Murder in Pelhamville on the New Haven Line Tracks in 1859

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Like most communities, the little Town of Pelham has been the scene of some grisly and horrific crimes over the course of its history.  Two such crimes include the terrible murder and dismemberment of the captain of the Eudora Imogene in 1854 and the most terrible murder mystery in Pelham history:  the unsolved killing of wealthy Pelham Heights resident Julius Rosenheimer in 1905 in the garden of his home once located on the present site of the Pelham Picture House.

One terrible crime committed in 1859 was the murder of E. A. Patterson of the tiny settlement of Pelhamville as he walked along the tracks of the New Haven Main Line.  Patterson was described as "one of the quietest and most inoffensive citizens" of the settlement of Pelhamville which, at the time, was only eight years old and populated with only a few dozen residents.  

On Friday, September 9, 1859, Mr. Patterson had business in nearby New Rochelle.  As was so often the case in those days, the easiest and quickest way to travel to New Rochelle was to walk along the New Haven Line railroad tracks.  In those days, heavy woods extended from the Pelhamville Depot on both sides of the railroad tracks.  (Neither Pelhamwood nor Pelham Heights had yet been developed.)  The old Boston Post Road (today's Colonial Avenue) was an out-of-the-way route into New Rochelle that added substantial time to the trip as travelers had to plod along Wolf's Lane to the old Boston Post Road then turn east into New Rochelle.  Thus, E. A. Patterson traveled to and from New Rochelle along the railroad tracks that day.

In the evening, as he walked home to Pelhamville along the tracks, he came upon three men just as he reached Pelhamville.  Indeed, the men were no more than five hundred yards from the little station that, at the time, stood where today's Pelham National Bank building stands at One Wolfs Lane.  One man was sitting and two were standing along the tracks at the top of a forty or fifty foot high embankment along which the tracks ran.  The men had five or six dead white geese they had decapitated and that authorities later believed had been stolen nearby.  Due to the embankment, it was not an easy task simply to avoid the men.

Patterson tried to walk past the men.  As he did, they began following him and used a stone to knock him down.  The group set upon the poor man, saying they would murder him and beating him nearly senseless.  Once the men had disabled Patterson, they lifted him and tried to "heave" him down the stony embankment.  When that failed, they kicked or dragged him down the embankment where one of the men, in an act of extreme depravity, used a stone to drive the senseless man's head between two large rocks.  One of the men then jumped on the poor man until he was dead.  The three then rifled through his pockets and stole four or five dollars, a pen knife, a pocket handkerchief, and "sundry small articles."

It appears from one brief news report that the three men were eventually identified.  Although the eventual fate of the murderers is unknown, by October (according to one account) "one of the suspected persons [had] been arrested and [was] in jail at White Plains."  

 Map of Pelhamville Published in 1868. Source:   Beers, F.W.,

Atlas of New York and Vicinity from Actual Surveys By and Under

the Direction of F.W. Beers, Assisted By A.B. Prindle & Others, pg.

36 (NY, NY:  Beers, Ellis & Soule, 1868) (Detail from Page 36 Map

Entitled "Town of New Rochelle, Westchester Co., N.Y. (With) Pelhamville).

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

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"MURDER IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY. -- The Tribune learns from a correspondent at Pelhamville, Westchester Co., N.Y., Sept. 12th, 1859, that on Friday evening, Sept. 9, one of the quietest and most inoffensive citizens, Mr. E. A. Patterson, went to New Rochelle on some business; on his return home to Pelhamville, on the New York and New Haven Railroad track, when within 500 yards of Pelhamville Depot, he met three negroes [sic], one sitting and two standing, they having five or six white geese, with their heads twisted off, supposed to be stolen; as Mr. Patterson passed them, they immediately started after him, knocked him down with a stone, then commenced to murder him, as they themselves said they would; having disabled the sufferer, they took him and attempted to heave him down a rough stone embankment, 40 or 50 feet deep; not succeeding, they followed and kicked or drove the victim down the embankment with stones, their feet and fists.  By this time his senses began to fail.  When he was driven to the bottom of this awful precipice, one of them struck him with a large stone, and drove his head in between two large rocks.  While in that position they broke the guard of his watch, and let it fall among the stones under him; while doing so one of them jumped on him several times; they then searched and rifled his pockets of between four and five dollars, pen knife, pocket handkerchief, and sundry small articles.

Warrants have been issued for the arrest of the negroes supposed to be implicated in the crime, and one of the suspected persons has been arrested and is now in jail at White Plains."

Source:   MURDER IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY, Hudson Daily Star, Sep. 21, 1859, Vol. XII, No. 3688, p. 2, col. 2.

"HORRIBLE MURDER IN WESTCHESTER CO. -- On Friday evening, Mr. E. A. Patterson, of Pelhamville, went to New-Rochelle on some business; on his return home, on the New York and New Haven Railroad track, when within 500 yards of Pelhamville Depot, he met three negroes who, as Mr. Patterson passed them immediately started after him, knocked him down with a stone, then commenced to murder him, as they themselves said they would; having disabled the sufferer, they took him and attempted to heave him down a rough stone embankment, 40 or 50 feet deep; not succeeding, they followed and kicked or drove the victim down the embankment.  When he was driven to the bottom of this awful precipice, one of them struck him with a large stone, and drove his head in between two large rocks. --  They then searched and rifled his pockets of between four and five dollars, pen-knife, pocket-handkerchief, and sundry small articles.  Warrants have been issued for the arrest of the negroes [sic], and one of the suspected persons has been arrested and is now in jail at White Plains."

Source:  HORRIBLE MURDER IN WESTCHESTER CO., The Tri-States Union [Port Jervis, NY], Oct. 6, 1859, Vol. 9, No. 49, p. 2, col. 4.

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