Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1858 — A Modern Borgia. [ARTICLE]

A Modern Borgia.

A correspondent of the News furnishes the following particulars in regard to the atrocities of Mrs. Phebe Westlake: Mrs. Phebe Westlake, formerly of Ulster County, whose maiden name was Irwin, aged about forty-five years, died at Chester, in Orange County, N. Y., on the seventh inst.; no doubt irom the effect of poison taken lor the purpose ot self-destruction. Phebe had lived in Chester ten or twelve years. Site was industrious, and knew how to do all kinds of woman’s work, and was able and willing to do it well. Withal she was professedjy pious. She gained friends in the best families in Chester, and when any of them needed help they thought it a loss if they could not get Phebe. About twenty years ago, we hear, her husband died suddenly. A f&per of arsenic was found in his pocket, and upon a postmortem examination arsenic was found in his stomach. It was supposed he had committed suicide, and no further action or quiry was had. Four or five years ago, Mr. Pelser, who kept a hotel in Chester, died of erysipelas. He was a widower, and had but one daughter at home, a noble young woman, who before that time had peen affianced to Mr. Hiram Colwell, a wealthy and respectable drover, well known in Orange county. She and her father’s assistant, Mr. Heard, thought it best to secure Phebe as cook in the hotel, and they did so. Shortly after Phebe came there, Miss Pelser was' taken sick with some strange disease that her physician couliTnot understand. Her only sister, and her husband, Mr. Clark, were sent for, and came from the South, and took the management of Mr. Pelser’s business and property at Chester. From that time Phebe was left mainly to nurse and care for the sick and dying Miss Pelser. She lingered and died under circumstances to induce strange suspicions, but no one suspected her faithful nurse, Phebe. About the time of her death, Mr. Colwell received an affectionate letter, while he was at the West bringing cattle, purporting to come from Miss Pelser, but at that time wli n it is known she could not write, requesting him, among other things, to remember Phebe for her k ndness to Miss Pelser. Last fall Piiebe was employed as a domestic in the house of John B. Tuthili, a respectable merchant of Chester, in view of the prospective confinement of his wife; who was the only daughter of the late Francis Tuthili, Esq.—little Miflha, as all who knew her, and many knew and loved her—called her. She was confined; her babe' never knew life. Some unusual symptoms attended her case. Dr. Smith, her physician, said they indicated poison; hut yet they might be the convulsions which sometimes attended parturition. Phebe was.her nurse, and she could not be suspected. Martha d.ed, and

'‘Blossom ami bough lie withered in one blight.” Mr. John B. Tuthill’s family being thus broken up—lor little Martha was all lie had—he went to board with his brother and partner in business, Mr. Charles S. Tuthili, and Phebe was duly.transferred to that establishment as cook and maid of all work. On the Ist of April last, .Mr. Fuller, s~ clerk in the TuthUls’ store, took possession ot Mr. John B. Tuthill’s house, under an arrangement that Mr. John B. Tuthili was to board with him. Mr. Fuller had no family but his wife. Piiebe was tliYis thrown out of employment, but still she was retained tem > porarily between 'Mr;-Tut hill's and Mr. Fuller’s. Phebe did many 'cts of kindness tor both Mrs. Tuthili and Mrs. Fuller, and carried delicacies to and from them. _ On the 6th day of April last Mr. Fuller had provided for dinner a can of preserved corn and beans. They were not all eaten at dinner. Phebe was at Mr. Fuller’s. After tea, and alter Mr. Fullexuhad gone to his business she suggested to Mrs. Fuller that the corn and beans might spoil, and they might as well eat the little there was left. Mrs. Fuller consented, and Phebe brought up two small plates ol corn and beans, one of which slut ate herself, and the other Mrs. Fuller ate. ;That evening Mrs. Fuller was taken sick, With symptoms indicating poison. She died shortly after. No one could be suspected. Her husband loved her. lie had no one else to love. Phebe was kind, obliging, assiduous and affectionate, and remained by Mrs. Fuller to the end. Who could suspect her!

Alter the death of Mrs. Fuller, Phebe remained temporarily at Mr. Charles S. Tuthill’s where both the brothers were per force brought into the family. Some ten or twelve days ago both the Tuthills and the wife es Mr. Charles S.; also a Mrs. Derrick—an Irish woman with whose husband Phebe had had some difficulty about porteraf?e were taken sick with symptoms nearly akin to those of Miss Pelser, the little Martha and Mrs. Fuller. They have been all treated on the hypothesis of poison. The brothers Tuthili are out about their business. Mrs. Charles S. Tuthili is doing well, and Mrs. Derrick is still dangerously ill. Suspicions began tonhieben about Phebe. List Monday she was taken violently ill with the same symptoms. On Friday morning she died. In her last agonies she said, “She had sprinkled a litt oh John B. iuthill’s toast; that she knew there was poison on the window sill near where his soup sat and it might have blown in; and that she sprinkled a little arsenic on Mrs. Fuller’s corn and beans,” and further said not. The grave has closed over Phebe and her victims. No more of the tacts will probably ever be known. Her motives must be left to conjecture, and imagination must fill up the table of horrors.