DEATH REG. NO. 001624
May 15, 1896
The whole city was startled on Sunday morning with the news of a shocking murder in Burford Township. JACOB HILL, an Indian residing on the farm of Elmer Lounsbury on the 7th concession of Burford, plunged a knife into the heart of his step-son, Abram Claus, who fell dead almost in a moment. Hill then walked from his home in Burford village and there, at 10 o'clock on Saturday night, surrendered himself to the police authorites. He was afterwards removed to Brantford jail, where he now lies upon the awful charge of murder.
The whole affair is destitute of the slightest mystery. It was a family quarrel arising from nothing of any importance, and ending in an awful tragedy of blood, butchery and death. The affair has or will have two sides, as is usual in such cases , but the result of the family fight is incapable of any prevarication or doubt. The remains of the murdered man Abram Claus lies in Burford waiting on the coroner's inquest. On Saturday deceased was a hale, hearty young man, while today he is a mass of blood stained, inanimate clay.
THE STORY OF THE DEED
From careful inquiry upon the spot THE EXPOSITOR is able to give the details of the gruesome deed. Jacob Hill is an Indian originally of the Six Nations reservation. He is 71 years of age, and some thirty years ago he married a white woman named KING, with whom he lived until Saturday night. Hill had been married before he was wed to his present wife, and she on the other hand was a young widow with one child, Abram Claus, the son of an Indian father, and the man who was done to death by a big butcher's knife, within the portals of his own mothers house. Claus, who was living with a young woman named LAFORME , has been employed for some time at Grimsby. He returned to his mothers house, on the 7th concession of Burford, about a week ago. He was 30 years of age, and a wiry looking fellow, though neither tall nor heavy in his build. The father was also at home, and doing nothing in particular, as was his wont, according to all accounts. Both men were of a surly disposition, quick to quarrel, and not at all too sociable, They had had words before, but nothing to amount to a great deal. Claus had been away from home so much since his youth, that he had not had a great many opportunities to fight with the step father.
THE BOY WAS SASSY
Everything went along in about its usual manner until nearly sundown on Saturday night. Mrs. Hill, who is an invalid, was lying on the couch in the corner of the two roomed house in which three grown men, four grown women, and three young children stopped. Hill himself was lying upon a bed in the same room, while on a bed in the other room reclined Claus with his ordinary clothing, boots and all, save only his coat. A 13-year old boy named Alexander Hill, a son of the white woman and her husband , Jacob HIll was the cause of the dispute. This boy had been bidden do something and in an impertinent manner refused to do the bidding. The mother arose and chastized him for being "sassy." Whereupon the father arose and going towards the frail and sickly woman, told her that if she whipped the boy anymore he would instantly whip her.
THE SON STEPPED IN
The son, Abram Claus stepped in from the adjoing room, and told Hill that if he dared lay a hand upon the mother he would whip him for it. Hill, though a man of ripe years, is a burly looking fellow, and a man of unusual strength for his years. He, according to the story of all who eye witnesses of the earlier stages of the affair, aimed a blow a Claus. The latter dodged it skillfully, and retaliated upon the old man, knocking him down in the corner, where the couch was, upon which the old woman was lying. There is no doubt about it Claus pounded Hill with savage severity while he lay there, and from the marks upon his face may have kicked him, though the girls in the house all deny that statement.
At any rate, all are agreed that Claus pounded the old man severly upon the face, and asked him if he had enough. Hill replied that he had, and upon promising to behave himself for the future and leave the mother alone was allowed to get up. As the fight commenced Mrs. Hill and the children , with one or two exceptions, were picked up by a young man named DAVID LAFORME, who is the husband of one of Hills daughters, and carried to the residence of a Mrs. Noyes, a white lady living some two or three hundred yards east of the house.
OTHERS SAW THE TRAGEDY
Others remained to see the tragedy . After the old man had remained outside for a while he re-entered the house and immediately commenced to grope for something on a shelf put over the doorway. He did not find what he was looking for, and at once went to a little slat shelf almost over the cooking range, where he took down a formidable looking butcher's knife, with a sharp blade, some six or seven inches long, remarking at the same time."I'LL FIX YOU" and going towards the corner where Claus stood. Hill says that Claus attacked him and ordered him to stand back. Witnesses of the deed say he gave no such order, but that Claus closed with him in the effort to disarm him. During the scuffle both men fell in the corner of the room.
THE DEED DONE
In the fall Hill was below and Claus on top. They lay there with Claus trying to get hold of the knife, freeing his hand, Hill hit out with the knife, which was plunged up to the hilt in Claus' left side, just below the heart. Claus tried to rise when Hill held onto the knife. The wounded man never straightened himself, but tumbling over a chair, fell in a corner of the room. He uttered an awful groan as the great knife pierced him, and with one or two feeble groans, he passed away, weltering in his own blood.
THE BLOOD REEKING KNIFE
Hill, with the blood-red reeking knife, passed out of the little house. LUCY KING, the woman whom with the deceased was living, rushed into the room, and bending over the wounded man, asked him to speak, to kiss her. With a dying effort he turned up his lips trembling for the kiss of the woman he loved, but now with him life's journey was ended. Lucy hardly realized what had happened; it was all done so quickly. As she leaned over the prostate figure her hands touched his ebbing blood. She looked at her hands in horror, and with a wild, unearthly scream of pain and terror she fled to the wood, as she said to save her life, for murder was in the air.
TENANTED ALONE BY THE CORPSE
The awful deed struck terror to every heart around. What a few minutes only before had been a veritable hive of human being was now deserted, save by the bleeding, unattended corpse that lay in the corner. The family had now scattered in all directions. Mrs Hill had found a haven of safety in the home of Mrs. Noyes, as has been said. Thither ward Hill made his way. What his intentions were none can say. Mrs. Noyes, telling the subsequent story to Constable Daniel Dunn, said Hill came to her door and demanded to know where his wife was. Though the trembling woman lay helpless on a lounge, just behind the door, Mrs. Noyes courageously barred the way and dared Hill to enter. He stood there with the reeking knife still in his hand. She saw it, but she had at that time no idea what it had just done. Mrs. Noyes said his wife was not within. That was a lie but many would justify it under the circumstances. He demanded to know where his family were, and was answered that they had all gone to Burford.
HILL SURRENDERS HIMSELF
Hill then went away. At a point a few hundred yards along the road from the Noyes homestead stands a huge elm tree. Behind the tree and with the blade half stuck in the earth Hill left the knife. He walked ton to Burford village and asked for the residence of Constable Dunn. The constable was at drill in the Burford troop, of which he is a member. Mrs. Dunn took Hill for a tramp and ordered him away. Soon, however, Constable Dunn came along. Hill was in waiting, and walking up to the officer, he said Abe Dead.
Abe who is dead Abe Claus. How did he die I did it
That was enough. Dunn seized the prisoner, and sending for County Constable Blaybourough, of Brantford, who is also a member of the Burford troop, placed Hill in his hands until the statement could be verified.
A GRUESOME SIGHT
Constable Dunn and Dr. Johnston, the coroner of the township, started at 11 o'clock for the scene of the affair. The Hill home is on the farm of Elmer Lounabury and faces the seventh concession road about a mile back from the village of Cathcart. In the deserted house death and darkness reigned supreme. The doctor found deceased lying in a corner with his head reating near a stove. The body was on its right side with the left hand thrown across the breast, while a great gaping rent in the clothing from which the mans life blood oozed over his clothing and down upon the rough beard wood floor in great clotted pools. Death had been swift. The knife had evidently glanced upwards into the side, just below the heart. How far it had penetrated could not be told by the wound, though the knife shows it, and the post mortem will reveal the facts. The body was in a cramped position, with the left leg drawn up. The doctor had the remains straightened out, and covered for the night. Nothing more could be done until the morning. Early this morning Constables Muir and Dunn paid visits to the home. Mr. Muir found the knife buried where hill said he had placed it. The family, when assured that Hill was in safe keeping ventured back to the house and kept vigil upon the remains of their dead one.
THE BODY TAKEN AWAY
This morning Undertaker Foster, accompanied by Reeve Metcalt and Constable Muir, went out to the Hill house and brought the body into the undertaker's establishment. Here it was temporarily placed in a casket clothed just as the affair happened, and covered from view. The body had no external marks save the knife thrust. Deceased would stand about 5ft. 6in. And would weigh about 120 pounds.
WITH THE PRISONER
It was 2 o'clock when Constable Blayborough was able to start for Brantford with his prisoner. He was taken to the police cells and placed in the hands of Sergeant James and Constable Chapman. He had not been handcuffed, as Blayborough did not think he had any danger to apprehend for him. Hill was kept there awhile and at the earliest opportunity removed to the county jail under the safe charge of Governor Kitchen and his assistant, Mr. Wilson. This morning they sent for Drs. Griffin and Harris, the jail surgeons. Hills face was badly bruised, and he was suffering considerable pain.
HE TALKS TO THE EXPOSITOR
Early this morning, an Expositor representative had an interview with the prisoner in his cell in the jail. While the man at whose hands the life taken of a human being had been take, turned to greet his visitor, there arose from a distant corridor of the same prison a chorus of voices singing the praises of the Great Giver of human life. Hill listened for a moment, then looked strangely at the intruder. Hill is a stocky, equitably built man; hardly as old looking as he says he is, with a massive head and big frame. He has a square shaped jaw, closely cropped gray hair and a hairless face. He had been pounded, as he expressed it, most severely. Both his eyes were almost closed, and were coal black and blue all around as a big as a dollar piece. His left cheek was most unmercifully marked and bruised, and was swollen twice the usual size. He had been subjected to the most brutal usage. It was perfectly apparent that with his hands he was no match for the younger man.
THE KNIFE WENT IN
Abe was pounding the life out of me he said. I did not commence it first. Abe did that. He hit me before I hit him and he knocked me down and pound, pound, pound and then he kick, kick, kick me. I go outside to cool off, and when I come in he pound me again. I take the knife off the shelf and he knock me down and fall on me more, and I hit out at him with knife in my hand and it go into him. Abe then try to rise and he fall over a chair and die in two or three minutes.
That is the brief and concise statement of the affair that the prisoner makes in the usual Indian broken manner (lol) and taken down from his lips. He is an intelligent old fellow, deaf a little in his right ear, but when he hears, quick to understand. He was, after the manner of his people, stolid and apparently unconcerned, with perhaps a failure in some measure to realize the full gravity of his situation. He certainly sought skillfully to carry the impression that he had acted entirely in self defence.
ON THE SCENE
A visit to the scene of the tragedy and a talk with the family of the prisoner, neither bear out Hills insinuation of self defence nor place his general character in a favourable light. He has been married to this white woman for thirty years, and, as she placed a chair for the newspaper man, she remarked that he had never supported her in all these years. Pointing to a scar that ran down her face, from her forehead to her nose, she remarked, That is one of his love tokens. She had, she said raised the entire family by her own labour of working out and peddling through the country. She is now a confirmed rheumatic, and unable to go outdoors and do the work she used to do. She told the reporter that Hill had never used her well, but that since she had become sick and needed the attention of the doctor, he had become unbearably cruel. Will he ever come back to me after this do you think? She asked suddenly and with much excitement. The chances are not favourable to him, was the answer. Oh, I hope they'll never let me see his face again, she added, and great big tears stood in her eyes. Whatever Hills life and conduct may have been, he most assuredly possessed not the faintest shadow of affection or esteem from his own children. Even the little, brown faced, 13 year old boy joined in the chorus of execration entertained towards the old man. The children were remarkably intelligent, and all had been at school as long as pa allowed us, as the oldest girl, a young woman of twenty summers, expressed it. The house was poorly furnished, but it was clean. It was a little better than a hovel, yet not at all untidy. What could be made clean about such a place was clean.
AN EYEWITNESS
Lucy King said Mrs Hill was licking Aleck for being sassy. It would be about 8 o'clock on a Saturday night. The old man was lying on a bed when he said; you had better look out or ill whip you. He jumped up and Abe came out the room at the same moment. He stood beside his mother. The old man made a strike at Abe, and Abe hit him and knocked him down. Have you had enough, he said, and will you behave yourself. At first the old man said nothing, but after awhile he said he had enough. Abe was pounding him all the time with his hands. Hill went out of doors and all the others went outside except Abe and me and the baby. The old man came back in again, and Abe told him he had better keep quiet. Hill made another strike at Abe and Abe kicked him on the body. Hill then reached up for a knife that lay on a shelf. Both fell in the corner in the south west part of the house near the stove. I was standing not six feet from them. I heard Abe groan and I ran out, and when I wanted to come back in I met the old man at the door. He did not speak to me, but went away. Abe was lying in the corner. I reached down and put my hand under his head. I got my hand all blood. That was the first time I knew he had been stabbed.
ARE YOU COMING HOME
I asked him was he going to die. I asked him to kiss me, and he turned up his face. He knew what I said. He groaned two or three times. Hill stood at the door. You have killed him, I said. He did not say a word. He had the knife in his hand, and I was afraid and ran away and hid in the woods.
MRS. HILL TALES
All that Lucy has said is quite true, so far as I was present at. I saw Jacob make to strike Abe, and Abe hit him. I got my shawl when the fight commenced, and made for the door. I was taken over to Mrs. Noyes. Both these women cried bitterly as they told their story, and Mrs. Hill gave repeated instances of Hills cruelty to her.
DAVID LAFORME
Aged 20 years, and husband of Hills young daughter MARY said, I saw the fight as stated. Abe hit him in the face several times with his hands, but he did not kick him in the face. I heard Hill say to Abe after he came in from being outside, ill fix you, and then, in a little while after, I heard Abe give an awful groan. I heard Hill say that when he took his knife down off the shelf. I did not see Abe stabbed from the position in which I was standing. Abe never spoke a word, and was dead within five minutes after the stabbing
MARY HILL
A daughter of the prisoner and the wife of David Laforme, I hear my pa say he would strike ma. Abe said, I dare you to do it, or words just like that. Abe threw him down on the bed. I ran out, and saw Pa come out with his nose bleeding. He cried back to Abe, I law you. Abe said back to him, Law away. He then went in the house and said, ill fix you. I supposed that he was speaking to Abe.
MISS BETSY LAFORME
A sister of Mary fully confirmed all the details of the fight. She ran out and did not see the bloodshed.
ALEX HILL
The 13 year old son of the prisoner said, I saw them scuffling in the corner. Pa had a big butcher knife and I saw him stab Abe with it. Abe tried to stand up but couldn't and fell over the chair into the corner where he was found when we all came back. All the eyewitnesses of the quarrel agree in their versions of fight and its subsequent fatal ending. In answer to the polite enquiry of the newspaper man, Mrs. Hill said she was 43 years of age, but as she was married 30 years ago and was then a widow with a son the chances are she was mistaken as things go. She looked just about 53 years of age, and is now in a very weak condition. The knife which did Claus to death is a formidable looking instrument. It is very sharp indeed. The blade is seven inches long, and the handle, an improvised one and not the original handle, is about three inches long. The blade comes to a sharp point, and is stained with blood down to the hilt.
THE INQUEST
The post mortem examination will be held today, and will be conducted by Drs. Johnson and Harbottle. The inquest will commence today, the jury being empanelled and the body moved to the taking of evidence will not commence until Tuesday.
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Abraham Sylvester Claus, son of Powlis and Margaret Claus, born in Oneida, July 1866 and was baptised on the 7th of Feb. 1870. By me Thomas Woolsey, Missionary.

Isaac Claus, son of Powlis and Margaret Claus, born in Oneida on the 31st of March 1867 and was baptised on the 7th of Feb. 1870. By me Thomas Woolsey, Missionary.

Jacob Claus, son of Powlis and Margaret Claus, born Feb. 23, 1871 baptised July 21, 1871. By me Thomas Woolsey.