Miscellaneous, Charles Wakeman shot at Little Meadows, 1922

Charles Wakeman Shot at Little Meadows, Pa.

Bainbridge Republican, July 20, 1922

 

Charles Wakeman who was shot and killed at Little Meadows, Pa. on Wednesday evening of last week, and whose daughter, Gertrude, a school teacher, was seriously wounded at the same time, was the son-in-law of Mr. and Mrs. E.L. Andrews of North Main street [Bainbridge, Chenango Co., NY].  At the time of the tragedy Mrs. Wakeman was visiting in Bainbridge.  Mr. Wakeman at one time had a blacksmith shop on North Main street in Bainbridge, going from here to Johnson City where he ran a garage.

 

The immediate vicinity of the battle just prior to which Wakeman lost his life is known as Bear Swamp, and is one of the most desolate regions in the northern part of Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania.  Tiboni had recently been appointed road supervisor of the district, but was ineligible because he had never been naturalized.  Wakeman was a candidate for the office.  Last Wednesday evening he went to Tiboni's to have him sign a petition in connection with the road supervisorship.  He was accompanied by his two daughters and his son.  It is stated relations between Wakeman and Tiboni had been harmonious and that they were so well acquainted that Tiboni could not have mistaken him for a raider, which theory was first advanced, as Tiboni had been warned he was suspected of bootlegging and was likely to be raided soon. 

 

Wakeman stopped his car in the roadway in front of Tiboni's house.  "Dad got out of the car in the roadway," Gertrude Wakeman told the officers afterward, "and walked toward the house.  When he was about 20 feet from it Tiboni fired from the window and dad sank to the ground. I ran to him and was assisting him back to our car when Tiboni shot me. I was frightened and did not know what to do or where to go for help.  Instead of going a short distance to the home of Tom Griffin, I got on the wrong road and I thought I would die before I reached the Williams house."

 

The first shot fired from the Tiboni house struck Mr. Wakeman in the shoulder and he fell to the ground.  The second shot hit Miss Gertrude Wakeman in the left leg.  The other two children in the car, Clayton and Velma Wakeman, 14 and 12, left the car and hid behind it until the shooting ceased.  Gertrude, although in great pain from her wound walked three miles to the residence of D.F. Williams and telephoned to the operator at Little Meadows, Mrs. John Neville, who summoned the Johnson City hospital ambulance.

 

Miss Wakeman told her young brother to drive the car for help, but in obeying her, the car was partly ditched and she limped the distance to the Williams home.

 

Albert Bowen and Roy Currier, who were notified of the crime, rushed with Miss Wakeman to the scene of the shooting, and then they carried the party to the Wakeman home, where they left the children, and drove over one of the roughest roads in the country washed by the downpour of rain, until they met the ambulance, into which Mr. Wakeman was transferred and reached Johnson City hospital about four hours after he was wounded.  Bowen and Currier after turning Mr. Wakeman over to the ambulance, returned to the Wakeman home and took Gertrude to Dr. Humphrey's hospital in Union.

 

Mrs. Nevill, the telephone operator notified the Susquehanna county authorities.  When Sheriff Darrow and Chief of Police Tingley of Montrose and the state troopers from Susquehanna reached Little Meadows they found Constable N.G. Barnum had summoned a posse consisting of Michael Rioden, son-in-law of Mr. Wakeman; W.D. Minkler, Jack Neville, Bart Neville, John Jones and Steve Jones, and they all moved on the Tiboni place.

 

In the upper floor of the Tiboni house were Mrs. Tiboni, her son, Joe 5; two daughters, Chanca, 7, and Lebra, 10 years.  State Trooper H.E. McElroy ordered the woman and children to leave the house, and they did so, while the father temporarily ceased firing at the posse until his family was out of range.

 

Mrs. Tiboni and the children left the house at 3:15 o'clock Thursday  morning.  From then on to 10 o'clock the gun fight between the posse and mad man continued.  In the melee Sheriff Darrow was shot near the heart and Chief Tingley was shot in the face and neck.  They were rushed to the Johnson City hospital.  A short time later Constable Barnum was shot in the neck with buckshot and after hospital treatment he returned to see the thing out.  Steve Jones, one of the farmers in the posse, was also shot in the head and face and after hospital treatment he also returned to the fight.

 

Finally when it was decided to burn the house down, Constable Barnum and Steve Jones obtained gasoline, entered the front of the house when other members of the posse drew Tiboni's fire in the rear.  Quickly spreading the gasoline they set fire to the house.  After the building began to fall in Tiboni retreated to the cellar and with two shotguns maintained fire until it became too hot for him.  When the building was burned nearly to the ground Tiboni, with two shotguns, appeared in the cellar doorway, the smoke swirling above his hugh form.  As he lowered his head, guns barked from along side trees 100 years away, all aimed at the lowered head.

 

He was badly wounded but managed to crawl around the house to a clump of bushes, where another bullet ended his life.  Within an hour after the madman was killed the countryside was thronged with motorists who saw the light of the fire and heard the news.  Among them were Tiboni's two sons, Marilo and Arthur, 15 and 13, who had run away from home the previous day to avoid a "licking" promised them by their father.

 

The funeral of Mr. Wakeman took place at 3 o'clock Sunday afternoon at the First Baptist church in Johnson City, where Mr. Wakeman conducted a garage a number of year ago, then purchasing a 400 acre farm at Little Meadows.  Burial was in Afton [Chenango Co., NY]