The Disappearance of Palmer Rich - 1888

Mysterious Disappearance of Palmer Rich Never Solved

South New Berlin Bee, July 3, 1952

The mysterious disappearance of Palmer Rich, on Oct. 10, 1888, has become a legend in Chenango County.  Palmer Rich was a respected farmer and an officer in the cheese factory in Amblerville.  On October 10, he came to Norwich [Chenango Co., NY] and left his horse and rig in a livery stable.  He went to the bank and withdrew a "considerable sum" of money.  It is reported that he was seen during the day about the village and then, like the Genie that answered the rubbing of Alladin's lamp, disappeared.  Adding to the mystery is the fact that his disappearance was not noted until two weeks later, when there appeared the following paragraph hidden in the Chenango Semi-Weekly Telegraph.  "The mysterious disappearance of one of our citizens, Palmer Rich, which happened two weeks ago, is a common topic of conversation."

 

After that paragraph was published the stories and rumors began to grow, and a week later the Telegraph devoted a story to denying the rumors.  The story reads in part:  "Last Friday it is said his body had been found in Mead's Pond just north of the village.  This report was utterly unfounded."

 

The Telegraph story continued:  "There came a still more fantastic narrative.  There was a trunk.  It was taken to one of our railroad depots for the proprietors of a disreputable house, by one of our draymen.  He and the baggage master thought it unduly heavy.  So they opened it and crowded into the trunk were the ghastly remains of Rich.  The body had been disemboweled and the stomach and intestines carried away.  This story horrified everybody  until it was found to be entirely without foundation.  In conclusion there is a great diversity of opinion concerning the fate of the missing man."

 

According to another story a team of horses was hitched up late at night and Rich's body was taken by a round about way up King Settlement Road and back to be buried in a swamp behind Chenango Lake.  It was recalled that on the same night Rich disappeared a large barn burned in the Chenango Lake road, and there were some who believed Rich's body was disposed of in the fire.

 

At one place in the Telegraph there is speculation that Palmer Rich may have taken the money and may have "gone west."

 

The most usual story is that Palmer Rich was last seen going into a house on York Knoll late in the evening, a house occupied by Rose Fox.  The foundation for this story is the statement of  a man who came forward with the information after a $1,000 reward was offered in the case.

 

About 18 months after the disappearance of Rich, an indictment was filed against Rose Fox, and the yellowing indictment still rests in the Chenango County Clerk's office.  Without the body, the indictment is fantastic.  It charges Rose Fox with first degree murder on two counts. In the first count the indictment said that Rose Fox murdered Rich "by means of poisonous drugs."  In the second count it said she murdered him "by means of certain deadly weapons: a rope or cord and a certain knife."  It said that she strangled and chopped and stabbed him to the heart. 

 

Rose Fox was arrested in Carbondale, Pa., and brought back to the Chenango County Jail, where she spent 10 months.  Arrested in Pittsburg, about the same time and brought back as a witness against Rose Fox, was Ida Tucker, or Mrs. Moran, as she is referred to in the old newspaper accounts.  She brought her English pug dog with her and was confined in the front room of the old county jail.  Mrs. Moran was supposed to have been an "instructor of gymnastic classes" and to have lived with Rose Fox. 

 

Another witness was to be Mary Ride, who claimed Rose Fox confided in her.  The Telegraph said that Mary Ride would testify that Rose Fox had buried Rich's body "in the stove, after anointing it was a preparation to prevent the odor of burning flesh escaping to the street."

 

But Palmer Rich's body was never found, and the indictment against Rose Fox was dismissed and she was released.

 

As late as 1920, the case was reported briefly by Ward M. Truesdell, then district attorney, after the fining of a human skeleton during the making of an excavation where a woodshed had stood on a farm near Route 8 in the town of New Berlin.  Mr. Truesdell said that the remains found apparently were those of an Indian buried in a sitting position.  Later than that, an old letter presuming to give directions for unearthing Palmer Rich's body on a farm in the East River Road, south of Polkville, was brought to the attention of the late Neil Lewis, when he was Chenango County sheriff.  He investigated, but here was no body found.

 

The story of Palmer Rich continues to grow, but his disappearance is as much a mystery now as it was the week after he vanished.

 

Arrest of Rosa Fox

Syracuse Daily Journal, April 30, 1890

 

Carbondale, PA:  Rosa Fox of Norwich, n.Y., was arrested here yesterday for the murder of Palmer Rich, a wealthy farmer at Norwich in October, 1888.  Rich drove into Norwich on the day he disappeared, drew $800 from the bank, and went to see Rose Fox, who kept a place of bad repute.  That was the last seen of him.  All efforts to get evidence enough to warrant the arrest of the Fox woman were fruitless until a few weeks ago, when a reward of $1,000 was offered for information.  then a Negro came forward with the statement that he could prove that Rose Fox chopped up Rich's body with an axe and burned it piece by piece in a stove.  Before she could be indicted, Rose fled with a paramour named Wood, said to be a married man.  Yesterday detective Moran arrested her in a house on the outskirts of this city, where she was living with Wood.  The woman took her arrest calmly, and during her confinement with an officer at the Harrison house, amused herself by playing on a piano, and talking on various topics.  She has the appearance of a hardened and desperate woman.

 

Arrest of Mrs. Ida Moran

Syracuse Daily Journal, May 2, 1890

 

Pittsbury, Pa:  Mrs. Moran of Beaver, Pa., has been arrested on a requisition from the Governor of New York, issued for the arrest of one Ida Tucker for the murder of Palmer Rich of Norwich, N.Y.   Palmer Rich entered a place occupied by Ida Tucker, now Mrs. Moran, and he was never seen  since.  He had several thousand dollars on his person.  Ida Tucker left the town shortly after and settled in Beaver, where she married a respectable man.  She will be taken east at once.

 

Syracuse Evening Herald, April 30, 1890

 

Palmer Rich has a brother and sister living at New Berlin [Chenango Co., NY] and relatives here.  He was a well-to-do farmer, and was last seen going into Mrs. Fox's house by "Al" Williams, the colored man, on the evening of October 10th.  Mrs. Fox came here about four years ago, since which time she has kept a disorderly house of the moral character.  She has been considered, even by her intimates, as a dangerous woman, and strange stories have been whispered about certain other occurrences at her house.  She was indicted for Rich's murder by the Grand jury  last week on the evidence of two witnesses who said she told them that she had first killed Rich and then burned his body in her cook stove, first covering his body with a preparation to prevent the odor of burning flesh escaping to the street.

 

Binghamton Press, August 18, 1921

 

Thirty-three years ago next October, Palmer Rich, a prosperous farmer of Ambler's settlement near South New Berlin [Chenango Co., NY], drove to Norwich, calling at the home of his cousin, Mrs. George W. Freeman and invited her to ride home with him in the afternoon.  He dined at the -?- House, paid his bill out of a fat roll and later was seen to enter the house of Rose Fox in the tenderloin district.  Ten days later Mrs. Freeman paid a visit to the Rich home, when it was discovered that Rich had mysteriously disappeared.  Mrs. Freeman thought he had gone home forgetting to come after her and the family believed he was staying in Norwich. 

 

All efforts to discover his whereabouts failed and the wildest stories as to the manner of his death and the disposition of his body were circulated.  The Fox woman was indicted and kept in the county jail for several months, but for lack of proof in the case against her was dismissed.

 

From time to time rumors of finding some clues that might explain the mystery have been furnished, the latest originating on a farm near where Rich lived in Ambler's settlement, where repairs to the house are now under way.  When a shed was torn down and excavation started for a cellar, the skeleton of  a man who had evidently been buried without any clothing was unearthed.  The authorities were notified and an investigation has been started.  There has never been any positive proof that Rich is dead.  Mrs. Fox indicted but never tried, died several years ago.