Mary Church Terrell: An Original Oberlin Activist

Groveland Street

The head of the household at 143 Groveland, William Craddock Vaughan, is recorded in census records as both a cooper and a carpenter.  Two of Vaughan's sons, Lewis and John, were close in age to Mollie. The stepson, Cassius, whose last name was Scott, was about 21 years old.

While Mollie was living with the Vaughans, in the fall of 1875, Scott and one of the Vaughan boys were linked to the death of a next-door neighbor, a Mr. Drury Cooper.  Apparently there had been an ongoing conflict between the neighbors prompting the building of “a high board fence” between the lots which obstructed the view between the houses. On Saturday, October 23, 1875 Mr. Cooper started to saw down the fence which led to a confrontation that unfortunately hastened his sudden and untimely death. At first no arrests were made but


Last Monday night Mr. Charles Myers, Constable of Elyria, arrested Cassius Scott upon the charge of murdering Drury Cooper.  The preliminary hearing is set for Thursday.  It will be remembered that this matter was satisfactorily disposed of some time ago, and the first intimation of trouble was the Constable’s clasping the hand-cuffs upon Scott’s wrists and reading the warrant for his arrest.  He was taken to Elyria Monday evening.  (Oberlin Weekly News, December 30, 1875, page 5).


By mid-January the case was turned over to the grand jury and in the end Scott was declared innocent of all charges.

It is not certain what effect, if any, this incident had on Terrell.  She does not mention the Vaughans in her memoir.