"The Chincoteague Tragedy" Part 3 - And the Incorrect Information Continues

 The fourth article article mentioned here states in the first sentence that Chincoteague is in Maryland, then, in the body of the article, taken from a Georgia paper, states that Chincoteague is along the "rock-clad" coast of Virginia....  I've been on a lot of boats around the island and between Ocean City and Wallops, but, other than some rip-rap, I don't remember a "rock-clad" coast.

    The Chicago Tribune, on Tuesday, 23 June, has two separate articles printed under the headline "Driven To Death By Love."  The first article is about a young couple in Norristown, New Jersey.  We are interested in the second sub-headline:  "A Baltimore Case.

   BALTIMORE, Md., June 22.  -  [Special.]  -  Two funerals wended their way to the little cemetery on Chincoteague Island yesterday afternoon.  In one grave were laid the remains of Jennie Hill.  In another part of the cemetery was buried Thomas Freeman, her former lover, who, after killing her, committed suicide.  The young  girl was buried in the garnet-colored silk dress which her mother bought her for giving up young Freeman.  The dress was bought the same day Freeman killed Jennie.  The day after the tragedy the girl's father received the following letter by a messenger from Freeman, it having been delayed:

   Dear Sir:  Tell all the people in the world what I tell you.  I have died for love.  I am going to kill myself on account of Jennie Hill.  We have been courting about eight months.  This is the last.  I will die and I will kill my Jennie.  So good-by to all and to everybody.  This is my only request: that I shall be buried by the side of her.  

   In a note to Mrs. Hill the despondent lover wrote: You are the cause of the crime I shall commit.

   To a friend stationed on the lightship off Chincoteague Freeman wrote:  

I am going to die through love of a girl - Jennie Hill.  Take warning, friend Frank; never set your whole soul on a girl.

   The hostility that the murdered girl's mother exhibited towards the young man was not shared by other members of the family.  Freeman was a deserving, hard-working young man.  Mrs. Hill told him he could not marry Jennie; that she must marry a rich man.  The mother, who now lies critically ill from the wound she received from Freeman's pistol, expresses great contrition."

    On the same day, The St. Louis Globe-Democrat of Missouri, ran the following story on page 3:

       "THE FREEMAN TRAGEDY

Some Letters and Interviews Throwing Light on a Sad Story of Forbidden Love.

   Special Dispatch to the Globe-Democrat.

  SNOW HILL, Md., June 22.  -  The excitement consequent upon the late double tragedy on Chincoteague Island has abated, but intense gloom overhangs the island.  The funeral of the dead girl took place this afternoon at 2 o'clock, Rev. J. D. Reese reading the burial service, and was attended by a large concourse of people.  The body was interred in the family burying ground on the land attached to the house.  Freeman was buried in the public cemetery.

   The following is a copy of a letter left by Freeman, which was found in the pocket of one of Mr. Hill's vests:

   "DEAR SIR - Tell all the people in the world what I will tell.  I have died for love.  I am going to  kill myself on account of Jennie Hill.  We have been courting about eight months.  This is the last.  I will die and I will kill my lover.  So good-by to all and to everybody.  This is my only request, that I shall be buried at the side of her.  Yours respectfully,  T. Freeman."

   On the other side of the note is a postscript directed to Mrs. Hill, which reads thus:  "You are the cause of my doing this, as I told you the other night."

   There was another letter, addressed to a friend on the light-ship stationed in the ocean opposite Chincoteague Island, where Freeman had remained at work for several months, as he has said, to cure himself of his infatuation for the young girl, after he found that her mother was so bitterly opposed to their union.  The letter reads as follows:

   "JUNE 14, 1885.    MY DEAR FRIEND:  I will tell you of my great trouble.  My friend Frank, I am in love with a girl and her name is Jennie - Jennie Hill.  Frank, I think too much of her.  I will die for love.  So good-by, my old friend.  Take warning from this.  Do not set your whole soul upon a girl.  This is my last letter from me.  So I will die for her.      Thomas W. Freeman."

   "To Mr. James F. Mason."

   In regard to the character and disposition of Freeman, which your correspondent took especial pains to investigate, there was not a man on the island among possibly a score who were approached who knew aught against him.  All concurred in saying that he was a hard-working and honest young man, with no bad habits, and much thought of by those who knew him, and it seems that the hostility that the murdered girl's mother exhibited toward him was not shared in by any other member of the family.  In fact, it seems that all the family except the mother were ignorant of the true state of the case.  Her reply to this was that she did not intend her daughter marry a poor man, but one who could take care of her, mentioning a son of a certain well-to-do islander.  This language probably  had more to do with exasperating Freeman than anything else.  To influence her daughter against Freeman, the mother had promised her a new silk dress in case she would give him up.  The mother and daughter had just started to the dressmaker's to have the dress fitted when the awful tragedy was enacted.  She was buried in the dress.

   The deceased young lady's father and brothers, it is said, express no resentment against Freeman, but, strange to say, pity him, and look upon the whole affair as a horrible mistake.  The islanders, who, at the first news of the affair, were deeply exasperated against Freeman, are now almost without exception disposed to look with sincere pity upon him and to moralize sorrowfully over the terrible ordeal that his mind must have passed through before he fully determined to carry his ghastly plans into execution.

   The house in which Mr. Hill resides is a comfortable and beautiful place.  It is considered one of the most desirable residences on the island, and Mr. Hill, who is well to do, is a man who always found great pleasure in his family."

Timothy & Zipporah Sharpley Hill, Jennie's parents

   On Wednesday, 24 June, 6 days after the shooting, The Salt Lake Evening Democrat newspaper of Utah, printed the following article on page one:

      "SHE DID NOT RECIPROCATE.

A Disappointed Lover Shoots His Girl and Then Her Mother.

RICHMOND, Va., June 24.  -  The tragedy which occurred on Chincoteague Island last Saturday has been investigated by the coroner, who found that Freeman came to his death by his own hand.  The testimony given shows that when Timothy Hill returned to his house after a trip of inspection over his farm, he was horrified to find his wife and his 15-year-old daughter Jennie with bullet wounds in their heads.  Under a tree in front of the house lay the dead body of William T. Freeman, the double murderer and suicide.  The terrible crime was the outcome of a love affair.  Freeman was a good-looking youth of 18 years, employed as gardener by Mr. Hill.  The young man fell in love with Miss Jennie Hill, but she did not reciprocate.  Her girlish fancy turned to Willie Hunting, son of the owner of a large fish factory in the vicinity.  When Freeman asked Jennie's parents if he could not pay her attentions with a view to matrimony, they laughed at the youth and told him Jennie was too young.  This made Freeman surly and disagreeable.  Yesterday morning Freeman met Jennie and her mother in the garden.  He again asked Jennie if she would not marry him.  Her mother rebuked him.  He cried after them as they walked toward the house: "Jennie, you and I shall die before you marry another."  Jennie turned and said: "Will, you would not hurt me, would you?"  As he answered "No," Jennie and her mother continued their walk.  As soon as their backs were turned, Freeman drew a pistol and fired twice at the girl.  She fell to the ground.  Mrs. Hill threw her arms about the enraged man, but hurling her away from him, he fired twice at her.  The reports of the pistol brought Mrs. Hill's son to the scene.  Freeman also fired at him.  He then hastily reloaded the pistol and placed it to his forehead and blew his brains out.  Mrs. Hill and her daughter are both shot in the head, and are not expected to live."

     Thursday, June 25th, The Bridgeton Pioneer of New Jersey printed the article that The Atlanta Constitution had printed on June 22.  The New Jersey paper used the headline "A Triple Tragedy," and printed the first paragraph from the Atlanta story as the last paragraph in their rendition (see Part 2 of this blog) - otherwise, it is word for word; other than one sentence at the beginning of the article, which reads:  "The little island of Chincoteague, Maryland, is agitated over the murder of Mrs. Timothy Hill and her daughter Jennie by Wm. T. Freeman, who afterward killed himself."

Jennie Hill's grave stone.  It reads:

E. Virginia.

Daughter of Timothy

& Zipporah Hill.

Born  Feb. 25, 1872.

Died  June 18, 1885.

Will you come to my grave when

my spirit has fled, And beneath the

green sod I am laid with the dead;

When the heart that loved you is turning

to clay, And in Calvary's cold dens

I am passing away.

   The small article that was printed on page 2, column one, of The Neosho County Democrat of Osage Mission, Kansas, contains three sentences and has three wrong items in it.  It is in a column on the page that has short news tid-bits.

   "The little island of Chincoteague, off the cost [sic] of Maryland, was the scene of a terrible tragedy last Thursday.  William T. Freeman, aged 18, for unrequited love, Shot Miss Jennie Hill and also her mother who tried to prevent the act, then blew out his own brains.  Both ladies died the following day."

   Next up:  "The Queen of Chincoteague" article from a Kansas newspaper.