Reading Time: 2 minutes [274 words]

THE TRIAL OF ROBERT McCONAGHY FOR
THE MURDER OF ROSANNA BROWN AND
HER FIVE CHILDREN: JOHN, ELIZABETH,
GEORGE, JACOB AND DAVID, HUNT-
INGDON, PENNSYLVANIA, 1840.

THE NARRATIVE.

‘When Farmer John Brown of Cromwell Township, Hunt-
ingdon County, Pennsylvania, left home to do a week’s plow-
ing some distance away, he said good-bye to his wife Rosanna
and his five children, for all the family lived with him except
two married daughters, one of whom waa the wife of Robert
McConaghy. On Saturday afternoon when he got back he
was surprised to see the handle of the front door missing,
and, looking towards the barn, he saw the flames of two
shots, one of which slightly wounded him, and as the man
who had fired at him, fled from the barn to the woods he
Tecognized his son-in-law, MoConaghy. He found the door-
handle in the barn, and gaining entrance to his house, dis-
covered the dead bodies of his wife and his eldest son, and
the alarm being given and a search instituted by the neigh-
bors, the corpses of the other four children were found at
different places on the farm.

MeConaghy was arrested, tried and sentenced to be hanged.
The drop fell with him protesting his innocence, but the
rope broke and while the executioner was obtaining a new
one he madé a full confession. He said that he did not like
Brown and that he made up his mind to murder the family
and obtain the money he knew there was in the home. Go-
ing over to Brown’s farm that morning he met George (16)
first; he struck him with a flail and then choked him; then
he took little David (10) into the woods and choked him to
death; he went back to the house and told Jacob (14) that

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