Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1873 — Mrs. Sherman’s Horrible Confession. [ARTICLE]

Mrs. Sherman’s Horrible Confession.

The confession of Mrs. Lydia Shferman, “the Connecticut poisoner,” is one of the most horrible chapters of crime ever recorded. Her enormities have lately been revealed in full to the keeper of the jail in which she was then incarcerated, and from her story we gather the following dreadful details: Mrs. Sherman was born at Burlington,N. J. .forty-eight years ago. Losing her mother before she was a year old, she was brought' up by a married uncle named John Claygay, in whose family, where all worked hard, she was kindly treated, attending school but three months in the year. At sixteen years old she visited the home of two older brothers at New Brunswick, N. J., where she remained a short time, and then went out to service in the family < f Rev. Mr. Van Amburg, in the town of Jacksonville. She remained there three years, when she returned with her brother Ellsworth to New Rrunswick. Soon afterward she began to learn the trade of a tailoress with a sister of her brother’s wife. A few months afterward she went to work with a Mr. Owen, a Methodist clas9 leader, in whose family she remained four months. Subsequently she went back to live with her brother, while she continued to work for Mr. Owen another year. In the meantime she had joined the Methodist Church. Edward Struck, a blacksmith, a member of the same church and a devoted Christian, was her first husband. With him she lived eighteen years in New Jersey and New York city, where Struck worked at his trade, and afterward became a policeman. Seven children were born to them, one of whom died from natural sickness. Soon after this death a man was murdered at a hotel on the Bloomingdale road, and Struck, who went to secure the murderer, had not the spirit to do it, and was discharged from the police force. Trouble and poverty ensued, and Struck became discouraged and melancholy, bearing the stigma of a coward in his bosom, and careless whether he worked or not,became indolent and lay in bed a great share of the time. He would not see a physician, but requested to see one of his first wife’s children, or Mrs. William Thompson, who dived in Nfew York. Mrs. Sherman went after this woman, but Struck would have little to say to her. He seems to have been demented, threatening suicide, and getting worse. One police Sergeant, Me r-, advised her to put him out of the way, as he would never be any good again to her or himself. So slie bought ten cents’ worth of arsenic and administered It in oatmeal gruel. Early next morning he died. This ■was in May (year unknown) and she continued to keep house, but was extremely destitute, In July she determined to destroy two of the children —Martha Ann, six years old, and Edward, four years old. She felt very downcast, and administered arsenic to them in such quantities that they lingered a few days. Martha Ann died first, and Edward a few hours later. The doctors seemed to have no suspicion of anything criminal in their demise. Four children remained. George Whitfield, aged fourteen, was engaged in painting for a man. In August, that same year, he was taken sick with painter’s colic, and under a doctor’s dare no better. Discouraged the unnatural mother administered'arsenic to him, in his tea, and he died. She then went out to work as a nurse. Two of the girls remained at home most of the time. Lydia, eighteen years old, was engaged', part of the time, in a store in Harlem; then she worked at home, where she was courted by a young man named John Smith. Mrs. Sherman, in March, decided io relieve herself of the care of her little daughter, Ann Eliza, and quietly poisoned her with arsenic, and after four days’ illness she died. The arsenic used in all these murders was part of that procured for Mr. Struck’s murder.

About the Ist of June following Lydia died after a long and natural fit of sickness. The wretched woman now found employment as a helper and clerk in a store, “with nothing to fret her.”' While in the store she was inducad to become the housekeeper of Mr. James Curtiss, living at Stratford, Conn.,;at $8 a month. After (living in Mr. Cnrtiss’ family for eight months she was induced to marry an old man named ITurlbut, living in Huntinkton, Conn, This was in November, 1808, and they lived happily together for fourteen months. One day Huribut, okl and feeble, was taken sick and subsequently died, but Mrs. Sherman does not know whether she killed him or not. At all events, she’-disclaims.-any such intention,'and if he took the wrong medicine she cannot tell. She now became acquainted with Horatio N. Sherman, a widower, living in Birmingham, who had a little baby on his hands, and who tried to engage her

to keep house for him, and subsequently married her in September, 1870, at Bridgewater, Mass. Sherman had trouble with l an-oldhtdy, previously hisTnother-iu-law, and his daughter Ada. The old lady “hung around” because the baby Frank was in the house. So Sherman wished that, in order to get the old lady out of the way, Franky might die, and, under Mrs. Sherman’s care, he soon dul die, No-, vember 15,1870. The old woman refused to leave, however, after Frank’s death-, and, becoming troublesome, Mrs. Sherman paid her SIOO, and she vamoosed. Sherman was a drunkard, ;and when his daughter Ada was sick, after the old woman left, he drank some of Ada’s brandy. Mrs. Sherman then proceeded deliberately to poison Ada, giving her poison in har tea, and she died a few hours afterward. ■ . ’ —————— =L -rr. Sherman was absent, spending money and drinking. His wife led a miserable, poverty-stricken life, and at last she “fixed” some brandy for him, and he went his “way to dusky death,” the eighth victim of this monstrous woman. This time, however, the law stepped in and forever put a stop to her murderous work. Her history from this period is familiar to the world. She languishes in prison, devoid of the power to do evil, and with time for reflection. It is said that she has (repented and is seeking the favor of her outraged Creator through the instrumentality of Jesus Christ.