Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1878-05-24
4 Virginia Tragedy Of the Past.

tomb stones in the graveyard of
Williamsburg, Va, is one which bears
the following inscription:
Sacred to the memory OF
SARAH sEMPHmL,
Who died at the age of twenty five,
slain, with her two infant daugh-
ters, by her own husband.
She was fair to look upon, pure as-snow,
and beloved by all who knew her.
Divine Providence alone knows
why she had to perish 80
miserably.
This epitaph, some of the words of
which are hardly legible any longer, is
the only record left of one, If the most
terrible tragedies that evSFtook place in
the Old Dominion.
II was in 1898 that John Semphill,
young man, who said he was from Santa
Cruz, in the West Indies, arrived at
Williamsburg and settled there as a
tobacco planter. He had plenty of
money, and was able to purchase about
one thousand acres of the finest soil
within a short distance of the old town.
Being apparently gentleman in every
sense of the word, Mr.. Semphill was
admitted to the best society in his new
home, and year later he was married
to Sarah Jones, beautiful heiress, the
wedding festivities being celebrated with
extraordinary pomp and splendor. In
course of time two daughters were born
to the young couple, and everybody
predicted long career of cloudless hap
piness for them. Alas How terribly
those bright anticipations were to be
disappointed. 1t was on Christmas eve,
in 1901, that a strange-looking man, in
a sort of military uniform, appeared at
the house of Mr.. Semphill, who was in
Richmond at the time. Mrs. Semphill
received the stranger in the parlor.
"Do you speak French, madam ?" he
said to her in very broken English.
She replied in the affirmative.
"Then, madam, please send your two
nurse-girls with the children out of the
ROOM"
She did 30, and looked interrogatively
at her visitor. The latter hesitated a
moment. Then he said in tone of deep
emotion:
"Poor lady, have terrible tidings
for you"
"Heavens p she cried, turning very
pale; "my husband"
"Your husband is an infamous vii
lain."
"Sir !" she exclaimed, Indignantly.
He has basely deceived you. He is
an escaped galley slave, a thief and
murderer u
She uttered heart-rending scream.
"Do you tell me the truth ?" she
gasped.
"He is a Spanish thief, and was sent
to the galleys of Barcelona for life. He
made his escape from thence, and fed
to Cuba, where he robbed and murdered
n rich planter. am here to take him to
Cuba, where the scafold surely awaits
him."
The afflicted lady had become strangely
calm.
"Sir," she said to the stranger, "be-
fore you arrest him, will you permit me
to hold a private interview with
with"
"His true name is Juan Cefrio. If
you will let me remain in an adjoining
room until he returns from Richmond,
where he has gone, I understand, you
may see him privately"
81 expect him back every moment.
Half an hour later, Cefrio, alias Semp-
hill made his appearance. His wife
briefly told him everything. He flew
into terrible rage. He shot her through
the heart, and rushed out of the room to
the nursery, where he stabbed his two
little daughters. The next moment the
Cuban officer, who had rushed after
him, grappled with him, and succeeded,
after desperate struggle, in shackling
him. The news of this horrible tragedy
spread like wildfre through the old
town, and in less than twenty minutes
large course of people had gathered in
front of Semphill alias Ceirios house.
Vociferous threats to lynch the murder
er were made, and the deputy sheriffs,
who were promptly on hand to arrest
him, had the utmost difficulty in taking
him to jail, where he was chained to the
floor, having threatened to commit sui
eide.
The villain was hung on the 18th of
May, 1903.