Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-03-12
Grisby Family Skele-
tons Stir in Musty
Closets.
MFARLAND KILLED
MISS COE, IS CHARGE
Friends to Aid Noted Edu-
Gator and Temperance
RefOrmer.

PITTSBURGH. Pa, March Pre-
leased from musty closets, where they
have been confined for years. grisly
family skeletons will begin to stalk be-
fore court and jury today when Rev.
DIR. William d. Mcfarland, well-known
educator and minister of the gospel,
will be called for trial, charged with
performing a criminal operation which
resulted in the death of his pretty and
accomplished former secretary, Miss
Elsie Dodds Coe. DIR. Mcfarland is
about so years old and married; Miss
Coe was 28.
A months -postponement of the trial
originally set for February 8, has
been used by District Attorney William
A. Blakely to comb the life record of
DIR. Mcfarland. 1t is alleged that this
investigation has yielded a grim return
of facts about his public and private
life long previous to his coming to
Pittsburgh to assume an honored place
here as educator, temperance reformer
and minister of the United Presby-
terian Church.
The ministerial friends Of DIR. Nc
Farland have not been idle. A vote
of confidence was taken in his behalf
at a ministerial meeting held a day
after he was released on mi to an
swer the grand jury's indictment.
They also have raised none for his
defense. Friends made during his SUI
pe~rintendency of the local high school
also have come to his aid.
Several years ago, when Elsie Coe
was a dainty little high school girl, she
attracted the attention of DR.. Nc
Farland, ostensibly because of her
faithful performance of school duties.
The upshot of it was that she was en-
ployed as his secretary. The State VIII
contend that this employment was the
beginning of a relation which termin-
ated in the young woman's dishonor
and death. DIR. Mcfarland, it is de-
clared, openly regarded Miss Coe with
the affection of a father for his daugh-
ter, and he extended his friendship to
the girls invalid mother and sister
Lillian.
They regarded him in the light Of a
family adviser. At one time McFar-
land and his wife occupied apartments
in the same house with the Goes.
Later, DR.. Mcfarland resigned his
position as head of the local high
school to accept the superintendency Of
mission school work, started by the
United Presbyterian Church in north
eastern Tennessee. The educator re-
moved his family to Cedar Creek,
twelve miles from Greeneville, Tenn.
He is well-beloved in that community.
Since his Indictment he has resigned as
head of the schools there.
Mrs. Mcfarland has implicit faith In
her husband. She win be with him at
the trial.
Following the departure of the Nc
Farlands for Tennessee, many letters
were exchanged between them and the
Coe family. Last spring Elsie Coe &C
copied an invitation to spend her vaca-
ton in the mountains of Tennessee as
a guest of the McFarlands. She was
there during July and August.
Early in September she returned to
Pittsburgh, and shortly after she seemed
to be worried and i'll. but she did not
give up her work. One day she told
her mother and sister that she had
been thinking of having an operation
performed; that a physician a told
her that a very slight surgical treat
ment would result in a vas better
ment of her health. She said that DR..
Mcfarland had agreed to perform the
operation.
Lillian Zoe says she objected strenu-
ously to this, insisting that if her sister
was to be operated upon a surgeon of
known ability be called in. Elsie, how
ever, overrode all objections, saying
that she had entire faith in DR.. McFar-
lands ability.
On Saturday, January 6, the fatal
operation was performed, it is charged.
Two women, neighbors Of the Goes, tes-
titled at the inquest that they were
present and saw DR.. Mcfarland per-
form the operation. Lillian was not
at home and her mother, being an in
valid, the neighbor women had been
called at Elsieis suggestion to assist
Or. Mcfarland. h women said that
they did not understand the nature of
the operation.
Physicians who examined Elsie Coe
after her death. say the operation was
a frightful bungle.
The women witnesses swore hat they
knew DR.. Mcfarland and that there
was absolutely no question as to his
identity.
DIR. Mcfarland declares that he
knows nothing about the crime.
A woman physician who called to see
Miss Coe shortly after, was told by the
suffering young woman that no opera
tion had taken place.
Next q Miss Coe was taken to the
Homeopathic Hospital. The suspicious
of the house physicians were at once
aroused.
Miss Coe resisted all questioning
satil told that she was about to die.
Then she made a statement in writing
thai DR.. Mcfarland had operated upon
her criminally October 10, while at
tending a Sunday school convention
here and again on January 6. She ac-
cused Rollin Mcconnell, a young Pitts
burgh business man, now of Chicago,
of being responsible for her condition.
Thursday morning, January II. she
died.