The following is a re-print of a past column by former Advertiser columnist Stephen Thorning, who passed away on Feb. 23, 2015.
Some text has been updated to reflect changes since the original publication and any images used may not be the same as those that accompanied the original publication.
Court records of the 19th century are among the most fascinating historical documents. Obviously, they show the nature of criminal activity of their time.
But what is equally interesting is that they also, through the evidence of witnesses, depict how daily life was conducted more than a century ago.
An excellent example to illustrate the point is a trial held in Elora 146 years ago. The crime itself was a brutal assault by robbers. Those were comparatively rare in Wellington in the 1870s, and this one created a sensation.
Everyone in Elora knew Frank Vickers. He had operated the village’s Royal Hotel for a decade, and in 1875 had moved to the Dalby House, which he leased from Robert Dalby. When his wife became ill in March of 1878 Vickers decided the hotel business was too onerous. At 52, he reduced his workload, managing the Dalby House livery stable.
Vickers had achieved modest success in his career, and had invested in real estate in Fergus and West Garafraxa. He spent the afternoon of Oct. 21, 1878 attending to some business in Fergus, and stayed to have supper there with friends. A little after 9pm he set off for Elora in his buggy. The drive to Elora was uneventful, though the road was a little muddy due to recent rains.
Frank had almost reached home when the robbers struck. All that he could remember afterwards was something hitting him on the back of the head. He regained consciousness after a few minutes, discovered he was on the ground, and made efforts to get up. Then he made out the form of a man wearing a slouch hat walking toward him. He felt another blow, then someone kicking him. The next thing he remembered was opening his eyes, and making out the form of a friend, Isaac Kerfoot, standing beside him.
Kerfoot had been at Land’s shoe shop, and left there a few minutes after 10pm for home. When he found Vickers, he thought that his friend must have been thrown from the buggy. It turned out, the horse had continued to the stable alone.
Though groggy and confused, Vickers said that he had been attacked. His first concern was for a roll of banknotes, totalling $24, that had been in his pocket. It was gone. His clothing had been torn and rifled. They made off with a gold fob chain, but not his watch. It was in the shop for repairs.
Kerfoot half carried his friend to Dr. W.F. Savage’s house, which was a half block away. While the doctor attended to his patient’s wounds. Kerfoot spread the alarm. Within the hour, the county constable at Guelph received a telegraphed message.
The incident created an instant sensation and alarm. The robbery had not been perpetrated on a lonely stretch of road, but almost in the middle of town, two blocks from the main street near the corner of Colborne and Chalmers Streets.
Before helping the victim to Dr. Savage’s house, Kerfoot had knocked at the door of the closest house, occupied by Tom Kelly. Tom had been asleep, but he jumped into his clothes and headed downtown. Meanwhile, someone had found the horse and unoccupied buggy at the livery stable. Frank’s brother, Tom Vickers, was soon on the scene, and by midnight a couple of dozen men constituted an informal police force to conduct an investigation.
With lit torches, Kerfoot and Kelly investigated the crime scene. They found two stones covered with blood, pieces of Vickers’ torn clothing and some buttons, and his hat. They also discovered the money nearby; apparently the thieves, in the darkness, had not seen it when they tore Frank’s clothes to pieces.
Suspicion immediately fell on a burly and thoroughly unpleasant character, Thomas Richardson, who sometimes used the given name Charles or the surname Smith. Locally, he was known as Yorkshire Tom and Big Tom, and had been working as a casual labourer and teamster in Fergus and Elora since the late spring of 1878. The morning after the attack, Tom Vickers swore out a complaint against Richardson and his sidekick, another transient labourer named Joe Bentley.
By noon the pair had been arrested and the local magistrates, Charles Clarke, John Godfrey, George Barron and J.M. Shaw, convened a magistrate’s court that evening. Tom Kelly and Isaac Kerfoot led off with their testimony, describing the discovery of the victim. Kelly seemed upset that he had heard nothing, though it all happened about 20 feet from his front door. The next morning, he told the magistrates that he had met Richardson and two other labourers, Charles Vinness and Charles Maricet, in front of his house at about 6am that morning. He told them about the attack the previous night. “That’s too bad,” one of them had replied.
Dr. Savage described the wounds at length – more than a dozen lacerations to Vickers’ head, severe bleeding and a concussion. He told the magistrates that Vickers would not be out of danger for another 10 days, and serious infection was a risk. He told the court that Vickers had become upset about his teeth. He wore dentures and they had been knocked out of his mouth. They were never found.
Interestingly, Elora’s constable, John MacDonald, was not told about the case until the next morning, after Tom Vickers had made his complaints. In his testimony, he described his actions in arresting Richardson. First, he went to the house of one of the suspect’s cronies, Tom Everitt, a labourer and teamster, who had a contract to haul firewood into Fergus, and had hired Richardson, Bentley, Vinness and Maricet to help.
Everitt was not home, but the constable found Charles Vinness sitting in the kitchen. MacDonald suspected that Vinness had been involved in the attack, and tried to arrest him, but Charlie resisted when he saw that the constable had no warrant. He did, however, become nervous. He told MacDonald that Richardson was the likely suspect.
On the stand, Vinness further incriminated Richardson. He said that some of the footprints at the scene of the crime belonged to Richardson, who had a bad leg, and left distinct footprints. On their way to Tom Everitt’s house that morning, he told the court, he had accused Richardson of the crime, noting the blood stains on his trousers and coat.
Richardson denied everything. But before taking a team from Everitt’s stable to begin his day’s work, Richardson found another pair of pants, and pulled them over the stained ones. In the early afternoon, Richardson had been arrested near Cumnock, heading to Fergus with a load of wood. After hearing the evidence from Vinness, the magistrates ordered the constable to take Richardson into a side room. There, he discovered that the suspect indeed was wearing two pairs of pants, and that the inner pair showed blood stains.
The magistrates heard testimony from various other witnesses and bartenders, who reconstructed the movements of Richardson and his cohorts the previous evening. They had made the rounds to four of Elora’s hotels and a couple of stores. Elizabeth Everitt testified that Richardson had come to their house when her husband was still out, and that she had quizzed him about the blood on his clothing. He had claimed it was dirt.
One of the fascinating revelations of the testimony was the living arrangements of that circle of teamsters and labourers. Charles Vinness rented a small house near Everitt’s. Richardson stayed there some nights, and other nights at Everitt’s house, where Joe Bentley was a more regular lodger. Charlie Maricet also alternated between the two houses.
Having heard evidence from everyone but the victim, the magistrates adjourned the hearing until Oct. 30, 1878, when Frank Vickers was expected to be capable of testifying. When that day rolled around, he was still weak. Rather than delay further, the magistrates convened the session at the Vickers residence.
That session turned out to be longer than expected. As well as Vickers, the magistrates heard new evidence from new witnesses, and some who had already testified had new information to reveal.
Charles Clarke, John Godfrey, George Barron and J.M. Shaw, the four local magistrates adjourned the hearing, and bound over “Yorkshire Tom”, Richardson and Joe Bentley.
[To be continued next week].
*This column was originally published in the Wellington Advertiser on Nov. 21, 2003.
