Vignettes Along the Road to Saline, Sunday, April 3, 2011

Saline's Sweeney Todd?

Sylvan township resident August Gates had had enough. He was convinced that Saline butcher Joseph Schmid was stealing his cows. All the time he'd spent feeding his cattle, sheltering them, hoping--hoping!--to make enough money from them to eke through another winter--this was too much. He lodged a formal complaint with the authorities.

And then he disappeared.

"The case was a peculiar one, in that the complaining witness could not be found or anyone who knows anything about him, although a number of persons talked with him before and at the time he made the complaint."

Schmid was discharged.

(shiver)