Canfield lawman to get his due

By Ed Runyan

The marshal’s killers were sentenced to life in the penitentiary.

CANFIELD — More than 127 years ago, a 28-year-old lawman named John M. Cone lost his life serving the town of Canfield.

His sacrifice is now commemorated on a Web site run by the Ohio Concerns of Police Survivors organization. His name will be added to the Ohio Fallen Officers’ Memorial at the Ohio Peace Office Training Academy in London, Ohio, where a ceremony honoring him will be conducted May 1.

The training academy recently approved the recognition after Cone’s story was reported to them by the Canfield Police Department.

Cone was serving as chief town marshal in Canfield on July 18, 1880, when two brothers, Homer and Lot Harroff of West Austintown (described in the newspaper as being five miles north of Canfield) came to Canfield with a score to settle.

The brothers had been to Canfield many times to attend the county fair and were known to get into trouble, a local newspaper account from 1880 reported. Marshal Cone had sent the brothers out of town several times for causing problems.

The brothers were from “Dutch Ridge,” one mile southwest of West Austintown, the newspaper said, and they “engaged in quite a number of fights, in which they freely used knifes and pistols,” it said.

They were “looked upon as two of the most wicked, desperate and dangerous fellows in that part of the county,” it added.

While looking at revolvers in a Canfield grocery store, the brothers told the clerk they “intended to kill John Cone before they left town,” the newspaper reported.

After buying a revolver, the brothers proceeded to the fairgrounds and caused a disturbance to attract Cone. The chief marshal then drove the brothers out of the fairgrounds and into the town, where he pleaded with them to leave.

Homer Harroff pulled out a beer bottle and attempted to strike Cone with it, but Cone dodged the blow. Lot Harroff then shot Cone in the eye, with the bullet lodging in Cone’s brain. The Harroffs and some friends then fled.

Cone died in his home six hours later, leaving a widow and two children.

The Harroffs were apprehended within two days and convicted of second degree murder at trial several months later. They were sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in the penitentiary.

The Ohio Fallen Officers’ Memorial contains two circular walls inscribed with the names of Ohio’s fallen officers. There are 670 names on it so far.

A flame in the center of the memorial serves as an eternal symbol of the dedication to service and the ultimate price paid by these officers, the training academy says.

A third circular sitting wall allows visitors the opportunity to reflect on what it means for a peace officer to abide by the oath to serve and protect.

Other area departments with officers named on the memorial are Youngstown, Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department, Poland, Youngstown State University, Campbell, Niles, Struthers, Lowellville, New Middletown, and Newton Falls.

The Web site containing the names of fallen Ohio police officers is at www.ohiofallenofficers.com/thelist.cfm.

runyan@vindy.com