previous next


Charged with manslaughter.

--We yesterday gave a statement of the facts attending the death of Willie Graham, infant son of Michael Graham, who was instantly killed, about 5 o'clock Monday evening, by being run over by a horse and wagon driven by Joseph Haberstraw, on 17th, between Broad and Marshall streets.

Haberstraw was arrested the same evening and confined in the 1st Station-House, and was yesterday brought before the Mayor to be examined.

Philip Toppin testified that he saw the lad Graham playing, with two other children, in the street. Defendant came along in his wagon whipping his horse, which was going at a trot — between that and a break — a boy on the seat appeared to be cautioning the defendant not to drive so fast. From the injuries received by the child, the wheel must have passed over his ear and side of his head. He ran and picked it up immediately. It died in a few moments. It was about 21 years old.

Alex. W. Johnson testified that Haberstraw was pulling, jerking and whipping the horse. He stopped the wheel when it was on the child's head. Afterwards he said that the child had no business in the street. The child was between the wheels when it was picked up by Toppin. The horse was going pretty rapid. Haberstraw commenced whipping the horse about ten steps past the corner of Broad and 17th streets, pulling the reins, &c. The animal appeared to fret under the lashing.

Henry Haberstraw, (the lad in the wagon,) testified that another wagon was before that of his father — about fifteen yards in front.--The dust flew up so that he could not see the child. Did not go fast — was walking a little — no body was whipping the horse. Witness had a whip in his hand.

The Mayor said there was a conflict in the testimony, but that he should have to remand Haberstraw. It was out of his power to discharge him, the case being one of manslaughter. He would bail the accused in $500, for his appearance for examination before the Hustings Court, on the 2d Monday in the present month. George Lintz living near the Armory, entered himself as bondsman, and defendant was released from custody.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

hide People (automatically extracted)
Sort people alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a person to search for him/her in this document.
Philip Toppin (2)
George Lintz (1)
Alexander W. Johnson (1)
Joseph Haberstraw (1)
Henry Haberstraw (1)
Willie Graham (1)
Michael Graham (1)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
2 AD (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: