TUPPER LAKE’S FIRST MURDER
Dramatis
Personae
Will McLaughlin – Farmer, Landowner
John Smith – McLaughlin’s Son-In-Law
Zeba Westcott – McLaughlin’s Stepson
Name Not Known – Boarder at the Farm
SCENE
McLaughlin
farmhouse on McLaughlin Hill. The year is 1889.
The sun had just set. The sky a blazing red, its color fired by the setting sun as it dramatically lowered itself behind the shoulder of Mt. Arab, west of Will McLaughlin’s farm, located on the crest of the hill on what would later be known as Racquette River Drive. The chores were done, supper was finished – a hearty meal, the bounty of the farm’s fertile richness, prepared by Mrs. McLaughlin, the former Sally Cole Westcott, daughter of Michael Cole (Charbonneau), this community’s first settler.
As was the usual custom following the evening meal, a deck of playing cards was produced and a card game would take place. However, on this particular Sunday evening, Feb. 24, 1889, what was always a friendly game suddenly turned ugly when one of the players was dealt a “hand” that held not a playing card but a razor-sharp knife that would cut his windpipe and cause almost immediate death in a flow of blood that would stain the wall for all time.
History will show that what occurred was this community’s first murder, and here is the background:
Zeba Westcott, one of the players, accused one of the other players, John Smith, of having cheated. Fredrick Seaver, Franklin County’s historian, said of the incident: “Westcott was slight, sightless in one eye, and Smith, a physical giant with muscles like tempered steel, the most powerful man in the locality and said to have been of vicious disposition.
“There had been previous bad blood between the two, and Smith was said to have threatened to ‘get’ Westcott. Instantly following the accusation, Smith struck Westcott a smashing blow over the eye, cutting a gash from which blood flowed into the one good eye, blinding him completely.
“Westcott drew a knife, and in the striking and parrying which followed, Smith’s throat was cut to the windpipe and he expired within a few minutes . . . Westcott was indicted for manslaughter in the first degree. His defense was that, having been blinded by blood, he used the knife only to stand Smith off and did not even know that the affair was over and he was told of its fatal issue. The jury returned a verdict of ‘not guilty.’”
AFTERWARD
Interestingly, three years later in 1898, Zeba would become this newly
created town’s first constable. Historian Louis Simmons told us, “Before
a suitable building for detaining prisoners was built, Constable Westcott
had solved the problem of what to do with law breakers by “detaining”
them in his home on Wawbeek Avenue until justice could be meted out.
His solution was simple but effective. A chain, secured by a hasp on
the outside, was passed through a hole drilled in the wall. It ended
in a leg iron that clasped around the prisoner’s leg and proved an
escape-proof “detainer.”
Perhaps of further interest is the fact that Zeba was Mrs. McLaughlin’s son by a previous marriage, which took place in 1850 to Theodore Westcott, one of our earliest settlers. Sally, also known as Sarah, would become Tupper Lake’s first bride at 23 years of age. There was no clergy here at that time, and when a passing timber cruiser was found to be also a justice of the peace in St. Lawrence County, the couple grasped the opportunity, rowing out to a little island in Big Tupper Lake near Grindstone Bay, just over the Franklin County line in St. Lawrence County and which is still referred to today as Sally’s Rock. Mr. Westcott would die only five years after that marriage and Sally would marry McLaughlin two years later.
Will McLaughlin continued to operate the farm where the tragic murder occurred – a farm known for its fertile soil, well-tilled fields and large apple orchard. He also catered to tourists, guides and hunters until his death in 1902 at the age of 95. The farm was then operated by his son, Wallace, for several years. Upon his death, the farm went into the McLaughlin estate.
Sometime around 1918, in an estate settlement, P.H. McCarthy, newly minted Realtor (who operated a grocery store until 1918 where the Sorting Gap store is presently located and who was village mayor from 1921 to 1924) purchased about 320 acres of McLaughlin’s property. McCarthy’s purchase extended from the former Mercy General Hospital along both sides of today’s Racquette River Drive to what was known as the Crow’s Nest property (today’s Byram Road).
Soon after acquiring that property, McCarthy started selling lots, with prominent citizens like attorney Francis Slater, auto dealer Art Cronin, O.W.D. official Roy LaVoy and boat builder A.B. Moody buying parcels and building attractive homes.
Next Transitions: Alex Stephnock, a Polish immigrant, buys 100 acres and the McLaughlin farm.