This is not the story I intended to write when I was researching; wandering through 1924-25 looking for a. certain piece, and I stumbled across the following story...I've been looking at many, many photographs taken by my grandfather Roscoe through the years. The photograph I found with the story was not new to me. I'd seen it before. And several people speculated as to the identity of the person in it. We could plainly see that the gentleman was a crossing attendant at one of the rail crossings in town. The crossing attendants would lower a gate when a train was going through town, and then raise it as they went by. But nobody really knew who this fellow was; until now.
His name was Clark Jay. After 75 years of life he kept a room in the back of the old Evangelical Church. Born in Florence Township in 1850 he was the youngest of three children born to Freeman and Dolly Jay. His father was a blacksmith. In his early years he was a sailor. Later he was in charge of the old Lake House (eventually the Maudelton Hotel) for about a dozen years. Then he was the man in charge of fish houses in Huron and Vermilion. His last job was as a watchman on the Grand Street crossing of the New York Central RR.
Nobody will ever know the true story of the last days and thoughts of this man. He was getting old, he was not in good health, and allegedly fretting about losing his home to his son Charles.
In 1924 he made arrangements with A.E. Beeckel for his funeral. He· demanded that there be "neither minister nor flowers" at his passing. He placed the money in the Bank of Vermilion (where Williams' Law Offices were located after The Great Depression of 1929).
And here is an eerie letter he gave to Mr. Beeckel:[Charles was Jay's son.]Vermilion, Ohio, May 7,1924 . Mr. A.E. Beeckel:
This is to show how I want my body buried and funeral conducted. I don't want any funeral whatever, just to be taken from your morgue and no minister, not a flower and to be strictly private, and don't allow anyone to see me while in the morgue and only keep me as short time as possible. You will find my clothes laid out and all ready at the place where I am boarding. Enclosed you will find a Deed for the cemetery lot so that there can't be any misunderstanding about the place to lay me away and bury me just as the contract made between us, which is in The Bank of Vermilion, money and all. I may pay for a cement vault if so you will be the gainer of $10 in saving of the outside rough box and possibly the grave digging.
Clark Jay P.S. Keep this so if Charles wants to see it, but don't vary in any way from this statement.
In early summer of 1924, Jay went to Alheit's (Vermilion) Hardware store asking Alheit to get some dynamite. He told Alheit that he was going on a fishing vacation and had a friend up north who owned a lake. During the last week of August Alheit sold Jay 13 sticks of dynamite he got from a factory near Amherst. Jay later told him that his friend had taken the dynamite in his machine (i.e. his automobile) to the lake.
When dawn came on Tuesday, August 1st, 1925 Jay asked a friend (one Clarence Wagner) who also kept a room in the old church to help him carry some "cut glass" to the home of a friend on Exchange Street. He said he wanted to get it there early because he was going to catch an early train on the Nickel Plate. Mr. Wagner helped him and set the basket on the front porch of the home. Unbeknownst to Mr. Wagner it was the home of one Charles Jay, Clark Jay's son - the home which had previously belonged to him.
Clark Jay took the basket and went around to the back of the home fully expecting Wagner to leave and go to work. But Wagner was curious. He went around to the back of the house and saw Jay stooped over with a lit match in his hand. Wagner asked him why he was trying to set his friend's house on fire. Jay didn't hesitate to answer, "Hell man, this is dynamite!"Jay had planted the dynamite all around the home and stuck it into all the ventilators. Wagner snatched the lit fuse and threw it into the street and awakened the family in the house telling them it was about to explode.
Mr. Jay's attempt to demolish the house, and kill his son and his son's wife, Estella, thwarted, he withdrew to his room in the church and locked the door.
Vermilion's Marshall Stevens, unable to enter Jay's room through the door raised the window and pushed the curtain aside, and looked straight into the barrel of a revolver. Perhaps Jay thought it was his son, but he didn't fire at the Marshall. A concerted attempt was made by Marshall Stevens, Sheriff Harry E. Cole, and John Hettler to convince Jay to surrender without force. And just as the door was being broken down a shot rang out inside the room. Clark Jay had taken his own life.
On November 22, 1925 Clark Jay had turned 75 years of age. His wife Matilda had been dead for 4 years. He had lived with his son some time after the death of his wife, but had taken the room at the church about two years earlier.
The dynamite he had planted around his son's home was enough to blow-up half the town. The village of Vermilion had truly dodged a bullet. I don't know that Clarence Wagner was ever recognized as a hero. But that's what he was.Clark Jay was obviously a disturbed, distraught, soul. What on earth was he thinking? Did he really hate his son that much? Did he hate the village that much? I think of all the school children in the north end of the village who crossed those tracks on Grand Street headed for the school on State Street and passed him by.
Was he a pleasant man? Was he gruff; mean? Who knows? Tis now become a part of the mystery that is the history of Vermilion, Ohio.
Ref: The Vermilion News, August 1925; Ancestry.com U.S. Census Records; 1850, 1880, 1910. and 1920 Published in the Vermilion Photojournal 8-15-02
Revised Version written 9-04-06Original Written on 8-11-02
Previous Bio Next Bio
Return to Profile Index Page
© 2006 Rich Tarrant
