Morris Chronicle, Morris, NY, July 2, 1879
Deaths
MOORE: In Morris [Otsego Co. NY] June 24th, Mr. Orrin H. Moore, in the 77th year of his age.
Last week we spoke of the illness of Mr. Orrin H. Moore. Before our paper had reached many of tis readers, Mr. Moore died in the 77th year of his age. Since we have been a resident of this town, Mr. Moore has been our fast friend, seldom coming to the village but that he found time to call on the printers and cheer their labors by kind words. His many kindnesses will long be remembered.
POTTER: In Morris [Otsego Co. NY] June 28th, Mr. Caleb Potter in the 74th year of his age.
PARKHURST: In New Lisbon [Otsego Co. NY] June 27th, of consumption, Mary Jane [Parkhurst] wife of Harvey Parkhurst, aged 28 years.
SCOTT: In Fly Creek [Otsego Co. NY] June 10th, John Scott aged 30 years.
HUBBELL: In Burlington Flats [Otsego Co. NY] June 16th, Nancy A. [Hubbell] widow of Lemuel Hubbell in the 91st year of her age.
PEET: Laurens, Otsego Co. NY: Hannah Peet widow of Bassett Peet, died June 20th aged 82 years.
GREGORY: Laurens, Otsego Co. NY: Irving Gregory a son of Matthew Gregory, died June 18th, aged 21 years.
DEAN: Laurens, Otsego Co. NY: A three-year-old girl of Orson Dean accidently took a quantity of poison June 23d and only lived about one hour after taking it.
MORGAN: In New Berlin [Chenango Co. NY] last Saturday afternoon, Eddie Morgan son of Mr. Morgan, of the firm of Morgan, Finch & Phelps, merchants, was drowned in the Unadilla River while in swimming. He was about 13 years of age.
News Item
Seth H. Rowley of Unadilla [Otsego Co. NY] was a revolutionary soldier. He enlisted at the age of 16, served through the war and died at the age of 91. Innocent, his wife, died at the age of 87. they raised a family of 12 children, who in turn have married and raised 102 grandchildren, making in all, including grandparents, 116 in the family.
Chenango Union, Norwich, NY, May 1, 1879
Col. Dwight's Body Exhumed
A few weeks since we published a rumor to the effect that the remains of the late Col. Dwight of Binghamton [Broome Co. NY] would probably be exhumed and an inquest held in the interest of the life insurance companies whose policies on the life of deceased are still unpaid. This was accomplished last week.
Col. Dwight died on the night of the 15th of November last and on the following day a postmortem examination of the remains was made by Dr Delafield of the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons in the presence of Dr. Swinburn of Albany, and the Binghamton physicians. The autopsy was not satisfactory to the insurance companies, with whom he had policies to the amount of $265,000; it being claimed that it does not account for the death of Col. Dwight and another examination was demanded. After considerable delay, Coroner Richards hesitating as to his duty in the case until the matter was brought before the Governor and papers served up on the coroner. It was decided to hold the inquest and on Wednesday of last week the body was disinterred and removed to a barn near the cemetery, where the examination was held, Dr. Swinburn, of Albany, Sherman, of Ogdensburg, Hyde of Cortland, with Binghamton physicians, being present, as well as several legal gentlemen, in the interest of the contesting parties. The remains were quite badly decayed; the surface being covered with a white mold. a thorough examination was made and Dr. Swinburn made several paster casts of the head and neck. The remains were then reinterred.
The inquest was adjourned to the Court House, where it reassembled on Thursday morning. Several witnesses were sworn, among them Dr. Swinburn, whose theory is that Col. Dwight did not die a natural death; that the chills were produced by gelsemium, a narcotic poison; that a heavy ridge or indentation upon the neck of deceased was produced by a cord, supposing that it was placed upon his neck by the Colonel himself, with a weight of some fifty pounds attached and suspended over one of the arms of the bed, while he lay upon his pillow, causing strangulation; he did not think that after strangling himself sufficiently to produce death, a person could secrete the cord and weight, or call a person and then die.
Charles A. Hull, a lawyer of Binghamton, testified that he watched with the Colonel on the night of his death, at the Spaulding House; that he sat in an adjoining room, with the door open; the patient spoke, saying he had a new way of trying to keep food down; reached to a plate from which he took a cracker and bit it; in about ten minutes Hull heard a sudden gasp for breath and went into the room, when the Colonel said "Charlie," as was usual when he called him, his appearance startled Hull, who gave him a glass of brandy and called Mrs. Dwight, who came immediately, as did Mr. Spaulding, and other inmates of the house; the Colonel did not speak again, but died as if sinking away; witness put his arm under his head to raise it when he drank, but saw no cord or other appliances for strangling about him.
Dr. Benjamin F. Sherman of Ogdensburg testified: "I conclude that Col. Dwight was hung; he came to his death by a rope; I have seen the room and bed in which he died; I think that a cord about the size of a sash cord or larger; that it was put over the neck, all that it required was crossing it over the neck and dropping it on the scroll over the head of the bed; he need not have settled back more than three inches; I have seen numbers of cases where this has been done; in this case I consider it perfectly possible."
Dr. Elisha A. Bridges, of Ogdensburg concluded that the deceased came to his death from asphyxia caused by strangulation by a cord or rope. The Binghamton physicians adhered to their opinion that he died of congestive chills and that the indentation of the neck was merely a natural fold of the neck and tissues caused by the position in which the body laid. The theory of the undertaker is that the crease upon the neck was caused by the "chinrest" which he applied when the corpse was laid out.
The investigation continued until Saturday afternoon, when it was closed until May 6th.
An article in the New York Tribune of Friday, states that the officers of the principal New York companies affected by Col. Dwight's death declared that they had nothing to do with the investigation, although they were aware that such action was to be taken. There are now $209,000 remaining unpaid of the policies given, and to be collected from the companies by the executors of the estate. The Equitable Company paid its policy of $50,000 and the Globe and Universal Companies also made good some small paid up policies.
Chenango Union, Norwich, NY, May 15, 1879
The farce of investigating the cause of the death Col. Dwight of Binghamton closed on Friday last, the jury agreeing upon the following verdict.
"We do find that the said Walton Dwight came to his death at the Spaulding House in the city of Binghamton on the 15th day of November, 1878 from exhaustion of the vital powers, produced by protracted vomiting, malnutrition and the enervation effects of malarial poison, terminating in fatal collapse. And furthermore, we find that the said Walton Dwight did not come to his death from suicidal or homicidal causes."
Very naturally the people and the press of Binghamton are indignant at this second mutilation of the remains of their late townsman, and their strictures upon the Insurance Companies who have made so contemptible a failure to escape the payment of their obligations and upon the learned Doctors from abroad, who have achieved for themselves a fame which will long survive them and be handed down to posterity to astonish all future M.D.s are but deserved. Says the Republican of Saturday, in summing up the matter:
"The ingenious theory, therefore; that Col. Dwight made a gibbet of the bed post and hung himself with the bed cord of a spring bed, must remain as a monument of the desperation and skill of the distinguished gentlemen who had to use a microscope to tell a lung from a kidney and came all the way to Binghamton to proclaim themselves the greatest medical bigots and asses of the age. Dr. Swinburne would have us believe that Col. Dwight strangled himself; that in the prime of life and fullness of vigor, he deliberately took his own life in order to provide for a wife whose parents were already wealthy and to scatter a fortune among legatees to whom he was not specially attached. This theory defeats itself by going a little too far. It is impossible to believe that one who was such a generous, self-sacrificing martyr could commit such a crime against God and nature as that of taking his own life. Generous and kindly as the Colonel was, the public are not prepared to believe anything quite equal to this. This is a little too generous - just a little too divine."
[Col. Walton Dwight: b. Dec. 20, 1837; d. Nov. 15, 1878, AE 40y]
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