Marriage to a Murderer!
Once in awhile, while doing family research, I will come across an interesting tidbit. The one I'm going to share this month is one of those stories that, at first, I didn't believe was true--my great, great aunt married a murderer? While I was researched Sophronia's second husband, Martin Battles, I came across this story on the internet written by someone who was travelling through the valley of Cherry Creek in Chautauqua County, New York who heard the story from one of the old timers in the area :
James Battles lived on a farm in this neighborhood, Cornelius Lynch worked for him. Battles had a son, Martin, by name. Young Battles and Lynch fell in love with the same girl, and a good deal of bad blood was engendered between them, One morning Lynch was found in a dying condition on the floor on Battle's barn, It was supposed he had fallen from a swing. On the morning in question, Lynch got up before anyone in the house, shortly after he was followed by Battles, and the two went to the barn, to do chores. When Lynch was found, Battles was not in sight, A doctor determined that Lynch had been beaten to death, and by this time Battles had returned to the house and was acting in such an excited manner, he was arrested. An inquest was held, and it was determined that Battles knew something about the case, He was tried, found guilty, sentenced to one year in jail then to be hanged. The case was taken to the supreme court and this tribunal determined the sentence was unconstitutional, Battles was released.
(Source: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/NYCHAUTA/2004-08/1091976313)
This incident probably occurred sometime after 1850. The 1850 Census of Chautauqua County shows the James Battles family living right beside the John Lynch family! That is the first source I found that gives credibility to the story. The second source was the 1855 Census showing both families as neighbors. At the time Martin was 25 and Cornelius was 14. Sometime between 1855 and 1860, Cornelius Lynch, the neighbor boy, could very well have been hired to work for James Battles, a farmer. The last documentation was the 1860 Census. It shows Martin Battles enumerated on the County Jail Inmates Census as “Martin Battles, 30 b NY farm laborer, Murder.” Everything in the story seems to coincide with the information from the three census records.
Twenty years later, sometime after 1880 and before her death in 1887, Sophronia married Martin Battles. Since they both lived in the area of Chautauqua County for over thirty years, one would assume that Sophronia had heard about Martin's past but she ended up marrying him anyway! She was single in 1880 and had died seven years later, so they were not married for very long.
The 1892 and 1900 Census records shed further light on Martin, the Murderer. By 1892, just five years after Sophronia's death, Martin had remarried and his new wife was Elmira Battles, 15 years younger than him. By 1900, Martin was widowed again! My question is "HOW DID MY GREAT, GREAT AUNT SOPHRONIA DIE?" She was only 50 years old at the time of her death and HOW DID ELMIRA BATTLES DIE? She was even younger than Sophronia! Martin outlived both of these women because I find him at the age of 80 still living in Chautauqua County "widowed" and single. But it does make me wonder . . .
