It was a very emotional day here in the Ramsayer Research Library. Two of Don Mellett’s granddaughters, Sherry Herzer of Atlanta, Georgia, and Donna Adams and her husband, Ron made the trip from Indianapolis, Indiana to view the Pulitzer Prize awarded to the Canton Daily News after the murder of their beloved grandfather. They toured the museum with director, Joyce Yut, and Canton Repository reporter, Gary Brown.
When the two lady’s viewed the Pulitzer Prize having a special connection with their grandfather, Don Mellett, they teared up, and were filled with emotions. They sat with Gary Brown, and they related there story of how their grandmother was faced with a dilemma of what to do with her husband after he was shot. She had four children upstairs, and she was afraid to call the police. According to Donna and Sherry, their grandmother dragged her husband from the driveway, and into the house. She finally decided to call the police. Ron, Donna’s husband, told me about the photograph of the four children on the front steps of the Mellett Home on Tuscarawas West, taken the next morning. One of the initial rewards offered for the arrest of Don Mellett’s murder was $27,000.00 dollars. I calculated the $27,000.00 dollars in 1926 would be equivalent to $364,000.00 today!
Thank you to all of our McKinley Presidential Library & Museum members for supporting us, and helping us preserve our collection, and make it available to people like Donna and Ron Adams, and Sherry Herzer.
More Later…
Archivist's Attic... 