Vital Records - April 1854

 Oxford Times, April 5, 1854

Married:  In this village [Oxford, Chenango Co., NY], on the 22d ult., by Rev. J.C. Ransom, Mr. Isaac Cowles to Miss Lavina Loomis, both of Greene [Chenango Co., NY].

Married:  In this town [Oxford, Chenango Co., NY], on the 30th ult., by Rev. J.C. Ransom, Mr. John W. Lyon to Miss Sarah J. Preston, all of Oxford.

Married:  In this village [Oxford, Chenango Co., NY], on the 2d inst., by Rev. A.S. Graves, Mr. Samuel A. Rogers of Preston [Chenango Co., NY] to Mrs. Susan Lake of Oxford.

Married:  in Guilford [Chenango Co., NY], on the 29th ult., by Rev. A.S. Graves, Mr. Charles F. Bunnell to Miss Sally M. Newton, both of Guilford.

Died:  In this town [Oxford, Chenango Co., NY], on the 29th ult., Mr. John Holliday, aged 64 years.

Died:  In Pharsalia [Chenango Co., NY], on the 5th ult., Widow Nancy Gladding, aged 72 years.

Died:  In Smyrna [Chenango Co., NY], on the 20th ult., Mr. Wyram Bartlett, aged 77 years.

Died:  At Syracuse [Onondaga Co., NY], on the 24th of March, Mr. Alfred Hovey, Esq., in the 76th year of his age, formerly a resident of Oxford [Chenango Co., NY], and was a son of Gen. Hovey, the original settler of this village.  Mr. Alfred Hovey was one of the original Erie Canal contractors, and a man of indomitable energy.  He assisted in making the aqueduct at Rochester, and in blasting through the mountain ridge at Lockport.

Oxford Times, April 12, 1864

Died:  In Smithville [Chenango Co., NY], on the 9th inst., Mr. Chauncey Hill, aged 67.

Died:  In North Norwich [Chenango Co., NY], on the 27th ult., Martha Giles, aged 57 years.

Oxford Times, April 19, 1854

Married:  In Oxford [Chenango Co., NY] on the 12th inst., by Rev. Wm. Reddy, Mr. P. Jerome White (son of Rev. P.G. White of Earlville) to Miss Lora A. M. Ferris of Guilford [Chenango Co., NY]

Married:  In Oxford [Chenango Co., NY] on the 13th inst. by Rev. J.C. Ransom, Mr. John N. Blossom to Miss Rhoda M. Cook, both of Norwich [Chenango Co., NY]

Married:  In Deposit [Delaware Co., NY], on the 10th inst., by Rev. A. P. Allen, Mr. Wm. P. Everson to Miss Mary A. Hathaway, both of Bainbridge [Chenango Co., NY].

Oxford Times, April 26, 1854

Trial of Gilmore for the Murder of Benjamin Twitchell:  We have received a report of the trial of Samuel Gilmore in the Court of Sessions at San Francisco, California, for the murder of Benjamin Twitchell.  The trial occupied four days, and resulted in the conviction of the accused of manslaughter, and a recommendation by the jury to the mercy of the court.  The version of the facts of the melancholy occurrence related by the witnesses for the prosecution and defense was somewhat conflicting.  Alfred Higgins, the principal witness for the prosecution, testified that Mr. Twitchell was with a party surveying a tract of land on which Mr. T. resided in the Potrero in the neighborhood of San Francisco.  Gilmore was with another party building a fence on what he claimed to be the line between the two tracts of land. After an exciting conversation between Higgins and Gilmore, Mr. Twitchell came up.  He said to Gilmore.  "Young man!  what are you going to do with that gun?  You are not going to shoot me?"  Gilmore replies "I will shoot you if you cross that line."  Mr. Twitchell then crossed the line about three paces; Gilmore told him to stop or he would shoot him; Mr. Twitchell replied "don't you shoot that gun!"  Gilmore was then taking sight; he snapped the cap; he then told Mr. Twitchell to go back over the line or he would shoot him.  Twitchell said "if there was going to be any shooting he would have the shooters out of the house." and hallowed to his men to that effect; Gilmore then shot; I took hold of Twitchell.  He took out his pocket book, and said, "I am a dead man--God receive my spirit."  these were his last words.  He was carried into the house and lived 20 minutes breathing heavily.  He received the discharge, some 25 or 30 shot in his left groin, and along the upper part of his thigh.  Joseph Story, one of the fence building party was the principal witness on the part of the defense. He put quite a different complexion on the matter from the statement of Higgins.  Gilmore had been out shooting geese in the morning, and had stopped with the gun on his return where the party were at work.  Before Twitchell came up Gilmore had an irritating and harsh conversation with one Hatch of the surveying party; when Twitchell came up Gilmore retreated and Twitchell advanced on him, addressing him in a tone of bravado.  After the fatal discharge Gilmore enquired "if the man was dead?"  and added "I am afraid I shot higher than I intended' I did not intend to kill him, but to shoot him in the legs; if the first barrel had gone off I should have done so," and immediately sent for a surgeon.  With such a conflicting testimony, and in a community where great crimes often meet with impunity, it is not strange that a jury should put a construction upon the testimony inclining towards mercy. The punishment of manslaughter is imprisonment, but the length of the term is not given in the report of the trail.

Died:  In this village [Chenango Co., NY], on the 21st inst. at the residence of her son-in-law (E.B. McCall) after a severe and protracted illness of several months, Mrs. Submit D. Smith, formerly of Hadley, Mass.