The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1880-01-23
A CELEBRATED CASE.
HAYDES's LONG TRIAL, JURY DISAGREE
HISTORY OF THE CRIME.

move for Hayden's release on bail at the first
opportunity. There is scarcely any proba-
biity Of another trial. Hayden was warmly
congratulated by his friends.
Public opinion has been very much divd-
ed from the start about the guilt of the Rev
Herbert II. Hayden. The trial has been
long and interesting one. Although the |
crime was committed early in September,
1878, and Hayden was placed in Jail in
October, it was not until October 1873, that
the trial was called. Meantime the coun.
sci for the prosecution were working up the
case even to the minutest detail. The trial
has occupied sixty days, and there have
been repeated adjournments for a day or two
at time.
In the township of Madison, twenty miles
FROM New Haven,is the little village of Rock
land. Before this trial no one ever heard of
it, Hayden was the pastor of a little Meth
odist Church, Charles $, Staunarl, fair
example Of the "poor white" middle-aged
widower, had lived for some years in an
isolated house in Rpckland. lie worked for
reighboring farmers, and his housekeeper
was Susan f, Hawley, his wife's daughter
by former marriage. Mary E. Stannard
his daughter, an attractive young woman,
% years old, had become the mother of an
| iliegitimate child two years before the MUIR
der but she had seemed so pentent and
had conducted herself so properly afterward
| bp ,nl-l -lo I,,i.-
ted her to their families as a domestic and
forgot her deviation from the paths of vir-
tue. She had frequently worked in the
house of Mr.. Hayden, and ia August, 1878
she was employed by a family named Study
in the reighboring town of Guiliord. On
the first OF September she returned home,
having first sent letter to her half.s;ster,
enclosing one to Mr.. Hayden. In her let
ter 10 Susan Hawley she said she feared she
was in trouble, aud was coming home on
that account The next day she visited
Hayden's house several times, and accor-
ding to the claims of the prosecution told
Hayden her troubles and agreed to meet him
the next day when he was to obtain some
| htulIihc loi hel, iHe tutOIy VI Tue ptUs-
ecuton, as brought out during the trial, is
this.
Mr., Hayden was the author of Miss STAN
nard's trouble He feared exposure and de-
cided to put her out of the way On Tues
day morning, September 3, Hayden told his
wife he was going to Durham to buy some
oats. He passed Durham and went to Mid
dletown, and at an apothecary's store bought
some arsenic. On his way home he stop
ped at the Stannard house, about noon and
got glass of water. The water was warm
and Mary volunteered to go to spring which
was on the road to his house and get some
that was cool. At the spring she dipped up
pail and he drank of it, told her that he
had procured some medicine and asked her
to meet him in an hour in the woods oppo-
site the Stannard house. near a rock known
as Big Rock. Soon afterward Mary went in
the direction of the rock, carrying tin
pail, saying she was going to pick black
berries. Her friends never saw her again
alive. Late in the afternoon her father be-
came anxious about her and went into the
woods to find her. He found her dead body.
1t seemed plain that her murderer had knock
her down with blood-stained stone which
was lying near her and had then stabbed her
in the throat with sharp and narrow knife.
blade. She lay as one prepared for burial /;
her arms had been folded on her breast and
her sun bonnet had been placed under her
head. Her empty tin pail stood near the
body, but no weapon could be found. Susan
HaTley told what she knew of the case and
Hayden was arrested. The body of the
murdered girl was exhumed and ninety
grains of arsenic found in her stomach The
prosecution claimed that Hayden had given
the girl this arsenic; that she screamed
during her agony produced by the poison,
and that he plunged his knife in to her
throat and slenced her forever. Then he
washed the knife and went home.
The question of arsenic has entered large
ly into the trial. Hayden claimed that the
poison he purchased was for rats and that
he had hidden it in the barn. At the pre-
liminary examination a search had been
made, but no arsenic found. Afterwards a
friend of Hayden's found box of arsenic
hidden away. The prosecution got hold of
the arsenic, and last summer experts from
Yale College were sent to Europe to study
arsenic. They showed at the trial that the
arsenic found in the barn was different from
that purchased at Middletown. The pastors
| " In 81 al
notch for the thumb-nail on one sharp mar
row blade were found fifteen corpuscles,
which were pronounced corpuscles of hui
man blood. Hayden's defense was that he
had noGbeen intimate with the girl and had
no motive for putting her out of the way.
The defense also showed that Mary Stan
nard was not 10 trouble, although the prose
culion brought out the fact that she thought
she was, Hayden claimed that on the after
noon of the murder he was cutting wood in
his wood lot. His wife corroborated him,
and both testified that when he went to his
wood lot that day he left his knife with her
in the house; and husband and wife both
agreed that with this blade he had recently
cut one of his fingers. Everything that
could bring out point against Hayden was
used. Accurate maps and photographs of
the locality, were made; distances were meas
ured, and attempts were made on one side to
show that he could not have gone to Big
Rock without being seen, and on the other
that he could Mary's face aud neck were
preserved in alcohol, aud the prosecution
even went so far as to claim that certain
marks in the face had been made by the
nails in Hayden's boot heel. The defense
claimed that the marks were made by putre-
faction. The long trial has been most sharp
ly fought on both sides. The evidence
produced has been entirely circumstantial.
The trial will cost the State something like
10000.
A a.