SoutheasternOhioPreps.com

This interesting tale is from Sabina, Ohio...Clinton County...so it might be a little too southwestern for this board, but it's still pretty cool, lol

On June 6, 1929, the body of a black man was found in a ditch in Clinton County, Ohio, apparently dead of natural causes. The man, who appeared to be about fifty-five years old and was found off of the 3C Highway, had no identification on him, save for a small slip of paper bearing the address "1118 Yale Avenue, Cincinnati.

Unfortunately, the address that was found was merely a vacant lot. Therefore, with no identification, the man was dubbed "Eugene" after Eugene Johnson, the man who lived in the lot NEXT to the vacant address.

Olin Moon of the Littleton Funeral Home prepared the body using the regular embalming techniques, but the funeral was delayed in hopes that family or friends would recognize the body and claim it. It is said that one man did appear to recognize the corpse, but did not say anything.

At the time, it was popular to display bodies as tourist attractions, and sadly, that is what Eugene became. It was housed in a special addition off the funeral home, where he became a local celebrity. The area became a popular spot for the bus between Columbus and Cincinnati to stop for a rest break, and millions stopped by for their own look at Eugene.

Eugene was also kidnapped several times as collegiate pranks, once winding up at the Ohio State University in Columbus. Shortly after his last kidnapping, it was decided that Eugene should finally be buried. It had been over thirty years with no one claiming him, and thus it was unlikely that anyone ever would.

On a brisk October day in 1964, Eugene was finally buried in the Sabina Cemetery. Chairs were set up for the absent family and friends, and eight pall bearers carried the casket from the Littleton Funeral Home hearse to its final resting spot.

From: http://www.freewebs.com/paratheresa/weirdhistory.htm

I remember seeing Eugene when I was very young. We lived in Springboro at the time which is just right outside Dayton and I remember my dad taking us over to see him. If I remember correctly, he was very tall, or at least that what I thought at the time but i was only around 5 years old. It was odd the way they displayed him for everyone to see. No way you could get by with that nowadays.

Burg_Grad_77 wrote:I remember seeing Eugene when I was very young. We lived in Springboro at the time which is just right outside Dayton and I remember my dad taking us over to see him. If I remember correctly, he was very tall, or at least that what I thought at the time but i was only around 5 years old. It was odd the way they displayed him for everyone to see. No way you could get by with that nowadays.

Like you, I remember seeing Eugene, shortly after my 4th birthday, late September of 1964. My dad took me over cause he had heard that they were finally going to bury him. It wasnt a long trip for us, either. I grew up in Franklin.

I wish I was a mummy

Psyco Tartan wrote:I wish I was a mummy

Have kids

neat!

Obviously whoever wrote the essay had little understanding of our colleges as there is no such place as the University of Ohio. But the rest of it is kind of cool. Thanks for sharing.

I prefer "a misprint" as I wrote that fairly quickly, as opposed to having a little understanding of Ohio's college system (especially since I've been to the particular college, and the city its in numerous times)...but thank you for pointing out that error, drrabit. I will certainly update with the corrections.

My Dad used to tell us stories about this, but we thought he was just kidding us.

I grew up in Wilmington, but my family started out in eastern Clinton Co, and I had many aunts/uncles/cousins in the Lees Creek/Sabina area - some cousins still live there.
Littleton was and still is our family's Funeral Home of choice - they have buried both my parents, 2 of my grandparents, several aunts and uncles, and will bury me when the time comes. I have been there frequently and saw "Eugene" many times as a child/teenager.
He wasn't a "mummy". Littleton embalmbed his body at the time but did not bury him in the hope of finding relatives and getting him identified. As time went by, the obviously good preservation of his body became a kind of defacto advertisement/proof of their good work.
He had his own little building, and his body lay in state in a casket behind a screen window.
And I remember him as a small, slightly built man - emaciated and under-fed looking.
As more time went by without identification, his continued display began to seem disrespectful, and they buried him. "Eugene" in death was actually a respected part of Clinton County history.
And, yes, his corpse was indeed kidnapped and treated as a joke more than once by college pranksters; but Littleton Funeral Home always treated his remains with respect, and they made continued efforts to find his identity and family to no avail - so he was buried anonymously.