Year: 1877

tlldn Orulnary courage, vim anu energy


and both had the confidence of the com


munity as men of integrity and honesty


In due time Judge Whittlesey re


paired to New York city, and drew from


the Mechanics Bank $35, 900 of Govern


ment funds in bills varying from 81 to


so each. Evidently he had an honorable


and sincere intention to use these funds


in lawful manner for the payment O


the militia. But unfortunately he al


lowed his wife to accompany him on hii
journey. Mrs. Whittlesey was quite al


extraordinary woman. She was we'll ed


ucated, intelligent, thoroughly versed il


politics, and great lover of controversy


on that subject keen, artful, quick-wit-


ted, able to hold an argument with the


distinguished men of that day, exceed.


ingly proud and pulled up with family


rank and distinction, but, as it proved al
last, she was Thoroughly destitute 0J


moral principle! 1t was very general
ly believed that she was the prime and
sole instigator of her well-meaning hus-
band in those events which soon fol-
lowed, and which filed that region with
excitement, and finally resulted in most
fearful tragedy


In the winter of 1876 Judge Whit
tlesey and wife made their journey to
New York after the Government funds.
They travelled by private conveyance, in
their own sleigh, a very common method
of journeying in those days. On their
way back to Watertown Mrs. Whittlesey
pretended to make the discovery while
at Schenectady that their trunk contain
ing the money had been broken open and
robbed of $1,000. But in fact it after
ward proved that she, herself,
without the knowledge of her husband,
had broken open the trunk and abstract
ed therefrom the missing money. And
this was the commencement of an artful
scheme to get possession of the whole
amount drawn from the bank. Judge
Whittlesey was confounded and over
whelmed at this robbery as he honestly
supposed. What should be done in view
of this lossl He feared, yea, clearly
foresaw, it would be attributed by the
world to his own unaccountable careless
ness, even if suspicion went no farther.
Then it was that his unprincipled wife
commenced artfully to carry forward her
plan to reason her husband into the keep
ing of the whole sum drawn from the
bank. Her purpose is thus described in
the pamphlet above named.


"By degrees she began to hint darkly
that it mattered little what was done !;
that they were ruined without hope of
escape that it would be utterly impos-
sible to satisfy carping, uncharitable
world they had not abstracted the money
N1n,, laL
reasonable and unlikely anybody would
take that amount, and leave large bal
ance behind; that they would undoubt-
edly be charged with embezzling the
money, and forthwith prosecuted for the
amount, and that this would sweep away
every dollar of their hard savings. In
his distraction and perplexity this reason
ing sounded so like logical deduction
that Judge Whittlesey was obliged to
assent to the terrible array of conse-
quences, and thus she succeeded in get
ting him into her tolls, and then fasten-
ing him to his destruction"


When the Whittleseys returned to
Watertown, they forthwith declared they
had been robbed in Trenton, small
village through which they passed on
their journey. And, to confirm this
story, they exhibited a pair of saddle
bags in which they said they carried the
bank bills, with several Sits cut in the
side, through which they affirmed their
belief the robbers had extracted the
money. At first their story was quite
extensively believed. Their bail, Messrs.
Fairbanks and Keyes, were amazed Mt
the loss, and saw financial ruin staring
them in the face-for at that period
$35, 900 was considered large sum, the
loss of which would swallow up the
means of individuals in ordinary circum-
stances.


These men had many private consulta-
tions together in regard to the story OF
the robbery-hstened often to the Whit
tleseys, and took into mature considera-
ton all the alleged circumstances of the
case. Their doubts grew apace, and
they soon commenced well-laid system
of espionage. During dark nights
they watched around the Whittlesey
house and even, by turns, ascended
the roof of the kitchen, where they
could creep to the windows of the sleep
ing room, and listen to snatches of pri-
vate conversation, when the guilty pair
supposed no ear was open to their conf
Dental talk


In this manner both Fairbanks and
Keyes became thoroughly satisfied, be-
yond the slightest doubt, of the guilt of
the Whittleseys. They heard abundant
ly enough to convince them that Judge
Whittlesey and wife had not been robbed
at all, and that the money was in their
possession, concealed somewhere about
the premises. At the same time they
pretended to believe with great sincerity
the story of the robbery, and offered
large rewards for the detection of the
thieves.


Thus several months elapsed. Judge
Whittlesey finally began to see that
public sentiment was evidently turning
against him and his wife-that the peo-
pie were beginning to suspect that they
might be guilty-that the family were
annoyed by these doubts, and that to
regain their peace of mind and retain
their respectability it might soon be
necessary for them to remove to some
new locality in the Western States.
Gradually this idea was developed by the
Whittleseys and circulated, until it be-
came famiiarly talked of in the village,
II IL.