A Thomas McCrary remembered:
I lived with Ed Stanton from August, 1837, until March 1838. He was one of the kindest and most affectionate of men. I had many talks with him after his wife died and he could never speak of her without weeping. [...] Ed never hunted an hour in his life. He worked all the time, worked terribly. He invariably carried, in a beautiful sheath on the inside of his vest, a fine dagger, seven inches in length. As he gave no time, not a moment, to personal controversies, and was never abroad except on business, I never decided why he carried such a dreadful weapon.Was this an implement for suicide? from a Judge A.C. Turner, a Cadiz lawyer during this period:
When Mr. Stanton was employed to defend a man who had administered to a person poison that finally caused death, he swallowed some of the drug in order to test the effect on himself. The consequences were severe, but the whites of eggs and other antidotes brought him out whole, and he saved the man's neck.H.S. McFadden, a bank employee in Cadiz:
... having tried poison on himself [Stanton] appeared to know more than all the doctors.In the winter of 1847, Stanton, a successful attorney, began giving regular public shows of hypnotism. Mrs. David Filsom of Steubenville:
Calling for volunteer subjects, he put many 'to sleep,' as it was called, and controlled them, bringing them out at will. One night, however, in Stier's Hall, he went to far in mesmerizing a man named Taylor, an employee of the paper mill. After controlling the subject for a time he failed to bring the usual return to consciousness. Repeated efforts resulted similarly, and the audience became frightened. However, after great exertion, Mr. Stanton succeeded in bringing the subject back to life, and that ended public exhibitions of mesmerism in Steubenville.
