Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1858-09-02
Misfellang.
The Murder and Suicide i'm
Pittsfield.

Pittsfield.
The Elyria Democrat gives the circum-
stances attending the extraordinary murder
and suicide committed in Lorain county
last week. They agree in the main with
the account already published. The con-
tinued drunkenness and brutal treatment
Mrs. Williams received from her husband,
and his success by persuasion and threats,
aided by Cleveland lawyer, in finally In
ducing her to relinquish the divorce suit,
and quit clair her interest in the property,
in consideration of certain promises made
by Williams, the supposition is dethroned
reason, and led her to destroy her offspring
and herself The following details of the
tragedy are derived, tie Democrat says,
from the testimony taken before the acting
Coroner.
Mrs. Whitehead was not at home, and
no person staid there that night, except
Mrs. Williams and her daughter, who was
deaf and dumb. and another little girl some
five or six years of age. During the night,
Mrs. Williams took her daughter Juliet
into the back room and hung her by the
neck with a strip of cloth. Her cries
awakened the little girl, who went into the
room and saw her hanging. Mrs. Williams
then took her down and put her into bed
with the other girl. After they had gone
to sleep, she must have taken her to the
barn, or hung her until she was dead in
the house, for when the little girl awoke,
about four o'clock in the morning, she could
find no one in the house. She went to
the house ola neighbor, near by, and a
boy returned with her, and searched the
house all over. They then went to the
log barn, and found the mother hanging
from projected log in the corner, and her
little daughter hanging from pole in the
barn, Both were dead
When the neighbors we're aroused, they
found several letters on the table which
she had written to different persons, Just
previous to committing the horid act. In
one of these she says:
"Ob, that anguish of heart will have.
No friends-none!r This was written
with a pen, and Immediately following
was this sentence, written with pencil ;
~ do not wish to live, 1 cannot. l do not
know half the time what am about"
In another letter she says: "Benjamin
Williams, (her husband,) has done all he
can to injure me, but it will soon be 10 an
end. am almost done with trouble in
this world. The next cannot be any worse
than it has been in this. 1 cannot live in
this world-I will not"
81 never felt SO willing
to die as 1 do now."
One of the letters addressed to her hus-
band contains this passage:
81 have but few words to say. 1 have
always prayed in my heart to do what is
right. Whatsoever you did, always said
1 must try to do my duty. I left you in
order to have some peace of mind, but l
found it not"
One letter was found ADDRESSED to L. D.
Rose, charging him with being the means
of her ruin; and it is probably that her
husband, having, by some means learned
of the transaction, used the arguments it
afforded, to induce her to withdraw her
divorce suit. Such we are informed is the
fact. None of the letters found were signed,
but the handwriting was proved to be that
of Mrs. Williams.
She was married to Mr.. Williams in
1s47, and has undoubtedly suffered enough
violence and cruelty to craze any ordinary
brain; and she took this method to sepa-
rate herself from the brute who had driven
her to madness, and rather than leave her
daughter in his care, she, with desperate
nerve, took her innocent life also. She was
much respected in Pittsfeld, and had the
sympathy of all her neighbors, in her en-
durance of the cruel treatment of her Lus-
band.
The scamp, Rose, who was implicated in
the Pittsfeld tragedy, was arrested last
Monday and taken before Magistrate in
Wellington, charged with committing adul-
terry with Mrs. Williams, who was alleged
to be insane Our informant states that
q large portion of the male population of
Pittsield was in attendance at the trial,
and that the greatest excitement prevailed
among them. We have not learned the
result of the examination, but circumstan-
ces indicate that Rose was employed by
Williams to seduce his wife, that he might
defeat her petition for divorce and alimo-
ny. We hope be may be brought to Sc
we're punishment.