Edward O'Connor: "From the Young America, Farewell"

I’ve found another document concerning Edward O’Connor, the Bovina resident involved in the climax of the Anti-Rent War. More about O’Connor can be found in this blog at Bovina (NY) History: Stories from Bovina's Cemeteries - What Ever Happened to Edward O'Connor? (bovinanyhistory.blogspot.com)

In March 1921, David F. Hoy, Registrar at Cornell University, donated an item to the university archives. It was a poem written by Edward O’Connor, who had been sentenced to hang for the murder of Undersheriff Osman Steele in August 1845. The poem was written to his girlfriend, Janet Scott. 

It was written in Delhi on October 17, 1845 while he awaited his execution, scheduled for November 29, 1845. 

From the Young America

Farewell

Sore sure is my heart when I think of the night

So dark and so lonely so gloomy the sight

But little I thought I should never see more

My fond my sweet Jennett the girl I adore

So finally I pressed her soft bosom to mine

I loved her so dearly she was almost divine

But then when we parted what prophet could tell

I was bidding my fair one forever farewell

What tongue or what pen can my feeling express

To think of my loved one in keenest distress

My blood rushes through me and makes my heart swell

To write to my fond one forewell ah farewell

Oh well I remember the simple fond strain

When we parted she asked when shall we meet again

Our tears intermingled and swiftly they fell

But ah we were taking a final farewell

Oh Father in Heaven it is my desire

And ever shall be my humblest prayer

That Thou mayest protect her own parents as well

I send her my fondest my sweetest farewell

Edward O’Connor

Presented to my friends to preserve as a memorandum for him who died in his country’s cause November 29, 1845, aged 26 years the 17th October 1845.

Freedom’s willing son bleeds free

Through scourge and storm for liberty

E. O’Connor

On the back of the poem was this statement:

Edward O Connor, poetry whilst under the sentence of death for the murder of undersheriff Steel.

From the Cornell University Library, Rare and Manuscript Collections

Hoy says that his grandfather, David Miller, was one of a committee that appeared before the governor, urging leniency. The jury that convicted O’Connor pled for leniency, too, as did a number of correspondents to the governor. The governor was finally persuaded to commute the sentence to life in prison only a week before the scheduled execution. Ultimately, O'Connor was pardoned and released from jail within two years of his conviction.

Another letter written by O’Connor, donated by the late Andy VanBenschoten to the Delaware County Historical Association, was featured in this blog about a decade ago: Bovina (NY) History: "I did for friends and liberty" - The Jailhouse Letter from Edward O'Connor (bovinanyhistory.blogspot.com)

"I did for friends and liberty" - The Jailhouse Letter from Edward O'Connor

In my May 12, 2013 blog entry, I reported about the troubled last two years of the life of the Anti-Rent War hero Edward O'Connor.  On May 31, I had a chance to sit down with a descendant of O'Connor, Andy VanBenschoten and his mother.  They have in their possession a letter written in the fall of 1845 from O'Connor to the parents of his then girlfriend (and later wife), Janet Scott.  O'Connor was expecting to be executed shortly for the killing of Undersheriff Osman Steele in August 1845.  O'Connor had been arrested in October, tried and, along with John Van Steenburgh, sentenced to hang for the murder.  He spent several weeks in the jail in Delhi, where he wrote this letter, probably in October or November 1845.  Thanks to Nancy Cannon from SUNY Oneonta for supplying this transcript of the letter.

Accept my kind thanks for your tenderness and parental care over me, had I known that a line from miserable me, would have given you one moment of pleasure, I would heartily have acquiesced, in one moment.  But I was fearful it would only open the wound afresh.  O! could I tell you the bitter anguish of my soul the brain burnings and heart achings I have suffered for you and all I prize most dear.  You will know without mentioning the names for they are heart breaking to me    I have heard last Friday night, she was deranged and a bitter night it was to me, it was under the impulse of the moment of extreme anguish that I wrote in poetry a description of parting with her; the last time I saw her which will ever dwell fresh on my memory, as long as my bosom shall continue to throb; oh! How my brains burns when I think how she, poor innocent girl, will grieve for me; tho I am Innocent of my charge yet I feel guilty for her for I fear she will be looked down on for my sake.  It makes my blood run through my veins with the velocity of lightning and makes every string of my heart vibrate with horror.  O! could I but rove once more in society.  But nothing now but death and the gallows stares me in the face, but there is hope beyond the grave where false witnesses cannot approach and where a jury cannot be biased and where Judge is Justice, mercy, and holiness true and undeviating.  O how sweet the hours I have passed in your house how often they run through my brains but alas! When I look up I see nothing but Locks and bars and through my bars I now behold the trees casting off their yellow foliage which is emblematical of man in the spring of life he flourishes matures and in autumn or fall which is emblematical of death.

When I look through my prison bars and see the yellow leaf
It seems an emblem of my days and fills my heart with grief
But lovely spring will come again and cheer the forest glade
Lovers will meet and tell the tales beneath the cooling shade
O! parents dear I little thought that this would be my lot
I fear I’ll die a shamefull death and be my man forgot
But should I meet so hard a fate my foes I do forgive them
Will raise triumphant from the grave we’ll meet again in heaven
I ask you when you are home enjoying liberty
That when you kneel before you god there cast a thought on me
And we’ll praise the Lord, whose breath commanded us to be
And worthy be that saviour who died to make us free

You must excuse me for mistakes and bad composition

For you must be aware of the state of my mind   it is all over in the same moment of time.  Give my compliments to Catherine and Thomas both are near to me sister and brother but O I must be parted from them forever, not forever I hope to meet you all in heaven, where all will be joy and Peace.  But my life is now in jeopardy calculated to cut me off in the mourning of life from all the ties of that that connect me to society and thereby nips as it were in the bud all my future prospects and anticipations and call me to bid adieu the things of time and sense.  Leaving our remaining solace behind that its appointed all men once to die and after that the judgement. That I have got to pass the trying scene and but once I must endeavor to compose myself.

I want you dear parents if I dare talk the name, to not forget me. Forget as it were that we were even bound by any ties except humanity for I do not want to bring down any one to tears and sorrow on my account.  O could I have the heart of pleasure of approaching Your humble house once more   then I should endeavor to pay the debts of gratitude I owe, but Alas! Where am I and what awaits  Oh! my heart breaks at the thought I have to lay down my pen to clear away the melting tears that’s streaming down my burning cheek while my heart is respondent only to softer emotions.

O my mind runs wild, I fear I have already wearied your patience; and if I have wrote aught amiss, do forgive me, for I have no evil intention;
I ever remain you affectionate and near friend forever.

Keep these lines remember me
I did for friends and liberty

No room for mirthfull trifling here
For worldly hopes or worldly fear
       My life so soon is gone
If now the Judge is at the door
And all mankind must stand before
       The inexorable throne.

Edward O’Connor

Note: the last six lines of this letter are from a poem, And am I only born to die? by Charles Wesley which appeared in a Methodist Episcopal hymnal, listed as a funeral hymn, and published in 1821.

At the end of November, O'Connor and Van Steenburgh's sentences were commuted to life in prison.  Within hours, they were taken to Sing Sing to serve out these sentences.  They spent a bit over a year in prison - they were pardoned by the newly elected governor in January 1847.

Stories from Bovina's Cemeteries - What Ever Happened to Edward O'Connor?

One-hundred and fifty years ago this month, on May 4, 1863, Edward O'Connor, famous for his prominent role in the Anti-Rent War in the 1840s, died in Forestville (Sanilac County) Michigan.  Born in Bovina in 1819, he was one of the over 100 men arrested for the murder of Undersheriff Osman Steele in August 1845 at the farm of Moses Earle.  O'Connor, along with John Van Steenburg, was sentenced to hang for the murder.  Their sentences were commuted then not long after that O'Connor and Van Steenburg were pardoned.They received a hero's welcome on their return home.

Edward O'Connor with his three children (Mary, Fanny and in his lap, David).  Photo comes from A Free Soil-A Free People: The Anti-Rent War in Delaware County, New York by Dorothy Kubik.  Photo was provided to Dorothy by the VanBenschoten family

At the time of Edward’s arrest for the murder of Steele, he was 26 years old.  His sweetheart, Janet Scott, waited out his arrest, sentencing, imprisonment and release and on April 8, 1847, married him.  Edward and Janet continued to live in Bovina.  Their farm was where the Millard Russell farm is on Russell Hill.  O'Connor held several offices in Bovina during the 1840s and 50s, including Town Clerk, Clerk of Elections, Tax Collector and Highway Commissioner.  

Edward and Janet had three children, Mary, Fanny and Edward David.  Edward’s marriage to Janet was relatively brief, with Janet dying on May 4, 1858, not long after giving birth to her son.    On December 1, 1859, Edward married Fanny Brainard of Colchester, widow of John Brainard.   He moved to Colchester, probably right after his marriage to the home of his new wife.  Sometime around 1861 or 1862, his daughter Fanny died and was buried in Bovina. Around this same time, Edward left Downsville and moved to Michigan.  When he left Delaware County, his new wife and children did not go with him.

Why did Edward go to Michigan and under what circumstances?  There is evidence in the Bovina United Presbyterian Church Minutes that he was in considerable trouble.  He did not move away from Delaware County but ran away.  On December 16, 1861, at a regular meeting of the Session, it was reported that “...Mr. Edward O’Connor, has fled the county having been guilty of a breach of the 7th [adultery] and 8th [theft] Commandments and session agreed unanimously to suspend Mr. O’Connor until said reports can be investigated and further information obtained.”   On July 15, 1862, O’Connor was suspended from the church indefinitely based on the facts that “1. that said O’Connor has fled the county, 2. that he has been found guilty of fraud (by the civil authority), 3. That he is charged with a gross breach of the 7th commandment.” O'Connor was only in Michigan about a year and a half before his death, which happened exactly five years after the death of his first wife.  He appears to have started a family there, fathering at least one child before he passed away.  

We will never really understand all the issues that drove him to take this step. This was a man who was sentenced to death, went to prison, and lost his wife and at least one child within about 10 years.  Something may have just snapped.  Or maybe at some point he decided that his second marriage was a mistake. From 150 years away, we cannot judge O'Connor for the actions he took.  It is a sad ending to a relatively short but eventful life. 

This is the O'Connor family monument.  It has not worn well and is a challenge to decipher.