClain, a Uniontown attorney. An investigation of the records of the probate office discloses the fact that Wirsing swore to his age as 21. He is said to be only 19. The girl said she was 18. In fact she is only 17.
"Thus a charge of perjury has been made against young Wirsing, and in all probability he will have to answer to that charge, one of the most serious known to the law."
-- Compiled by Dante Bernard, museum educator at the Mahoning Valley Historical Society