The Chenango and Unadilla Valleys Fifty Years Ago
by S.S. Randall
Chenango Telegraph, Norwich, NY, April 17, 1872
The Denison Tragedy
During the interval which elapsed between the sentence and the execution, I had frequent occasion to visit the prisoner in his well, and invariably found him in excellent and even exuberant spirits--writing poetry, letters, epistles and pro-runciamentos of all sorts.--conversing affably with all callers--joking with the jailor--and entertaining to the very last, no doubt of a final commutation--even after I had communicated to him the definitive decision of the Governor, and impressed upon him the utter futility of all such expectations.
On the morning of his execution--the fatal 19th of March, 1833--I entered the corridor of his prison, with ex-Sheriff Welch, of New Berlin, and found Denison in full dress for the scaffold, freely and cheerfully conversing with several of his friends and the officials of the jail; and when, a few moments afterwards, Sheriff Franklin came in with the dread insignia of the law, and placed the rope around his neck, he coolly and smilingly observed, "I have worn a more graceful necklace than this before now," and submitted without the slightest indication of nervousness to the pinioning of his arms. As he rose to leave the prison for his conveyance to the gallows, finding the ribbons of one of his shoes unloosed, he raised his foot upon a chair, and deliberately and without the least tremor, tied them together, and took his seat in the sleigh on his coffin, between Deputy Sheriffs Brown and Perkins. The noonday sun shone out brightly upon the melting spring snow, as the melancholy procession, escorted by a large military force, the band playing a solemn dirge, slowly moved through the dense crowds which lined the street across the Common, up north Main street to Mill, and down Mill westward to the large vacant space on the old Dickinson farm, occupying the area north and in rear of the premises now occupied by Mr. R. Johnson, and the Congregational parsonage.
As the procession, at this point, came in full view of the scaffold, with its ghastly paraphernalia, and the vast amphitheater of human faces surrounding it on every hand, Denison's countenance perceptibly changed, but he speedily recovered himself, and on reaching the foot of the gallows and leaving the sleigh, he ran, without assistance, rapidly up the stairs to the platform, where he seated himself in a chair on the drop, with Deputy Sheriffs Brown and Perkins on either side. A large platform had been constructed, adjoining the gallows on the right, for the accommodation of the clergy and other officials, and after the solemn ceremonies of the occasion had been opened by Elder Swan, in appropriate prayer, every word of which was distinctly audible to the vast assembly--and would have been had it been ten times as large--and a few other addresses made by the occupants of the platform, during which the prisoner deliberately helped himself to tobacco from Mr. Brown's box, and complacently gazed upon the sea of faces in front. Denison arose, and his arms having at his own request been partially unpinioned, proceeded in a full clear voice, and without the slightest indication of nervous agitation, to read a paper prepared by himself, setting forth his previous life--his intemperate habits and uncontrollable passions--expressing his deep contrition for all his transgressions and short comings--his regret for the crime he had unconsciously committed, and his innocence of all intention to murder anyone, and least of all his most cherished friend. At the close of this address, Sheriff Franklin left the platform, and passed on to the fatal drop, and having, with the assistance of his Deputies, adjusted the rope, fastened it to the hook on the transverse beam above, and re-pinioned the prisoner's arms, took his hand and whispering a few words in his ear, descended to the foot of one of the side beams, in readiness for the execution of his mournful office. The two deputies then took an affectionate leave of the wretched man, and passed on to the platform, after adjusting the fatal cap, leaving him alone and in darkness on the extreme verge of eternity.
The occupant of the Presbyterian or Congregational pulpit at this time, was the Rev. H.P. Bogue, who was in attendance on the platform on this occasion, and whose death, at a very advanced age, in one of the western Counties of this State I recently saw announced in the newspapers. Although I believe him to have been a very worthy and good man, I have never been able to reconcile myself to the anguish, and mental as well as physical torture, he must have inflicted on poor George Denison, when at this awful moment--after the fatal noose had been adjusted, the cap drawn over those eyes which were never again to look upon the light of the sun, and the Sheriff had taken his last farewell of the hapless youth, and stationed himself at the foot of the gallows, with his hand on the frail support which alone separated the doomed man from eternity, and which, as all that vast crowd supposed, was about to be instantaneously withdrawn; he arose amid the hushed and awful silence, and delivered a prayer occupying nearly three-quarters of an hour! This, too, after the religious and other exercises of the solemn occasion had been unusually protracted. Towards the expiration of this devotional effort--chiefly consisting of fearful anticipations of future judgment, mingled with fervent appeals for penitence and mercy--Denison, who had, up to this period, exhibited extraordinary firmness and unshaken nerves, was observed freely to shed tears, and to manifest other symptoms of physical weakness; and a general feeling of indignation appeared to pervade those in the immediate vicinity of the scaffold; I cannot but think that in such an awful hour the wretched convict might better have been left in the hands of that God before whom he was so speedily to appear, without an apparently unnecessary and ill time exposition of the guilt and "fearful looking for of judgment!" At the close of this protracted prayer, the fatal bolt was withdrawn, and George Denison "with all his imperfections on his head," was launched into the eternal world!
The End
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