Vital Records, Chenango County, NY, July (continued)

 Chenango Union, Norwich, NY, July 1870

July 27, 1870

Marriage

WOOD - FITCH:  In Cuba, N.Y., July 11th, by Rev. Mr. Daley, Mr. Frank D. Wood, of Greene [Chenango Co. NY] to Miss Mina E. Fitch,, formerly of Greene.

Deaths

BARTLE:  In Oxford [Chenango Co. NY], July 10th, Mary L. [Bartle] wife of Levi Bartle, aged 47 years.

MEAD:  In Oxford [Chenango Co. NY], july 18th, Mrs. Lydia A. Mead aged 88 years. 

EVANS:  In Bainbridge [Chenango Co. NY], july 20th, Mr. Theodore Evans, aged 31 years.

Oneida [Madison Co. NY]:  Thomas McGovern, who had been laboring on the Midland, was run over and killed by the special New York express train on the Central Road, near the malt house in Oneida, on the 16th inst.  Deceased was about sixty years of age, and had a family of a wife and nine children residing in Canada.  It seems the deceased was subject to fits, and it is supposed he was taken in one of these and fell upon the track.  He had started for Rome on foot, with the view of being doctored there.

Murder in DeRuyter:  On Saturday morning July 10, at half-past six o'clock, the body of Dennis Griffin, a workman on the Midland Railroad, was found in a pit on section 26, about two and a half miles east of DeRuyter village.  When found the body lay on its face, about three and a half feet from the side of the pit, which is twelve and a half feet deep, the head towards the south side of the pit. The back part of the skull, in a line even with the upper portion, or ear, was completely crushed in, evidently by a heavy blow, and there was a slight contusion on the face, near the eye.  A.V. Bentley, Esq., acting as Coroner, summoned a jury.  Drs. Spencer and Mudge testified as to the injuries.  It was proven that the deceased passed Scott's Hotel about 9 o'clock the evening previous, and a few moments later another man passed in the same direction, walking faster than Griffin.  This was the last seen of the deceased.  It was known that Griffin had some fifty or sixty dollars in his possession.  Four cents only were found on the body. The verdict of the jury was that deceased came to his death from causes to them unknown.  The pit where the body was found was about one-half mile from the highway, and was not in the usual path of Griffin's boarding place. Griffin had spent the day in the village endeavoring to collect a debt.  He was an intemperate man. The position of the body, the blow on the back part of the head, the fact of his money being gone, all prove conclusively that he met his death by foul means.  A good deal of excitement exists over the matter in DeRuyter, especially in the immediate neighborhood, and the opinion is universal that he was murdered.  

Oxford Times, Oxford, NY, July 27, 1870

Deaths

TUTTLE:  In this village [Oxford, Chenango Co. NY], July 20th, Mr. Cyrus Tuttle, aged 77 years.

HICKEY:  In Norwich [Chenango Co. NY], July 18, Mr. Owen Hickey, aged 50 years.

Chenango American, Greene, NY, July 28, 1870

Marriage

In Smithville [Chenango Co. NY], on the 17th inst. by Rev. J.C. Nightingale, Mr. Lyman H. Haight, to Miss Alice M. Church, both of Greene.

Deaths

In Smyrna [Chenango Co. NY], Mr. Jonathan Boynton, aged 66 years.

DAVIS:  In East Greene [Chenango Co. NY], July 17th, Harriet Daniels Wheeler [Davis], wife of O.D. Davis, and daughter of the late Samuel Wheeler, of Oxford [Chenango Co. NY], aged 55 years.  

"Spirit, thy labor is o'er, / Thy term of probation is run, / Thy feet are now bound for the untrodden shore, / And the race of immortals begun.

Spirit, no fetters can bind, / No evil have power to molest, / Then, the weary, like thee, there the mourner shall find, / A Heaven, a Haven of rest."

In Smithville [Chenango Co. NY], on the 26th inst. James Ferguson Esq. aged 54 years.  Thus, has passed away another of our most prominent citizens.  The name of the deceased will long be held in grateful remembrance, not only by his kindred, but by the public at large in his native town.  For many years he was the trusted and faithful magistrate of his town, and in all the relations of life where a faithful friend and counsellor was needed, his advice was sought for and heeded by all classes of community.  He was emphatically a man of congenial temperament and high-toned integrity and secured the respect and confidence of all who came in contact with him.  In the county of Chenango, he was well and favorably known, and all who were blessed with his acquaintance will sincerely sympathize with his immediate relatives, in the loss they have all sustained.  His funeral was attended on the 27th by a large concourse of people, and under the direction of Eastern light Lodge of this village, of which he was a member, his remains were deposited in their last resting place.

Drowned:  On Sunday evening last, a laborer on the first Railroad bridge below this village, by the name of Thomas Nivens, was drowned in the river, about two miles this side of Chenango Forks [Broome Co. NY].  It appears that he with two other men started from Chenango Forks in a small boat and proceeded up the river.  The boat was an old one and leaked badly. After going a short distance one of the men got out, and the other two proceeded up the river.  They had not gone far, when Nivens undertook to change his position in the boat but lost his balance and fell overboard and was drowned.  His body was recovered the next day and taken to Binghamton [Broome Co. NY] for burial.  He was a Scotchman and had been in this country only four months.  He was 39 years of age and leaves a wife and five children to mourn his loss.