Assassination of Bro. Orton, of Rochester, N. Y.
LAST Tuesday, the 13th inst., we received the distressing intelligence, in a note from Bro. Fuller, that Bro. J. T. Orton was attacked by an assassin on Thursday evening the 8th inst., in his own barn, at about 7 o'clock in the evening, and died at 12.35 the same night. A subsequent letter from Bro. Loughborough to Bro. Aldrich, gives additional particulars from which we make the following extract. Under date of March 9th, he writes: BRO. ALDRICH: I have grievous news to write this morning. It is that Bro. J. T. Orton was maliciously murdered in his own stable, last night, by the hand of an assassin. The murder was committed unseen, and unheard by mortals. Suspicions rest strongly on Paddock; and the officers are scouring the country in every direction for him. Bro. Orton told me last Friday while we were at Parma, that he feared P. would try to take his life. I advised him, if he was afraid of his life, to make oath to that effect, and have Paddock taken care of. This suspicion arose from P.'s coming on to the hack stand and inquiring of Alva if his father was at home. He heard him say to another man as he left, "I will have vengeance on that man yet." Yesterday we were preparing all day to go to the Monthly Meeting at Lancaster, the 10th inst. We were together till 6 o'clock P. M. Bro. Orton and myself made arrangements to go to the meeting together, to-day noon. We then bade them good night, little suspecting that danger was near. Myself and wife took the street car back to Bro. J. B. Lamson's, where we arrived a little before 8 o'clock. At 9, a messenger came and summoned us all up to Bro. Orton's saying he was hurt very badly, but keeping back the worst. Bro. L. and I went up immediately. There we learned that at about 7 o'clock Alva came home with the hack. His father was at the barn. Alva there decided to go with his father to Lancaster, and told his father if he would feed the team and get in the hack, he would go down town and finish getting ready to go. Sister Orton thought Bro. O. remained at the barn longer than he usually did, and started to go, but seeing there was a light there, did not then go. But becoming uneasy, she went out in a little while, and found Bro. O. insensible, all in a gore of blood. Supposing he had fallen and wounded himself, she rallied the neighbors; but when they came they learned the awful fact that he had been struck five times over the head with a carman's car stake, banded with iron that lay by his side bloody. Three physicians were immediately sent for, and the police notified. The physicians examined him and said he could not live. His right temple and frontal skull were all broken to pieces, and the brain was coming out in several places. Everything was done that could be for his comfort, but he was insensible, and died apparently easy, at 12.35 last night. The coroner was immediately notified, and came and took charge of the body, and remained till morning. An inquest was to be held to-day at 9 o'clock, from which I have not heard. Sister Drusilla Lamson got to her father's about an hour before he died. It is a heavy affliction upon that family. Bro. Orton has been ripening up for this, ever since the praying seasons here for Bro. White. The funeral is to be held next Sunday at 10 A. M. Bro. Fuller is expected to preach. The Rochester Express gives a notice of the terrible deed which we herewith present: "We are called upon to record one of the most diabolic crimes that was ever committed in this community—one that for hellishness and premeditation throws entirely in the shade any similar crime ever committed in this city, and one that, should the perpetrator be caught, would require great effort to prevent the assumption of the law by an incensed neighborhood. "The murdered man is Jonathan T. Orton, a respectable citizen, following the occupation of a hackman, and residing at 73 South Union street, where he owned a house and lot and the barn where his horses are kept. He was fifty-five years of age, has a wife and two children—a son, Alva, 21 years of age, and a married daughter. His son occasionally drives the hack, which was the case yesterday, Mr. Orton remaining at home. At about seven o'clock in the evening the son drove home, and wishing to return to the city immediately to perfect some engagement, he asked his father to put up the team, with which Mr. Orton unfortunately complied. "A few minutes after Orton had been to the barn, and as Mrs. Orton thought long enough to take care of the horses and feed them, she went to the rear door and looked toward the barn, seeing the light, and went into the house again. Becoming impatient, she again looked and saw that there was no light, and immediately lighted a lamp and proceeded to the barn, where she discovered her husband lying down, all bloody, in a passage-way which leads from the stalls to the main room, where his hack is kept. Supposing that he had fallen from the loft and killed himself, she went shrieking to the house of a neighbor, Bernard Eichelman, and alarmed him. He came out, and with Mrs. Orton, proceeded to the barn, where, upon examination, it was discovered that he had been brutally murdered. "He was found still breathing and lying in the passage-way with his feet toward the carriage house and a bloody cart-rung or stake found lying about six feet from him, which shows that the villain had secreted himself in the carriage room, and, Orton having fed his horses, was struck by him as he was going through the passage-way for the purpose of pulling in his hack and closing the main door. "There were five blows on the head—one on the frontal bone or forehead, fracturing severely; one on the left temporal bone; one on the right malar or cheek bone, destroying the nose and side of the face, being a complete pulverizing of the parts; one blow on the left parietal bone, with extensive fracture; one on the upper portion of the occipital bone or back of the head—all uniting in a complete fracture and laceration from the right temporal region to the left in a circular direction, involving all the bone of the upper portion of the cranium, with extensive lacerations of the cerebral mass, or brain, the internal formation of the facial bones being in a complete mass of destruction. "Drs. Walter Fleming and G. W. Peer, performed the autopsy this morning before the Coroner's jury, and found nearly all the cranium detached and fearfully fractured. "Mr. Orton died last night at 12½ o'clock, lingering over four hours after receiving the injuries, which were so extensive as to render surgical aid impossible. The surgeons were both with him until his decease, during which time he was entirely unconscious. "The deceased was a very pleasant, agreeable man, and had hosts of friends, who patronized him, because he was of such an accommodating nature. We hope to be able to record the speedy capture of the villain. "A reward of $300 is offered by the Sheriff of the county. "P. S.—We learn from this morning's Rochester Democrat that one Horace G. Paddock is arrested on suspicion of being the murderer." The loss of Bro. Orton will not be felt by his family alone. The Brethren in New York will feel it. And it comes especially near to some of the church here in Battle Creek, who have been long and intimately acquainted with him. The news of his death being received as we were about assembling for our Tuesday evening prayer-meeting, the church passed the following resolutions of sympathy and forwarded to sister Orton and the family: Whereas, in the dispensations of an All-wise providence, God has seen fit to permit to be removed from the society of his people, by the murderous assault of the assassin, our dearly beloved, and much esteemed brother in Christ, J. T. Orton, and Whereas, in our deep affliction at this sudden and shocking intelligence, we think of the still deeper anguish of his surviving companion, family and relatives, therefore Resolved, That we, the church of Seventh-day Adventists of Battle Creek, assembled in prayer-meeting, March 13, 1866, hereby present this testimonial of our unfeigned sympathy for the heart-stricken widow and children: and further Resolved, That we ever pray that our All-loving Father in Heaven, who has consolations adapted to all our sorrows, may, in his singular mercy, and gracious love, so sweeten this distressing bereavement by the communication of his Holy Spirit, that Sister Orton, brother Alva, and sister Drusilla, may be mercifully sustained: and may they be enabled to look forward to the resurrection of the just, when Jesus the Life-giver will come, when the wife and children shall again embrace a kind husband and affectionate father, when the glory of God shall fill the earth as the waters fill the sea, and when there will be nothing to hurt or destroy in all his holy mountain.