Rather Shocking News - A Carnival of Genealogy Article

To my regular readers, I have been a novice genealogist for years (I still have a mimeographed family tree I filled out for 6th grade history class.)  To my new readers, I hope you enjoy my first submission for the 57th Carnival of Genealogy, sorry about the lack of other genealogy content right now. 

Rather Shocking News

My maternal grandmother's maiden name was Quackenbush.  Naturally, being an unusual name, it tends to be easy to search on.  I knew that her grandfather's name was George B.  I knew he was a civil war veteran, and I knew he was married twice and my grandmother was his third child's only daughter.  Even though I had pictures of his second wife, (my great-great grandmother) I had never heard mention of him.

I was browsing the message boards at Roots Web one day and came across a posting of interest :

Rochester, Monroe, NY
Democrat & Chronicle
July 6, 1906

DROWNED AT BUFFALO DOCKS

Savannah, July 5 - The remains of George QUACKENBUSH, who was drowned in
Buffalo Sunday evening, were brought last night to the home of his daughter,
Mrs. Sadie GREGORY, of Savannah. Mr. QUACKENBUSH was working on the canal
with his son-in-law, Andrew GREGORY, and their boats were tied together at
the Buffalo dock. He was alone when he fell into the water and it was some
time before he was missed. The decedent was 65 years old, and a member of
the G. A. R. He leaves his daughter, Mrs. GREGORY, and three sons, Orville,
George and John, of Savannah.

This was him!  But there was no mention of my great grandfather or his two siblings, who were also alive at the time.   This explained how none of my living relatives knew him, he was dead long before they were born!

Fast forward a few months and I found a posting on Ancestry.com singing the praises of Tom Tryniski's fabulous site: FultonHistory.com.  So I surfed on over and was astonished to find this article:

The Buffalo Express
Wednesday, May 7, 1884

George Quackenbush, a Savannah (Wayne County) farmer, became drunk last
Saturday and started out to shoot trespassing cattle. His wife made an irritating
remark, and he fired a charge of duck shot at her and two of the children.  All
three were badly, perhaps fatally, injured.  Quackenbush took to the woods, but
was captured and locked up.

Holy cow!  This was some news!  But my luck held out and there was more of the story to be found:

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Friday, November 21, 1884

The most important criminal trial in Wayne county since that of Samuel Williams
for murder a year ago, has been that of George Quackenbush, who has been tried
in the Wayne court of sessions during the past two days, and whose trial will
probably continue until Friday afternoon.  Quackenbush is charged with having
attempted the murder of his wife and child at his home in Savannah last summer.
The trial has drawn an unusually large number of people to the court house each
day especially from the eastern part of Wayne county.  The principal witness for
the prosecution is the wife of the accused.  She testified that her husband on the
day of the affair was angry because cows had come upon his property.  She took a
gun to drive them off, when Quackenbush turned upon his wife in a fit of rage and
saying, "I'll shoot you," aimed and fired at her.  For a long time, it was thought she
and her little boy, who was near her at the time of the shooting would not live from
the effects of the shot in their bodies.  Quackenbush himself testifies that the
shooting was purely and accident, and that he had no desire to kill his wife.  About
thirty other witnesses have been examined and about as many more are still to be
called to the stand.

And I was lucky enough to find the end of the story as well:

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Monday, November 24, 1884

The trial of George Quackenbush for attempted murder of his wife and child in
Savannah was ended in Lyons on Saturday, when a verdict of guilty in the second
degree was returned by the jury, and Quackenbush was taken back to his quarters
at the county jail.  Later in the day he was brought before the court and sentenced
to three years and six months in Auburn prison. 

I forwarded this information to another Quackenbush researcher that I am acquainted with and he sent me this article from the New York Times!  Bad news travels far:

New York Times
November 26, 1884

FOR SHOOTING HIS WIFE

HOWELLSVILLE, Nov. 25.--George Quackenbush is a prominent farmer of
the town of Savannah, Wayne County.  He has the reputation of being very
passionate and vindictive.  One day in May last some cattle of a neighboring
farmer broke into one of Quackenbush's fields.  He took his shotgun and
started out, swearing that he would kill the cattle.  His wife followed him
into the yard and protested against his shooting their neighbor's cattle.  
This angered him, and he told his wife that unless she returned to the house
and attended to her own affairs he would shoot her.  Their two little
children, one a 3-year-old girl and the other a boy 5 years old, had
followed their mother out of the house and stood by her, holding her by the
dress.  Mrs. Quackenbush said to her husband that she did not believe he
would go as far as to shoot her, when he drew his gun to his shoulder and
fired at her.  A portion of the charge, which was fine shot, lodged in Mrs.
Quackenbush's side, hips and leg.  The little girl received a portion of it in
her face, neck and arms.  The little boy was shot in the face.  The mother
and the little girl were seriously hurt, the former it was thought fatally.
Both recovered but were left scarred and disfigured.  Quackenbush was
lodged in jail at Lyons, and was convicted Saturday of attempting to murder
his wife and two children.  He was sentenced to three years and six months'
imprisonment in Auburn Prison.

Passionate and vindictive!  What a fascinating story!  I am certainly planning on getting a hold of some of the court records if I can.  There is bound to be a wealth of information from those sixty witnesses they called!