The Pocasset Tragedy

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Aug 14, 1879

The Pocasset Tragedy.

THE Pocasset tragedy recalls the case of one Truman Phinney, a farmer of Geauga county, Ohio, who, ten years ago, went crazy at a Methodist revival and became seized with the idea that the Lord had commanded him to kill his son. At 3 o'clock one morning his wife was aroused by her husband, who was engaged in the work of whetting the butcher-knife in a very diligent way. Having noticed that he was a little strange the day before she was alarmed, and asked what he was doing. At first he would not tell her, but at length, with great show of reluctance, he said that the Lord had revealed to him that, in order that the whole household might be saved, his little son must be sacrificed, and he was getting ready to carry out the will of the Lord.

The alarm of the mother was beyond description, but she kept perfectly cool and appeared to be greatly interested in what was going forward. At length she attempted to persuade him to put off the sacrifice for a time, but this he would not consent to. He said that now was the accepted time and the day of salvation. Finally she suggested that it would be proper to have a certain neighbor present, as he always took much interest in all that was going forward in the family and was withal very pious. To this Mr. Phinney consented, and with his wife went to invite the neighbor to the sacrifice. The neighbor came and succeeded in securing Phinney before he completed his bloody work. He was taken to the Cleveland Insane Asylum, where he died some years later.—Solano Republican.