HISTORY: QUANTRILL, WILLIAM 1837 TUSCARAWAS COUNTY OHIO
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Native of Canal Dover Made
Infamous Raid Century Ago

By SUSAN MARTIN
         It was 100 years ago this week that William Clarke Quantrill, a 
native of Dover, paid off his grudge against Lawrence, Kan., in blood 
and fire.
         Quantrill, whose band of guerrillas became infamous with raids on 
various towns in Kansas during the Civil War era, was born in Dover (called 
Canal Dover at that time), on July 31 1837.
         He was the son of  Thomas Henry and Caroline Cornelia Clarke 
Quantrill. His father managed a tin shop in Dover and  later became 
superintendent of public schools, a job he held until his death.
         The oldest of eight children, Quantrill was civil and quiet as a 
boy. He was a good shot with the rifle and liked to hunt and fish. At the 
age of 16, Quantrill became a school teacher in one of the lower grades of 
his father's schools.

Left At 17

         He left Dover to study at Fort Wayne, Ind.., .a year later. He 
sudied  Latin and the higher mathematics, and returned, to Dover in 1858.
         The next spring, he left for Kansas with sime settlers, where he 
filed a. claim on some land. Being too restless for a farmer's life, he 
traveled with an army provision train bound for Utah. He seems to have 
used  the name of Charley Hart as a gambler there.
         He again taught school in 1859_60  in Kansas. He once more went by 
the name of Charley Hart near Lawrence, Kans., where: he had to flee under 
charges of horse stealing.
         When the Civil War broke out, Quantrill was put in command of 100 
men, including the notorious James brothers. He and his band pillaged and 
burned Union towns of  Kansas. and Missouri, which were both free states. 
His permanent quarters and hideout were in Jackson County Mo.

         Given Captain's Rank

         Given the rank of captain in the confederacy, Quantrill and h is 
450 men are especially remembered for their raid on Lawrence, Kan.on Aug. 
21, 1863.
         About 150 citizens of Lawrence were killed. by the 
straight_shooting horsemen. Included in t he dead were 12 unarmed Union 
recruits, all teen_ agers.
         Quantrill and. his men hit t he town at dawn, and the sleepy 
citizens were defenseless. Out of  his 450 men, Quantrill lost only one in 
the raid. He made a quick getaway to Missouri, dodging a Union cavalry 
troop and a few of the citizens out for revenge.
         Dissension finally arose among his men, and  they broke up into 
smaller bands. Early in 1865, he and his 33 men entered  Kentucky, robbing, 
foraging and occasionally killing. .
         In May, a small Union force surprised the guerrillas near 
Taylorsville in Spencer County. Quantrill was.fatally wounded and died 
nearly a month'later at a hospital in Louisville on June 6, 1865. He .was 
buried in a Catholic cemetery.

[The Evenng Chronicle, Uhrichsville, Tuscarawas County, OH ,Saturday, 
August 24, 1963]



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