By Alyshia Korba
It is no surprise that the Catskill Mountains have an abundance of history to be discovered, having been the site of a tourism boom, Revolutionary War events, Native American settlements, fossil discoveries and more. Inevitably the area has also had its fair share of tragedies amid this rich history, and because so much of the area comprises small towns and undeveloped land, many historical sites are still around today.
The Lizzie Halliday Murders
One of the most disturbing and famous stories in dark Catskills history comes from Sullivan County in the 1890s. Lizzie Halliday, born Eliza Margaret McNally, was a serial killer and the first woman to be sentenced to death by electric chair. Halliday was convicted of killing five people, although she is thought to be responsible for many more. Some, including then Sullivan County Sheriff Harrison Beecher, even speculated that Halliday was the mysterious “Jack the Ripper” and was responsible for the Whitechapel murders in London between 1881 and 1891, although there is no evidence to support this claim.
Halliday is thought to have murdered her first two husbands with one dying after two years of marriage and the second dying within one year. It was not clear whether or not these deaths were natural, according to an 1894 New York Times article. She reportedly attempted to poison her fourth husband with arsenic in his tea and fled when this failed.
In her sixth marriage with widower Paul Halliday in Sullivan County, Lizzie Halliday burned his house, barn and a nearby mill, killing his son John. In the rubble, investigators found that John’s bedroom door had been locked, and Lizzie Halliday had had the key. Paul Halliday went missing three months later, and upon searching the property neighbors found the bodies of two women who Lizzie Halliday had lived with several years prior. Only a few days later the mutilated body of Paul Halliday was found under the floorboards of their house.
She was held in Sullivan County Jail until her trial at the Sullivan County Oyer and Terminer Court. While Halliday was initially sentenced to death, the sentence was commuted to a lifetime at Matteawan Hospital for the Criminally Insane where Halliday claimed her final victim, a nurse she had become fond of and who was planning to leave the hospital.
Anti-Rent War
A lesser-known, but significant, story from Catskills history was the Anti-Rent War which took place between 1839 and 1845. The land in the Catskill region was nearly entirely owned by patroons and leased out to tenants in an arrangement akin to a feudal system. Tenants were often shackled with lifetime leases of land, burdened with paying taxes on land he did not own, and had no rights to the natural resources on the land including timber and water.
Tensions finally erupted in 1839 with the death of patroon Stephen Van Rensselaer III who was known to be very lenient when it came to collecting rent. When he died, however, his heirs demanded tenants pay back their debts.
Many were unable to pay, or they refused to pay as they did not trust these new landlords’ titles. The protest spread across the region and led to the murder of Delaware County Undersheriff Osman Steele six years later in 1845. Protesters had begun to resist the sale of land that had been levied through a variety of methods. Before the sale, people would steal or kill cattle that were to be sold, make roads to the farm unusable, or by direct confrontation. Before collectors arrived, a tin horn would be heard throughout the area to call nearby men to the farm. Because anyone associated with the protests would face persecution, men dressed in disguises to carry out these protests. The disguises bore resemblance to Native American dress, inspired by the men of the Boston Tea Party who disguised themselves as Mohawk people. The protesters sometimes shot cattle as they were sold, stole and burned warrant papers or even tarred and feathered the collectors.
At the sale of Moses Earle’s farm in Andes, the anti-renters’ protest became violent, and Steele was shot and killed. Two men were sentenced to hanging for his murder — John Van Steenburgh and Edward O'Connor — but their sentences were later commuted to life in prison.
The site of Earle’s farm and Steele’s murder is marked at Upper Dingle Hill Road in Andes. His grave can be found in Woodland Cemetery in Delhi.
Watershed Graveyards
The Catskills play an important role in New York state as a major part of the New York City water supply, but many of those who benefit from the Catskill Watershed do not know of the sacrifices that were necessary for its creation. The six reservoirs that make up the Catskill Watershed necessitated the flooding of 26 communities, displacing approximately 5,500 people across the region. While the relocation of living residents caused much heartache, what was particularly harrowing was the removal of graves and cemeteries.
Ulster County’s Ashokan Reservoir, built in 1915, was the first reservoir in the Catskill Watershed and is the deepest reservoir in the city’s water supply system. With such a feat came the relocation or destruction of 12 communities with thousands of acres of farmland formerly inhabited by approximately two thousand people. The west basin of the reservoir alone had flooded 504 homes, 35 stores, 10 churches and 10 schools, according to Bob Steuding, professor at Ulster County Community College. A total of 32 cemeteries and 2,700 bodies were removed from the area to make way for the reservoir. The graves were scattered across local cemeteries including Wiltwyck Cemetery in Kingston and Bushkill Cemetery in West Shokan. The records for many of these graves were lost in the relocation process, so most of these graves remain unmarked.
The Pepacton Reservoir, also known as the Downsville Reservoir, in Delaware County is one of the few with a designated cemetery and memorial for the relocated graves. Located in the Town of Andes, the Pepacton Cemetery holds the relocated graves of 12 cemeteries flooded by the reservoir. The site also has an informational display about the history of the reservoir and its effects on the community.
Jane Sheldon
In 1854 the Town of Kortright in Delaware County was bewildered by the mysterious death of 30-year-old Jane Sheldon. Sheldon’s body had been discovered by a group of children who were picking berries when they found Sheldon at the bottom of a 15-foot rocky cliff. Her body was mutilated beyond recognition, and she was only able to be identified by her clothing.
Her death was reported to be the result of a fall while picking berries. However, in 1855 another inquest was held, and evidence was discovered that suggested her death may not have been an accident.
Sheldon had last been seen leaving her employer’s home August 7, a few days prior to her body being found. Her employer said she had been doing quilting work, and that the location of her body is not far off of the path she would have used to walk home. Her brother, Draper Sheldon, had identified the body and said she was in good health and good spirits when she saw her August 7, which was likely the day of her death.
A physician, Dr. Covel, had examined Sheldon’s exhumed skull and testified that fracturing on the skull indicated that two strong blows had been inflicted on the head. He stated that this was unlikely to occur from the short fall off of the cliff. Three other physicians agreed with Covel’s assessment.
A jury concluded that Sheldon was killed by these blows to the head by an unknown person, but no suspects were identified. Her grave can still be found at Betty Brook Road Cemetery in North Kortright. More information about this murder investigation and other local true crime tales can be found in “Murder in the Mirror” by local historian Samantha Misa.