Cortland Contrarian: PROBABLY A MURDER

Virgil, N. Y. 1885.

1863 Virgil, N. Y. map segment showing schoolhouse #10 and family names Lowe, Miller and Homer.

Cortland Evening Standard, Wednesday, March 15, 1899.

PROBABLY A MURDER.

CHARRED TRUNK OF A MAN FOUND IN THE CELLAR.

Home of Frank W. Miller East of Virgil Burned Tuesday Night—Horse and Buggy Stolen from His Stable—The Rig Seen Going Toward Virgil—Strong Suspicions as to Murderer and Thief—Sheriff Hot on the Trail.

The charred body of a man found in the cellar; the house of Frank W. Miller burned to the ground; a horse and buggy missing from his stable; the rig seen being driven at full speed away from the scene of the fire. Such in brief is the evidence pointing toward an awful tragedy perpetrated on a lonely hill road in the town of Virgil about eight miles south of Cortland last night.

Frank W. Miller was a bachelor 40 years old who lived alone on his farm of 100 acres in the town of Virgil. The exact location of his place is about four miles east of Virgil village on the state road, turn there to the north toward Cortland and follow a winding road up a gully for upwards of a mile. Near a little schoolhouse turn up the hill out of the gully to the west and there distant about twenty-five rods stood the little one and one-half story frame house with a lean-to summer kitchen where Mr. Miller has lived by himself for the past twelve years. He had two fair sized barns and in the barns were four horses and a dozen cows and calves.

Mr. Miller begun life a poor boy, worked out by the month and saved money to buy a farm. Twelve years ago he brought this place adjoining the 100-acre farm of his mother, Mrs. E. A. Miller, whose home is on the main road leading up the gully a quarter of a mile distant and out of sight of her son's house. The son was active and industrious and bore a good name. He lived all by himself depending upon his mother and his sisters for such cooking and assistance about his house as he could not do himself. Often he had large sums of money about him as he would sell stock or produce from the farm and lived too far from a bank to make a speedy deposit, but is not thought to have had over $10 about him for a few days back.

He was last seen alive at about 6 o'clock last night when he took supper at his mother's and said that he must go on home to do his chores before dark.

Shortly after 10 o'clock Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Patten, who live a little further up the valley, were returning home from East Virgil, where they had been to attend a meeting at the church. When near the schoolhouse they discovered fire in the rear part of the house of Mr. Miller up the hill to their left. They drove up that way as quickly as possible and then Mr. Patten jumped from the carriage and left Mrs. Patten with the horse while he ran to the house to see where the occupant was. The fire was burning briskly up through the roof of the kitchen and the whole interior of the house was full of smoke. Mr. Miller was nowhere to be seen. Mr. Patten called to him and received no answer, tried the doors and found them locked. Then he smashed in a window of the upright part, but there was so much smoke in there that he could not enter. He shouted at the top of his lungs through the broken window, which opened into Mr. Miller's sleepingroom, and became satisfied that there was no one in the house.

As the wind was blowing hard away from the barns and as those buildings and the animals inside were in no danger, Mr. and Mrs. Patten drove back to the home of Mr. Darius Allen, who lived nearly a mile below at the corner of the state road leading from Virgil to East Virgil, and roused him. Mr. Allen returned with them and they were probably gone about twenty minutes. Just as they got back there S. B. Lowe, who married Mr. Miller's sister and who lives on the hill a half mile further up the road, and his neighbor James I. Homer arrived.

By this time the whole house was on fire. Mr. Allen went to the barns and discovered that a fine gray horse and an open buggy—a sort of a buckboard with peculiar springs back of the rear axle and with yellow running gear—were missing. Then they concluded that Mr. Miller was away from home. But they noted the fact that some of his night chores at the barns had not been done. Apparently horses and cattle had not been fed, the cows had not been milked, the horses had not been bedded down for the night.

With this thought in mind they watched the ruins of the house much closer. Soon the clapboards burned down around the outside of the frame, and a peculiar object was seen lying on the floor in the front room near the entrance. They kept their eye on this and felt sure that it was a human body, though the fire was so hot they could not get at it. They felt confident it must be Mr. Miller's body both from the fact that it was in his house and also from the fact that he was not the man to go away and leave his barn chores undone. About this time they noticed that the outside cellar door at a hatchway seemed to be smashed in, and a huge sledge was found lying just inside the door. One of the men knew that Mr. Miller always used to keep this sledge in the barn and no one could account for its presence there unless it was to enable some one to gain an entrance to the house.

As soon as the floor gave way the body fell through into the cellar not far from the hatchway door. Then the men formed a bucket brigade and threw water on the body with the idea of keeping it from destruction as far as possible in order that it might be examined to see if there were any evidences of foul play. It was 1 o'clock before the fire had gone down enough to enable them to pull it out with a pitchfork.

When a STANDARD man arrived on the scene this morning the charred remains lay on a blanket on a heap of straw in one corner of the horse barn. It was a gruesome sight, and a sickish odor of burned flesh proceeded from it. The body was shriveled to about half its natural size. The skull seemed burned to a crisp, and the brains protruded. The left arm was burned off at about the wrist, and only about six inches of the stump of the right arm remained. The legs were burned off a little below the knees. And yet there was to be seen upon the chest the remains of a gray woolen shirt with cord lacing across the front which was worn and which was recognized by several of those present as being a shirt that Mr. Miller had been known to wear. Part of his coat remained and was identified as Mr. Miller's.

Coroner Smith had been summoned and arrived while the STANDARD man was there. He examined the premises minutely and looked over the remains. He then summoned the following coroner's jury: William Seamans, William Overton, John Downs, John Smith, James I. Homer, Darius Allen. The jury collectively viewed the remains and then about 2 o'clock the body was taken to Harmon Sheerar's undertaking rooms near Virgil, where the jury was directed to assemble. A post mortem examination and an autopsy was to be held there this afternoon and probably an adjournment will be taken till Saturday or till some time next week, as Coroner Smith has to go to New York to-night on business.

The great question now is how did all this come about, and was there any foul play. It is believed that a murder was committed, and the name of a resident of this county is connected with it. For obvious reasons that name will be withheld till an arrest can occur. This party was seen in that neighborhood on Monday afternoon. He walked up past Mr. Miller's mother's with a gun on his shoulder. He spent that night till midnight as a caller upon Mr. Miller, and that gentleman told his mother and the others of the family about it last night while at supper. He said this party came to see about buying a cheap horse. They talked over several horses that Mr. Miller owned, but all of them appeared to be more valuable than what he wanted to buy. Mrs. Miller told the STANDARD man that she said to her son at the time "Why that fellow hasn't money enough to buy any horse," and he replied that the party in question had assured him that he possessed the money; that he had shown him a good sized check and had exhibited other money; "why," the son said, "he seemed to have lots of money with him." Mrs. Miller said she felt confident her son had very little money in his possession at the time as she had settled with him on Monday for some purchases he had made for her and had exhibited his pocketbook at the time so she could see his money.

At about noon yesterday S. B. Lowe and Jas. I. Homer, who had been cutting wood together came to the latter's house for dinner. This party came along just as they got there and wanted some dinner. He had formerly worked a farm in that vicinity and they knew him and so they invited him to dinner. He had a 32-calibre rifle with him at the time. After dinner he went back with them to the woods and visited there till about 8 o'clock. He said he was looking for a horse and thought he would go over to the home of Edward Blose on Snyder hill some three miles away to see a horse as he had heard he had one for sale. He started off in that direction which was directly away from Mr. Miller's home. About an hour afterward he was seen by several near the schoolhouse at the foot of the hill about twenty rods from Mr. Miller's house. After that his whereabouts cannot be heard of.

William Seamans returning from Virgil last night between 10 and 11 o'clock met a gray horse which be recognized as Mr. Miller's being driven rapidly toward Virgil. The carriage he also thought was Mr. Miller's, but it did not appear to him that it was Mr. Miller driving. Only so much is known. The officers are hot on the trail of this party under suspicion. If he can show his whereabouts at the time in question and show that he was engaged in a proper occupation there will be no further connection of his name with this case, but unless be does proceedings will doubtless be taken.

Mr. Miller's family has the sympathy of all. His mother is almost heartbroken. This son has been her mainstay for a number of years, had managed her place for her, transacted her business and had been an almost daily caller upon her. She said she was up at the fire last night, but had no idea her son's body was in the burning building, though the neighbors had already discovered it. But they told her of the missing horse and she thought he must have gone away somewhere.

The father died long years ago, but there remain a number of brothers and sisters, Mrs. Lewis of Sayre, Pa.; Mrs. S. B. Lowe, who lived next neighbor, Mrs. Charles Gilbert of Blodgett Mills, Charles Miller of Groton City, and Miss Edith Miller, Lillis D. Miller and John Miller of Cortland.

PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.

A Clean Sweep.

Yesterday's corporation election was probably the most hotly contested in the history of this village, and resulted in almost a clean sweep for the Republican ticket. The only Democrat elected was C. F. Thompson for trustee in the First ward, and he squeezed through by the bare majority of one vote. S. N. Holden, the Republican candidate for village president, received a plurality of only two votes, but when it is borne in mind that he had as his competitors—besides the Prohibition nominee, Mr. Collins—two former presidents of the village, both of them very popular men, and with the Democrats making a desperate effort to pull Mr. Call through, the wonder is not that his plurality was so slim, but that he succeeded in getting any plurality at all. His victory even by so narrow a margin, under all the circumstances, is one of which he has special reason to be proud, and which ought also to be very satisfactory to his friends. His election is the result of his personal popularity and an unusually large amount of hard work.

SKULL WAS FRACTURED.

Mrs. Moon Fell Down Cellar and Probably Cannot Recover.

Mrs. Loretta A. Moon, who lives at 5 Hubbard-st. was last night the victim of an unfortunate accident which will probably result in her death. Mrs. Moon was employed at 100 Clinton-ave., where she was caring for Mrs. D. L. Finn, who is ill. Last evening at about 9 o'clock she started to go through a door which she supposed led upstairs, but not being very familiar with the house, opened the wrong door which proved to be the cellar door. Before she discovered her mistake, she fell headlong to the base of the stairs, striking her head on a large flat stone. She was rendered unconscious by the fall. Dr. Sornberger was summoned, and upon examination found that the skull was fractured and that she was suffering from concussion of the brain. This morning Mrs. Moon was taken in Beard & Peck's ambulance to the hospital, but is still in an unconscious condition and her recovery is very doubtful.

BREVITIES.

—The residence of Wm. Colwell, 64 Madison-st., has been connected with the telephone exchange.

—New display advertisements to-day are—Pope Mfg. Co., Columbia wheel, page 7: Opera House, "A Breezy Time," page 5.

—A meeting of the C. A. A. will be held on March 20 at 8:30 P. M. for the election of two members of the board of trustees and a treasurer.

—In Justice Kelley's court this morning, the case of R. H. Kibbe against Adam Ransom, an action to recover a claim of $20 for work, labor and services, was adjourned to March 28. George B. Jones is the plaintiff's attorney, and W. D. Tuttle for defendant.