I wrote one day last week about Chariton's 1933 Independence Day celebration, an event that drew an estimated 10,000 people to the square on Tuesday, July 4. Follow this link to find, "Celebrating the 4th in a big way at Chariton in 1933".
What I didn't mention at the time was the big courthouse robbery that had occurred during lunch hour on the preceding Friday, June 30 --- fireworks of another sort.
Or how that robbery was related to this giant safe, sometimes referred to as the beast in the basement, that has had a place of honor since 1983 in the Coal Mine Gallery at the Lucas County Historical Society Museum. So here goes ....
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Keep in mind that, as L. P. Hartley wrote back in 1953, "the past is a foreign country: They do things differently there."
At the Lucas County Courthouse during July of 1933, office doors were locked at noon and officials and staff left the building for lunch --- perhaps a sack lunch on the grounds but most likely either at home or in a restaurant on or just off the square.
While everyone was out to lunch that Friday, a party or parties unknown broke the lock on the door to the treasurer's office, entered and forced two doors on the vault, original equipment in the 1894 courthouse. Inside, was $2,195 in cash.
Here's how The Chariton Leader dated July 4 but prepared for publication on July 3 reported the robbery:
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Baffled at every turn by lack of substantial clues, state and county officials are continuing their search for thieves who during the noon hour Friday stole $2,195 from the vault in the office of the Lucas county treasurer.
The loss is covered by insurance, it was learned at the treasurer's office today.
Entry to the vault was made between 12:20 and 12:55 p.m. while county employees were at lunch.
Breaking the lock on the office door, the thieves are believed to have pounded the handle of the heavy vault door until the combination was jarred to a point where it would release the lock. The second vault door was entered by forcing a chisel through the key hole, evidence shows.
County Treasurer John R. Barnett left the office at 12:15 p.m. The theft was discovered by Herman Atwell, deputy treasurer, when he returned from lunch at 12:55.
The larger share of the loot, in bundles of $20 bills, was in a safe within the vault. The safe was unlocked. Some of the money was in a cash drawer which had been placed in the vault during the noon hour.
Checks and other papers were ignored by the thieves, although drawers in the outer office had been rifled.
Approximately 30 persons were seated in benches around the courthouse at various times during the robbery. None has been found who heard an unusual noise or saw any suspicious person.
At the request of county officials, state officers Lacey and Robinson and L.W. Neary, fingerprint expert, were sent here by the state bureau of criminal investigation.
Neary obtained photos of fingerprints on the vault and recorded the fingerprints of courthouse workers. The result of his findings has not yet been announced.
Lacy and Robinson left Chariton Saturday night. They did not make public any results of their investigation.
Lacey said that he believed more than one man had taken part in the robbery. He declared that they were apparently experienced in the work and knew the routine of work in the courthouse as well as the plan of the building.
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Also noted in The Leader of July 4, 1933, was the fact that this was the second time that robbers had invaded the county treasurer's office and made off with cash under roughly the same circumstances.
The county treasurer and his assistant left for lunch some 35 years earlier, on Nov. 12, 1898, and when they returned the county's ready cash, $1,600, was missing from the office vault. This time, however, there was no sign of forced entry and the vault was undamaged.
You can read about that robbery here, in a post headlined "The unresolved courthouse robbery of 1898."
And keep in mind that neither robbery ever was resolved, nor was cash recovered. So feel free to speculate. Both robberies remain Lucas County cold cases.
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After the 1933 robbery, however, the vault in the treasurer's office was in such a sorry state that the county supervisors decided something more secure was in order.
As it happened, Russell's Citizens' State Bank, founded during 1916 in this building on the north side of that city's main street by, among others, Percy Sprague and Atlee Winsor, had gone belly-up during 1931.
If you look carefully, you'll see the bank's vault --- actually a jumbo-sized cylinder safe --- in the front windows to the right.
That meant the safe was among bank assets now for sale and Lucas County's supervisors, knowing a bargain when they saw one, snapped it up for $100 and installed it in the treasurer's office.
Here's a report on that purchase, published in The Herald Patriot of July 6, 1933:
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Lucas county funds will be kept in a new vault, O.H. Cottingham, member of the board of supervisors, announced today. The board completed negotiations for the vault Wednesday afternoon. The vault at present is located in the Citizens State Bank at Russell.
According to board members, the vault was purchased for $100. The original price of the vault when purchased by the Russell bank was $1,400.
The present vault, in service since 1894, has become slightly battered by the two attacks made upon it in robberies since that time.
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The Citizens State Bank vault served Lucas County for 50 years --- until 1983, when it was decommissioned and moved to the museum.
It weighs a ton, literally, and we all can hope that its traveling days are over and done with.
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