Bucks County PA Archives News.....ARMBRUSTER Murder in Nockamixon 1855 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Michael Messinger mmessinger@macalester.edu ========== Committed to Prison August 7, 1855 The Bucks County Intelligencer August 7, 1855 On Saturday evening last, Phillip Kainich was committed to prison by Scott A. Erwin, Esq., of Nockamixon township, charged with the murder of Christiana Armbruster, wife of Jacob Armbruster, of that township. On Friday great excitement was created in the neighborhood by the report that a woman had been murdered. The facts appear to be these. Some time during the day the body of Christiana Armbruster was found just outside of her own dwelling, lying in a pool of blood, with a terrible gash, cut by some sharp instrument, on the side of her neck, just below the ear. When the body was discovered, there was no one about the house but a little child, a grand-child of the deceased, which had been creeping about through the clotted blood and around the dead body, presenting a most heart-sickening sight. The fatal blow had been inflicted inside the house by the door, and in her death struggles the woman had evidently rolled out of the house. A jury was summoned, and an inquest held upon the body. It was the opinion of the physicians present that the woman could not have lived more than ten or fifteen minutes after the infliction of the wound. It was also shown before the jury that Philip Kainich, who resides in that vicinity, was seen to come from the house a short time before the discovery of the body, and a warrant was issued for his arrest on suspicion of having committed the murder. Search is also being made for Jacob Armbruster, the husband of the deceased, who has not been seen since the murder. He is suspected of having had some hand in the terrible crime. Armbruster has heretofore been in the habit of abusing his family, and has been committed to prison on several occasions for assaulting his wife. We are informed that a few days since he publicly swore he would kill his wife and then hang himself. Whether he has put this threat in execution is not known, but it is hardly likely that he has destroyed himself. He is well known in the county, and also in Northampton, where he formerly resided, and he will no doubt be arrested in a few days. Kainich says that he was at Armbruster's - that he went there to collect some money of the murdered woman - that she told him to wait until her son came home and then she would pay him; that she invited him to go and see her garden, which he did, and afterwards left her. It appears that Armbruster and his wife have been living a quarrelsome life for a long time past, and that he has repeatedly been in jail at Newark, Easton, and Doylestown for assaulting her. About two years since he struck her with a hoe and broke her arm, for which offense he was convicted and imprisoned. He and his wife were both addicted to drinking at times, and were frequently intoxicated. She was an exceedingly athletic woman, and could play a good game at fisticuffs herself. She generally carried the purse, and also held the title to the property on which they resided. Armbruster often expressed a desire to obtain possession of the property, and this was the bone of many contentions between them. Both parties are natives of Germany. ============ Armbruster Arrested August 14, 1855 The Bucks County Intelligencer August 14, 1855 On Saturday evening , JACOB ARMBRUSTER, of Nockamixon township, was brought to prison, charged with having murdered his wife, the particulars of which we published last week. Armbruster had been away some place since the murder until Friday night, when he returned to his home. Word having gotten out that he had returned, Scott A. Irwin, Esq., John Wilson, and several others, proceeded to Armbruster's house, and arrested him about three o'clock on Saturday morning. He denied having a hand in the murder of his wife, and said the first he knew of this tragedy was when he returned home on Friday last. It is the general opinion of the neighborhood where the murder was committed that Armbruster is the murderer. The house of Armbruster is located in a meadow or sort of swamp, isolated from other houses. The land is made alternately of a cleared plot, a swamp and thicket, and these obstructing the view a short distance from the house. At the time the murder was committed his son and son's wife and child were out in the meadow at work, not far from the house, but out of sight. Mrs. Armbruster was also at work with her son, but on noticing Kainich approach the house started towards him; and was found some time afterwards with the fatal wound inflicted upon her body. It is supposed that Armbruster was lying in wait, watching an opportunity to carry out his desperate intention, and when Kainich departed, he rushed to the house and committed the terrible deed, and then fled. Many circumstances corroborate these suspicions. ============= Commonwealth vs. Jacob Armbruster - Indicted for Murder September 18, 1855 The Bucks County Intelligencer September 18, 1855 Jacob Armbruster was arrested and brought to prison about a month since, charged with the murder of his wife, in Nockamixon township. She was found lying in the doorway of their house, weltering in blood, and lifeless, and her grand-child, a mere infant, creeping about on the floor, besmeared with the blood of its parent. We published the details of the murder at the time, and need not recapitulate them now. Philip Koenig, who, it seems, was seen leaving the house of Armbruster shortly before the discovery of the murder, was arrested on a charge of having committed the crime, and lodged in prison, but was subsequently discharged, so sufficient reason appearing for his detention. Armbruster had not been seen by the neighbors since the Wednesday night previous, the murder being committed on Friday evening, the 3d of August, but subsequent events and discoveries tended to fasten suspicion upon him as the murderer. He had lived disagreeably with his wife, and they often quarreled, and sometimes had violent altercations, ending in personal assault and injury. He had been heard to make the most violent threats against the life of his wife. The title to the land which they occupied, was held by his wife, and he feared that in the event of her death, it would be willed to some person other than himself. This he swore he would prevent, in the presence of witnesses who testified to the fact on the trial. The defendant had been in the habit of being absent from home for days at a time on the canal upon which he was employed as a boatman in the summer. On the Friday succeeding the murder, information reached Scott A. Erwin, Esq., that Armbruster had returned, upon which he was arrested, and brought before the justice for examination. The evidence adduced on the examination was a very strong nature, though entirely circumstantial, and he was committed for trial. The coat which he had on had stains of blood upon the sleeve, and had the appearance of having been recently washed. It was produced in Court, and identified as being Armbruster's coat - he explained the circumstance of the blood at the examination by saying he got it there fighting at the election, when that was suggested by some one present. The evidence of the boy, John Black, who saw him running away from the house about the time the murder was committed, and that of John Osborne, and Esq. Erwin, to whom Armbruster had threatened violence to his wife, went strongly against the prisoner and was met by no adequate rebuttal on the part of the defendant. To Wilhelmina Armbruster, his daughter-in-law, he had said that he would kill them both, and settle the disposition of the property. The trial was commenced on Wednesday afternoon - Nathan C. James, Esq., acting for the commonwealth, and George Michener for the defendant. A number of the jurymen called were excused on account of conscientious scruples against capital punishment, and several challenged by the defendant. The jurymen called were as follows: Ezekiel Tomlinson - Excused. Elias Hartzel - Challenged by defendant. 1.ISAAC FRETZ - Bedminster. 2.MERRITT MAR[?]N - Wrightstown. Aaron Rose - Excused. Charles Willett - Challenged by defendant. Harman Yerkes - Martin Bewighouse - Set aside by Commonwealth. Challenged. William Heston - Excused. Thomas Paxon, Jr. - Excused. Elias E. Paxon - Excused. 10.TIMOTHY PICKERING, Doylestown township - Set aside by Commonwealth. Challenged. George C. Campbell - Excused. 3.RICHARD K. BISPHAM, Middletown. 4.WILSON D. LARGE, Upper Makefield. 5.THEODORE FLACK, Warwick. 11.JOSEPH C. TAYLOR, Lower Makefield - Set aside by Commonwealth. Samuel G. Martindell - Set aside by Commonwealth. Reese Cadwallader - Excused. Stephen Taylor - Excused. Cornelius Shepherd - Challenged by Commonwealth. Jonas Killmer - Excused. 6.LEWIS ROBERTS, Wrightstown. Lewis R. Holt - Excused. Lewis Bird - Challenged by Commonwealth. 7.CHARLES MYERS, Plumstead. John Wildman - Excused. Comly Hampton - Excused. Joseph K. Taylor - Excused. 8.RICHARD CORSON, Middletown. 9.B.F. STREETER, Middletown. Jacob Hofford - Challenged by Commonwealth. John L. Moyer - Excused. Samuel Foltz - Unwell, and excused. Dr. Isaac Ott - Challenged. The regular panel of jurors was here exhausted, and one more juryman being needed, the Sheriff proceeded to summon talesmen from the spectators in the Court room. But two were called, viz: Tobias Reiter - Challenged by Commonwealth. 12. J. WATSON CASE, Buckingham. Timothy Pickering and Joseph C. Taylor, who had been set aside by the Commonwealth, were recalled and qualified, and the trial was commenced. The defendant, upon being arraigned, plead not guilty. The Commonwealth opened the case, and proceeded to call witnesses. We give the substance of the testimony of the principal witnesses, as far as it could be obtained. Wilhelmina Armbruster, affirmed - I never heard him threaten her life; her arm was broken in Germany; he struck her once but made no threats; her arm was not broken then; he struck her and made a hole in her head. He went away early on Wednesday of the week she got killed; they did not quarrel; he slept that night and the night before in another room. I was not asked to swear to anything before the jury, except as to her death. Dr. Bartolet, sworn - I made the post mortem examination; was called by Esq. Erwin to attend at the inquest; I did so, and found the body dead and cold; I examined the body - the jugular vein was cut two thirds off, and the carotid artery was completely severed; it was the size of a large goose quill. There was a small hole in the gullet. The entrance was back of the jaw, and the muscles of the neck looked as if it had been cut with a mason trowel, but might have been made by a small instrument. That wound was the cause of her death. She might have lived 15 or 20 minutes. A pool of blood was near the hearth. On the gate were marks of bloody fingers; I will not swear that this is blood on the coat. I turned up the hem and found coagulated blood as I thought; I tasted it, and think it was blood. I believe a knife of this kind would make such a wound. Cross-Examined - I could not distinguish the blood of an animal from human blood by the taste; it was one or two weeks from the time of the murder that I saw the coat; the marks are paler; I judge from the fact that the blood was not worked into the lint of the coat that it had not been there long; it appeared as if it had been washed. Thomas Gwinneri, sworn - Defendant called on Monday previous to the murder; he wanted information about the property; I told him he had no right - that she would sell it and keep the money or will it; if she died it would come to him; he said, I will fix that, but say nothing. They did not live together very agreeable the latter part of the time; the wife said she was afraid to go home. The subject was the property - he wanted it back. Cross-Examined - When my wife said, he may kill his wife, I thought so too. This was Monday, the 31st of July; on Friday afterwards she was killed. She said she was afraid the old man would kill her; this was about a year ago. She was a high tempered woman, they were about alike in temper; he is mild and peaceable when sober. Wilhelmina Armbruster, recalled - We found the body in front of the house, near the well. I called mother; I called a young man - he came, and I went to the neighbors and called them. That same morning we had four mowers cutting grass. We were all out making hay; the Dutchman and King went after milk; King stayed here; it was just six o'clock when we found the body. Did not see the defendant from the time he left until after the murder. John Osborne, sworn - Had a conversation with defendant on the last of July; he said his wife wanted him to get meat at night for the mowers. He said he would not take his money, she said he must pay; she said she would poison him with arsenic in his coffee. I saw him on Friday night or Saturday morning; he said I would near of something, and see something; he said he was going to law with the old woman about his going to poison her; said he was going to get his land back; would see Gwinner. They quarreled a great deal when he was at home; she was a quarrelsome woman. Scott A. Erwin, sworn - A man came for me on the 3d of August; said Christiana Armbruster was killed. It was dark when I got there - several neighbors were there. On Saturday morning, a week after the murder, I issued a warrant. I picked up the coat and took the knife out of the pocket. After the hearing, I examined the coat and found blood marks, and said that looks like blood, where did you get it? He said he did not know. A young man said he might have got it at the election; Jacob then said yes, yes I did; when I found the blood he showed a change in his countenance; he said the old woman is dead, and all now is mine; he could not tell of any place where he had been; said he had been in Doylestown; when he heard of the murder he came home; his coat had been washed - there was dampness in the cloth then. John Black - sworn - I am ten years old; saw a man going across the meadow from towards Armbruster's house; he was running; am not certain it was Jacob; it was the same day as the murder, near sundown. He was a short chunky man. Never saw him but three times before, about a year ago. He had a brown coat on when I saw him running; that looks like the coat, he had blue pants and black hat. Cross-Examined - He was running pretty fast. He was running through John Purcel's meadow. I told this first to mother when I got home; I was not asked - no one said anything about what I should say here; he came into the woods from the meadow; did not see his face, he had his head down. The commonwealth here closed, and witnesses were called for the defense. John Armbruster, sworn - Father went away about the last of March, and came back in August. The coat was not then where I was at home; he took it along when he went away; I was at the election last March; he was fighting in the afternoon; he was bruised a good deal; he had some blood about him. The old people would quarrel, but it would not last long; never saw him strike her. She was not afraid of her life; never heard her say she was. She was on bad terms with some of her neighbors. I and my mother always lived on good terms. Money was missing after this woman was found dead. Jacob had his coat on at the election; the money was left in care of my mother; it was $245. There were seven acres in the lot where we lived; it was bought four or five years ago. They have been here 14 or 15 years. Cross-Examined - I never examined the coat, he had this coat on when I saw him fight; his shirt sleeves were bloody; never said to my wife she must swear this coat was in Lehighton; I said I did not believe he had killed her, and do not believe it yet. I might have been mistaken that it was in August he came back; he as always satisfied about our land as far as I know. We agreed to keep him; he would sometimes go away; he is kind when he is sober, and cross when in liquor; mother was not afraid for us to go away; he is about 46 or 47; we kept our clothes in the same room; I would have seen the coat if it had been there; he wore black pants striped with blue. Scott A. Erwin - I saw them fighting at the election; there was come blood about them; could not see how much blood for the mud; King was committed by me on suspicion, next morning; he is still in prison; I don't think he could have killed her. Wilhelmina Armbruster - Jacob went away the last of march; took his two coats and all he had; he came back towards the last of July; did not see if his coat was in the bundle; he came back to our house after the murder; he hung his shirts on the fence to dry - they were a little damp; he struck her with a cane when the hole was made two years ago; did not see him strike her since; don't what they quarreled about; mother and I lived on good terms - she was quarrelsome sometimes. Cross-Examined - Never told anyone that I was afraid; did not say so before the Jury; did not state to Erwin that he said he would kill us or anything like it. Scott A. Erwin - In Rebuttal - Wilhelmina said the old man did it an nobody else; that when he went away he said he would kill them both, and showed how he would do it; John was opposed to the old man. Mr. James, the District Attorney, addressed the Jury for an hour, and was followed by George Michener, Esq., on behalf of the prisoner, making a strong appeal for his acquittal. After the arguments of council were concluded, Judge Smyser charged the Jury at some length, defining the different grades of murder, and explaining the character of the testimony. About 5 o'clock on Thursday evening the Jury left the Court room in charge of special constables. In about an hour and half the Court again assembled to hear the verdict, which had been agreed upon. The prisoner was brought into the dock, and a large crowd waited in suspense for its announcement. The Jury was conducted into the room, and the verdict delivered - Guilty of murder in the first degree. At the request of the council for the defendant, the Jury was polled - each man rising as his name was called, and answering - Guilty of murder in the first degree. The prisoner manifested some anxiety as to the nature of the verdict; but when it was announced not a symptom of feeling or uneasiness was to be seen in his countenance. He was remanded to prison to await the sentence of the Court. Armbruster's appearance is far from being prepossessing; he has a degraded, brutish look, no doubt induced by his intemperate habits; to the indulgence of which his dreadful crime may be attributed. The quarrelsome dispositions of himself and wife when under the influence of liquor leave no doubt that their life was an unhappy one, and this is confirmed by the testimony. The son of Armbruster, who was in court during the trial, was a well dressed and respectable looking man. Very little interest was felt in the trial inside of the Court House, and a careless observer would hardly have supposed from the proceedings that the life a [f]ellow being was involved in the result. Armbruster is a man of considerable family. His sons have generally followed boating during the summer, making their home with their parents in the winter. He is a German; he and his wife having emigrated from Germany some years since. He was no idle spectator at the election fight in Nockamixon township in March last. Since his conviction of the terrible crime of murder Armbruster has exhibited no signs of contrition. On Friday he spoke angrily to his son, who visited him in prison, and expressed a regret that he ever came to America. The court will pronounce sentence of death upon the unfortunate and hardened wretch some time during the present week. ============= Sentence of Armbruster September 25, 1855 The Bucks County Intelligencer September 25, 1855 On Wednesday afternoon last, at the assembling of the Court, Jacob Armbruster was brought up to receive the sentence of the law for the murder of his wife, Christiana Armbruster. After he was placed in the dock, Judge SMYSER asked in the usual form what he had to say; why sentence of death should not be pronounced against him. To this he responded in German, that he wanted a new trial, and that he could prove that on the week of the murder he was in a distant part of the country. As he had made this statement previous to his trial, and it being unsupported by any evidence, the Judge did not feel at liberty to grant his request, and proceeded to pass the sentence of death upon him in the manner reported elsewhere. He received the solemn and earnest warning of the judge with an unmoved countenance, which continued unchanged and unaffected even when the terrible decree of death upon the gallows was pronounced upon him. We learn that in prison, since his sentence, his conduct is much more mild and submissive than before - he is glad to see his old acquaintances, and talks freely of his impeding fate, but has not yet confessed his guilt. The following sentence of death pronounced upon Jacob Armbruster by Judge SMYSER on Wednesday; sentence of Death Passed upon Jacob Armbruster. Jacob Armbruster - You have been convicted by a Jury of your country of the willful murder of Christiana Armbruster, your wife; and you will soon, very [soon] be called upon to expatiate that offense, by a shameful and [??] death on the gallows. If the doom that awaits you is dreadful, your crime has been no less so. At its hideous aspect nature shrinks, and humanity shudders. Your victim was your wife, the partner of your bosom, the mother of your children! She was often and long subject of your unkindness. Once she was obliged to appeal to this court to interpose the shield of the law for her protection from your abuse; but the warning was given in vain. Oh! That you had then heeded it! Then, she would not now be the untimely tenant of the tomb, nor you the doomed victim of the law you have so grievously offended. True, she may not have been always blameless; but she was a woman, and you wife. In that two-fold character, she should have been safe from outrage at your hands. But you seem to have been incapable of feeling the force of a sentiment like this. Intemperance, with you, as with thousands of others, seems to have been your bane, and to have aided in your ruin; for it is in testimony, that when under its influence, the evil qualities of your nature were most developed and displayed. With mind and heart thus prepared for the crowning and supreme act of guilt, the temper, the arch enemy of souls, found you. You looked with eyes of covetous desire on her little property which she held in her own right. You inquired, and were told that if she died intestate, it would be yours; and so thinking, you resolved to secure it, and prevent any other disposition of it by deed or devise, by taking her life with your own homicidal hand. The [??] design was darkly shadowed forth in your language to Thos. Gwinner and John Osborne. It was a slight temptation to so horrid a deed; but it sufficed. Withdrawing yourself from home under a simulated journey, you lurked in the vicinity of your dwelling, awaiting the favorable opportunity, like the tiger awaiting his spring. It came. You entered. The knife was aimed at the throat of your miserable victim! The blow descended , and the life-blood of Christiana Armbruster was poured forth like water on her own hearth stone! Leaving your victim to welter in her gore, you fled, as you thought, unseen. Vain hope! The eye of Omniscience, that never sleeps, was on you, and summoned guileless childhood to the spot, to witness and testify to your hurried flight from the scene of blood. The bloody coat you wore on the occasion, still bearing the sanguinary stains of Murder, was produced, a mute but terrible witness against you; and your vague allegation that you were at a distant point on the afternoon and night of the murder, unsupported by any attempt at proof, when if true, proof was so easy, only strengthened the toils by which you were environed. Rash man! Did you not know that the earth drinks the blood of the murdered, cries out unceasingly against the murderer, until justice has done her full and perfect work. That work will soon be consummated. Avenging Justice has her hand upon you now, soon to strangle you in her grasp! Believe me, these remarks are not made to harrow up your feelings, or wantonly to prove a fresh and bleeding wound. But it will be wholesome and salutary for you to realize in all its magnitude and overwhelming horror, the deed you have committed. I would have you do so, that you may be better disposed and prepared to address yourself to the work of prayer and penitence, as a preparation for your near and approaching doom. The shadow of death is upon you even now, and you are already signed and sealed for the grave. You will not realize, in all its dread reality, the startling fact! I tell you, death is now at your side with outstretched arms, ready and eager to fold you in his embrace! Will you not realize his presence? Look behind you, and what there do you behold? Your wife, your murdered, butchered wife, lying on the hearth, weltering in gore! Anon she rises and with eyes swimming in blood, with tottering, reeling gait, the death damp on her brow, she staggers onward from the fatal room, across the yard, until she reaches the gate, when she falls, and dies. Look behind again. You see a bloody track from the room of murder to the gate of the yard, traced with the life blood of the dying woman! Look once more. You see a child, a babe, her grandchild - your grandchild - dabbling its little hands and feet in that pool of blood. Now look before you, and see the gallows, the coffin and the shroud, closing the short vista of life still in your view. Oh! I adjure you, by all your hopes of Heaven and fears of Hell! By your own immortal soul whose eternal destiny is in the balance! That you at once address yourself in fervent and unceasing prayer to Almighty God that he may enable you to see your crime in all its horror, may soften your heart to penitence, and fit you for your awful change! That is your only hope; and you have no time to lose in availing yourself of it. Cast from you every expectation of earthly pardon or escape - for I solemnly assure you of my firm conviction that you have no just ground of hope of either. So far as this world is concerned, your account with it will soon be closed. Your doom is certain and inevitable. So regard it! And so regarding it, let you undivided attention be given to prepare yourself for death and judgment! If the crucified, dying Savior, promised salvation to the thief on the cross, you need not despair of his salvation likewise, if you will but seek it in the right way in that same Cross, is your only hope! There is your only refuge! To what [carthly?] hope you can cling. You have had a fair and impartial trial, before a jury almost of your own selection; and you have been defended by able and faithful council, by whom nothing has been left undone that could have availed you. It has been unavailing; your doom is about to be spoken. The curtain is about to fall forever between you and Time, and the veil of Eternity to be lifted! May you be prepared to encounter its dread realities; to this end, study diligently the Scriptures of Truth, that you may profit by the examples there recorded. Bow your spirit, in deep abasement and self humiliation, beneath the might hand of God! Pour fourth you heart in fervent and unceasing prayer for penitence and [??]. Fly to the Savior! Fly quickly, for the avenger of [??] is behind you! Take refuge beneath the cross; cling to it with a grasp that death shall not loosen! For if you let go, you are lost! Look, with believing eyes, on him who died thereon that sinners even such as you, might live! Thus may you find from Heaven, that mercy which the inexorable just of man denies. But this painful scene has been sufficiently prolonged. It now only remains for me to pronounce upon you, in the name of the law, its last judgment. The judgment and sentence of the Court is, that you, Jacob Armbruster, be taken from the Court House where you are, to the common gaol [jail] of Bucks County whence you came, and from thence to the place of execution within the walls or yard of said gaol [jail], at such time as the Governor of Pennsylvania shall order and appoint, and that you then there be hanged by the neck until you are dead; and may God have mercy on your soul! This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/pafiles/ File size: 30.6 Kb