GUERNSEY COUNTY OHIO - JOHN B. COOK
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William Wolfe's Stories of Guernsey County 1943, Page 288:
paraphrased by the transcriber:
This is a story surrounding the life and times of John B. Cook, Deputy 
Provost Marshall for the Sixteenth Congressional District.  In 1865 he was 
murdered in his own backyard by two men.  The county was stirred with the 
heinousness of the crime, the mystery attending it, the $2000 reward for the 
capture of the murderers and the general climate of war-time excitement.   
They chased the suspects to the National road where they followed the leads 
of local residents.
The following is transcribed as is in the book:
Suspects captured-- Hundreds of men joined in the search.  On Thursday, March 
9, a number of them ate dinner at Edward Carpenter's near Londonderry.  In 
the afternoon they dispersed in different directions.  Noticing a barn in a 
field across from the Carpenter home, two of the men went over to search it.  
There seemed to be nothing within except some farm machinery and straw.  They 
were about to leave when one of them picked up a pitchfork and began probing 
in the straw.  Two feet down he struck something that caused him to withdraw 
the fork.  He remarked to his companion "There is nothing here." But outside 
he beckoned for others to come and they soon surrounded the barn.  
The men under the straw were ordered to come out.  They remained quiet until 
orders were given for all to fire at the straw pile; then they surrendered.  
They denied knowing anything about the Cook murder.  It was a proud body of 
horsemen that brought them to Cambridge where they were lodged in jail (the 
old jail)
Paraphrased: The prisoners, deserters of the army, Hiram Oliver and John W. 
Hartup, were southern sympathizers having lived in Guernsey county for a few 
months before Marshall Cook had been ordered to arrest them.  What 
Guernseyites had hoped for, a civil trial, turned into a Military offense, as 
Marshall Cook was considered not a citizen, but an officer of the military 
arm of the government.  The prisoners maintained their innocence.  
The concern for danger was there, regarding the deliverance of the prisoners 
by Southern sympathizers or the potential of being taken out and lynched.  
Meanwhile, while the trial progressed, President Lincoln was assassinated 
adding more unrest to the circumstance.  It was the most expensive trial in 
the history of the county, but the expense fell upon the federal government.  
The defendants were found guilty and sentenced to be hung.  They were taken 
to camp Chase, Columbus, where they were executed at one o'clock p.m., 
September 6, 1865.  Before ascending the scaffold Oliver confessed.



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