Wicked Northern New York by Cheri L Farnsworth

Author:Cheri L Farnsworth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2013-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Created by Robert Sayer and John Bennett, 1774. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Refusing to be intimidated, Hattie and her mother and two brothers went to Pitcairn the next day and “swore out a warrant for the arrest of the two men who had called on her.” The family then boarded the evening train at Bacon’s Crossing to return home. The Daily Journal of July 31, 1895, describes what happened next:

When the train stopped at the station, the mother and daughter got off of the rear platform and walked to the front of the train, where they were suddenly surrounded by a crowd of men who seized the daughter and took her into the railroad freight house, where they stripped her. There was a crowd of women there, dressed in men’s clothes and with blackened faces. The men held the woman down on the floor, while the women applied the tar and feathers with a paint brush, completely covering her with the stuff, after which they left her. She was taken to her mother’s house, where a physician was called. It was found that one arm and a number of ribs were broken. It is said to be doubtful if she lives. Her husband was informed of the affair, but has not gone to Jayville as yet.

No doubt, he was afraid that the same fate would await him. It was later determined that Hattie’s arms and ribs were not broken, as originally believed, but that she was considerably bruised from her ordeal. Besides the tarring and feathering, her attackers took her purse, which contained $10.20, along with her hat and gloves. Her attorney said he would have the perpetrators arrested and charged with first-degree robbery, punishable by up to twenty years in jail. The story was so sensational that it was even reported in the New York Times on July 31, 1895, in an article called “Woman Tarred and Feathered,” which said, “Jayville, a village on the fringe of the Adirondack forest, above Carthage, has been the scene of the punishment of a woman, in a manner which has outraged decency.” Such was the thought among all law-abiding citizens. The case was dubbed the “Jayville Outrage.”

It didn’t take long to have the key players in the mob that attacked Hattie Covey arrested, for they were all easily recognized and well known, even those going incognito. The examination before Justice of the Peace Shipman of Pitcairn lasted three days and resulted in five people being held to await the action of the grand jury on charges of riot and assault. Besides Laura Kirch, the others included her son, Charles; Eugene Olen; George Clark, the station agent at Jayville and son-in-law of the Kirches; and Stein Ferguson. District Attorney Hale of St. Lawrence County was secured to appear for the people, along with Assistant District Attorney George W. Hurlbut of Heuvelton, while H.J. Welch of Carthage had the task of representing the defendants. Testimony taken during the examination indicated that Laura

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