Murder of Robert Peasley - 1886

Murder of Robert Peasley

Chenango Semi-Weekly Telegraph, Norwich, NY, September 11, 1886

Sidney was the scene of an exciting tragedy, Friday.  About 9 o'clock this morning, near the depot, Robert Peasley was shot and instantly killed by Samuel P. Hill. We are informed that the difficulty between the two men originated in the following [manner].  It seems that sometime ago Hill sold and delivered a quantity of potatoes to Peasley's mother.  Since that time Hill, who is noted for his foul mouth and vulgar conversation, had repeatedly made indecent statements which involved her good name, about the transaction. These remarks had come to the ears of Peasley and had justly aroused his anger and indignation. Thursday night Peasley was in Norwich and stayed at the house of Mrs. Eldridge on East Main street, his boarding place.  He was in the employ of the Ontario & Western and was acting as fireman on the mail train which runs from Middletown to this place. Catching a ride on the locomotive attached to through freight, expecting to join his train at Sidney. As the freight train reached the first crossing in that place, Peasley from his seat on the locomotive saw the man Hill in a wagon driving up the street.  Hill's son was with his father.  Peasley hastily jumped from the locomotive and running caught up with Hill and climbed into the seat beside him.  He immediately charged Hill with uttering the vile and slanderous words about his mother and told him if it was true that he said it, he would pound his life out.  

After loud words the two men clinched and began to punch and shove each other.  Peasley grabbed Hill's coat and tore it down the back.  When the fighting had been kept up for some time, Peasley got partly in front of Hill, whereupon the latter pulling a revolver from his hip pocket, reached around Peasley, and holding the muzzle against the former'[s arm shot him dead.  The ball passed through the arm, entered the side and lodged in the heart, producing instant death.  His dead body fell from the wagon.  Hill drove to the village and gave himself into custody.  He was excited and talkative, claimed that the shooting was done in self defense and that he had money to stand a trial and pay his bail. Peasley's body was picked up and carried under a tree, and the coroner summoned.  His wife, who was visiting friends in Eaton, was telegraphed to come home as her husband was sick. She passed through here on the passenger train at 10:40 on her way to Sidney.  She was met here by friends, and though uninformed of his death said she knew her husband was dead.

The principals in this terrible tragedy were socially related, Hill's son having married Peasley's sister.  Hill is a man between fifty-five and sixty years of age and has been notorious in the community for his foul and indecent remarks about women.  He is a farmer and resides within the boundaries of the town of Bainbridge.

Robert Peasley, the victim, was only thirty years old.  He was one of the most trusted employees of the Ontario and Western.  Among railroad men he was famed as an exemplary young man.  He was free from all bad habits, neither drank, smoked or chewed.  His life was insured for $5000, which will [go] to his heart broken widow.  This awful tragedy is but another result of carrying deadly weapons upon the person. The law against concealed weapons ought to be strictly enforced.  Had Hill left his revolver at home--and what need for him to carry such a weapon in a peaceful town like Sidney?--Peasley would not have been mu8rdered and Samuel Hill would not now be a murderer.

The people of Sidney are justly indignant over the high handed crime. They characterize it as a cold blooded and apparently deliberate murder  During the forenoon an excited crowd gathered and threatened to lynch Hill.  He drew his revolver and kept them at bay.  At least five men witnessed the whole transaction.  Coroner Bundy, of Deposit, was summoned and is holding an inquest. The ball passed into Peasley's right lung.

Sidney Record, September 1886

In mid-September the village [Sidney, Delaware Co., NY] was shocked by a brutal act of murder.  A fine young man was shot and killed by a middle-aged farmer right in the middle of River Street near the Camel's Back, Robert Peasley, a brakeman on the Ontario who lived in Middletown and who was moving up in railroading was the victim.  Sam Hill, his assailant, is a farmer residing about 1-1/2 miles toward Bainbridge on the south side of the Susquehanna.  Mr Hill's son, Arthur, married Peasley's sister and there had been a great deal of family trouble between them.  Only a week before there had been a scandalous scene at the younger Hill's house on Clinton Street and pretty vile language had been used.

On Sept. 10th, Mr. Hill was driving to town and had just crossed the railroad when he met his son, stopping his rig to talk with him.  Just then young Peasley dropped off a passing engine and came down to the rig.  Witnesses state that there were words between him and the elder  Hill, then Peasley reached into the wagon and attempted to haul him out.  In this effort he stepped into the wagon and seized Mr. Hill around the neck.  A small exploding sound was heard and Peasley rose up, fell stumbling out of the wagon where young Arthur Hill tried to support him.  In just a few moments he was dead from a gunshot wound.  Sam Hill then drove upstreet to the Justice of Peace, Billy Pierce, and surrendered to arrest.  

After 40 days of confinement in Delhi County Jail, Mr. Hill was indicted for 2nd degree murder.  He was released on bail for $20,000 in November and will be tried by jury in the Spring Term.  The community was greatly excited by this turn of events.  Everyone speaks well of young Peasley.  We are not very proud of such doings in our village, and it seems a bit unjust that neither of the principals, Hill or Peasley, were local residents.  One lives in Chenango County, the other came from Orange County, but they met here to have their trouble.  The whole affair is shocking and terrible.

Trial of Samuel P. Hill

Chenango Union, Norwich, NY, October 9, 1890

The trial of Samuel P. Hill for the murder of Robert Peasley, in Sidney [Delaware Co., NY], four years ago, which was before the Court of Oyer and Terminer at Delhi, last week, resulted in a verdict of manslaughter in the second degree, and he was sentenced to Auburn State prison for a term of five years and two months.  Hill immediately applied to the Court and obtained a stay of proceedings to allow an appeal.

Samuel P. Hill is a farmer living in the town of Bainbridge [Chenango Co., NY], about two miles below Sidney. On Friday, September 10, 1886, Hill shot and instantly killed Robert Peasley, in the village of Sidney.  Peasley was a fireman on the O.&W.  Hill was indicted by the Grand jury in October, 1886, for murder in the second degree.  He was tried in March, 1887, and found guilty of manslaughter in the second degree, and sentenced by Judge Arbuckle to ten years hard labor in Auburn State prison.  The prisoner was then 61 years old.  Application was immediately made for a new trial, and Hill was admitted to bail in the sum of $10,000.  In September, 1888, the General Term granted him a new trial.  The decision and the recent trial followed.

Death of Samuel P. Hill

Gone to a Higher Court

Sidney Record, March 9, 1895

In announcing the death of Samuel P. Hill, the great shadowing event of the latter years of his life, with the remarkable legal strife that followed it, comes vividly to mind.  It is useless to harrow the public with the details of a tragedy so minutely known throughout this entire section of country.  The principals are now in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, why disturb their rest?  Now beyond the ken of human strife, they have gone before the Supreme Judge, before whom all deeds in the flesh must be answered for.  It is now into his hands that the case has passed for adjudication, and so mote it be.

Mr. S.P. Hill's death at 12:30 p.m. last Monday, did not take this community by surprise.  It was an event, from the nature of his malady, that had long been anticipated.  Several weeks ago a malignant cancer declared itself under his chin, extending over his neck into the region of the chest. It became a mere question of time when the carotid arteries would be attacked, then the fatal moment would immediately follow.  Mr. Hill suffered great agony from his remorseless malady, and death came in the guise of a friend to relieve his sufferings.  Mr. Hill was 68 years of age.  He was born in the town of Roxbury, on a farm adjoining the Gould homestead.  Jay Gould and young Hill were school mates and boon companions in those days.  He moved to Sidney in the year 1867 and purchased the farm he has owned ever since and known at that time as the Erastus Parker farm.  Mr. Hill was twice married.  His second wife survives him, and three children by his first wife, Arthur W. Hill, Fred Hill and Mrs. James Stewart, of Waterville, Kan.  The funeral was held last Thursday at 1 o'clock, p.m., and the remains were deposited in the receiving vault of Prospect Hill cemetery. [Sidney].