{ title: 'Anti-Masonic telegraph. volume (Norwich, Chenango County, N.Y.) 1829-1835, April 15, 1829, Page 1, Image 1', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about NYS Historic Newspapers - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/sn83031369/1829-04-15/ed-1/seq-1/png/', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn83031369/1829-04-15/ed-1/seq-1.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn83031369/1829-04-15/ed-1/seq-1/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn83031369/1829-04-15/ed-1/seq-1/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
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c ~ pprross ann broramrons:i | ¥ Office, one door north of the Bank, of Chenango, : Elle ers and, communicati nded for publication or- ordering M w HANDBIIg-S BLANKS, MD EVERY VARIETY or 3 mew ' see county. | the mob that theiroperations on that day \voulq,,not probably,; ego interrupted. by any nge on the part of the official con- aervatogs 'of the peace. At the October \| session§ of the county court, James Gan- son,;,lesse French, Roswell Wilcox, and James;:Hurlburt, were indicted for a riot,; and for assaultmg 'and falsely imprisoning David C. Miller, - Their trials tool place - {at thé court of Oyer 'and Terminer, held in April; before Judge Birdsall, in Gene- French, Wilcox, and Hurl- burt, were found guilty, and sentenced to close confinement in the country jail for different periods-viz : French for one year, Wileox for six months, and Hurlburt for threo. Ganson was acquitted ; two other found against him course have been known. to the leaders of | th Chesebro had assured the keepef of the jail at Canandaigua that Morgan! had, gone where Miller would never see him a- gain.\ Javiks Ganson exultmgly «old a member of the Genesee committes ghoul he iet in' the- streets of Rochester} Morgan: could not have been manned 46 had been closely followed by 'his friends- that if the committee © could hdhg, draw, and quarter, all the' masons that had a. hand in it, they could not get him back- that he was not dead, but qvas put where he would stay put; until \Goa Almighty should call for him ! Similar, and well authenticated declarations reached us from: the neighbouring-towns, and from distant places:; and a large number 'of citizens, 'A manmariy® of the facts and dircunistances relatmg to the kidnapping: and presumed murder of Wit- - prim Moncan: and of the attempt to carry off David C. Miller, and to burn or destroy the print- ing-office bf the latter, for the purpose of prevent- Ang the printing and publishing of a book entitled « IMlastrations of Masonry.\ Prepared under the direction of the several commit- tees appointed at the meetings of the citizens of the counties of Genesee, Livingston, Monroe and Niagara, in the state of New-York: with an Ap- pendix, containing most of the depositions and ' other documents to substantiate the statements [ 'made, and disclosing many particulars 9f the trans- action not contained in the narrative. cortixuEp.. It was manifest that the conspirators wished to consume the time, until night should favour the completion of their pro- joots, and that to proceed to Le Roy was no part of their plan, if it could be avoided. But in the course of the afternoon, French, seemingly by inadvertence, admitted that the process he had against Miller, was in fact a process in a civil suit ; and from that time his resolution seemed somewhat sha- ken. About dusk the whole crowd pro- ceeded, fyith much noise and tumult, to Le Roy 4 mile, andafter many efforts on the part of French to prevent him from so doing. Miller got himself placed be- fore the Justice who had issued the war- rant. French theigave directions to two of his assistants, and disappeared. Mil- ler staid in the office about half an hour, during which time the Justice called for the constable and warrant, but neither con- stable, warrant. nor plamtxfiappeared and theo Inatina inf Mi- «was at liberty to go Where he pleased - This was about 9 o'clock in the evenmg It appeared from the docket of the magis- trate that a warrant had been issued a- gainst Miller and one John Davids on the oath, and at the request of Daniel Johns : John Davids, had also been arrested by the direction of French, but the sheriff of the county informed them that he was in his custody on the jail limits, upon which he was discharged from the arrest. | Mil- ler having thus obtained permission to re- turn, was making the best of his way. to a public house, when French and Johns suddenly appeared again : The former at- tempted to seize Miller by the collar, and called loudly for help to retake the pri- soner-Johns asked if there was no person who would help secure that man. But although attempts were made to regain possession of Miller, he succeeded in reach- ing a public house-and after another in- £4 effectual attempt by French and his asso- ciates, to prevent hiin, he returned late at: night to Batavia, and relieved his.\ famtly from'terror and alarm. That this lawless assemblage of men took place for the pur- pose of securing the arrest of Miller, by virtue of a process ngver intended to be acted upon, we shall: take no trouble to show to the public; 'Wehave conclusive proof from the express declarations of those who led the trodp,-and from various other sources, that one of the objects they '!-one fora conspiracy, with Daniel Johns and George Ketchum, to obtain Morgan’s manuscripts or printed sheets : the other. for a conspiracy with 16 others, to destroy Miller's office. - On these he has not yet been tried. On the trial above mention- ed, it was proved that on the morning of the 12th, before the party came to Bata- via, at S‘afl'ord and in the Lodge-Room, Ganson was appomted the leader or cap- tain of the expedition against Miller's of- fice. Supposing 'the reader to have perused the aftidavit of Mrs. Morgan, contained in the appendix, we proceed to mentxon, that immeditely after her return (i. e. a few hours) from her useless visit to Can- andaigna, to her desolate home, the same Thomas McCully whom we mentioned be- fore, called on her, and said \ that he had been appointed by the Lodge, to provide for the support of herself and her children, and bad provnded board for them at a pub- lic tavern in the village ;\ the same in which her husband had been detained af- ter his arrest on Monday morning, before he was put into the carriage and taken a- way. The unfortunate woman, promptly answered that she should accept no assis- tance from the masons, for she attributed to them without any hesitation the afflictions she was suffering. It will be scen by her statement that, on her way home, James Ganson got into the stage at Le Roy, and assured her that he was on his way to Batavia \ to make arrangements for her support.\ He told fiflt tes migkeact b We | th did not see him again in a year, and if she never saw him again she should be well provided for, and her children sent to school as soon as they were old enough.\* Her distress of mind, and, unprotected situation; did not fail to excme the sym- pathy, and call forth the kind offices of those whose sensibilities were not blunted by vice or hatred to her husband. To compel her, by dire necessity, to cast her- self upon .the bounty of those who had almost avowed their agency in producing the sudden calamity which had come up- on her, and had declared their certain knowledge that there was no probability that she would have the support and pro- tection of her husband until after the lapse.of a year, if ever, could not be tole- rated. - Her immediate wants were pro- vided for, and an agent sent to Canandai- a to make inquiries into the fate of her *Fhusband, He procured the information contained in the depositions No. 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7, which gave such an extraordinary aspect to the transactions, that it was deemed absolutely necessary to lay them at once before the public at 'a meeting called for that purpose in the village of Batavia. The committee appointed at that meeting published the notice contain- ed in the appendix No. 12, and sent an a- gent to make enquiries along the road from Rochester to Lewiston and fort Ni- had in view was to pull down the office of Miller, if that should be necessary for the purpoge of gettmg possession of the print- ed sheets and manuscripts of the expect- gd book. \We are satisfied that their visit was ex- pected by many decent men in the village. of Batavia, and their intention to pull down the printing-office of Miller, if such a pgtep should become necessary to get possasxon of the printed sheets and manu- scripts of Morgan's book, has been re- pestedly proved : And we are also bound. to declare that some of 'those who were in the secret disapproved of the 'design, and endeavored by their personal influ- ence to prevent them from coming. We are not however, able to state what it woufigwenx'safifam‘mw, that any in- formafimwai’ giV’r‘en 'to the magxstxate or Hopes were for many weeks entertain- ed that he was morely detained in con. finement until the suppression of his book could be effected by terror or negociation : but week after week passedaway, and no correct information of him wasreceived.- In. this state of suspense and anxiety, cir- cumstances occurred 'which in a great de- gree destroyed all hopes of his being dis- covered, and created the most unpleasant, feelmvsm the community. It soon be- came manifest to the comthittes of Gerieses county that several hundred men had been actually concerned in different parts of the transactions which had ended in his disap- peatancte. Many of them were m Fi high standing; and good general charac- ters. \Nuinbers of ther, fiithonf: \hes tion, - cpenlydedaredthat orgftf would never be lodges, spoke of \ tha WW tig a | visible air of triumph. The- of .} the committee, as they.walked the streets, | were several times asked by men who hadi, 'openly justified the conduct of his kidnap-] ; pers, \well have you found Morgan yet t\ Various efl‘orts wore made to deter some of them from acting, by friendly remon- strances, by hints of the great (disadvan- tage it would be to them, by saying they would raise up numerous and powerful enemies. Many decent men of the order of masons declared \ that efforts to learn the fate of Morgan would be uscless-that if we could 'discover the guilty, we could not get them punished ; that they had act- ad according to their orders, and would be borne out-that their body had a right to Jeal with their own members according to their own laws-that if they had done any thing with him, it was no one's bu- siness but their own.\* They said that the men who had determined to suppress the book, acted in a body, and in concert; were well organized, and could act with effect, and possessed the officers' talents, and wealth of the country ; that they under- stood one another, and would pursue with their vengeance on all who should inter- fere with them. - Far from effecting to think that Mor- gan had. disappeared voluntarily, and for sxmater purposes, or was colluding with his kidnappers to deceive the public, and excite attentions to his book, (the first part of which was not then published, and me weeks afterwards,) dxd nota pear fors 18 £11105? meniia e contrary, his a uctlon was spoken of as having defeated the pub- lication ; and we believe they, in general, supposed that its suppression was accom- plished ; and were extremely mortified and disappointed when it made its appearance with assurances-from the publisher that the other parts of the work had been fin- ished by Morgan, and would certainly be published, «The reader will readily perceive that their confidence in having suppressed the 'work, was not without pleusxblc founda- tions. - Ketchum had obtained from Mrs. Morgan the original manuscript of the 8 first degrees : (see affidavit,) they were delivered to her by Miller for the purpose of negociating with the fraternity for the restoration of her husband, after he had no further use for them. Goodwnll Stone, and others had surreptitiously gotteh several of the sheets into their possession, when they broke into Morgan's room ; and they the same evening, had ransacked every place at his lodging, where they could hope to find the manuscripts,. - Such parts of the unprinted work as were then com- pleted, and had not been delivered to Mil- ler were at the time concealed in'a straw bed, in the room from which Morgan was taken. We now resume our narrative in rela- tion to the fate of Morgan, after he had, as before related, been imprisoned in the jail at Canandaigua. privormntit dusk, Loton Lawson called-at the jml and desired to see Morgah Arhich, after some objections from the kee 6r, he was port 'miitted to do.; Ha pro debt and taking Morgati 'with him to his house, a short distance from the \village ; Morgan seemed mgmgwbe relieved, but expressed linati it in j tilthenext morning andre o After a short absence Lawson returned a- who were anderstood to be members of terfere. 't drink for. themselves. The next evemng after Morgan s im- bari and took a bottle of gin and a glase phymv thel struggles and cries of murder, he was gag- ged, aud ed away from the jail, The kry and the appearance of a struggle inthe street, excited a momenta- ry attention from the people living in the vicinity of the jail, and a man fan out to ascertain the cause. 4 Tho first-person he came up with was EdwnidtSnwyer who | with Nicholag-G. Chesebro, was standing near by,. speétatots \offtho scene. When asked what was the matter, Col. Sawyer #uswered him proniptly, *' nothmg, on a iman has 'been let out of Jml and been taken on x warrant, and is going to bew‘tncd # Receiving this answer from a person of good character, whom he knew, the man turned about and declined to in- 'Bawyoer's own account of the: transactions,-and-the part ho took -in if will be seen by the copy of his affidavit in the appendix. (No. 9.) \ *The carriage, afterhaving left Canan-] . damua, was next noticed at the village of \Victor ; it was first driven into the yard of a tavern kept by Dr. Thomas Beach, from. thence into the yard of une Enos Gillis, back of the barn, and out of sight of the road, about forty rods from the tav- ern of Beach. James Gillis here took from his brother's stable m horse, which he mounted, and proceeded on. . The hostler was called on to get a horse - for Lawson, whom he knew. Janfes Gillis, who then resided at Montmorency in Pennsylvania, a brother of Enos Gillis, was recognized at Victor by several persons who knew him well, and ho was seen the next day on horseback in the vicinity. His parti- cipation in the transaction will account for the assertion of George Ketchum, as sta- ted in Mrs. Morgan's affidavit, \ that a man had come from Pennsylvania, and had taken him away in a private carriage.\ A comparison of these assertions and cir- cumstances will enable the reader to form some opinion of the extent of this conspi- racy-the ample preparations that had besn made to effect the object of it, and the accuracy of the information possessed by all concerned in it, as to who were the principal managers. Gillis disappeared immediately ; he was included in the first indictment found against Lawson, Saw- yer, Chesebro, and others, but as yet has not boon tried. EHnus Oiliis wlsy gean ~Aamezandeo loft.tha and has 1~4-1;- moved his family away ; i and since he was examined before the jury in Novem- ber, 1826, has always been absent from the county at such times as it was proba- ble he would be called on to testify. Af- ter leaving Victor the party drove to Ro- chester, 08 miles northwesterly from Canandaigua, and reached Hanford's tav- ern, about two miles below that place, a little after day-light, with horses very much fatigued. Hubbard, who owned and drove the carriage, when applied to for information in relation to his employ- ers, and his journey, gave the ex nary and incredible account detailéd; nflhe affidavit of Mr. Fitch ; (appondix No.7.) and when afterwards examined on oath before the grand jury his account was en- moly the same. He has, however, been since indicted as a conspxrator Before the Canandaigua carriage arrived at Ro- chestor, a carriage bwlonging to Ezra} Platt, a royal arch mason, and a livery stable keeper in that place, was procured and sent forward in advance of the Canan- daigua carriage, and stopt at some seques- tered place, while it was yet dark, in the vicmity of Hanford's tavern. The Can- andaigua carriage, on its arrival at Han- ford's tavern, was driven under a shed, opposite the house, before any of the par- ty alighted. - 'Two men then got out of it, went into the tavern, and requested some gram for their horses, and something to They drank at the ig carriage ; one of the men remarked f [ to the other, while standmo'on the steps of the _ house, \* lie. was damned glad to get 'This observation attracted . Hanford's dttention, as she suspected from: ti that a persenJor whom one of her nexghbours was bail, had been spmfed ay from th ' i attracted attention—the short- stop ' in the middle which also attracted some son alighted except the driver, pmeeeded 'along the' ridge next noticed at Clarkson; 1 west, about 9 'o'clock in th was an extremely. warnr day,, h easmumstaneef ‘tJ into Baldwin's tavern, and the ately proceeded onward.. The ho exchange4© about two and a- half miles west of Clarkson, at the house ofone Al- - leng xwhose horses were taken from: the fieldfor that purpose. Here; tooflhe car- neds iélglighted\ p whilo the horses were changed The person who drove the carriage from Ro-- chester to this place, as soon .as mqumes in relation to the transaction were' set on foot, left the: country, and has not yet re. turned. The carriage arrived at the vil- lage of Gaines about 12 o'clock, closed in the same manner as at Clarkson, passed through the village without stopping, and proceeded about one mile west of the vils . lage, where it stopped in the road at.£ distance from any house. Elihu Mather, of that place, took a pair of horses belong- ing to his brother, James Mather, and overtook the carriage about one mile from Gaines, whore the horses wereexchanged in the middle of the road, and at a dis- tance from any house: Mather himself then mounted the box and droveon, which __ circumstance excited observation, as he is a. man of property, at the head of a large tanning establishment, and of course not accustomed to such employment. On his return he stopped at Hughes’ tavern- said he had driven the carriage for his brother, to Morehouse's tavern, and ad- ded, « I think I make a good stage driver -do I not?\\ At Ridgeway, one Jere miah Brown, supervisor of that town, and lately a member. of the legislature, sud- denly took his horses from the field, where they were hitched to a harrow, led them to the nearest public house, where they were fed, and then harnessed then to the carriage, and mounted the box, and drove on. [See note in the appendix, No. 80.]. pout h d = NE WLPed EC Wright's\ fianraf’ffi’y north of the village of Lockport, and in- stead of driving up to the door of the house, it was driven into the barn, and out of sight. The persons who came with it, guarded the bart and carriage.* A namber of men rere assembled at Wright's, some of whom appeared to be armed with clubs ; and a horse of Wright's was kept etamling all night at 'the, post, saddled. Much whispering and cluster- ing was observed, and At was ramoured or given out, that they. were assembled to prevent the esgape or rescuo of a pris- .oner under the .charge of f the people in the carriage. 'The next day & niego of the inn-keeper told one of the nelghbours that they had prepared supper for a number of masons, and had received previbus notice to be ready for them, About 10 o'clock at night, the gate keeper carriago pass the toll house, stunt few rods from Wright's “Wm-3121 ¥ery quietly ;and supposing it intended to pass without pay- ing toll, he went hastily to the, door-on opening it he found Brown, holing the toll money in his hand, but the carriage had passed on a short distance : beinv well acquainted with Brown, he naked him familiarly, \what is the gréat hurry 1** Brown answered nothing, and immediate- ly wont to the carriage, which drovon with great speed. * About sunrise the next mornmg the same carriage repassed the gate, driven by Mather, the curtains up, and Brown, he only passenger, asleep or pretending to be 'so. Maxwell,. the geto keeper‘ asked the person driving, \ how far did you go last night-did: you go to ~Lewis« ton 1\ - He answered with a little hesita- tion, « no, not §o far;\ Thm,asrelatest0 'the carriage, was gfalsehood, as will be seen By the- subsequent The distance from Wright's >to tavern, in Cambria; is about :i from thence to Lewiston: pkbout élevenb'clotkatj
