FRIEND EVANS:--I noticed in the "Village Record," a short time
since, an article taken from the Delaware "Transcript," an
obituary notice of the death of the noted character, whose name
heads this article, in which false statements were made,
relative to the outrage he committed in kidnapping Rachel and
Elizabeth Parker, two colored girls who were then, 1851,
residing in the southern portion of Chester county. In your
paper of the 13th ult., I also read an answer to the charges and
insinuations made in the "Transcript," against Joseph C. Miller,
(whose life was basely destroyed), and other citizens of Chester
county; as the occurrence took place in my immediate
neighborhood, and I was familiar with all the facts and
circumstances, I propose to give a truthful history of that vile
and wicked transaction.
In the winter of 1851, the said McCreary in some unexplained
way, took Elizabeth Parker, one of the said colored girls, from
the house of one Donally (not McDonald), in the township of East
Nottingham, where she was living; but little was said about it
by Donally, or any one else. Soon after, McCreary with two or
three others of like proclivities, called at the house of Joseph
C. Miller, in West Nottingham, where Rachel was living, and
seized her, gagged her, and placed her in a carriage and drove
off. The screams of Mrs. Miller and her children, soon brought
the husband and father to the rescue; he pursued them on foot,
and at a short distance overtook them in a narrow private road,
disputing with James Pollock, the owner of the land, whose wagon
prevented them from passing. They turned and took another road,
and came out at Stubb's Mill, making for the Maryland line with
all possible speed; they arrived at Perryville before the train
for Baltimore. Eli Haines and a young man named Wiley, who lived
near Rising Sun, Maryland, about two miles from Joseph C.
Miller's, arrived at the same place soon after, intending to go
to Philadelphia. Mr. Haines knew Rachel, and seeing McCreary
there, and her so overwhelmed in sorrow, at once guessed the
situation of affairs, and he and Wiley changed their intentions
of going to Philadelphia, and went in the same car with McCreary
and his victim, to Baltimore, and quietly watched what
disposition would be made of her, as they felt certain pursuit
would be made.
As soon as possible, after McCreary had escaped from West
Nottingham, Joseph C. Miller, William Morris, Abner Richardson,
Jesse B. Kirk, and H.G. Coates, started in pursuit on horseback;
when they arrived at Perryville, the train had gone, with the
kidnapper and the girl; they followed in the next train. Soon
after they arrived in Baltimore, they were met by Haines and
Wiley, who had been on the lookout for a pursuing party, and
they gave the information that Rachel was deposited in
Campbell's slave-pen. They were directed by an acquaintance of
one of the party, to Francis S. Cochran, a prominent member of
the Society of Friends. Francis informed them he was well
acquainted with Campbell, and he at once accompained them.
Campbell assured Friend Cochran that whilst he approved of
Slavery and catching runaway slaves, he despised kidnapping and
kidnappers; and on the arrival of McCreary, he ordered him to
remove Rachel forthwith, which he proceeded to do. Friend
Cochran insisted on going with them, and saw the girl deposited
in jail to await a legal investigation. By this time it was
evening, and the Chester county men all went home with Cochran,
where they had their suppers; the excitement being great, Friend
Cochran did not consider it safe for them to go to the depot
direct; he procured their tickets and had them driven by a
circuitous route to the depot, charging them to keep together,
and take their seats in the cars at once. Soon after they were
seated and before the cars started, Miller stepped out on the
platform to smoke, against the expostulations of his friends.
Jesse B. Kirk, his brother-in-law and Abner Richardson followed
immediately, and although they were right at his heels, he was
gone; they called him by name, and stepped down into the crowd,
but soon became alarmed for their own safety, and returned to
their seats. A consultation was held, and it was agreed that
Wiley, who was least known, and not directly identified with the
affair, should pass through the train when it started, and see
if Miller had not mistakenly got into another car. At Stemen's
Run station, Wiley returned to the party with the sad tidings
that Joseph C. Miller was not in that train. On consultation, it
was agreed that Jesse B. Kirk and Abner Richardson should return
from Perryville in the next train, and prosecute further search
for Miller. They did so return, and McCreary also returned to
Baltimore in the same car, he having left Baltimore in the car
in the evening with the Chester county men; they arrived late in
the night, and locked themselves up in a room in the first hotel
they came to. Their search was fruitless, and they were forced
to return home with the sad tidings that Miller could not be
found. This intelligence aroused the whole neighborhood; public
meetings were held to consult about what was best to be done.
The writer presided at one of those meetings, which was largely
attended, and it was with difficulty that the people could be
restrained from organizing an armed force to kidnap and lynch
McCreary. Better counsels, however, finally prevailed and it was
resolved to send a party to Baltimore to prosecute further the
search for Miller. About twenty men volunteered for the service;
I went to the house of Joseph C. Miller, the morning they were
to start, but they had met at Lewis Mellrath's, a brother-in-law
of Miller. I was there endeavoring to console the aged mother
and distracted wife and children of Joseph C. Miller, when word
came that he had been found hanging to a limb in the bushes near
Stemen's Run station, and such a scene of distress I hope may
never again be my lot to witness; it was heart-rending in the
extreme.
The party went to Baltimore, and such was the excitement that it
was considered unsafe for the party to go out in a body in
day-time. Levi K. Brown, who then resided in Baltimore, went
with them by moonlight, and they disinterred the body, which
they found about two feet under ground, in a rough box, with a
narrow lid that freely admitted the dirt to surround his body in
the box. No undertaker in Baltimore could be found that would
allow the body left at his place of business whilst a coffin was
prepared, and it was deposited in "Friends'" vault; a coffin was
finally procured and William Morris and Abner Richardson started
with it for his home. When they arrived at Perryville no one
would render them any assistance, and they were compelled to
leave the corpse in an old saw mill, and walk up to Port
Deposit, a distance of five miles, in the night, the weather
being extremely cold, and a deep snow on the ground. There they
procured horses and a sled and started with the body, but when
within a short distance of the Pennsylvania line they were
overtaken by a messenger with a requisition from the Governor of
Maryland to return the body to Baltimore county, in order that
an inquisition and post-mortem examination might be held in
legal form. With sorrowful hearts they turned back; (one of
these young men told me that at no place south of Port Deposit
could they get any one to assist them in handling the corpse).
By this time the affair had created a great excitement, both in
Chester county and the City of Baltimore. Rev. John M. Dickey,
Hon. Henry S. Evans, then a member of the Senate. Brinton
Darlington, then Sheriff of Chester county, and very many of the
leading men took a deep interest in the matter; we all did our
part. The Society of Friends in Baltimore took the matter in
hand, and many other worthy citizens belonging to the
Presbyterian Church and others lent their aid and influence.
Hon. Henry S. Evans, who was then in the Senate of Pennsylvania,
brought the matter before the Legislature, and the result was
that the Governor appointed Judges Campbell and Bell, the latter
of our county, to defend these two poor colored girls thus
foully kidnapped.
The body of Miller underwent a post-mortem examination in
Baltimore county, at which a great number of rowdies attended,
who occupied their time drinking whisky and cursing the
Pennsylvania Abolitionists; the body finally reached its
distressed home for interment. Drs. Hutchinson and Dickey were
called upon to make an examination, at which I was present, and
all were clearly of opinion that he had been foully murdered.
His wrists and ankles bore the unmistakable marks of manacles;
across the abdomen was a black mark as if made by a rope or
cord; the end of his nose bore marks as if held by some
instrument of torture. His funeral took place, and his remains
were followed to the grave by an immense concourse of
sympathizing friends and neighbors.
Such, however, was the excitement, that the public demanded a
further examination; he was disinterred again, and the same two
eminent physicians made a thorough post-mortem examination, and
one of them told the writer that there were not two ounces of
contents in his stomach and bowels, and that there was abundant
evidence of the presence of arsenic. His remains were again
interred and suffered to remain undisturbed.
The theory of his friends was that he had been suddenly snatched
from the platform of the car in the Baltimore Depot, gagged,
stripped, and lashed down by the ankles and wrists, and a rope
across his abdomen, that his nose had been held by some
instrument, and that he was in this situation drenched with
arsenic, and puked and purged to death, and that McCreary, or
some one for him, had heard Wiley repeat at Stemen's Run
Station, that he was not on the train, conceived the idea of
taking his body there and hanging it to a tree to convey the
idea that he had committed suicide at that place, and such was
the statement published by some of the Maryland newspapers. His
companions said he eat a very hearty supper that evening at
Francis S. Cochran's, which with the other facts that his
clothing were not soiled, and his stomach and bowels were empty,
goes strongly to substantiate the theory that he had been
stripped and foully murdered, as above indicated. Never was
there a more false assertion than that the "broad brimmed
Quakers in Pennsylvania were accomplices of McCreary," as it is
well known that opposition to slavery has been a cardinal
principle of the Society of Friends for a century. And that
Joseph C. Miller committed suicide because of his being
implicated in the kidnapping is a base fabrication. I knew
Joseph C. Miller from boyhood intimately, and I here take
pleasure in saying that he was an honest, unassuming man, of
good moral character and stern integrity, and would have spurned
the idea of any complication, directly or indirectly, with
slavery or kidnapping.
It appears his foul murder was not sufficient to satisfy the
friends of slavery and kidnapping, but an attempt is now made,
after the victim has slumbered near twenty years in the grave,
to blast his good name by insinuating that he was a party, or
implicated in the vile transactions here narrated.
Rachel remained in jail; Elizabeth, who had been sold to parties
in New Orleans, was sent for by Campbell, ample security having
been given that she should be returned if proved to be a slave.
Their trial finally came on, and after a long and tedious
investigation they were both proven, by hosts of respectable
witnesses to be free. They returned to their mother, in Chester
county, who was still living.
The Grand Jury of Chester county found a true bill against
McCreary for kidnapping, a requisition was obtained, and B.
Darlington, Esq., then High Sheriff, proceeded with it to
Annapolis; but the Governor of Maryland refused to allow
McCreary to be arrested in that State.
Thus terminated this terrible affair, which cost the State of
Pennsylvania nearly $3000, as well as a heavy expense to many
citizens of Baltimore, and those of this county who took an
active part, and whilst it is to be hoped that the principal
actor in this sad transaction fully atoned for his evil deeds,
whilst living, and his friends may have had a right to eulogize
him after death, they should not have gone out of their way to
traduce other parties, dead and alive, whose reputations were
known by living witnesses, to be beyond reproach.