When it comes to old houses, why does it seem that it’s always the seemingly ordinary old farm houses that have the most interesting history? This unassuming old house sits atop a hill looking out over beautiful rolling hills of Ohio farmland. Other than it’s perfectly perched placement, you wouldn’t think it could tell such a story. This old farm House is the former home of David Miller – the man who hired two Washington township residents – Clyde Bourne and Chester Smith – to murder a man and woman whom he had been worried about after burning a neighbor’s barn. If that sounds confusing, don’t worry, it will all be explained! 

David Miller lived in this home with his family during the early 1900s. It’s the house where he and his wife, Emma, raised their four children, sons Ora and Fred, and daughters Erma and Mary Belle. 

Miller was a wealthy and well-known Washington township farmer. He owned much of the land surrounding, all known at the time as the Miller farm. There were other homes and barns on the property, which David rented to tenants. One tenant in particular unfortunately would fall into the wrong place at the wrong time. What most likely started as a feud between families eventually erupted into the insane actions of Miller, when one day he decided to burn the barn owned by E.G. McMillen and his son J. A. McMillen. 

Miller was taken in under suspicion for questioning and held in jail for two days. Without any evidence that he had done anything, they had to release him, and he returned home to his farmhouse atop the hill. Unfortunately for the Cramblett family, Miller caught notice that one of them may have seen something, and knew too much. The Crambletts, Elijah and Naomi, resided on a farm that was part of land owned by David Miller. Their home was in the vicinity of Gilmore Road at the bottom of a ravine, not far across from Miller’s house.

Worried that they would turn him in, he began planning a murder and crafting a story to surround it. 

Fearing that he may be found out to have burned the neighboring barn, Miller fabricated a story claiming that the Crambletts committed arson, and he feared that they may throw the blame on him. Of course this story barely held up with anyone, and he would eventually spill the truth to both Clyde and Chester.

Murder plans started when Bourne visited the Miller’s farm on May 17th to ask for a drink of cider. During this visit, it was brought into conversation that Elijah “Lige” Cramblett had turned against Miller because of the barn burnings. Miller said “if I had Lige out of the way, I would be free.” Miller then asked Bourne if he would help him by killing Cramblett. From Bourne’s story, he claimed at that moment he left, leaving Miller standing in the driveway near the garage. Days later, on May 24th Bourne visited resident Adam Helter’s house, where Chester Smith stayed, only to find nobody home. As he was leaving, Smith arrived, and they had a brief conversation about Miller. They left the Helter’s house, and headed to Miller’s. According to his story, that’s when Miller walked out, and said “are you boys ready to do that job?”

To this, Bourne replied “how much is there in it, Dave?”

They were each offered $25 dollars to get rid of the Crambletts, which they accepted.

On May 24, 1933 the two men killed Elijah and Naomi Cramblett.

Miller told them they needed to make Elijah’s death look like a suicide, and to make it appear that he had murdered his wife. Chester went ahead to wait for them in the hollow armed with a 12 gauge shotgun that Miller had given them. Clyde knocked on the door, and when Lige answered, he told him that another local, Jesse, wanted to see him. They went together on a path down through the hollow on the left side of the ravine. At the point where the briars were on both sides of the path, they separated and Lige walked in front of Bourne. As they approached where Chester was hidden off to the side, he raised the gun and shot Lige. The two then headed back to the house. Upon their arrival back, Bourne called Naomi out and shot her. Residents stated to the police they had remembered hearing the gunshots.

Not long after, the two returned with Miller who then helped move the bodies into position as they were found days later. It was at this time that Miller also brought fake suicide notes he had made to plant at the scene, hoping it would cover up the crime.

The Cramblett’s bodies were not discovered until 15 days later on June 8th, 1933. Their bodies at this point had become badly decomposed and Elijah’s had been pecked away heavily by buzzards.

The decomposing bodies were discovered by farmhand Alfred Jarvis, who at the time was employed by Miller. He had arrived at the Cramblett’s home to repair a chimney when he caught an odd odor coming from the house. After taking a look around the property, he looked in through the kitchen window to see the body of Naomi Cramblett lying on the floor. Elija’s body was found approximately six hours later in a large bunch of brush about 300 yards away from their home. Elijah and Naomi were both 60 years old when they were killed.

Investigations around the farm were carried out by Sheriff Abe Laird and his deputies, and the bodies were taken to be examined. 

On June 13th, 1933 an autopsy was performed by three physicians at a Gnadenhutten mortuary. Physicians Dr. Max Shaweker from Dover, Dr. William C. Roche from Gnadenhutten, and Dr. W. W. M. Curtis from Dennison worked together examining the bodies. It was revealed that the couple were both killed with a shotgun. During Naomi’s autopsy, fragments of her false teeth were found embedded into the back part of her skull after a shot was fired into her mouth.

Tucked away in a sack of cornmeal, investigators found a note written by David Miller. The farmer thought he would be able to throw everyone off of his trail by forging Cramblett’s name on a suicide note. The note read:

“I have burned Frank Kennedy’s barn; I burned Harry McMillen’s barn; I killed my sweetheart and I am going to kill myself.”

The note was signed “Lige Cramblett.”

The entire community had become suspicious of this note, as many claimed that he was unable to read and write, therefore could not have written such a note. Not only this, but nobody believed he would have burned property or acted out this way. 

On Saturday July 1, 1933 David Miller was arrested at his home by Sheriff Abe Laird. It was on this very porch that Miller sat when the sheriff arrived.

Miller had not fought the arrest, but only made one request – that he be allowed inside his home to change his clothes. Miller’s wife and his daughter were inside to witness him being taken upstairs by the sheriff. After he changed his clothes, he searched a chest frantically for a check, which he was unable to find. He attempted to stall and continue his search for the check, but was finally forced from his home by Laird.

Deputies Myers and Host arrived a short while after to the Miller home with a search warrant in hand. Mrs. Miller guided them through the home and barns as they performed their search.

Common Pleas Judge E. E. Lindsay was assigned to the court case. Miller hired attorney Henry Bowers of Bowers & Bowers to defend him in court.

All of Miller’s children and wife were questioned leading up to, and during the case. His son Fred was questioned for three hours on the morning of July 12th, 1933. Mr. and Mrs. Harry McMillen and Chester Smith, all neighbors of Miller were all called in to testify as well.

On August 1, 1933, 23-year-old Chester Smith of Newcomerstown, and David’s own son, Ora, 27 at the time, were arrested and brought to the county jail due to new developments in the investigation. They were both held on charges of first degree murder. Attorney H. I. N. Stafford was brought in to assist the law firm of Bowers & Bowers in the defense of David Miller and his son, Ora. 

Though, with little evidence to go on, the court was still in the dark on what had fully happened, and had no idea at the time that two other people were paid to commit the murders. At first, the court was operating purely on a bit of a guessing game.

Miller pleaded not guilty on July 17, 1933 and continued to plead innocent. It wasn’t until October that one of the biggest pieces of evidence in the case would land right into the court’s hands. On October 13, 1933 Chester Smith and Clyde Bourne stepped forward and pleaded guilty to the murder. It was still suspected however, that another person may be involved in the murders, and for that the court pointed to David’s son, Ora.

Scott E. Leslie, a handwriting expert from New York City, and Edwin H. Fearon of Pittsburgh were subpoenaed and brought in to compare David Miller’s handwriting with the two suicide notes discovered on the Cramblett property. Fearon was tasked with photographing and comparing the handwriting. Leslie later testified that the notes were indeed written by David Miller after comparing them with many instances of his handwriting. 

On October 18, 1933 a double barrel shotgun was identified to be Cramblett’s. When coroner Albert Balmer arrived on the scene to investigate the bodies, Mr. Cramblett’s body was discovered missing his head, laying atop his gun with two shells in his pocket, made to look as if he had shot himself.

During the case, hundreds of spectators clambered to see what was going on in the courtroom. The courtroom was packed, and hundreds of people were turned away. Over 150 people were packed into the corridors outside of the courtroom just to listen.

On October 19, 1933 it was revealed to the court that the farmhands had been paid $50 – $25 each – to kill the Crambletts. Clyde Bourne and Chester Smith confessed everything to the court, detailing exactly how the murders were planned and played out, which is of course why that more detailed account told earlier is even known.

At this point in the court case, the public had become so interested in what was happening that they had to barricade the courtroom doors with a bench to stop people from flooding in. Every inch of space in the room was occupied as people looked on as Miller took the stand on October 24, 1933.

On October 27, 1933, after four hours and twelve minutes of deliberating, the jury had reached their verdict. David Miller was found guilty of arson and first degree murder of Naomi Myrtle Cramblett and her husband Elijah Cramblett by a jury of ten men and two women in common pleas court. Miller, Bourne and Smith were all sentenced to spend the remainder of their life in the state penitentiary without hope for pardon. For aiding the state in the conviction of David Miller, Bourne and Smith were spared from the electric chair, which was initially supposed to be their sentence.

Ora Miller, still scheduled to stand trial on a first degree murder charge now had a court date of December 4th. Before that however, on November 14th, 1933 with Jonathan S. Hare as prosecutor, Ora Miller was cleared of two first degree murder charges. Hare stated that the court only had a “weak case” against Miller. With this, the court case was finally over, ending with the three men imprisoned for life. 

On June 30, 1936, a criminologist Edwin J. Creel asked Governor Davey to pardon David Miller, re-opening the Cramblett murder case. Creel stated that based on a photograph of David Miller, he could prove that he was innocent, stating that he had spent his life studying physiological characteristics of criminals, and just by a study of Miller’s head, he was able to determine that his type did not fit into any criminal classification. Of course Creel was met with laughter from Hare and Laird. Hare believed that the only reason Creel had become involved was because he was being paid by someone. Creel had even attempted to state that Smith and Bourne confessed to falsely testifying, fabricating their entire stories. None of this held up, and Miller was not released, as Creel had hoped for. 

On July 17, 1945, Chester Smith, along with fellow prisoners Donald Clinger, Wash Lester, and Chester Kilinski escaped the London prison farm where they were being held at the time. Of the four men, Lester was the only one that had decided to return to the prison voluntarily later that same day. Chester Smith was never found or heard from again.

On May 8, 1951, Clyde Bourne was granted parole from the Ohio Penitentiary, which would take effect June 14, 1951. At this time, Bourne was acting as chauffeur for Governor Lausche. His sentence was moved from first degree murder to second degree murder in March earlier the same year, which made him eligible for parole.

On Sunday February 15, 1965, David Miller died at the age of 86 at James Hospital in Columbus, twenty years after the death of his wife, Emma. Services for Miller were held at the Botimer Funeral Home in Gnadenhutten, officiated by Reverend Doran Garey. Miller was buried in the West Union Cemetery on Gilmore Road.

The home continued to be occupied by Miller’s family, until being passed on decades later to another owner who would go on to rent it out. Over the years, various renters neglected the property, and the owner did little to fix anything.

The home was built originally sometime in the late 1800s, with sheds and barns being added between 1900-1958. Looking at it today, you can see the asbestos-cement siding still hanging on after more than 120 years. The interior however, which had been made up of horsehair plaster, was removed during an attempt to renovate the home. When new owners acquired it in 2019, it was in very rough shape, but they had hoped to restore it and bring new life to it as a home for their daughter. It was ultimately decided that the home would not be worthy of the high restoration costs. The current owner aims to either demolish the old structure, or repurpose it as storage on his farm.

Not far from this home is the historic town of Gnadenhutten, which also holds many very interesting stories. Though some of the history may be a bit gruesome, there are many stories to be heard. Learn about Gnadenhutten HERE