Holmes County, Ohio: History
Holmes County was formed on January 20, 1824, from portions of Coshocton, Tuscarawas and Wayne counties. It was named after Major Andrew Holmes, who was killed in action at the Battle of Mackinac Island.
In 1863, during the Civil War, numerous small anti-draft riots took place, mainly in the German-speaking areas. Holmes County at the time was a Democratic stronghold, dominated by its Pennsylvania Dutch settlers, along with many recent German immigrants. With the passage of the Conscription Act in March 1863, Holmes County politicians denounced both Congress and President Lincoln as despotic, saying that forced military service was little different from slavery. Conscription had been common in their former German homelands, and it was one of the reasons they had moved to America. Violent protests broke out in June, and they continued until the Union Army marched into the county and declared martial law. Stephen E. Towne in 2019, using archival records, argues that many of the resisters belonged to secret organizations that opposed Union tactics to defeat the Confederacy.
In the spring of 1892, a Black man from Mt. Vernon or Wooster, Ohio, whose name remains unknown, was walking through the county. After he had been in town for a few days, a group of white people decided to lynch him because he “lingered about people’s doorsteps and angered them in various ways.” On April 1, 1892, a mob gathered after nightfall, abducted the man, and hanged him from a tree in the public square in front of the county courthouse.