Sarah Norton – Murdered!
It was a terrible end for Sarah, a 76-yr-old widow. She
lived alone in Indian Falls, Genesee County, NY. She had gone to bed early on
that Friday night in early December, 1875. Between 9 and 10PM she heard a
knocking at the door. It was Thomas Burton Quackenbush. From here there are
somewhat differing accounts. One states that he asked directions and left. A
short time later Sarah heard a noise in the wood shed attached to the house.
She had a piece of beef hanging there and thought a cat may have been trying to
get to it. When she went into the shed she was grabbed, beaten and raped. The
other account was that when she opened the door he pushed his way in and
attacked her. In both accounts he left saying he would return. Sarah, wearing
only her night clothes, ran from the house and hid in the outhouse. Later she
heard him return and search for her. Not finding her he left. Sarah then made
her way to her nearest neighbor 3/4th of a mile away. She arrived at
Mr. Washington Wards house at 5am, wet and thoroughly chilled from the winter
western New York state weather. She told her neighbor the story of her attack.
A doctor came and she was taken back to her house. She died on Monday morning,
December 6. In the meanwhile, Quackenbush was arrested. The evidence against
him was that he was drinking at the Indian Falls Hotel and had asked about
Sarah Norton and whether she lived alone. He left the hotel a little past 9PM
and didn’t arrive back at Mr. Mook’s farm, where he was a laborer, until after
2AM. His clothing was smeared with blood. He was a large, powerful man around
30 years of age. Evidence also suggested he was the same man who was a fugitive
from a crime in Herkimer County. He eventually admitted to raping Sarah Norton
but claimed he had no intention of committing murder. Quackenbush was tried in
June of 1876 and found guilty of First Degree Murder and sentenced to death by
hanging. He appealed to the governor of NY for clemency but on 8 August the
governor declined to interfere in his sentence and on 11 August 1876 at 11AM he
was hanged at the county jail in Batavia.
Sarah had been born in Connecticut around 1799. She later
moved to Michigan where her daughter, Matilda was born. By 1850 she was living
in Oakfield, Genesee County, NY, where she was listed as a servant in the
Census. In 1870 she lived with her daughter and son-in-law but by 1876 she was
living alone in Indian Falls.
Sarah was my 3rd great grandmother and I remember
my great grandmother, Sarah Wiedrich telling me about this event. She was
7-yrs-old at the time of her grandmother’s death. In the 1960s we took her to
the Holland Land Office museum. We told the curator about her grandmother and were
asked to wait a few minutes. She brought out the rope that Quackenbush was
hanged with. She wanted to hand it to my great grandmother but she was not
having anything to do with it. More than 125 years after the death of Sarah
Norton while I was visiting a friend in Batavia, NY I saw an advertisement
about the hangings in Genesee County. It was for a display at that same Holland
Land Office Museum. They had the gallows and rope that Quackenbush was hanged
on and the admission ticket to the museum was a reproduction of the actual
ticket to Quackenbush’s hanging.
Sources
1850, 1860, 1870 Federal Census
Oyer & Terminer Record Book,1871, p171/176, Holland
Land Office, Batavia, NY
“The Progressive Batavian”, Batavia, NY, Dec. 10, 1875
and Aug. 18, 1876
“Republican Advocate”, Aug. 10, 1876 and Aug. 17, 1876
#Sarah Norton, #Sarah Wiedrich, #Murders, #Indian Falls, NY, #Thomas Quackenbush, #52 Ancestors
