Elizabeth Virginia Langdon

Notes:

CONOWINGO ? The historic area of Richardsmere, later known as Porter?s Bridge, took its name from the Richards family, Quakers who settled there in the 1700s. Prominent, well-educated and highly thought of, they contributed to the communities of the sixth district as doctors, engineers, lawyers and businessmen.

Jacob Granville Richards, a son of Isaac Richards, having married Elizabeth Virginia ?Jennie? Langdon in 1872 took possession of the family seat and over a period of years fathered four sons. He supported his family with the family farm and by operating a store nearby. In 1886, he won a seat in the Maryland legislature ? but that would turn out to be a brief chapter in Richards? life. By July of 1886, the legislature in recess, Granville was appointed to a position at the Customs House in Baltimore. He boarded in Baltimore during the week, coming home Saturday mornings, to return early on Mondays.

Very early on the morning of April 13, 1891, Mrs. Richards was roused by a sound in their bedroom. Waking her husband, she whispered that she thought someone was in the room. He grabbed a pistol kept on the windowsill next to the bed and called out, ?Who?s there? Speak or I?ll shoot!? A shot rang out from the foot of the bed, and Jennie, who evidently had begun to rise, fell back on to her pillow, her legs slung over the side of the bed.

The shooter fled and Richards followed, encountering someone in the hallway whom he thought was coming from his sons? room. ?Willie, is that you?? he asked, only to be answered by a shot and a struggle which ended when the invader threw Granville down the stairs and fired at him once again before fleeing. The shots wakened the sons and brought them and the Richards? houseguest, Jennie?s sister-in-law Mrs. Langdon, from their rooms. Sons Willie, 17, and Harry, 15, were sent to rouse the neighbors for help and medical assistance after helping Granville back up the stairs. Jennie was found unconscious with blood on her pillow.

What a scene of terrible chaos the old house must have witnessed as neighbors arrived to help and two area doctors, Dr. Charles Turner and Dr. R.R. Crothers came to tend the wounded. Someone took charge of the two younger boys, Joseph, 11, and Hampton, 6, who was sleeping between his parents during the awful commotion. Richards was found to have sustained two bullet wounds. Jennie Richards had been shot in the head, the bullet entering behind her right ear. She died around 6 a.m. never having regained consciousness.

When the authorities arrived, they found the house in disarray, most of the rooms having been rifled, the floors littered with matches that the burglars had used to light the way as they searched for valuables. Outside, a ladder rested against the house, though it was not used to access the house as the windowsill of the room where it rested was covered with flowerpots inside. Instead the cellar door was forced open to permit the miscreants entry. Also found on the grounds were footprints in the soft earth, the larger set a size 10, the smaller a size 6.

Within a few hours, a witness had come forward to report that he had encountered two men on the road in the area around midnight, a large man and one quite small, who had made him uneasy, feeling that they were considering robbing him. The smaller fellow wore a derby hat and the larger man a hat with the crown indented. Though there must have been men everywhere answering the descriptions with hats of these types, this information became very important in the course of the investigation.

In the days to follow, a feeling just short of panic seems to have enveloped the sixth district. Men with unsavory reputations are rounded up for questioning. Two men, ?Dr.? George Bram, who appears to have been a local con artist practiced at selling fake medicines, and Frank Ferguson, were arrested, but released a few days later when their alibis check out. It is speculated that a gang of robbers is involved.

Meanwhile, Granville Richards? brother, Joseph T., assistant chief engineer with the Pennsylvania Railroad, brings in a Pennsylvania Railroad detective, C.G. Ottey, to investigate. Rewards amounting to $1,000 are offered by the Rising Sun Detectives Association and the county commissioners for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killers. The railroad detective has suspects matching the descriptions, even down to the hats, in mind already, and efforts are made to track the men down.

The Richards family was forced to adapt to a new and unfamiliar state of normality. Granville returned to work in May, but sold off personal possessions intending to relocate elsewhere, then abandoned that idea to take the two younger boys with him to board in Baltimore, and renting out the Richardsmere house. By the end of the year, he had reconsidered, and returned to the area, renting a house owned by Dr. George Dare. The case was in a state of flux too, as by April 1892, with no headway made, a Detective Lyons of the Baltimore firm of Smith, Pierson and West was engaged to pursue leads and the county commissioners raised the reward to $3,000 on the recommendation of the grand jury. On April 23, 1892, a committee of persons residing in the sixth district published a notice of support for Granville Richards in the Cecil Whig. Apparently the rumor mill was grinding away, and within some quarters there was speculation that Richards himself was the guilty party.

Shortly thereafter, a break in the case occurred, when two men that Pinkerton detectives had been following since the murder were arrested: one in Rochester, N.Y., and one in Philadelphia. These were the two men that railroad detective Ottey suspected and had been trying to locate, mainly, apparently, because he knew them and knew they fit the descriptions. George Fenner and James Wood were extradited to Elkton.

Fenner first had to stand trial for burglary and attempted murder of a policeman in Philadelphia, but at last he arrived in the county and a hearing was set. But after two or three days of testimony, it was evident that Fenner had an alibi ? he was in Altoona, Pa., when the murder occurred. The sheriff at the time, J. Albert Boyd, was sent to Altoona to verify that the alibi was genuine and that the people providing it were respectable. That having been ascertained, Fenner was freed. The fate of Wood is unknown and he is not mentioned again. After the enormous buildup since the arrests in May it must have been incredibly frustrating to concede defeat and release the men in July.

Died:
MURDERED

Elizabeth married Jacob Granville Richards 26 Dec 1872 (By the Rev. S.A. Galey), Harrisville, Cecil County, Maryland. Jacob (son of Isaac Stubbs Richards and Mercy Ann Reynolds) was born 16 Apr 1851, Cecil County, Maryland; died 11 Jan 1922, Colora, Cecil County, Maryland; was buried 13 Jan 1922, West Nottingham Friends ,Harrisville , Cecil County, Maryland. [Group Sheet]

1. William Randolph Richards was born 22 Jan 1874, Rising Sun, Maryland; died 4 Jan 1941, Mt. Alto Hospital, Pennsylvania; was buried , Troy, New York.
2. Harry Franklin Richards was born 18 Feb 1876, Rising Sun, Maryland; died 20 Mar 1960, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; was buried , West Nottingham, Colora, Cecil County, Maryland.
3. Joseph Thomas Richards was born May 22, 1879, Rising Sun, Maryland; died 6 Nov 1949, Prob Cecil Co., Maryland or Lancaster, PA; was buried , West Nottingham Cemetery, Cecil County, Maryland.
4. Dr. Granville Hampton Richards, M.D. was born 26 Oct 1884, Rising Sun, Maryland; died 10 May 1932, Port Deposit, Maryland; was buried , West Nottingham Cemetery, Colora, Cecil County, Maryland.

Benjamin married Rebecca Ellen Maxwell. Rebecca was born Est 1825, Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania; died Aft 1888. [Group Sheet]