The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-04-02
USELESS NOW.
The Old Gallows Lies
Wondering Under
the Hay.
IS MERELY A CURIOSITY.
First and Last Hanging in
Worcester Was
Revolving.

Hidden carefully away under the hay
in the loft OF n barn attached to the
county Jail is a cord or more of mouldy,
worm-eaten, half decayed wood. 1t is
all that remains of the old Worcester
county gallows
Ever since Samuel j. Frost expiated
on that scaffold the murder of his
brother in -laws the various parts Of
the gibbet have lain unobserved in a
location known only to the sheriff and
his assistants. 1t is now almost %
years since the gruesome apparatus Of
death was taken down. During that
time 1t has been carefully guarded and
kept for the time when necessity would
again demand its use.
But times are changed. The old days
of barbario hanging are over as far as
Massachusetts is concerned. Hanging
has given way to electrocution, the rope
to electricity. A few days hence the
gallows will be as much of curiosity
in the old Bay State as a whipping
post or a pillory is today.
The question that is now agitating
Sheriff Chamberlain Is what DISPOSE
ton to make of the rubbish, 1t will
never be put into active use again. AS
far as usefulness Is concerned, no bet
ter disposition could be made of 1t
than to cut It UP into flrewood. But
deputies, turnkeys and constables re-
bel when such a disposition Is advo-
Gated They have always had GER
tain pride in the Worcester gaIlows
and desire it's retention as O curiosity.
So the fast-rotting heap of old wood
win probably be left in its present To-
cation until years. have brought COM
plete decay.
20 ,p
Frost, Worcester county never possess
sed a good gallows Of its own. In the
early colonial days when hanging was
a penalty for every crime. from Lar
ceny to witohcraft, executions were fire.
ouent But the early settlers bothered
themselves no more about gallows
than do a band of western cowboys
when they have a horse thief to dispose
of. The only requisites were a few
feet Of rope, and a beam from which to
depend the same. The victim was gem
orally stood on a box, which was push
ed out from under him OF the proper
moment.
SO in the early days, when Bathsheba
Spooner was executed, scaffoldS and
galows were largely improvised and
hastily constructed affairs.
But as years went on hangings grew
fewer. More consideration was felt for
In some of the counties, like Worcester
county, hangings became so rare that
they averaged not one in 20 years. Then
sprung up the custom Of borrowing gal
| lows.
The sheriff of Worcester county
would need gallows. He would write
to the sheriff of Suffolk county request
ing the loan of a gibbet. The friendly
sheriff Of Suffolk county would kindly
pack UP his scatfold and ship 1t to
his Worcester confrere. There was a
neighborliness and q friendliness about
tbe transaction reminding one OF two
housewives negotiating loans of eggs
and butter
When the brothers, Charles and Stlas
James paid the penalty for the murder
of Clark in 1868, it was on a gallows
borrowed from Boston by Sheriff
Knowlt0n During the ensuing eight
years there was no execution. But on
May 26th, 1876, during the incumbency
of Gen. Sprague, came the hanging Of
Samuel J. Frost.
Gen. Sprague, following the usage of