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The Murder of Andrew Rowland

Part 3: The State Presents Its Case

Testimony in the trial of Mary E. Rowland and Charles Carroll for the murder of Andrew Rowland got underway in Cumberland, Maryland on April 29, 1869.

The State called more than 30 witnesses over five days of testimony.  Here are the key excerpts.

Coroner’s Report

Dr. Tobey and Dr. J B McKee both testified.  They were summoned to the house of the deceased on Monday morning.  They found Mr. Andrew Rowland lying in bed, entirely naked, dead, and with a wound on the right side of his face and head.  It had the appearance of a gunshot wound, but after an autopsy, it appears it was inflicted with an axe or club.  The two front fingers of his right hand were smeared with blood, without any corresponding smear upon his face, which was bloody. The face did not look as if it had been washed.  His skull was very thin, there was a little bleeding from the ear, none from the mouth, and there was a little blood on the pillow.

The autopsy revealed that the upper jaw and cheekbones were fractured, with the fracture extending to the orbit of the eye.  The lower jaw was also fractured.  The superior part of the skull was removed in the ordinary way, and upon removing the scalp on the right side, the temporal muscle was found to be very much contused, so much so that it presented “the appearance of well-pounded beefsteak preparatory to being cooked.”  The impression did not clearly identify what instrument was used.  On removing the brain, we found that the skull was fractured at its base.  The stomach was taken out, which contained undigested food, and it was sent it to Baltimore for analysis.

It was determined that death was instantaneous.  The blow produced a contusion of the brain and instant death.  The injury was at the base of the brain, and a bone driven up into the brain.  There was severe injury and concussion of the brain in the immediate vicinity of the medulla oblongata, from which the nerves of respiration take their use.  Therefore, after the blow, he neither spoke, breathed, nor groaned.

John F Rowland (brother of Andrew Rowland)

I am a brother of Andrew Rowland and live about three miles from his house.  I heard of my brother’s death at five minutes before eight Monday morning, and I got to the house before the coroners arrived.  I hitched my horse, and then tried to get in the door, but I found it was locked.  I was not able to get into the house until the post mortem examination was over.

All-day Monday, I did not go off his farm.  I saw Mary Rowland and conversed with her.  She was walking through the house and seemed to be managing things.  I returned there on Wednesday to examine the house for poison.  At that time, I found a small bottle in a drawer of the sideboard. The bottle was about two or three inches long and had a label of chloroform.  I also found several small papers containing powders.

Mrs. John F. Rowland

On Monday, news came that Andrew was murdered and we went to the house.  I remained there until Tuesday evening.  Mary Rowland said she had a garment on the night of the murder and said I would find it in the lower drawer.  I went there and found a nightgown.  It looked like it had blood on it, and an attempt had been made to wash it out.  She said Mr. Snyder washed Mr. Rowland’s face, and her nightgown got in the basin of bloody water.  

Isaac Rowland (son of Andrew Rowland)

I got to my father’s house about 9 o’clock on the Monday morning of the murder.  I went into the room where father was, and he was on the bed.  I went up to the bed and uncovered him, but Mrs. Rowland covered him again.  I had seen Charles Carroll at my father’s house the prior weekend.  He was a regular visitor there.

Harry Weaver came to my father’s house in 1867… 

At this point, the Defense objects to the State’s attempt to enter evidence of poisoning as that act is under a separate indictment.  Objection overruled, the Court saying we can trace back the conduct of the parties. Evidence to show that the prisoner attempted the life of her husband is admissible. The evidence offered goes to show the intent. If we would refuse to admit this evidence, the whole trial would be a mere farce. The State proposes to show a conspiracy on the part of Mrs. Rowland and Harry Weaver to kill her husband.

Weaver came to my father’s house in the harvest of 1867.  Weaver was known to be a sort of horse doctor.  I was back and forth to my father’s house during the winter of 1867 and 1868, and I moved out in the spring of 1868.  Father invited Weaver to work for him, and he stayed there until the harvest of 1868.  I saw Weaver in company with “that woman” (pointing at his stepmother, Mrs. Mary E. Rowland) and he seemed to be on intimate terms with her. 

Miss Louisa Weaver (sister of Harry Weaver)

I live in New Salem, Adams County, Pennsylvania, and I am the sister of Harry Weaver.  I saw Mrs. Rowland in New Salem with my brother, Harry Weaver.  This was the first time I met her.  She and my brother Harry had come to my house in late December 1867.  I saw her next in June 1868 at my house in New Salem.  She was again with my brother, Harry Weaver.  They got there about five o’clock in the afternoon and stayed until morning.  The next day, Mary Rowland told me she was Harry’s wife, and that they were married in a quiet wedding shortly after they met in the fall of 1867.  She had married my brother before I had met her and while she was also married to Andrew Rowland.

I asked her to write to me, and she said she would.  In the first letter, she told me that I should address my letters to Mary E. Rowland.  All of her letters came from Hagerstown.  About two months ago, in the last letter she wrote, she asked me to destroy the letters, and so I burned them.  I did not destroy all the letters, but the last one she wrote I destroyed. 

Mrs. Rowland’s letters all implied that she was the wife of my brother, Harry Weaver.  She always addressed me in her handwriting as sister and signed herself as your sister, Mary Weaver.  She gave me no reason why she wanted me to address her as Mary E. Rowland.

In the letter I received about October 1, 1868, she commenced as “Dear sister.”  She said Harry had left Hagerstown and had gone out west.  She was going to join him as soon as she could, and she was going to buy a house out there.  She told me that I should let no one see the letter.  In the letter, she wrote while in jail, she claimed that she was not guilty.  She said she would soon be out of jail, and told me to destroy the letter.

Theodore Smith (druggist)

Thursday before the murder, I sold two vials of chloroform, one to a man and one to a woman.  Charles Carroll looks like the man I sold the chloroform to.  He was there about four o’clock in the afternoon.  I cannot say for certain it was Carroll, but the man was about the size of Carroll.

Dr. Henry Wilson (Knickerbocker Insurance Company)

I am the examining physician for Knickerbocker Insurance Company.  I knew Andrew Rowland, and there were two life insurance policies issued to him.  One policy dated July 30, 1866, for $3,000, for the benefit of Andrew Rowland and his assigns.  The other dated July 30, 1866, for $2,000, in favor of Mary E. Rowland, her heirs, and assigns.

Mary Lizer (former maid who lived in Rowland house)

I went to live with Mr. Rowland in May 1867 and remained there until March 1868, when I worked as a maid in the house.  I know Harry Weaver.  I first met him when he came there in the harvest of 1867.  He remained during harvest, and then went away.  He was there off and on, and I saw him twice after I left Mr. Rowland’s.  

Weaver would come to Rowland’s and stay sometimes a week.  While he was there, I noticed an intimacy between Weaver and Mrs. Rowland.  Weaver and Mrs. Rowland were accustomed to going into a room together and would place me at the door to watch for Mr. Rowland.  I have seen Weaver and Mrs. Rowland lie on the bed together in the bedroom of Mrs. Rowland when Mr. Rowland was away from home.

Once while I lived there, Harry Weaver took Mrs. Rowland to Gettysburg for three days.  When Mrs. Rowland returned home, she told me she had married Harry Weaver, and said she was with Harry’s people.

Mrs. Rowland, while I lived with her, made propositions to me in regard to taking the life of her husband, Andrew Rowland.  She told me if I would take the life of Andrew Rowland she would give me a silk dress, a new bonnet, and a black coat.  Weaver at the same time said that he would give me $100 for doing it.  A short time after that, she spoke to me again and wanted me to poison Mr. Rowland.  I told her it could be done but would be a good deal of trouble.  She said it would not be any trouble, and that if I would not poison him, then she would.  About three weeks after the last conversation, she attempted to poison Andrew Rowland by putting arsenic in some chicken broth.  I saw Mrs. Rowland take some of the arsenic and put it in some chicken gravy, and then she put the bowl by the side of Mr. Rowland’s plate.  I knew it was arsenic because she told me that it was. 

Sometime after that, she put some arsenic in fried hog brain, which was given to Mr. Rowland at supper.  Mr. Rowland ate the hog brain for supper, but it did not seem to affect him.  Sometime after that, we had fried bread for dinner, and she put some of this arsenic in one cake and laid it on Mr. Rowland’s plate.  The same afternoon, she gave him some more fried bread, and Mr. Rowland was sick until bedtime and all the next day.

Another time was after the butchering when she told me she was putting arsenic in the brains.  The brains were done frying when she put the arsenic in them.  Mrs. Rowland told me she wasn’t sure it would work, but that she would get something that would kill him.  A short time after this, Mrs. Rowland told me that Harry Weaver had bought her three poisons to kill Andrew Rowland.  One was in a small vial of pink or red color.  Another one was very heavy and looked like melted lead, and when poured out it would roll in small balls.  I did not see the third kind of poison.

We had backbone for dinner one day and Mrs. Rowland put some of the pink poison on a piece of the backbone.  She put it in the cupboard thinking that Mr. Rowland would eat a piece of it for his supper. About one-half of this pink poison was poured on the bone.  The next morning she took it out of the cupboard and told me she did not know what to do with it, as she was afraid that the dogs would get it.

I did not tell this story sooner, because Weaver told me that he would kill me if I told anyone.  I was afraid to tell anyone while I lived there, but I told it as soon as I left Rowland’s.  I told Isaac Rowland’s wife the same day that I left Andrew Rowland’s, and  I told my brother about Mrs. Rowland’s attempt to poison her husband.  I wanted to leave Mrs. Rowland’s because I was afraid Harry Weaver and Mrs. Rowland would poison me.

Mrs. Rowland told me that Mr. Rowland had his life insured for $5,000 and that she would get the money at his death.  She said that the Odd Fellows would also give her $100 at his death.  She said that after Andrew Rowland’s death, she and Harry Weaver were going to live in Gettysburg and that I could have a home with them.

Dr. W. E. Aikin (expert witness)

I am a professor of chemistry at the University of Maryland, a position I have held since 1837.  I received this vial from Dr. Ragan, examined the contents of the vial, and found it to contain croton oil [a poison that causes diarrhea and skin lesions].  The color of croton oil is pinkish-brown or brownish-pink.  A small quantity of liquid was in the vial when I received it, and the croton oil in the vial was diluted.  If croton oil was poured on meat, the person eating the meat would not notice it.  A half teaspoon of croton oil would destroy life, and it would probably require much less.  I do not know of any test that can detect croton oil in substances after death.  If chloroform was administered to a person sleeping, the effect would be to stupefy him.

The nightgown I received for examination had the appearance of not having been worn since it was washed.  There were a number of stains on the gown, and they were all on the posterior part of the gown.  I cut out some of the stains and examined them, and discovered that they were bloodstains that remained after the blood had been removed with water.  The stains were not all of the same intensity.  I cannot say that the bloodstains on the gown were not produced from menstruation.

Lewis Snyder (friend of Andrew Rowland)

I know Andrew Rowland, and I live about three-quarters of a mile from his place.  I went with him from his house to Boonsboro on the Sunday of the murder.  We went in a buggy, as Mr. Rowland’s house is about nine miles from Boonsboro.  We left Boonsboro about dusk, and I do not know what time we got back to his house.  When we returned, Mr. Rowland went and got Mrs. Rowland, and she fixed supper for us.  After supper, we went to bed.  I do not know what time it was when we went to bed, and I do not know what time I was awakened by Mrs. Rowland and Mr. Gelwicks crying out that Mr. Rowland was murdered.

When I was awakened, I went down to the bedroom of Mr. Rowland.  There was only one light burning, and the night was very dark.  I cried murder, and so did George Rowland.  We were afraid to go for the doctor, and I was afraid to go out of the house until daylight unless someone went out with me.  Mrs. Rowland wanted someone to go for the doctor.  I took a rag and washed the face of Mr. Rowland, and the blood discolored the water in the basin.

Jennie Thompson (maid living in Rowland home)

I lived at Mr. Rowland’s at the time of the murder and saw him Sunday morning before he went to Boonsboro.  He told me that he wanted to boil apple butter on Monday morning and that I should get everything ready.  Before he left for Boonsboro, Mr. Rowland said that he would be back home that night.  This took place in the kitchen, and the family was present at the time.

My grandson, Charley Lee, was living with me then.  After Mr. Rowland left, I heard Mrs. Rowland tell Charley to go and tell Charles Carroll to come over to the house.  Carroll came over to the house and took a seat on the end of the porch.  I saw Mrs. Rowland talking to Carroll on Sunday.  I do not like Charles Carroll.  He won’t look anyone in the face.

Lizzie Rowland woke me the night of the murder by crying that someone had killed her father.  I went into the bedroom and found Mrs. Rowland in her nightgown.

That Sunday, Mrs. Rowland told me she was not going to boil apple butter, and I felt bad.  I thought this was strange, and something was going to happen because Mr. Rowland told me to get everything ready for making apple butter.  I was worried when Mr. Rowland left for Boonsboro, and I was very anxious for him to come home before night.  

Mrs. Rowland told me that I would “see the apple butter,’’ which I thought was very strange and it made me cold.  I was afraid something was going to happen.  I wanted Lizzie to stay at home, but Mrs. Rowland told Lizzie to leave the house and go visiting.

My husband, Pryor, had a heavy hammer that was under our bed the night of the murder.  Blood was on the hammer when it was found after the murder.  My husband used the hammer for breaking bones, and that was how the blood got on it.  My husband was in bed with me the night of the murder, but he has since died from a fall out of a wagon.

Charles Coursey (hired hand living in Rowland home)

I went to live with Mr. Rowland during the harvest of 1868 and was living there at the time of the murder.  Mrs. Rowland told me on Sunday of the murder to go over and tell Charles Carroll to come to the house because she wanted to see him.  I went to Carroll’s and told him that Mrs. Rowland wished to see him.  Carroll wanted to know who was at Rowland’s house.  I heard Mr. Rowland say, the morning he started for Boonsboro, that he would be back the same night, and Mrs. Rowland was present when he said it.  I also saw Carroll at Rowland’s house on Saturday before the murder.

William Freaner (detective)

I had two conversations with Charles Carroll in the jail, about a week after the murder. The first conversation occurred when Carroll called me to his cell, and no one else was present.  I asked Carroll if a boy by the name of House had anything to do with the murder.  I wanted to know whether House was implicated.  The second time I saw Carroll, I asked him if House knew anything of the murder.  We then went into a private room, along with Mr. Post, a policeman.  Mr. Post took the conversation down in writing.

Charles Carroll told me that Mrs. Rowland had offered him $100 to kill Rowland, but he declined to do it.  He told her that he was too old and stiff to get out of the way soon enough. He said that Mrs. Rowland devised the plan of killing Andrew Rowland.  She said that he could knock him in the head either in the lane or at the house, or that she would leave the window open for him.  Carroll said he told Mrs. Rowland that House had said that he would kill Rowland for $100.  Carroll told me that he did not go out of his own house the night of the murder.  He said the first he knew of the murder was when his wife woke him, and he heard the cry of murder in the direction of Rowland’s house.

Carroll told me that Mrs. Rowland sent for him twice on the Sunday of the murder and that he did not go.  Carroll said House came from Hagerstown the day of the murder.  Carroll said he heard George House open the door and go out of his house the night of the murder, but he did not hear him come in again.  Carroll said that he told House that Mrs. Rowland would give $100 if anyone would knock Andrew Rowland in the head.  House said ‘‘he would do it and get on the iron horse and ride him to Washington.’’

We had some conversation at the same time about a club.  Carroll said that there was a maul, and his wife had burnt the maul post in the stove.  He said that the maul handle was somewhere about his house, out of doors.

Ann Carroll (wife of Charles Carroll)

I am the wife of Charles Carroll.  I married him in Pennsylvania over a year ago.  At the time Andrew Rowland was killed, we lived a short distance from Rowlands’.  I was at home the Sunday of the murder.  On the night of the murder, I woke up during the night and found that Charles Carroll was out of the house.  I went back to sleep, and after that, he came back and woke me up, and asked me if I did not hear someone crying murder.  After Charley woke me l heard the cry of murder twice, the sound was towards Hagerstown.  I told him to get up, but he said it was no use. 

The detective that brought Harry Weaver to jail offered to give me the best dress I ever wore and some money if I would tell who killed Andrew Rowland.  I said I might as well tell because Charley Carroll would not be my husband any longer.  He said he had the ruling of the jail and Penitentiary, and if he told them to turn a prisoner loose, then it would be done.

Charles M Futterer (police)

Mr. Biershing (magistrate) gave me a letter that he had received from Mrs. Rowland.  She said in her letter that she wanted him to do all he could for “Harry.’’  I was called into Biershing’s office about noon on the Sunday after the murder, and Biershing told me to take Carroll back to jail.  I took charge of Carroll, and when we went into the jail, Carroll said to me, “I knew I would get into trouble yet before it was over.”  I took him and locked him up in his cell.  After dinner, I saw Carroll again, and he said to me, “This is an awful thing.’’  Carroll said, “I know who killed Rowland.’’  I said, “If you do, why don’t you tell me and get out of here.”

Objections here made by the Defense to giving evidence the confession or declaration of Carroll, objections sustained by the Court.

On the 29th day of October 1868, I found an axe on the woodpile in front of Carroll’s house.  (Axe produced)

George Rowland (son of Andrew)

I am a son of Andrew Rowland.  The morning after my father was murdered, I found this club outside of the window of my father’s bedroom.  I never seen this club about the place before.  I was in bed when I first heard that my father was murdered.  Mr. Gelwicks and Mrs. Rowland came up to my room and said that someone had come in and murdered my father.

Gelwicks wanted to show me where the man got in.  He showed me the kitchen window was up and held up by the stick that came out of the lime barrel.  The dining room door that opened onto the porch was not open when I came downstairs.  When I went out into the kitchen with Mr. Gelwicks, he called my attention to the dining room door being wide open.

There is a bench inside the kitchen by the window that was open.  Buckets were accustomed to being placed on this bench.  The next morning, there was one of these buckets on the outside of the kitchen, close to the raised window.  I saw Carroll at father’s house the evening of the murder.  I do not know how long he was there.  Carroll was accustomed to come to father’s house for water.  We have four dogs at the house, and the dogs knew Carroll.  Sometimes they would bark at him.

George House (friend of Charles Carroll)

I was staying at Carroll’s house at the time Rowland was murdered.  I was at Carroll’s house that Sunday afternoon when Charley Coursey came and told Carroll that Mrs. Rowland wanted to see him.  Carroll then left, and he returned before I went to Hagerstown about three o’clock Sunday afternoon.  It was dusk when I returned.  I went to bed at Carroll’s house the night of Rowland’s death and did not go out of the house that night.  I did not wake up during the night of the murder, I did not hear Carroll go out during the night, and I did not hear anyone cry murder during the night.

I saw a club around the house of Carroll the day of the murder. (Club produced) This looks like the same club I saw at Carroll’s.  The first time I saw the maul was in the woods.  I do not know how long the maul was around the house. I heard Ann Carroll say that she had burnt the maul part.  I think the maul handle is oak.

On Monday, I was at Baker’s farm working, and Carroll was with me.  I was arrested for the murder and confined to jail.  When in jail, a large stout man came and wanted to know whether Carroll was out of the house the night of the murder.  This gentleman told me he could either clear me or hang me.  I do not know his name, but I would know him if I saw him.  He does not live in Hagerstown.

Jerry Gumbert (investigator)

I arrested Harry Weaver about six miles from Alliance, Ohio.  I took him to Hagerstown and placed him in jail.  While in Hagerstown, I met with Mrs. Rowland at the jail.  This was about the 29th of October 1868.  I told her that I was the man that brought Weaver in, and told her what Weaver had said about the poison.  She said she did not think Harry Weaver would go back on her because she had given Harry a good deal of money, sometimes as high as $30 at one time.  I told Mrs. Rowland that Weaver said he had bought three different kinds of poison for her.  One was in a bottle, one was put on some meat, and one was put in some bitters that Mrs. Rowland kept on the mantle.

No one was in the room with Mrs. Rowland the first time I saw her.  There were trunks in the room, she went to her trunk, took out a watch, and said she was going to give it to Weaver.  Mrs. Gelwicks came in about the time I was leaving.  Mrs. Rowland told me that her mother was coming, and for me not to say anything about what was discussed.  I told Mrs. Rowland that I was a police detective. 

I then returned to Hagerstown about the 24th of November.  Mrs. Rowland sent for me, and I went to see her.  We talked of the murder, and she told me her lawyer had told her that the grand jury had not found a bill against her.  I told her a bill had been found against her and Weaver for attempting to poison Rowland.  

I asked her who killed Andrew Rowland and she said that Charles Carroll had hit him, and she saw him give the blow.  She claimed Carroll came in the kitchen window and went out through the dining-room door.  She said he struck Rowland with something about the size of a hatchet, and I might find it out about the window. 

She said Carroll had come to her house about three weeks before the murder and asked her for the money that Weaver said he would give him for killing Rowland.  She told Carroll she didn’t have the money.  Carroll came back the Sunday of the murder and asked her for the money again.  She told him she still didn’t have the money, but she would give it to him as soon as she got it from Harry Weaver.  

I saw her again and she told me that Carroll had come to the house around by the corn hold.  He came that way because he was afraid of the dogs that were about the barn.  She told me to tell Mr. Keedy to come up where she was because she wanted to turn State’s evidence against Carroll.  I told Mr. Keedy that Mrs. Rowland wanted to turn State’s evidence, but Mr. Keedy said he didn’t have the time to go see her.

I talked to her about the poison.  I asked her if Rowland had eaten the meat, and she told me he had not.  She said she placed the meat up the chimney because she was afraid the dogs would get it, and she had poured the bitters out.  The bottle which had the white stuff fell on the floor and ran in little balls.  She told me Weaver got the poison in Hagerstown at the drug store on the corner of the square.  Mrs. Rowland said she told Carroll she would pay him when she got the money from the insurance company and from the Odd Fellows.  I was in Hagerstown for eight or ten days and went to see Mrs. Rowland every day except Sunday. 

Mrs. Rowland also told me she had fallen in love with me the first time she saw me.  She said I was good-looking and that she wanted to see me often.  She told me that if I would not give the letters to Mr. Keedy that contained her admissions of guilt, she would pay me well and would be a good friend of mine. 

The State Rests.

This is Part 3 of a 5-Part Series

Sources

This article is a liberally edited version of the trial testimony notes, and it incorporates the responses from cross-examination.  It is sourced from the trial notes reported in “The Trial of Mary E. Rowland and Charles Carrol,” The Herald and Torch Light, Hagerstown, Maryland, May 12, 1868, page 2.  The editing strives to improve readability without altering the original intended meaning.

References and Additional Information

Featured image: Maryland – Scene in the Court-House at Annapolis – Trial of Mrs. Wharton on the charge of murdering General Ketchum by poison, 1871 from a sketch by Taylor, James E., 1839-1901, artist, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. ”’Note:”’ This is not from the trial of the Andrew Rowland murder, although it is from a trial in the same state, just two years later, and also involves a woman accused of poisoning her husband.

DNA: Andrew Rowland, and the entire Washington county Rowland genetic line, are part of Rowland Y-DNA Group I.  If you are related to this line, please consider joining the Rowland Xref Project.

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