The Assault Case

originally published in the parish bulletin the weekend of August 25, 2019

In 1853, Father Michael Carraher succeeded Fr. Hamilton as the second pastor of Saint Mary’s Parish.  He was known as a ‘gentleman’s son,’ he was accustomed to horses and hounds, often visiting the missions on horseback with his dogs close behind. His tenure would hold one of the most notable incidents in the history of early Milford.

  The Milford Weekly Journal of Friday, August 11, 1854 has the following article which is entitled 'The Assault Case.'  The tells the story that Fr. Carraher would travel through the streets of Milford at full speed, followed by two or three dogs.  On Thursday of the previous week to this article, as he travelled the streets, they were packed with people leaving their employment and his ‘movements’ attracted more attention than usual.  That night one of his dogs died, presumably poisoned.  The following night he galloped down the street to Dr. Scammell’s apothecary store when he brandished a pistol at a group of boys, threatening to shoot them if they laughed at him again.

  The following Monday, a warrant was issued and he was arrested.  Asking for more time to secure counsel, his case was continued from that Tuesday from 9 am to later that day at 3 pm.  The court was held in the old Brick Church and standing room only as all gathered to hear the fate of the priest.  The state called its witnesses, mostly boys who detailed the priest pointing the gun at a young Eugene Harrington who hid behind a tree.  The testimony most noteworthy was that of Nelson Parkhurst who said he saw the priest walking his horse when he heard a noise and turned to see the priest pointing a pistol at the boys.  He testified that he had seen the boys throw rocks previously, though he couldn’t tell whether it was at the priest or his dogs.

  Judge Scammell ruled that while presenting a pistol in a threatening manner was an assault according to the law, the threat to shoot if the boy spoke again made it a conditional one, and therefore he ruled the defendant to be discharged.  Other accounts stipulate that the charges were dismissed since it was proven that the pistol was not loaded, although that important detail was not included in the newspaper account at the time.  The priest left the court to shouts, cheers and hisses.  The following morning, an effigy of the judge was hung from the Liberty Pole until 9 pm when a selectman ordered it removed and it was taken to the Judge’s house where it was “burned at the stake.”

 The Church Block on Main Street, opposite the Town Hall (c. 1875).  The rear portion of this building was the Brick Church where the Assault Case of Fr. Carraher took place.  Later this would house Carmichael’s Drugstore and was razed in the 1980s and is now the site of Spruce Street Fire Station.

(Photo & description detail courtesy of Robin Philbin)

Judge Scammell was living in 1924, at the time of the 50^th Anniversary of Saint Mary’s Church and James Gilmore noted then that the Judge was held in high esteem by both Protestants and Catholics for his conduct and decision in this affair.