Fairfax Murderer Hanged On New Years Day 1892

Mike Cain received the following note and asked me if it rang a Bell with me. Don't know if he realized when he said "Ring a Bell" that he was asking me a question about a Stephen Bell. (A little unintentional humor, Mike?)

"First, allow me to apologize; this is a bit of an impertinent request in the middle of the holidays, and done at much later notice than I'd like.

I write a historical blog called Executed Today (executedtoday.com), which remembers executions on their anniversary dates. For New Year's, I was going to use a story about a hanging in Vermont that happened on New Year's Day 1892, of Stephen H. Bell for the murder of his wife in Fairfax Dec. 26, 1890.

My only source whatever for this information is a very short New York Times story from the time -- here it is in its entirey:

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HANGED ON NEW YEAR'S DAY

Stephen H. Bell Executed For The Murder Of His Wife

WINDSOR, Vt., Jan. 1. -- Stephen H. Bell was hanged here this afternoon for the murder of his wife, in the town of Fairfax, Dec. 26, 1880. At 1:40 the door of the west wing of the prison was closed and at 1:44 the prisoner was taken from his cell, where he was holding an earnest conversation with Chaplain Wassall.

The prisoner was somewhat pale from long confinement. He boldly ascended the steps and, although assisted, appeared to be nerved up for the occasion. Chaplain Wassall offered a fervent prayer, during which Bell bowed and covered his face with his hand. Sheriff Lovell, as soon as the Chaplain had finished, stepped forward and said: "Stephen H. Bell, have you anything to say why the penalty of the law should not be executed on you?"

Bell, rather pale and tremulous, tood erect, and after addressing the Sheriff and officers in charge, asking for all the time he wanted in which to speak, began a talk which lasted thirty-four minutes. It was a rambling statement, in which he declared his innocence. When he had finished, Bell stepped back to his chair.

Sheriff Lovell took him by the arm, and the condemned man stood up bravely. When Deputies How and Randall had pinioned his wrists, arms, and legs Bell stepped on the drop and said: "Gentlemen, I am a dying man; good-bye." Instantly the Sheriff touched the spring and the drop fell. In fourteen minutes he was pronounced dead. The body was buried in Windsor Cemetery."

Well, when I was going through the Fairfax Town Records, I did run across the murder, although the name I have is Sylvester Bell, not Stephen Bell. It is interesting as I was going through these records, how I would visualize something about these people's lives.

First, a little about Emma Smith Lock Bell. Emma had been married twice. She married her first husband on February 22, 1884 when she was 20 years old. Her first husband was Henry L. Lock and he was 21 years old at the time they got married. Henry died two months later of a Liver Complaint on April 19, 1884.

As I was doing this information on her first marriage, I thought, Gee, she must have know he was sick when she married him, or maybe back in those days he needed someone to take care of him and people in town would have frowned on her staying with him if they weren't married. Anyhow that was my assumption, just inputting the records in the computer. According to the Marriage Certificate, Henry was a laborer who lived in Fairfax, as did Emma and it was the first marriage for both of them. They were married by Joseph Enright, Minister of the Gospel.

Now on to her second marriage to Sylvester Bell. Sylvester had been married before to a Mercine Farnsworth Bell when he was 27 years old and he and Mercine had one child, Hattie Content Bell Austin, born on December 10, 1861. Don't know what happened to Mercine, but apparently they must have separated, although I do have some further information on their daughter Hattie.

Sylvester was the son of Samuel and Nancy (Kennison) Bell and apparently was born in Canada. When Sylvester was 54 years old, he married Emma Smith Lock Bell on December 1, 1887, who was approximately 24 years old at the time. Sylvester was a farmer and he and Emma both lived in Fairfax. It was the second marriage for both of them. That marriage ended about two years later on December 26, 1889 with Emma's death certificate which simply stated as cause of death "Shot by her husband."

I clicked on Jason Zanon's blog http://www.executedtoday.com/ and found the following information there this morning:

1892: Sylvester Henry Bell
Add comment January 1st, 2009 09:48am Headsman

The state of Vermont has long since dispensed with the death penalty; it hasn’t had a death penalty law on the books since 1964, and its last execution was a decade before that. (Source)

But back when the traps were dropping on Green Mountain State scaffolds, no consideration of sentiment (or holiday pay) barred hanging a man on New Year’s Day, as occurred in 1892.

You could call Sylvester Bell a ladykiller.

According to family genealogists familiar with the case, the Canadian-born farmer used two of his wife’s relatives as character witnesses in his naturalization proceedings … and eight months later, shot said wife, the mother of his five children. Not only did Sylvester win acquittal for this non-fatal attack, Marcia Farnsworth Bell actually had to fight to get a divorce on the grounds of “intolerable severity”.

Marcia and her unmarried children moved to Randolph, Vt., where the kids opened a major department store.

Nothing daunted, a then-54-year-old Sylvester remarried the decades-younger Emma Lock (or Locke) in 1887. We may imagine an ensuing union not altogether free of discord, as we rejoin the public record of their lives with the Jan. 2, 1890 Burlington Clipper.

It appears that Mrs. Bell had left her husband and applied for a divorce. Thursday she, in company with Deputy Sheriff Hall, went to the house to remove her things. Bell met them very pleasantly and permitted her to pick up her goods. As she was about ready to leave she went up stairs and he followed her. Soon afterward a pistol shot was heard and Officer Hall rushed up, and Bell met him at the door of the room into which Mrs. Bell had gone and handed him the pistol, saying, “Take this. I have done the deed.” The ball entered the head of the unfortunate woman, just back of the ear, and she lived about thirty minutes, unconscious.

Bell was put under arrest and for a time the excitement, and sympathy was so strong for the murdered woman that it looked as if Bell would be lynched, but the law will now be allowed to take its course.

The article understatedly observed, “Bell’s reputation with his wives is bad.”

The course of the law will not hold much suspense for readers of this blog.

The novelty of the eventual New Year’s execution attracted the New York Times which (botching the hanged man’s name and the date of the crime) reported the scene from the scaffold, where “Stephen” Bell bought himself an extra 34 minutes in this vale of tears with the verbosity of his last statement.

WINDSOR, Vt., Jan. 1. — Stephen H. Bell was hanged here this afternoon for the murder of his wife, in the town of Fairfax, Dec. 26, 1880. At 1:40 the door of the west wing of the prison was closed and at 1:44 the prisoner was taken from his cell, where he was holding an earnest conversation with Chaplain Wassall.

The prisoner was somewhat pale from long confinement. He boldly ascended the steps and, although assisted, appeared to be nerved up for the occasion. Chaplain Wassall offered a fervent prayer, during which Bell bowed and covered his face with his hand. Sheriff Lovell, as soon as the Chaplain had finished, stepped forward and said: “Stephen H. Bell, have you anything to say why the penalty of the law should not be executed on you?”

Bell, rather pale and tremulous, stood erect, and after addressing the Sheriff and officers in charge, asking for all the time he wanted in which to speak, began a talk which lasted thirty-four minutes. It was a rambling statement, in which he declared his innocence. When he had finished, Bell stepped back to his chair.

Sheriff Lovell took him by the arm, and the condemned man stood up bravely. When Deputies How and Randall had pinioned his wrists, arms, and legs Bell stepped on the drop and said: “Gentlemen, I am a dying man; good-bye.” Instantly the Sheriff touched the spring and the drop fell. In fourteen minutes he was pronounced dead. The body was buried in Windsor Cemetery.

Interestingly, Bell was the only person executed in his state during a 22-year period from 1883 to 1905. That span is bookended in Vermont’s death penalty annals by the first woman hanged in Vermont and the last woman hanged in Vermont.

Bell’s descendants continue to seek information on Sylvester; anyone who may know more can get in contact via this author.