MONTROSE: Miss Elizabeth Oeppling, stenographer in W. D. B. Ainey’s office, leaves today for Washington, where she will assist in handling some of the accumulating correspondence already piling up in the office of the new Congressman. His friends will be interested to know that he is pointed out on the streets of Washington as “the man who trimmed Woodrow Wilson.” Five Congressmen received the oath of office at the opening of Congress. Mr. Ainey was escorted to the bar of the House by a number of Pennsylvania Congressmen, where Speaker Clark administered the oath. Upon taking the oath he received the congratulations of Congressmen from various parts of the nation.
SOUTH AUBURN: The first sleighing of the season [came] on Monday.
SOUTH GIBSON: Earl Manzer, one of our up-to-date farmers, will have, when completed, one of the finest barns for stock in the county, furnished with all the sanitary and modern improvements.
SPRINGVILLE: On Monday evening, Dec. 17, the first number of the lecture course will be given at the M. E. church. This entertainment will be the Peterson Sisters, comprising four ladies, each of whom is an artist in her line and among the different instruments are the piano, violin, harp, guitar, mandolin, also a ladies’ quartette. Tickets for the five entertainments, $1; single tickets, 25 cents.
NORTH JACKSON: The new M. E. church annex is practically completed and dedication services will take place, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Dec. 13, 14, and 15.
FAIRDALE: The Oakes Bros. have been cutting wood in the neighborhood this week. The boys have a good outfit.
NEW MILFORD: There has been considerable excitement among the hunters in this section over the appearance of a strange animal supposed to be a panther or wildcat. Its cries have been heard nightly for some time and hunters have found tracks in the snow that would indicate it was a large animal. ALSO, R. N. Hall, aged 73 years, died at his home, Nov. 28, 1911. He was a resident of New Milford since childhood and was one of its best known citizens. He served in the 52nd Pennsylvania Volunteers during the Civil War, having an honorable record. He is survived by his wife, five sons and three daughters. The funeral was held from St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and interment was made in Blaisdell cemetery.
UNIONDALE: John W. White recently sold a registered Holstein calf to Mr. Symonds, of Pike County, another to Mr. Yale, of Wayne County, and two to Frank Giles of Uniondale. They were beauties, being descendants of the cow holding the third best record for milk and butter fat in the world. Mr. White is known far and wide as a breeder of choice stock and gives unbounded satisfaction to his many patrons.
SUSQUEHANNA: M. H. Eisman has given the Barnes Memorial Hospital a donation of $1,000. The gift is made in memory of his wife, who died some weeks ago, and who was a well known charitable worker among the poorer people of that town. This is the first money donation ever given the hospital since the original donation of the founder, Simon H. Barnes, which was $5,000. Mr. Eisman is a brother of Mrs. M. S. Dessauer, of Montrose.
DUNDAFF: Chicken thieves visited the coop of W. Coleman on Saturday night and took all but five. They are known. AND, at East Clifford a team of horses driven by I. Gleason became frightened near the John Irving farm and ran away leaving Mr. Gleason in the rear. As they were passing the Bowman place he ran to the road to stop them. He caught one of the lines and was quickly thrown to the ground. The team was caught near A. G. Stevens’ place near Elkdale.
DIMOCK: There seems to be a large amount of wild game on the Camp Grounds, such as rabbits, squirrels and pole cats, which are hunted by the boys daily.
LENOX: When J. A. Sinsabaugh, of Lenox, went to sell his Thanksgiving turkeys, he found some one else had saved him the trouble, as they had all been stolen, just as they had been gotten in the pink of condition to decorate the Thanksgiving board. We understand there were about 75 turkeys thus appropriated, which was a severe loss, indeed, for Mr. Sinsabaugh.
SOUTH MONTROSE: Peter Osborne is the champion hog killer. He butchered 10 in less than one day.
HARFORD: Jasper T. Jennings wrote the following in his articles on Susquehanna County: Harford was organized as a township in 1808, but was first settled by the Nine Partners in 1790. The Nine Partners, who came from Attleboro, Massachusetts, were Hosea Tiffany, Caleb Richardson, Ezekiel Titus, Robert Follett, John Carpenter, Moses Thacher, Daniel Carpenter, Samuel Thacher and Josiah Carpenter. One of the nine, Caleb Richardson, was a soldier of the French War of 1765, a captain in the war of the Revolution and had command of the fort where the Battery is now in New York City, while General Washington was conducting his retreat. The settlers made their grist mills by burning out the top of a sound stump and arranging a spring pole and pestle for pounding the grain. The first grist mill was built by a Mr. Hallstead, in 1796; the first blacksmith shop was erected by Amos Sweet in 1795; the first saw mill was built in 1800 by Tiffany, Follett and Carpenter. The first fulling mill was built by Rufus Kingsley, in 1810 and the first carding machine was built by Elkanah Tingley, also in 1810. Harford Township is about seven miles north and south by five miles east and west.
ELK LAKE: Fishing laws forbid use of more than eight tip-ups by any one person in fishing through the ice, and an arrest for the violation of this law was published in an exchange in such a way that it gave the impression that it was illegal to use tip-ups at all. This was published in some of the exchanges, and as same was called to our attention just at the moment of going to press, we printed same without verifying the matter. We have consulted Fish Warden S. A. Young, of Elk Lake, and he knows of no ruling changing the act permitting the use of eight tip ups.
I read an article about a New York City woman who had been charged with “self-abortion.” Apparently, the woman took some kind of herbal concoction to induce a miscarriage of her 25-week old unborn baby boy. The allegations contend that the woman induced her own abortion, wrapped the little boy’s body up in a plastic bag, put the body into a bucket and then disposed of the child in a garbage bin next to her apartment. Under New York law, it is unlawful to have an abortion after 24-weeks unless it is medically necessary to protect the life of the mother. The offense is a misdemeanor offense, but media reports have indicated that this particular criminal statute has only resulted in 5 previous arrests over three decades - and 4 of those 5 cases resulted in dismissal of the charges. The remaining case resulted in the woman receiving a “conditional discharge,” which is essentially a non-supervised probationary period.
After reading the article, I began to wonder whether Pennsylvania’s Crimes Code had a similar provision relating to self-abortions. Pennsylvania has a specific criminal statute that deals with crimes against unborn children, and a statute prohibiting the murder of an unborn child - which the Crimes Code defines as a first degree murder if the killing was intentional. The Crimes Code further defines “intentional killing” as it relates to an unborn child as the use of “poison” or “any other kind of willful, deliberate and premeditated killing.” The punishment for the intentional killing of an unborn child is life imprisonment.
The statute, however, goes further to eliminate the applicability of this statute to “acts committed during an abortion or attempted abortion, whether lawful or unlawful, in which the pregnant woman cooperated or consented.” The statute provides further that it does not apply to the “pregnant woman in regard to crimes against her unborn child.” In other words, a mother cannot murder her own unborn child - it only applies to the acts of third persons.
In the section of the Crimes Code dealing with abortion, it is unlawful for any person to “perform or induce an abortion upon another person when the gestational age of the unborn child is 24 weeks or more.” There is an exception to this particular statute that allows for a physician to perform an abortion of a child over 24 weeks of gestational age where the physician determined that the continued pregnancy poses a risk of death or “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” If you note the language in the statute, however, it makes it unlawful for a person to “perform or induce an abortion upon another person.” It does not relate to self-induced abortions like the situation in New York. After quickly reviewing the provisions governing abortions, it does not appear that Pennsylvania has anything similar to New York’s “self-abortion” statute. On the other hand, you could argue that there is a potential for criminal liability for the person who sold the herbal concoction if the person knew it was intended for induction of an unlawful abortion, i.e., the seller of the herbal concoction would be a third person involved in the participation of inducing an unlawful abortion.
I have never faced this particular question where a woman used a herbal concoction to kill her unborn child. Unfortunately, we do see instances of pregnant woman using controlled substances while they are pregnant - and there have been a few instances this year alone where the woman were using heroin while they were pregnant. This prompted some research as to what the liability of the mother would be for placing her unborn child at risk of death from the potent illicit controlled substances. There is a statute that makes it unlawful for a parent to breach a duty of care toward a child in such a manner as it endangers the welfare of the child. This statute covers born children - not unborn children. The portion of the Crimes Code that seeks to protect unborn children specifically exempts the mother from any criminal liability for acts she performs against her unborn child. In other words, if we were faced with the situation in New York, I do not believe that any criminal charges would arise from the conduct, unless we could demonstrate the unborn child was alive when born - and the mother then failed to take any steps to protect the child.
Please submit any questions, concerns, or comments to Susquehanna County District Attorney’s Office, P.O. Box 218, Montrose, Pennsylvania 18801 or at our website www.SusquehannaCounty-DA.org or discuss this and all articles at http://dadesk.blogspot.com/.
Are you looking for a unique gift for someone on your Christmas list? I would like to make some gift suggestions of items that you might consider purchasing that would also benefit the Susquehanna County Historical Society and Free Library Association (SCHS&FLA).
Do you have someone on your list who is interested in the history of Susquehanna County? The Susquehanna County Historical Society has a number of publications available, including “Susquehanna County,” produced by our Historical Society. Published in conjunction with the county’s 200th anniversary in 2010, this volume would make a great Christmas gift.
The anniversary book is just one of the publications available from the Historical Society. Visit SCHS&FLA’s website www.susqcolibrary.org and click on the Historical Society link on the right hand side. Once there, you can click on the list of publications available to see the complete list. You can also join the Historical Society yourself or give a gift of membership to someone else.
Did you miss this year’s rain-abbreviated Blueberry Festival this year or do you have someone on your list that might enjoy a memento of our annual August festival? We have many items on hand at the main library location in Montrose that would make good Christmas gifts or stocking stuffers. Click on Blueberry Festival on the website and scroll down to the listing for available items. If you see something you might like, please visit the Montrose location to buy it.
All of us at SCHS&FLA wish all of you a joyous holiday season.
