The 1853 Killing Behind Two Unmarked Graves at Old Grassy Run
Old Grassy Run, the burying ground the WPA map titles Bloomington Cemetery, Wilson Township, Clinton County, Ohio. Photographed August 16, 2026.
This August I went looking for two graves at Old Grassy Run in Wilson Township: Reuben and Nancy Mills, my fifth great-grandparents. After years of family research, I had only recently learned where they were buried. I found no stones for them. Nancy’s Find a Grave memorial says it plainly: “There is no head stone.”
The ground has more than one name. The WPA-era grave map titles it Bloomington Cemetery and gives its history as “Old Grassy Run Cem.” The facing page of the same map shows a different ground, Grassy Run Cemetery, established in 1873. The Friends of Grassy Run built their first meeting house, of hewed logs, on land later owned by the Gallemore family, the county histories say, and later built a new house on land John Peelle gave. By 1896, an obituary could place a burial simply in “the old grave yard near Grassy Run.”
Works Progress Administration (WPA) Veterans’ Graves Registration plat, Grassy Run Cemetery and Bloomington Cemetery, Wilson Township, Clinton County, Ohio, 1938–1940, Page 9. Scan: Clinton County Engineer’s GIS website.
She asked for her husband back.
Reuben Mills had a hand in the township itself. In 1850 he was one of more than a hundred householders who signed the petition that created Wilson Township. Three years later, in July 1853, the Mills family made the papers. On a Tuesday evening at the house in Wilson Township where they both lived, Reuben Mills struck his son John. The Clinton Republican reported that John, “over forty and blind,” was knocked from his chair, a joint in his neck dislocated, and “he died immediately.” The Herald of Freedom added that Reuben had gone to bed drunk, that John and a brother-in-law had been laughing at the table, and that Reuben, “supposing they were laughing at him,” got up and struck. The Republican said both men were “under the influence of spirituous liquor.” Its headline read “Another Murder.”
The court used a different word. At the August term of the Court of Common Pleas, a grand jury indicted Reuben Mills for manslaughter. He pleaded not guilty. Twelve jurors found him guilty, and on August 26, 1853, the court ordered him to the state penitentiary, “kept at hard labor without solitary confinement for the term of one year from this day.” The sheriff was allowed one guard for the trip.
Then Nancy acted. On October 4, 1853, she signed a notice in the Clinton Republican: in three weeks, a petition would go to the Governor of Ohio, “at my instance and on my behalf, praying for the pardon of the said Reuben Mills.”
In October I went to the Ohio History Connection in Columbus, Ohio, to find out. The Ohio Penitentiary received Reuben Mills on August 29, 1853, as prisoner No. 2888. Its register describes a farmer of sixty-nine, born in North Carolina, with hazel eyes and gray hair, his habits entered as intemperate. He could read print but not write, and had no property. The clerk listed a wife living on Anderson’s Fork, Wilson Township, Clinton County, Ohio.
No pardon is recorded. He was discharged at the expiration of his sentence in August 1854, having served the full year. In Governor William Medill’s papers, I found no petition from Nancy in the folders for October 1853 through August 1854, though that does not prove she never sent one. Reuben died on November 4, 1854, just over two months after his release. Where he died is another question the records have not answered yet. Nancy died the next July.
On my visit, the lane back to the cemetery ran along a farm field, rutted and overgrown, so I parked by the faded sign on State Route 72 and walked in. Many of the old stones are down, some lying against trees, and those still standing are hard to read. People who live nearby didn’t know the cemetery was there. I’ve lived in this county for 55 years, and I didn’t either.
I plan to go back for the War of 1812 veterans the WPA map records here. If you have Mills or Cannady family papers from Wilson Township, I would like to hear from you.
Sources: Bloomington Cemetery and Grassy Run Cemetery, Clinton County WPA veterans’ grave plat, page 9 (scan: Clinton County Engineer’s GIS website). The History of Clinton County, Ohio (W. H. Beers & Co., 1882), Wilson Township chapter by Reuben B. Peelle, pp. 834 and 839–840. Albert J. Brown, ed., History of Clinton County, Ohio (B. F. Bowen & Co., 1915), pp. 160–161. Clinton County Court of Common Pleas, August Term 1853, State of Ohio v. Reuben Mills, pp. 569–571 (Clinton County Clerk of Courts). Ohio Penitentiary prisoners register, vol. 2 (1849–1855), prisoner No. 2888, State Archives Series 1536, microfilm GR 3627; William Medill Papers, MSS 303, Box 1 folders 5–10 and Box 2 folders 1–7 (both Ohio History Connection). Clinton Republican, July 29, 1853, p. 2; September 2, 1853, p. 2; and October 7, 1853, p. 2. The Herald of Freedom, July 29, 1853, p. 2 (all via Newspapers.com). Sabina News Record, April 2, 1896, p. 8 (via NewspaperArchive). Find a Grave memorials 25939595 (Reuben Mills) and 25939603 (Nancy Cannady Mills).
