Martinsburg gazette and public advertiser. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1826-1833, 1828-10-09
IlAaERs- Town, Sept. 25
Death of Hrs. .Jfayv C. Ss.earnsen

nAaERs- Town, Sept. IS.
Death Of Hrs. .HUy c.. S,oearinsen
We are at last enabled to speak, with
something ike certainty, in relation %
sbe melancholy fate of Mrs. MARY.
C.SWEARINGEN, wife OF George
Swearingen, ESQ Sheriff of Washing.
ton county. And it is with feelings OF
the keenest regret and deepest horror,
that we the fact, revolting o
all the feelings and sympathies of our
nature, that there is too much reason
for believing that she came to her death,
by the hands Of her husband. Her
body has been twice examined by a
Coroner's Jury. The first examination
resulted in a verdict of death from ~.
unknotDn cunse.'' This verdict, I'm.
attended byother suspicious circumstan
ces, was,,of itself, suficisnt to create
an uneasiIress in the public mind, par.
tlcuiarly when it was recollected that
Swearingen admitted that be was with
her at the time O! her death; bot, we
understand, there were other and ma
ny suspicious circumstances attendent
on the melancholy occasion all of
which seemedto point ont the ~propriety
Of a re examination. That examina
ton accordingly took place, 90 Thurs
day night 18th inst and several fol
lowing days, although the dccease oc
CURED on Monday morning 9Th inst
The result of this denomination was.
"Ihat after q careful and fuH exam
isation Of numerous witnesses, then
(the Jtrymen) are Of opinion That
Mary T. Saoearingen came to her
death by the hands of her husband,
George Saoearingen." Swearingen
fed on Thursday night, shortly after
the disinterment ofthe body for re. ex
animation, and has not yet been taken.
1t is said he has been traced as far as
Stanton, in Virginia, where The pur-
suit vas given up.
AS this case will yet probably be
subjected to legal investigation, we do
not wish to say any thing in relation 10
it, that may have the remotest tendency
to prejudice the public mind, already
much excited, against this most unfor.
tuDale man, whether guilty or innocent.
And, witha view of correcting some
of the thousand reports now in circuIa.
t%ion-maDy no doubt entirely u%ufoun.
ded-we shall give a brief statement
of the leading facts ofthe case, asthey
have been represented to us, upon VIVA.
we conceive good authority.
Swearingen and his wife had been
for several weeks in Cumberland, in
the neighborhoOd oil which they owned
considerable property, devised by her
father, the late James Scott, ESQ of
that town. They bad, for more than
a year preceding, lived unhappily to
gether, in consequence, i. is believed,
of bis too great intimacy with a iewd
woman named Rachael Cunningham.
This woman he had recently placed on
n of his farms, where she resided at
The tiune, and near which Mrs, Swesr
ingen lost her life. On Sunday 7h
inst. Swearingen and wife, with their
only child, about three years old, visit
ed a relative near Cresap town. On
Monday 9Th, they started for the pur.
pose OF visiting another relative, living
beyond the property on which this Ra
chaet lived, Early in the day, after
passing a little boy about 9 IT 10 years
of age, on the road going to school,
Swearingen dismounted tied his horse,
took the child from his wife, and took
her across a low piece Of groond and
up a'hill of about one hundred feet in
height, thickIy covered with laurel, on