Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1873-09-20
The Huntington. IL Scandal.

- - 3Ne+a
A New York reporter had long in
teryiew with Mr.. Wood, of Huntington,
relative to the Kelsey affair which has
created 80 much Of a sensation on Long
Island. The latter said he had already
told all that he knew about the case Of
Kelsey. At the preliminary examine
ton before Justice Monfort on the night
of the attack on Kelsey, DIR. Banks
came to his house and said they had
caught Kelsey, at the same time invi-
ting Wood and his wife to 60 over to
Mrs. Oakley's to see him. They went,
but Wood said had they known what a
condition Kelsey was in they would not
have countenanced the thing by going
at all. Royal Sammis, the husband OF
the lady to whom Kelsey wrote the let
tiers, told him that he would have Kel'
sey punished if he staid away from New
York a week to do it, and on the next
day, when Wood went down to the vii
lage and met some of the people there,
one of them said to him that Royal
Sammis had made certain threat to-
ward Kelsey when talking to Isaac Ads
ans, the tin man, and he repeated the
very words which Sammis had used to
Wood-that he would punish Kelsey if
it took him week. The men in Mrs,
Oakley's yard all wore masks, many of
them looking like handkerchiefs tied
down over the face, with holes for the
eyes. Some of them wore red mask.
He could not distinguish any of the
voices. Sammis was in Mrs. Oakley's
house. He saw Kelsey after he had
been tarred, but he does not think there
was any tar on his face. He was in
Mrs. Oakley's yard and was guarded by
/ five or six masked men, who made him
walk slowly almost entirely around the
house. He had gone out through the
back gate, when some one called out,
Bring him back p After that they
made him stand in the yard three min
utes, and then some one again called
out, "Let him go!" Wood could not
distinguish the voice in either case.
Kelsey then went back again toward
the gate, and that was the last seen OF
him. The next morning Wood found q
I pile of feathers in his barn shed, and
the boards were smeared with tar. Kel.
sey came into his shed after leaving
Mrs. Oakley's. Wood came away from
Mrs. Oakley's with DIR. Banks and John
Mckay. Wood had a poor opinion Of
Kelsey's character, and thought he
wrote the offensive letters sent to Miss
Smith, because he had compared the
handwriting with letter Kelsey sent tc
District Attorney Tuthill, promising
not to annoy Miss Smith any more
Wood thought he knew of other ladies
whom Kelsey had insulted. He came
around Mrs. Oakley's at all hours o.
the night, and was seen there by severa
persons, and they had to have curtains
put up at the lecture-room windows o.
the church to prevent him from peep
ing in.
The excitement at Huntington and
in the surrounding country, says {
Tribune correspondent, concerning the
tragedy continues inhabited, and Their,
seems to be no immediate prospec
either of solving the mystery or O.
quieting the public Indignation. TIL,
sympathizers with the Kelsey part,
seem to be increasing in numbers. New
ertheless there are still many who thinl
that the remains discovered are no
those of Kelsey, but those of some ONT
else which had been smeared with tar
mutilated, and thrown into Oyster Ba.
by his friends, who are anxious to brinl
to justice those who are willing to &C
knowledge that they went SO far as t.
tar and feather him. The majority O
the people in the vicinity of Huntingto,
now entertain little doubt concerning
the body discovered. They think tina
) the plot could hardly have succeeded S
well had it been hastily laid by the Kel
sey family on the night of the outrage
' Events could not have been SO NIGEL
/ fitted and jointed, and above all, wan
r derer for whose arrest large rewar
was offered and whose photographs hav
been scattered broadcast, could hardl
{ have succeeded in eluding capture TO
nearly twelvemonth.