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Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
John Chinaman in New York
John Chinaman in New York - The New York Tribune describes the haunts of the Chinese in that city as follows:
In the Sixth Ward is a small district where most of the Chinese in New York live. A visitor to their opium smoking dens may go to Baxter Street, just below Franklin, where was formerly Donovan’s lane, the resort of the most desperate villains in the city, but which is now a Y-shaped court shut in on all sides by high tenement houses.
On the ground floor of one of these buildings is the establishment of "Old John", a Chinaman 74 years old, who has been in the United States 47 years, and was the first of his race to become naturalized. His quarters comprise three rooms. By the door is seated his assistant, who gives out the drug. Upon one side of the room is a low platform or dais; sometimes there are two, one above the other, like births upon which men are to be seen reclining in the different stages of opium intoxication. [How interesting - guess that’s where the word ’berths’ comes from].
The pipes consist of a bamboo stem and a porcelain bowl about 2 inches in diameter, in the centre [sic] of which is a small receptacle for the opium. A small piece of the drug is taken up on an iron rod and heated until it is dried to a proper consistency. Then it is inserted into the pipe, and the smoker slowly draws the smoke through, soon filling the whole room with a peculiar smell.
The proprietor furnishes his customers with pipes and a place to lie down. The drug is weighed out upon a rude pair of reed scales. The weight used is a silver coin. Each smoker is provided with a small horn box, which will contain about 15 cents’ worth of opium, enough to last an average smoker all night. The preparation is undoubtedly adulterated, since it costs the druggist $23.50 a pound.
A few doors below, on the same side, is another place where smoking is carried on, which does not differ materailly from Old John’s. There is, however, a temple connected with it. On the wall is hung a gayly [sic] painted picture of some Chinese god, at whose shoulder, on one side, man’s good angel is represented, and on the other, his evil angel.
The faces are very grotesque, and resemble those painted upon tea chests. Hanging upon the picture are numerous tinsel and paper flowers, with faces painted upon the petals, and a little below the picture is a shrine upon which stand two candles, to be lighted only upon festival occasions.
In the middle is a dish containing sand, in which are the burned fragments of several joss sticks. The pious Celestial lights one of these, and placing it in the sand on the altar prays to his deity. From the ceiling hangs two Chinese lanterns, and there is also a glass vessel containing some kind of vegetable oil in which floats a burning wick.
A cup of the same oil is placed in the shrine for the especial use of the god. Upon the wall are hung bulletin boards where the news which agitates the Chinese world is pasted. A curious scroll, resembling the red cover on a pack of fire crackers, attracts attention and proves to be a directory of business of the principal Chinese merchants in San Francisco.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Greenfield items
Greenfield - A number of our citizens, principally ladies, were taken in some weeks ago by a fellow pretending to be getting subscribers for a periodical called "Cottage Hearth".They paid their money, and when, after waiting a reasonable time the periodical did not make its appearance, they wrote to the publisher. They were told that no such agent had been engaged and they had been swindled. Moral: don't trust book agents, etc. with your money until you get the equivalent, and still better, don't have anything to do with them.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Greenfield items
Greenfield - There was a bloody melee among Manly McClure's brickmakers on Sat. Two, Cook and Tucker, beat a comrade's face into jelly. They were arrested by policemen Jones and Carbee, and bound over to the Superior Court by Justice Davis.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Greenfield items
Greenfield - The Greenfield Savings Bank does not acknowledge that the note passed by George W. Bardwell for $467 was an altered or forged note, and if not paid will take legal steps to collect the full amount of the note.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
The Coleraine Murder
The Coleraine Murder - As briefly stated in our last issue, Daniel Dwight, supposed to be one of the murderers of Joseph R. Farnsworth, was arrested Sat. night at the door of his father’s house on Catamount Hill, Coleraine, where he had come 5 days after the murder. There were 6 men, under Deputy Sheriff John Gould, stationed around the house, and between 10 and 11 o’clock, they saw a man coming up the road, which proved to be young Dwight.
They allowed him to approach near the house, when a signal was given, and they stepped from their hiding places. Dwight ran around the house in the direction of the barn, but he was then surrounded and forced to surrender. When taken into the house before his father, he fainted.
Dwight was confined in the lock-up at Shelburne Falls, and on Mon., Trial Justice Brainard of Greenfield held a court at the office of H.M.Puffer, Esq., and had the young man brought before him. A large gathering of people were in attendance, and among them Dwight’s wife, father and mother.
He pleaded not guilty, and the magistrate, without having a hearing of evidence, arraigned him on the charge of murder and continued the case to Mon. the 17th. Officers Swan and Gould then brought the prisoner to Greenfield,where he is now confined in jail. Dwight appears quite calm and is not disposed to talk much about the affair. He accounts for his absence and his whereabouts during the 4 days as follows:
"I had some trouble with my wife on Tues. aft., which had ended by my saying I was going off, and her replying that she hoped I would, and what was more, that I would stay away. She then started to go to father’s house, which is only a short distance from mine, and I started for a pasture where some of father’s cattle were grazing.
On the way I met Herbert Davenport, and together we went to Farnsworth’s house, and afterward went down the lane to the road leading to Shelburne Falls. Herbert wanted a cane, so we stopped and cut one, I bending the tree over while he cut it; but he did not carry it long before he threw it away.
From there we went through the fields directly to my house, where I changed my clothes and gave a suit to Herbert, as his were all patched and dirty. We left home about 5 o’clock, and went down the mountain to Heath, and then through Hartwellville down to North Adams, getting there on Wed. aft.
We walked all Tues. night.Wed. night we slept on the hills near North Adams, and on Thurs. morning, after staying a while in North Adams, we walked to Pownal on the railroad track. At Pownal we got on board a train which was returning with the firemen from the muster at North Adams that day.
At Petersburg Junction Herbert got left with some Salem, N.Y. firemen, because the train started so quick, and I could not get off, it was going so fast. That night I stopped at Greenwich, N.Y. and registered my name in the hotel book in full - Daniel J. Dwight, Coleraine, Mass. I remained there that night, but had nothing to eat, as I only had money enough to pay for my lodging.
[For more information on this area, see the Internet Archive’s "Williamstown, the Berkshire Hills, and thereabout"]
The next day I walked to Troy. I did not remain there long because I was hungry and sick, and thought I would go right home and go to work for father, and let my wife do as she chose. Coming back I got a ride part of the way on a freight train, and got to N. Adams Sat. aft.,and walked to central shaft in the tunnel, and from there I rode to the east end on the workmen’s train and walked to Zoar, where they let me ride on a hand car to Charlemont. From there I rode with a Mr.Wells as far as his house, and then went across the fields home".
A portion of Dwight’s story has proved to be true. Bradley Davenport and Wesley Woodard, sent to Petersburg Junction, sent back that two men answering the description of Dwight and Davenport had been there. At Greenwich, N.Y., Dwight’s name was found registered in full, as he had said, and there is nothing to show that Davenport was with him at the time.
The Davenport boy arrested - Search was continued for Davenport and finally he was tracked to Williamstown, and Thurs. aft. was found there by a Mr. White. He made no efforts to escape, but on the other hand seemed glad to give himself up.
He was brought through the tunnel to Shelburne Falls Fri. morning, and Trial Justice Brainard of Greenfield held a preliminary trial, arraigned him for murder, and continued the trial until the 27th. The Davenport boy’s narrative is substantially the same as that given by Dwight, but he does not deny that they killed Farnsworth.
He says their only object was to obtain money, that he had no enmity or ill will towards the murdered man. He and Dwight had made up their minds to go West and hoped to get enough money from Farnsworth to pay their expenses, but he says they only got about $4.
There were 2 sticks cut, he says, a walnut and a maple. It was with the latter that Farnsworth was knocked down. He says that he did not do the striking, though he was there. After he was left at Petersburg Junction, he wandered from place to place, working for something to eat when he could get employment, and was endeavoring to get back home.
Davenport is not of ordinary intelligence. He was dull at school, and has since been lazy and shiftless. Want of mental responsibility will be entered as a plea in his behalf. His mother says that he has always been a "strange boy". She has another son and a daughter who are bright, active and industrious.
Davenport was brought to Greenfield and lodged in jail on Fri. by Deputy Sheriff Swan. Both boys, who are allowed to be together when not locked in their cells, do not appear to be cast down or afflicted much with remorse. They will be brought before the Grand Jury at the November Court and if bills are found against them the trial will be before a special session of the Supreme Court.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
News of the week
Prof. Marsh was examined Mon. by the Red Cloud Investigating Commission. The cross examination was quite rigid and left the Professor in a very embarrassing position. He was unable to sustain any of the charges from his own personal knowledge.
He was pressed particularly close to ascertain whether he had any specific evidence to sustain the charge of criminal negligence on the part of Secretary Delano. He had only hearsay evidence...
[See Google Books "The Magazine of American History with notes and queries, Volume 23" for an explanation of this issue].
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
News of the week
The United States detectives have recently captured another lot of the Alabama and Tennessee counterfeiters, among them J.C.Graham of Gainesville, Sumter County, ...
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
News of the week
The government won its first suit against the whisky [i.e. whiskey] ring at St. Josephs, Mo. Sat., when John Shenan was convicted; he had pleaded guilty, however the penalty in this case is not less than 2 year's imprisonment, and not less than $5,000 fine. Shenan's case is regarded at the Treasury Dept. as a type of those to follow, the evidence in possession of the government in this class of cases being of the same character.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
News of the week
Moses Hull of Boston and a crowd of other lunatics, profaned the Sabbath and the beautiful Lake Walden at Concord on the 12th by a noisy meeting, advocating free love and Spiritualism, and resolved "that our present system of marriage is slavery, and that, considering that idiocy, insanity, prostitution, adultery, rape, drunkenness and murder are its legitimate fruits, it is the duty of every lover of humanity to protest against it".
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Hampshire County news
A pretty cheeky individual went to the station agent at Northampton Friday night, and asked him to send up a car to Hatfield to be loaded with tobacco for shipment to Hartford, representing himself as the purchaser and shipper. The car was duly sent up and 23 cases of tobacco, worth about $2500, were taken from James Warner's storehouse and placed in the car, and the car was started for Hartford.
The conversation between the thief and the station agent happened to be overheard by Samuel Billings of Hatfield, and after looking into the matter, his suspicions that all was not right were confirmed, and a telegram to Superintendent Mulligan caused the detention of the car when it reached Springfield.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Hampshire County items
Hampshire County items - Mrs. Susan M. Fuller was acquitted on the complaint of Trumbull & Gere that she aided in defrauding them recently, but her husband Irad Fuller, proprietor of the Round Hill Hotel, charged with the same offense, was held under $500 bonds, for appearance before the Grand Jury next Dec.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Oration of Hon. George B. Loring at Bloody Brook, Sept. 17, 1875
Oration of Hon. George B. Loring at Bloody Brook, Sept. 17, 1875 - Fellow citizens: 200 years ago an event occurred on this spot, which on account of its significance and its touching details, has passed into that long heroic line over which the mind of man is compelled to pause and ponder...At the name of Bloody Brook the men, women, and children of New England started and held their breath in horror, in that primeval time when the sickening tidings were borne on the wings of the wind as it were from hamlet to hamlet...
The sad event of the 18th of September 1675, calls upon us still to remember the trials through which our fathers passed and to rejoice over that fraternal spirit which bound them together in their day of sorrow, and watered the soil of this charming valley with the choicest blood of the sons of Essex. I stand on ground made sacred to you by the sacrifices of your hardy and devoted progenitors; but I meet here the names of Lothrop and Stevens and Hobbs and Manning and Dodge and Kimball and Trask and Tufts and Mudge and Pickering, of the three-score braves who died that you might possess this goodly land and these pleasant homes...
How would they who were familiar with the cruel warfare of the savage; whose ears had heard the shrieks of the tortured mother mingling with the groans of her dying child, and whose eyes had beheld her fear, her patience and her despair; whose highway was an Indian trail, and whose home was a frontier block-house - how would they rejoice over these sunny fields, these laughing harvests, these busy towns, these tasteful homes, this cultivated landscape adorned with these institutions of learning and religion; and how would they count their own sufferings but small when compared with the manifold blessings which have descended upon the spot made sacred with their blood?
...Deerfield two centuries ago, was on the very confines of civilization - one of the outposts of a feeble Christian people, who had hardly a foothold on this continent, and between whom and the strongholds of power and wealth and learning, rolled 3000 miles of stormy and almost unknown sea. The fate of a great and wide spread empire rested then in the hands of a few colonists scattered along the Atlantic seaboard, divided in interests and tastes, perishing continually from exposure and want, not all actuated by the highest motives, but all recognizing, as by an unerring instinct, the fundamental principle out of which was to grow the American government, and all in danger of being exterminated at any time by the "pestilence which walketh in darkness and the destruction which wasteth at noonday".
Scattered up and down the great extent of territory stretching from the Passamaquoddy Bay to the capes of Florida were but about 200,000 souls, of whom Massachusetts, with Plymouth and Maine, may have had 44,000; New Hampshire and Rhode Island, with Providence each 6000; Connecticut from 17,000 to 20,000; that is, all New England, 75,000...
These people had come largely from that "Germanic race most famed for the love of personal independence". They were not men of high estate, but they were men who possessed an inherent love of land, with all the individual honor and freedom which go along with it...
Of one colony said "Spotswood, a royalist, a High churchman, a traveler", "I have observed here less swearing and profaneness, less drunkenness and debauchery, less uncharitable feuds and animosities, and less knaverys and villanys than in any part of the world where my lot has been"...
In all their customs they were obliged to exercise the utmost simplicity and they voluntarily regulated their conduct by those formal rules, which, in their day, constituted the Puritan’s guide through the world. We are told, as an illustraton of their character and manners, that by the laws of the Plymouth Colony, in 1651, "dancing at weddings was forbidden". In 1660, one William Walker was imprisoned one month for courting "a maid without the leave of her parents".
In 1675, because "there is manifest pride appearing in our streets", the "wearing of long hair or periwigs", and so "superstitious ribands, used to tie up and decorate the hair were forbidden under severe penalty"; the keeping of Christmas was also forbidden "because it was a popish custom". In 1677 an act was passed "to prevent the profaneness of turning the back upon the public worship before it was finished and the blessing pronounced".
Towns were directed to erect a cage near the meeting house, and in all this all offenders against the sanctity of the Sabbath were confined. At the same time children were directed to be placed in a particular part of the meeting house, apart by themselves, and tything-men were ordered to be chosen, whose duty it shall be to take care of them. So strict were they in their observance of the Sabbath that "John Atherton, a soldier of Col. Tyng’s Company", was fined 40 shillings for wetting a piece of an old hat to put into his shoes, which chafed his feet on the march; and those who neglected to attend meeting for 3 months were publicly whipped.
Even in Harvard College students were whipped for gross offenses in the Chapel, in presence of students and professors, and prayers were had before and after the infliction of the punishment. As the settlers of Deerfield are described as being of "sober and orderly conversation", we may suppose that these laws and customs were here rigidly enforced.
[Here follows a section on "subsistence and diet of your ancestors". Also talks about how they were good farmers, fishermen and readers]...
...Possessed evidently of a common origin, for "between the Indians of Florida and Canada the difference was scarcely perceptible", they were divided into tribes, which differed from each other mainly in their fighting capacity, and the vigor with which they roamed from place to place; and they were liable at any time to be swept off by disease, or exterminated by war, or absorbed by other and more powerful tribes.
In language, the North American Indian was limited by the material world, an abstract idea finding no birthplace in his brain and no expression on his tongue. "In marriage the Indian abhorred restraint, and from Florida to the S. Lawrence polygamy was permitted". Divorce meant merely desertion. The wife was a slave. Domestic government was unknown. The Indian youth grew up a warrior, adorned with vermilion and eagle’s feather, as fleet of foot as the deer, and as tolerant of hunger as the wolf; the Indian girl grew up a squaw, degraded and squalid and servile.
A rude agriculture, resulting in a weedy corn crop, and a few squashes and beans, was the Indian’s, or rather the Indian woman’s occupation; he had neither trade nor manufactures. "There can be no society without government; but among the Indian tribes on the soil of our republic, there was not only no written law - there was no traditionary [sic] expression of law; government rested on opinion and usage and the motives to the usage were never imbodied [sic] in language; they gained utterance only in the fact, and power only from opinion...
The Indian had a government without laws; a State without institutions; a church without faith, or creed, or head; a town without schoohouse or meeting house; a punitive system without jails or gibbets; a history based on tradition; a religion based on superstition; he was ignorant of the ownership of land; and knew nothing of a system of inheritance.
As in peace he was an idler - so in war he was a marauder. An organized army was to him unknown. He fought in small bands, seldom over 50 in number, to surprise and slaughter. He pursued, and killed, and scalped. He had neither commissariat nor hospital. He fought his enemy in the rear and in ambush; and he tortured and roasted and devoured his captives. These were the national characteristics which our fathers found on this continent.
Nor did their attempts to modify and humanize and Christianize them meet with much success. The Indian could be tamed, but he was the Indian still...Neither John Eliot nor Roger Williams was able to change essentially the habits and character of the New England tribes..."They are unspeakably indolent and slothful; they deserve little gratitude; they seem to have no sentiments of generosity, benevolence or goodness".
The Moravian Loskiel could not change their character...In New Hampshire and elsewhere schools for Indian children were established; but as they became fledged they all escaped, refusing to be caged. Harvard College enrolls the name of an Algonquin youth among her pupils; but the college parchment could not close the gulf between the Indian character and the Anglo American.
The copper colored men are characterized by a moral inflexibility, a rigidity of attachment to their hereditary customs and manners. The birds and brooks, as they chime forth their unwearied canticles, chime them ever to the same ancient melodies; and the Indian child, as it grows up, displays a propensity to the habits of its ancestors...
The trouble lay deeper. Year after year the Indian discovered an irreconcilable difference between himself and the stranger...When he entered the home of the settler, he discovered that the joys of the fireside could never be found in the group squatted beneath the shelter of the wigwam. He felt the antagonism - and his soul burned within him. The strife was not for land...It was for supremacy. And as revenge is stronger than ambition, and hate is stronger than avarice, so the war raged with unspeakable fury, and was as cruel as the passions of a desperate savage could make it.
The great contest which grew out of this antagonism, and lasted more than a year, unabated either by the heat of summer or the frosts of winter, threatening destruction to the New England colonies, was known as Philip’s War. With the story of this conflict you are all familiar. The peaceful death of Massasoit at a good old age, after a long life of friendly relations with the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies; the sadder death of his son Alexander, worried out of life by the failure of his intrigues against the colony, and the exposure of his meanness and his crimes; the gradual development of the worst of passions in the breast of Philip, and his passage from treachery to war are all fresh in the memory of all who have traced the hard path which our fathers traveled in the work of settling these shores.
The war which began in Swanzey on the 24th of June, 1675, reached this spot on the 18th of September - three months of murder, and fire, and all the bloody horrors of savage warfare. At the time the war broke out Deerfield had been settled 10 years, or had been deeded for the purposes of settlement to John Pynchon that length of time. It was then, as it is now, one of the most delightful spots in New England...
And here in the luxurience of that natural beauty, and in the wealth of wood and stream, the Indian found his favorite resort. In this town and in the towns of Hadley and Hatfield he mustered a numerous and a powerful tribe. And upon these lands purchased by the settlers, with titles confirmed by the court, the whites and Indians lived together in peace for years. It is amazing with what rapidity the war, once opened, spread from village to village, and from tribe to tribe in this wilderness...
The Pocumtucks had received their orders - and in a day had stepped from the blessings of peace to the misery of war. having promsied to deliver up their arms, on suspicion that they might misuse them, they broke their promise, fled to Sugar loaf Hill, engaged with Captains Beers and Lothrop commanding the English here, lost 26 of their number, and then sought shelter under the standard of King Philip...
Deerfield too was abandoned; and the attempt to secure a quantity of wheat which had just been partially threshed by the farmers there before their flight, resulted in the massacre which still thrills me with horror, and the anniversary of which we have met to commemorate...From behind hundreds of trees the savages poured their deadily [sic] fire. At the first volley many were killed, and the remainder were panic stricken...Lothrop...was among the first to fall. The savages, numbering nearly 700, "rushed upon the defenceless men, and the work of slaughter was soon complete.
But 6 or 7 Englishmen escaped to tell the tale, of whom one had been shot and tomahawked and left for dead, and another forced his way through the yelling ranks of the savages with the but [sic] of his musket...
While the Indians were employed in mangling, scalping and stripping the dying and the dead, Captain Moseley, who, as has been observed, was ranging the woods, hearing the report of musketry, hastened by a forced march to the relief of his brethren. The Indians, confiding in their superior numbers, taunted him as he advanced, and dared him to the contest. Moseley came on with firmness, repeatedly charged through them, and destroyed a large number with the loss on his side of but 2 killed and 11 wounded...
A quantity of bones lately found in that quarter is very probably the remains of the Indians who fell there at the close of the action. The united English force encamped for the night at Deerfield. They returned in the morning to bury the dead and found a party of the Indians upon the field stripping the bodies of their victims. These they quickly dispatched, and the remains of the brave young men, or some portion of them, were committed to the earth near the spot which we have this day consecrated anew to their memory.
The stream on whose banks they fell, and whose water ran red with their blood, has been called from that day, in memory of the disaster, Bloody Brook...[Two more entire columns follow, but they are quite blurry and unreadable].
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
Stop the murderer!
Stop the murderer! $500 reward! The above reward will be paid for the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who murdered Joseph R. Farnsworth of Coleraine, on the eve. of Sept. 7th.
Daniel J. Dwight and Herbert Davenport are suspected of being the parties who committed the deed. Dwight is a young man about 5 ft. 8 inches tall , 19 years of age, weighing about 140 lbs, light complexion, light hair, light eyes; he usually carries his head a little on one side, with a downward look.
Davenport is 17 years of age, not so heavy or tall as Dwight, with light complexion, light eyes and very light hair; head and shoulders quite stooping, eyes usually turned to the ground. Joseph B. Clark, Chairmen of Selectmen of Coleraine.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
Stop the murderer!
Stop the murderer! $500 reward! The above reward will be paid for the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who murdered Jseph R. Farnsworth of Coleraine, on the eve. of Sept. 7th.
Daniel J. Dwight and Herbert Davenport are suspected of being the parties who committed the deed. Dwight is a young man about 5 ft. 8 inches tall , 19 years of age, weighing about 140 lbs, light complexion, light hair, light eyes; he usually carries his head a little on one side, with a downward look.
Davenport is 17 years of age, not so heavy or tall as Dwight, with light complexion, light eyes and very light hair; head and shoulders quite stooping, eyes usually turned to the ground. Joseph B. Clark, Chairmen of Selectmen of Coleraine.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
Conway
Conway - A tramp attempted to enter the house of one of our citizens, through the window, 2 or 3 days since, while the parents of the girls left alone were absent attending a relative's funeral. Instead of the croquet mallet and ball our young ladies must learn the use of fire arms, for their own protection, in these perilous times where the law is found insufficient.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
Shelburne Falls
Shelburne Falls - Mon. Trial Justice John A. Winslow Esq. of Charlemont fined William O. Donahue for drunkenness, $2 and costs; Thomas Sharky for assault and battery upon David Smith, bookkeeper for James H. Edwards, $5 and costs. The complaint against Robert Maloney for disorderly conduct was nollo prosequied. The other two for want of money, went down to lodge and board with Sheriff Wells.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
South Deerfield
South Deerfield - The week just passed has been one long to be remembered by the citizens of our little village. Seldom are so many stirring events crowded into one short week. Three deaths - one of threescore years, one in the prime of life and one in infancy. The two first, George W. Bardwell and Loren Hayden, prominent citizens of the place for years.
These, together with the disastrous fire of Sun. morning, with its many hairbreadth escapes and exciting incidents, not the least of which was in caring for and removing the sick who were unable to care for themselves, and lastly, the startling developments of dishonesty in one, who in his lifetime enjoyed the general confidence of the people, creating an intense excitement throughout the entire community.
The funeral of Mr. Bardwell was attended at the Congregational Church on Sun., that of Mr. Hayden from the residence of D. Bryant on Thurs., Rev. Mr. Brooks officiating on both occasions. The attendance on Thurs. was very large, many coming from the surrounding towns.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
South Deerfield
South Deerfield - The report of the fire, as given by the Springfield Republican on Mon., was anything but satisfactory to the "Law Abiding Citizens", their item in Tuesday's paper to the contrary notwithstanding. The insinuation that Mr.Mulligan allowed a set of roughs to come up on the train, who created "so much disturbance", the citizens do not believe.
On the contrary, we are requested to say that they are very grateful to Superintendent Mulligan and the company which came with him, for the very prompt manner in which they responded to the call for aid, notwithstanding they did not get here to render much aid, they did manifest a disposition, for which they have the hearty thanks of all Law Abiding Citizens". [Very blurry section follows]
Then the insinuation that the Irish were more drunken and disorderly than any other class is a mistake, perhaps not purposely. On the other hand there were many Irish [?] as they always have on such occasions in this place. As for the liquor flowing freely we will say nothing, as judging from the report we presume the said reporter knew better about that than the "Law Abiding Citizens" [more blurriness - sorry]. Law Abiding Citizen.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
Turners Falls
Turners Falls - At a dance at Montague City the other night a lot of fellows pounced upon Abner Avery without provocation, and pounded him in a fearful manner. Constables Allen and Jones gathered in 5 of the fellows, and Whit. Berden, James Swing, Horatio Cutler and Lewis Buffum were each fined $8.92, while David Snow was discharged.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
Heath
Heath - We are called upon to record another fire in the town of Heath, of the barn of Henry Barker, which was burned about 9 o'clock on the night of Sept. 1., it being the 4th fire which we have had within the space of 2 years, with all its contents, consisting of some 23 tons of hay, some 75 bushels of barley and oats, 3 wagons, mowing machine, and all his farming tools.
It was with great difficulty that the house was saved, it being about 12 ft. from the corner of the barn, the wind being favorable, and the timely aid of the neighbors served in saving it. It caught fire several times upon the roof, but was extinguished before much damage was done. The house was cleared of most of its contents, and many things were somewhat injured in their haste to remove them.
The cause of the fire is unknown, but was without doubt set by tramps who were seen lurking about the premises the previous eve. Mr. Barker and family have our sincere sympathy, and hope that he may receive timely aid in this time of trouble. We appeal to the authorities, and ask what shall be done with tramps who are infesting our lands, burning our buildings, injuring our property, insulting our families, heaping insult upon insult upon all they meet?
We again ask, what shall be done with tramps? S.B.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
Unpleasant developments
Unpleasant developments - Since the death of George W. Bardwell of South Deerfield, which occurred on the 4th, things have been brought to light which fill the hearts of his relatives and friends with painful sadness. It now appears that a $500 bond was found upon his person when he died. He had sent his boy to get a paper from a certain place a short time before, and secreted it in his pocket. The paper proved to be one of the bonds stolen from the house of Zebediah Graves last June.
Not only this, but forged notes, amounting to several thousand dollars, are said to be in existence. Some time ago Bardwell gave a note to the Greenfield Savings Bank of $467, on which he had the names of Cyrus A. Stowell, Timothy D. Richardson and Charles Stowell. C.A. Stowell and Timothy Richardson now declare that the note they signed was for $67, and Charles Stowell says that he did not sign it at all.
The supposition is that Bardwell changed the note after getting the signatures, or deceived these men as to its amount. A note given to a man in Whately for $577 was "carried" in the same way from $77, while there are said to be others about the county. It is thought that the maturity of this forged paper was what forced Bardwell to commit the robbery, that he might meet them before the irregularity was brought to light. He had borne a good name in the town and had filled various positions of trust, and these developments cause the greatest excitement throughout the community. Bardwell's estate is insolvent.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
A man murdered in Coleraine
A man murdered in Coleraine - He is killed and robbed by two young ruffians - It is now 8 years since Simeon Peck killed Miss Cheney at Griswoldville, and Coleraine is again the scene of a tragedy, which in all its details has never had a parallel in the criminal annals of the County. The victim of this terrible crime is Joseph R. Farnsworth [i.e. Joseph Riley Farnsworth], known among his townsmen as "Riley", a quiet, inoffensive man, who dwelt with his wife and two children on his mother’s farm, on what is known as "Catamount Hill", some 2 miles and a half from Shelburne Falls.
The circumstances of the affair are these: On Tues. last Farnsworth, who served in the late war, went to Greenfield to be examined by a surgeon, as required, before making out an application for pension. He went back to Shelburne Falls on the train, and at the office of H.M. Puffer Esq., had his pension paper made out. When this business was finished, he started for home, getting a chance to ride with Levi Davenport, a neighbor.
They rode together until they came to the fork of two roads which led to the mountain. Farnsworth took the road up the ravine on the easterly side, while Davenport went the other way to his home. It had by this time begun to grow dark, and Farnsworth pushed along alone through a wood and came to a place where the road separates, a path leading up to Jack Woodard’s on the one hand and to his mother’s place on the other.
At this point someone steps suddenly from the cover of bushes by the roadside and, without a word of warning, strikes him a blow upon the forehead with a stick which prostrates him upon the ground. The blow is followed up with others or with kicks, until the man’s head is covered with ghastly wounds. He is then robbed of the few dollars which he had in his pocket book.
Farnsworth was not long wholly unconscious. Within half an hour he must have rallied sufficient strength to get upon his feet, and staggering and frequently falling, he made his way home, some one hundred rods distant, and which he reached by half past 7. He was able to tell his mother and a neighbor present a part of what had happened, and Dr. Canedy of Shelburne Falls was immediately sent for.
He arrived in the evening, but found the man so badly wounded there was little that could be done for him. Farnsworth could not tell who struck him, and becoming unconscious, he lingered until about 10 o’clock Wed. morning, when he died.
The news of the affair had by this time spread over the town, and efforts made to ascertain who were the perpetrators of the crime. Suspicion soon rested upon two young men who live in the vicinity, and who had not been seen since the murder. These were Daniel Dwight, a son of Josiah J. Dwight, and Herbert Davenport, a son of widow Roxana Davenport, and a nephew of the murdered man.
The former is 19 years of age and the latter 18, and both had borne a hard name among the people of the town. Going to the scene of the assault, a heavy print of a shoe was found, where the desperado stood when he gave the murderous blow, and a few feet in front was found the pool of blood which flowed from the wounds of his victim, and a bloody trail was made by Farnsworth as he rested and stumbled home.
Not far from his place a hickory stub was found where the stick, about an inch in diameter, had been cut; and in another direction the stick itself was discovered, which corresponded with the stub, and which had been thrown away after the assault. The stick, which is in the possession of one of the officers, was evidently cut by a left handed person. Dwight is known to be left handed.
It seems that the two boys had been to Farnsworth’s house the afternoon that he was away, borrowed fifty cents from his wife, all the money that she had - they agreeing to pay her back before the time of the county fair, when she wanted to spend it. They also took away a cheap watch which belonged to Farnsworth.
Before going to Greenfield Farnsworth had made known his errand to the neighbors, and the boys probably thought that he was going to bring home his pension money and so made their plans to waylay and rob him. But the money Farnsworth had on his person could not have exceeded 2 or 3 dollars. There had been ill feeling between the boys and Farnsworth before. He had not got along happily with his wife, being frequently jealous, it is thought by some, without cause, and the fellows had taken her part.
They have been heard to threaten him on her account. Dwight, who was married and lived with his wife in a house on his father’s farm, took away with him two suits of clothes, but young Davenport is not known to have carried away only such clothes as he happened to have on, and left behind a little money and a bank book.
Wed. aft. upwards of 50 men were out scouring the woods of Coleraine, Whitingham and Heath, under Officers Henry A. Howard of Coleraine and Deputy Sheriff [?] S. Frost of Shelburne Falls, and the search by some of the party was kept up all night, but was fruitless. Dwight and Davenport are both familiar with the woods for miles around, having hunted and roamed over them together.
It was thought that perhaps the fugitives had gone in the direction of North Adams, and an officer was sent there Thurs. morning, while the general search was partly abandoned. Though the young ruffians may evade their pursuers for a while, it is hardly possible to make a successful escape. Their photographs and descriptions will be sent broadcast. The Selectmen have offered a reward of $500 for their recovery, and mean to bring them to justice.
As there is no coroner in the vicinity, S.D. Bardwell Esq. of Shelburne Falls, as a Justice of the Peace, summoned a jury to view the remains. The jury consists of Hezekiah Smith, C.W. Shattuck, A.A. Smith, Thomas D. Purrington, H.C. Millington and Russell J. Smith. They visited the scene of the murder Wed. aft., and will meet again today, when probably a verdict in accordance with the facts we have related will be rendered.
Farnsworth’s funeral took place Thurs. morning and was largely attended by the people of the town. Rev. Mr. Cole, the Methodist clergyman of Coleraine, conducted the services. Farnsworth leaves a boy of 9 and a girl of 7. His age was about 35, and his mother, with whom he lived, is about 75. The family, though poor and ignorant, were considered of average respectability. The mother of the Davenport boy has always opposed his keeping company with Dwight, who is generally supposed to have been the leader in the matter, but the two were together a great deal, and had become hardened and desperate.
A note received by J.B. Clark, one of the Selectmen of the town on Sat., stated that there was no trace then of the murderers, but that the watch supposed to have been stolen by one of the boys, was found, and was in his possession.
Latest - Intelligence from Shelburne Falls yesterday, states that Dwight was caught about half past 10 Sat. eve. Half a dozen men were laying in wait for him around his house, and he came home at that time and fell into their clutches. The whereabouts of Davenport is not known. Dwight was put into the lock-up at Shelburne Falls yesterday morning.
[A followup to this murder can be found on p. 371 of Google Books "Publications of the American Statistical Association", 1892 - 1893. There is also mention of the sentence on p. 5 of Google Books "Public Documents of Massachusetts", 1876].
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
Hawley
Hawley - A couple of days ago a couple of young men, claiming to be grandsons of Dr. James King, came along here and passed the night with one of our families. Unfortunately they had fallen among thieves at Greenfield and were robbed of their valises and their money. They had a check which they sought to get cashed, but failing in this, endeavored to borrow money to pay their expenses to Montreal.
But they found nobody who had any to lend for such an object. They rode off in the stage with Cleveland to Shelburne Falls, where they slipped away, leaving their fare unpaid. It is thought that the King blood in them is greatly diluted, and not a little vitiated at that.
- Wed, Feb 24, 2010
