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Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Conway
Conway - A birth "mark" on a child's face of this town was successfully removed without a physician's aid, by simply pricking it repeatedly, letting out the blood that had gathered and centered in that part. It was nearly as large as a silver dollar. Sufficient time has not elapsed to prove the cure sure and permanent.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 6, 1875
Conway
Conway - One of our family men experienced both a father’s and a mother’s solicitude the other day, losing his 3 children for the time being. He went away recently, and left his motherless ones alone. Coming home at night he found the house deserted. Search was made at all the neighbors without success. Returning about midnight, wearied and anxious and not a trace. Going to the barn, the boys were all found upon the hay mow fast asleep. Feeling lonely and it being warm, they had taken a blanket, spread it upon the soft new hay, and found sweet repose. Their father will know where to look next time.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 16, 1875
An imitator of Jesse Pomeroy
The Boston Post says that much excitement was created in Newton, Mass. last week in consequence of the development regarding a youth named Archibald Jackson, who was examined before trial justice B.B. Johnson on the 3rd. Jackson, who is about 18 years of age and respectably connected, inveigled into a field a child named William Mullen. With Jackson was a boy named John Dwyer, 9 years younger, who was intimidated by his older companion to join him, not knowing for what purpose he was wanted.
When Jackson succeeded in getting the Mullen child into the field, he deliberately stripped him naked and then administered to him a severe whipping, after which he taunted the little fellow on his helpless condition. While thus engaged, Jackson saw approaching a girl about 11 years of age, whereupon he tied the limbs of the Mullen boy, and then called the girl to him. At first she appeared reluctant but was induced to draw near to Jackson, who seized and led her to the prostrate form of his little victim, compelling her to gaze upon the boy in his nude state.
He then released the girl who fled at once. Then he untied young Mullen, who dressed rapidly and was about to depart, when Jackson again approached him with the evident intention of renewing his atrocities. Young Mullen, however, was dressed by this time, and in such a desperate frame of mind, that when he saw his tormentor approaching, he drew out his pocket knife and threatened to stab Johnson.
The latter thereupon picked up an ax halve he had carried, dealt the lad a very severe blow upon one hand, compelling him to drop the weapon and flee for his life. He succeeded in reaching his home without further injury, and then gave information which led to the arrest of Jackson.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 2, 1875
News of the week
A man named Baker, a Providence painter about 40 years old, was arrested at Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard a few days ago, for attempting to outrage several little girls, daughters of summer residents, but as the parents did not wish to give publicity to the matter, he was allowed to go on condition of leaving the State.
June 23, a little son of William F. Tower of Monroe, aged about 17 months, died through the effects of taking what is called "elixir of opium" which is nothing more nor less than Laudanum, and which was given by the mother, in 15 or 20 drop doses once an hour, by the advice of an old Florida woman, who said it would cause the worms which were supposed to be in the child’s stomach, to have a good sleep, in an hour or so give a good dose of senna and the worms would be expelled from the child, and all would be right; but the child went to sleep never to awake, and the worms have not made their appearance yet.
The bereaved parents have the sympathy of all the neighbors, and no blame whatever is laid to them, as they were entirely ignorant of the poisonous effects of the drug they were giving. After the mother saw that her child was breathing with quick inspirations and rattling in the throat, she took it in her arms and carried it one third of a mile to the nearest neighbor for assistance, but it was too late. The last dose had been given about 11 o’clock on Wed. A.M., and about half past 2, some 3 hours after she arrived at the neighbor’s house, and everything was done by them to empty the stomach of the child, such as tickling the throat and giving emetics, etc. but to no effect.
The child never moved a muscle from half past 3 till it died, which was about 11 at night, living some 12 hours after the last dose It is a sad thing to see the child cut down in health as it were, and at an age when all the cares of the parents and affections of its brother and sister were at its very height of enjoyment. The little fellow was at play in the morning as ever and at 11 at night was a corpse. This should be a sufficient warning to every one, how they use poisons or take the advice of old women and Indian doctors, who run wild in the woods and get a great skill in medicine without the trouble of study.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, June 21, 1875
Babies - welcome and unwelcome
The possessor of a thoroughly modern baby is to be pitied, and so is the child. We mean that unwelcome human atom which arrives in the family of the ultra fashionable lady, who believes that to be a mother at all, a woman must surely stand on the wrong side of fate. It cries, and what reason has it to do anything else? Then there is the baby of the wretched, overworked woman whose motherly instincts are strong and sweet, but whose many cares and duties are all pleading for attention at once, while the child wails for the tender touch of affectionate care, and its pathetic cry tells her that it possesses a dim, unreasoning, but still a certain conviction, that it is not wanted in the household. A dog knows when it is not invited to stay, and a baby is as conscious of a lack of cordial welcome, no matter how dearly it is beloved, after it has once been folded in its mother's arms, and its early life shows the blight...
Gazette & Courier - Monday, June 7, 1875
News about home: Greenfield items
Another woman on Sat. left her baby in its carriage on the sidewalk while she stepped into a store to do her shopping. The wheels ran down the inclined plane and dumped the infant into the dirt under a horse's feet; but the mother came out, picked up the child, brushed off the soil and fertilizers, put it back into the carriage, blocked the wheels with a dry goods bundle, and left it to shirk for itself once more.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, June 7, 1875
News of the week
John L. White of Boston is under arrest for outraging the person of Emma G. Escabel, the 10 year old daughter of his washerwoman, the girl having yielded to him through the influence of a promised visit to Barnum's hippodrome and a new silk dress.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, May 31, 1875
A child shut up and forgotten
A child shut up and forgotten [See the New York Times article for May 26, 1875]. He spit on his slate, and the teacher locked him in the school and he became imbecilic before they rescued him].
There is to be a resurrection of our cheese factory, Milton M. Mowry is to be the cheese maker, and he has proved himself one of the best at that. How often have I been chagrined at being asked "Why do not you Leyden farmers run your cheese factory?"...Now the advantage of the cheese factory aside from relieving our women of the hard toil of skimming and scalding and salting and spanking [OK, here's a segue. They spank the cheese! This reminds me of playing Farmer in the Dell when I was a kid. After the stanza "The rat takes the cheese" and before "The cheese stands alone", we had a stanza saying "We all pound the cheese", and all the kids pummeled the poor cheese a bit. However I see that this is traditionally not the case - I find only a very few references to "pound the cheese" on the Web. There's a few "beat the cheese" floating around. Wikipedia gives the French version of "le fromage est battu", which means "the cheese is beaten". Go figure!], and many other wearing and annoying things which none but overworked women can appreciate, it takes our milk right into its hospitable embrace just as the hot weather comes on (making good butter making more difficult), enabling the dairymen and dairywomen too, to enjoy a sort of holiday while their principal business keeps right steadily along with undiminished profit, entirely independent of the low prices invariably ruling the butter market at this season and the following 3 months...Anyone who contributes milk can have the whole of his portion in cheese...We have facilities for working 5000 pounds of milk daily, so you need not be afraid of filling us up at once. Caseine.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, May 31, 1875
Shelburne Falls
A little boy being smartly switched by his solemn parent for his obstinacy, upon being asked what he should do if he was a grown up man and had such a boy, promptly replied that he would take a stick to him.
They don't have much compassion on people who kill their illegitimate children in London, it seems. A woman who put her bastard child out of the way recently was sentenced to death in spite of a recommendation to mercy by the jury.
Mrs. Levina Gibbs of Wareham, returning to her babe, which she had left for a short time the other day, saw two rats jump from the cradle, and found the flesh of the left shoulder and arm badly lacerated. A little longer, and the rats would have killed the child.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, May 24, 1875
News of the week
Alonzo Jackson and Albert Smith, with their wives and 2 children each, went sailing on the river at Zanesville, Ohio Sun. aft. The men were drunk and couldn't manage the boat, consequently it was swept over a dam, and the two women, with a Jackson and a Smith child, were drowned.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, May 10, 1875
News of the week
A French woman at Lowell Mon., carelessly partook of morphine, supposing it to be the essence of peppermint, and also gave it to her children. One child died and the others narrowly escaped death.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, May 10, 1875
A negro near Memphis recently tried to murder his wife
A negro near Memphis recently tried to murder his wife. His two little children witnessed the affair, and to screen himself from justice he murdered or procured an accomplice to murder his little ones, 6 and 3 years of age. The villain is at large.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, May 3, 1875
In struggling to make a dull-brained boy understand what conscience is
In struggling to make a dull-brained boy understand what conscience is, a teacher finally asked, "What makes you feel uncomfortable after you have done wrong?" "The big leather strap" replied the boy.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, April 5, 1875
Hampshire County items
Somebody left a mulatto baby about 4 months old in a Northampton farmer's sleigh on Mon. night, and after it was taken to the Poor Farm it was found the little foundling had been heavily drugged. It finally recovered after being unconscious 48 hours.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, March 29, 1875
Inhuman treatment of a child
A case of cruelty to a girl 5 years old by her step-father, John Trent, of Danville, Ill., so atrocious as to be almost incredible, is now under investigation. The child's head was found to be almost bald, its hair having been plucked out by Trent in his rage; its body was covered with black and blue spots caused by blows from the hand of this monster; the bottoms of its feet were almost of solid blisters, caused by being bent back and slapped with a flat board.
/ Its eyes were red and inflamed from tobacco juice having been squirted into them; and the skin on its wrists was torn be being jerked and swung from side to side and around in a circle. Trent would keep the girl dancing up and down for hours at a time for his own amusement, and if the child would cease, he would apply the strap; and this kind of cruelty would continue till the child could dance no longer and would sink down overcome by exhaustion.
/ Frequently during the coldest weather of this winter, she has been locked in a cold room, with scarce enough clothing to cover its nakedness, and forced to remain thus for half a day at a time. The child's mother, who is a feeble, weakly woman in her examination before the justice showed great fear of her husband at times, her whole body being in a tremor.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, March 22, 1875
A little hero
Freddie Tenny of Alleghany, Pa. is a little fellow, only 10 years of age, whose parents recently left him at home to stay all night with his younger brother while they paid a visit. During the night Freddie was awakened by the smell of something burning. It happened that the house was on fire, having caught from some coals...Catching up his little brother he placed him outside the house, then got water and put out the flames, and after all danger was removed, replaced the child in bed, retired himself, and slept till morning, when he called in the neighbors to tell them what happened. He had been charged to care for the house and for his brother, and he had done so.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, March 22, 1875
Almost a tragedy
I'd kept myself at home all day / For on the dusty town / The sun, with dazzling, fiery ray / Had poured discomfort down / When night, with cold, refreshing shade / Overcame the sultry heat / No longer in the house I stayed / But quickly sought the street / I turned my steps, as oft before / Down to the river's side / I love to walk along the shore / And watch the flowing tide / A woman passed me and I thought / That as she hurried by / A faint peculiar sound I caught / A baby's smothered cry / The woman's face was thin and pale / In rags her form was clothed / Her whole demeanor told a tale / Of one despised and loathed / To reach the water, which was near / Her purpose seemed intent / Perhaps, thought I, with sudden fear / She's on some mischief bent / I heard, as if with terror wild / The infant shrilly scream / Oh heavens! I cried, she's brought the child / to drown it in the stream / I hastened on with all my might / But ere I reached the place / She held low down the luckless wight / And washed its dirty face. P.M.R., Rowe.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 22, 1875
The Lyme Conn. tragedy
The Lyme Conn. tragedy - Barbarous conduct of a father - The Hartford Times gives the following particulars of the sad affair which occurred at Lyme a few days since, brief mention of which has been made by telegraph. The full particulars of the tragedy in Lyme were not given in our Saturday paper, as they had not come to light at the time. Mr. Daniels, the father of the family, whose house was burned down on Thurs. night, is very poor, and most of the time under the influence of liquor. He and his wife were away at the time of the fire, and he has not once been heard from. The house, as was stated, caught fire from the explosion of a kerosene lamp, and the seven children had a very narrow escape from being burned to death. None of the residents of the village were aware of the fire until 7 o’clock the next morning, when Mr. William E. Coult, the nearest neighbor who lived a quarter of a mile away, found one of the Daniel boys, about 8 years of age, lying half frozen on the steps of his house. He learned from the boy that the Daniels house had been burned. Mr. Coult started for help [very very blurred]...the other 6 children huddled together...near the house. One...was entirely naked, and frozen stiff and dead. Another was badly frozen and has since died. The ages of the children range from 1 to 17 years. The most horrible part of the story yet remains to be told. It seems that Daniels, who is a wood cutter, returned from his work a week ago last Sat. night and found that during his absence the family had suffered for the necessities of life, and had been compelled to ask Mr. Coult and other neighbors for food. He made the most severe [?] against them...even if they starved. Fear from [?] was what compelled the freezing children to take refuge in the bushes instead of entering Mr. Coult’s house. The father had even punished the children for taking food from his neighbors, anbd thus when they were cast from their house, while it was burning, and in danger of freezing, they did not dare ask for help. When found, the [?] daughter of 13 years of age, was frozen and [?]. Her chemise, her only garment, had been torn off by the younger children to keep themselves warm. All that remained of the garment on her person was the nape and part of this, with portions of the [?]...remained on the ice when the body was removed. The boy found on Mr. Coult’s [?] had remained there from half past 2 o’clock until 7 o’clock in the morning, with no clothing on except his shirt and pants. Another horrible part remains to be told. A daughter of Daniels, 17 years old, was one of the party saved, and with her was found, clasped to her breast, her baby, 12 months old. The father of the babe, it is asserted by the town [?] of Lyme, is her own father! Daniels has left for parts unknown. His poor children are kindly cared for by humane persons in Lyme, while the authorities are trying to locate his whereabouts.
- Sun, Jan 24, 2010
