The Biddulph Tragedy

Exeter Times, Feb. 9, 1893

The Biddulph Tragedy

Mr Wm. Donnelly, of Appin writes —
"The Biddulph Tragedy took place on Wednesday morning, February 4th, 1880, and before the public can read this thirteen years will have elapsed since the memorable slaughter. But those years have each brought their terrible changes in Biddulph and if any one of the living vigilants can look calmly back and notice the slaughter made by old "Father Time" he must come to the conclusion that retributive justice has been busy at work, and that the cold, relentless hand of death is almost on his own shoulder. "Yes, in thirteen years 32 persons, who were either directly or indirectly concerned in that slaughter, have met their just deserts [desserts], and as none of them have been murdered, a direct visitation from Almighty God must have been the cause. I will not be personal, but will say several were killed by the London, Huron & Bruce train. More were found in bed without any apparent cause. More fell into a well. More dropped dead. More died suffering the agonies of a mad dog, and a few are in the asylum, while the majority of those living are homeless and not worth a dollar, though well off thirteen years ago. While thinking over all this, I cannot loose sight of the words used by Mr. AEmelius Irving, Q.C., who was crown prosecutor at the trials. After Carroll and the rest of the prisoners were turned loose on the world again, my sister Mrs. Currie, was sitting crying in Crown Attorney Hutchinson's office, when Mr. Irving said to her, "Do not cry, my dear woman; there is a just God, who sees all and who will try the case without lawyers or jury, and He will give you ample satisfaction in the way of retribution before ten years passes." How true his words were all Ontario knows. Some of the broken and wasted bones of my family are still in my possession and will be until justice is fully done. But if the next 13 years will reap as large a harvest as the last 13 has, I think justice will be done and those heartbreaking relics may be laid away quietly to rest."

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