1883 - August 3a

Around the noon hour, Wednesday August 1, 1883, Mrs. James Foster, 182 Hughson Street North, opened the top of an unused cistern below her bedroom window:

“She saw what she thought was a couple of eggs on top and noticed a dark mess dimly in the water below. She called to the servant girl, ‘Come here. There’s a body of a dog or something in this cistern.’

“The servant girl came and touched the object with a pitchfork, when the horror and surprise of both the women, the body of a child rolled around in the water and sank again.”¹

¹ “Found in a Cistern : Horrible Discovery By Mrs. Foster.”

Hamilton Spectator.   August  01, 1883.

Later that afternoon, after the police had been notified and the body removed to the city hospital for examination, a Spectator reporter interviewed Mrs. Foster who recounted the story of an affair involving a young Irish girl, Maria McCabe. Maria had applied for work as a servant girl, even though, only a few weeks before she had given birth to a boy:

“She had no place to go. The young man in this city whom she alleged was the father of her child, either could or would not contribute towards her support, and out of pure kindness of heart, more than for any other reason, Mrs. Foster took the girl in.”¹

Mrs. Foster bought clothes for the child and gave Maria spare cash. All was fine until the previous April when the child disappeared. Maria could not give a satisfactory reason for the child’s absence. Mrs. Foster was convinced that the partially-decomposed body was that of Maria McCabe’s son.

Later that afternoon, Maria McCabe had been located by the Hamilton police and placed under arrest. She was brought to Chief Stewart’s at No. 1 station in the City Hall where she confessed to having drowned her baby :

“She was sick of it, she said, and wanted to get rid of it. She succeeded in getting rid of it. But retribution is sure to come on evil-doers, and it has come to Maria, although as time worn on she had doubtless grown firm in her belief in immunity from the consequences of her crime.”¹

Later in the evening of August 1, 1883, an inquest was held on the body of the child. A jury was empaneled and taken to No. 3 Police Station to view the body, after which they were returned to the court house to listen to testimony about the child’s death. Mrs. Ann Foster told of discovering the body in her cistern. Chief Stewart testified that the girl, Maria McCabe, had been arrested at the Victoria Hotel and that she had voluntarily confessed to having thrown her child into the cistern:

“She said she was sorry for what she had done, and was willing to suffer for her crime, and she was glad it had been found out and the baby’s body found. She said she had killed the child because Mrs. Foster had turned her out of the house twice. She had no home and no place to go. She felt miserable and sad and saw nothing but trouble and disgrace in the future for herself and her little one. When she appealed to the father of the child, who is well-known in business circles in this city, he laughed at her and refused to give her any help.”²

² “The Infanticide Case : Maria McCabe Makes a Full Confession.”

Hamilton Spectator.    August 2, 1883.

The last witness was Dr. Leslie who had examined the child’s body and testified that the corpse was in such an advanced state of decomposition that it was impossible to determine the cause of death.

The jury returned a verdict indicting Maria McCabe for causing the death of her child. The girl was held in custody for an appearance at Police Court.

On Thursday morning, August 2, 1883, Maria McCabe was brought to police court and committed to trial :

“The girl is slimly built, wears a pink dress and a black Gainsborough hat, and is rather plain in appearance. Her hair is brown; her eyes a bluish gray. Her mouth is full, and there are hard lines about it. Her eyes were red with weeping.”²

After Magistrate Cahill read the charge to her, Maria nervously whispered, ‘I did so, I did so.’

While Chief Stewart presented his evidence, the young woman broke down and burst into tears:

“Crying, she was led into the cells. The sound of her loud, heart-rending cries came floating up from the cells into the court room. She appeared to be in a perfect paroxysm of grief. Her cries grew louder and louder. Then the door was shut and only the occasional smothered yell told what was going on below.”³

³ “That Child Murder : Maria McCabe Committed for Trial”

Hamilton Spectator.   August 2, 1883.

The day after Maria McCabe had been formally charged with the murder of her baby, the following editorial appeared in the Hamilton Spectator:

“A young, unmarried woman of this city has confessed to having murdered her infant child. She is now in prison awaiting trial, and with the legal aspect of the case, we have at this time nothing to say. But there are certain things about this sad affair which call for careful consideration.

“Maria McCabe came to this country not long since from Ireland, a country renowned for the purity of its women. She is not an educated woman, but is possessed of average intelligence, and in the absence of evidence to the contrary, must be adjudged a pure woman when she left home. But in an evil hour, she listened to the voice of a tempter and fell, losing all that makes life worth having.

“It is terrible to think that a mother could so far overcome the natural love she must have had for her offspring as to deliberately compass its death, but it showed that she was not altogether lost to a sense of shame, and the wonder is that she did not also make away with herself. But her crime was discovered, and she now finds herself in a prison cell, an outcast from society. The lesson is soon taught. The young women of this day are as pure as those of any former generation, but the fate of this girl should not be without its effect upon those who need such a warning.

But Maria McCabe was sinned against; and what of the man through whose instrumentality she fell ? There should be no halfway measures. The officers of the law should seek him out and bring him before the bar of justice; and the people of Hamilton will not be true to themselves if, when he is discovered, they do not treat him with all the scorn and contempt his cowardly conduct deserves. Society is too prone to condone the offense of the man and make the woman suffer. Justice requires that he who tempts a woman to commit a wrong should be punished as a co-partner in her guilt; and if the law cannot reach him, he should be made to feel that the people of this city have no sickly sentiment to waste upon such as he.”⁴

⁴ “Maria McCabe”

Hamilton Spectator.   August 3, 1883.

(To be continued)