Killer Colt (52 page)
Authors: Harold Schechter
6.
Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer
, November 22, 1842.
7.
New York
Sun
, November 19, 1842, p. 2;
New York Tribune
, November 19, 1842, p. 2;
New-York Commercial Advertiser
, November 19, 1842, p. 2.
8.
Seward,
William H. Seward
, p. 634.
CONCLUSION: LEGENDS
1.
New York Herald
, November 23, 1842, p. 2.
2.
Christian Reflector
, November 23, 1842, p. 5.
3.
Ohio Repository
, December 1, 1842, p. 3.
4.
Life and Letters of John C. Colt
, letter 18, June 10, 1842.
5.
For a thorough discussion of Universalism, see Ann Lee Bressler,
The Universalist Movement in America 1770–1880
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).
6.
Bressler,
Universalist Movement
, p. 39.
7.
Review of
Universalism Examined, Renounced, Exposed
by Matthew Hale Smith,
Princeton Review
, no. 4 (October 1843): pp. 527–28.
8.
Christian Watchman
, December 10, 1842, p. 12.
9.
Trumpet and Universalist Magazine
, December 31, 1842, p. 15.
10.
New York Evening Journal
, December 27, 1842, p. 3.
11.
See Louis P. Masur,
Rites of Execution: Capital Punishment and the Transformation of American Culture, 1776–1865
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1989).
12.
Child,
Letters from New-York
, p. 139.
13.
New York Tribune
, November 19, 1842, p. 2.
14.
New York
Sun
, November 24, 1842, p. 2.
15.
Bergman,
Collected Writings of Walt Whitman
, pp. 162–63.
1.
New York
Sun
, November 21, 1842, p. 2.
2.
Macatamney,
Cradle Days
, p. 191.
3.
“Everything Is Changed,” p. 5.
4.
Nevins and Thomas,
George Templeton Strong
, p. 193;
Hartford Daily Courant
, December 12, 1842, p. 2.
5.
New-York Commercial Advertiser
, November 19, 1842.
6.
New York
Sun
, November 19, 1842.
7.
New York Herald
, November 20, 1842, p. 2.
1.
Carolyn L. Karcher,
The First Woman in the Republic: A Cultural Biography of Lydia Maria Child
(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998), p. 303. Despite the prominent literary and intellectual status she enjoyed in her own time, Child is best known today (to the extent that she is remembered at all) as the author of the holiday chestnut “Over the river and through the woods / To grandfather’s house we go,” originally published in the second volume of her collection
Flowers for Children
(1844).
2.
These remarks were excised from the later, edited version published in Child’s book
Letters from New-York
. See p. 243, n. 16.
3.
Mrs. Sigourney was a regular contributor to the
Juvenile Miscellany
, the popular bimonthly magazine that Mrs. Child founded in 1826. See Carolyn L. Karcher, “Lydia Maria Child and the
Juvenile Miscellany:
The Creation of an American Children’s Literature,” in
Periodical Literature in Nineteenth-Century America
, ed. Kenneth M. Price and Susan Belasco Smith (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1995), pp. 93–109.
4.
For more on this famously unsuccessful experiment in cooperative living, see Sterling F. Delano,
Brook Farm: The Dark Side of Utopia
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004).
5.
Child,
Selected Letters
, pp. 183–84.
6.
See Lundeberg,
Submarine Battery
, pp. 31–34.
7.
Ibid., p. 31.
8.
A summary of James’s career can be found in Livingston,
Biographical Sketches
, pp. 93ff. For an account of the duel, see Dick Steward,
Duels and the Roots of Violence in Missouri
(Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2000), pp. 126–27.
9.
This and the other letters from James are on file at the Connecticut Historical Society.
10.
Keating,
Flamboyant Mr. Colt
, p. 69; Rywell,
Man and Epoch
, p. 72; Hosley,
American Legend
, pp. 22–23.
11.
Lundeberg,
Submarine Battery
, p. 46.
12.
Ibid., p. 55; Hosley,
American Legend
, p. 22.
1.
See Edwards,
Colt’s Revolver
, pp. 195–204; Houze,
Colt: Arms, Art, Invention
, p. 68.
2.
Evans,
They Made America
, pp. 60–61; Edwards,
Colt’s Revolver
, p. 99.
3.
Houze,
Colt: Arms, Art, Invention
, p. 73; Evans,
They Made America
, p. 66.
4.
Evans,
They Made America
, p. 68.
5.
Hosley,
American Legend
, p. 23.
6.
Ibid., p. 26.
7.
Ibid., p. 28.
8.
Rywell,
Man and Epoch
, p. 130.
1.
Edwards,
Colt’s Revolver
, p. 42.
2.
Tucher,
Froth & Scum
, p. 173.
3.
Ibid., pp. 173–74.
4.
Keating,
Flamboyant Mr. Colt
, p. 145.
5.
Ibid., p. 65.
1.
The source of the Julia Leicester legend appears to be Colt biographer William Edwards (see
Colt’s Revolver
, pp. 309, 340–42). Contrary to the claims by Edwards and subsequent writers who have unquestioningly accepted his statements, Colt historian Herbert G. Houze has conclusively shown that the woman who married Friedrich von Oppen was
not
Caroline Henshaw but rather the much younger Julia Colt, a distant cousin of Sam’s. Also see Houze,
Colt: Arms, Art, Invention
, p. 69, n. 14; p. 247.
2.
See Lewis,
Nation-Famous New York Murders
, pp. 240–41.
3.
Christian Reflector
, February 1, 1843, p. 19;
Brother Jonathan: A weekly Compendium of Belle Lettres and the Fine Arts
, vol. 4 (February 4, 1843), p. 137. For a concise account of Bannister’s career, see Martin Banham, ed.,
The Cambridge Guide to Theatre
(Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 76.
Ninety-five year later, a dramatization of the Colt affair was broadcast on the airwaves. Scripted by George J. Throp, “The Case of John C. Colt” was the debut episode of
Out of the Hall of Records
, a weekly radio series of “dramatized programs based on the annals of notorious court cases preserved in the Hall of Records of New York City.” The episode was broadcast on WNYC, Monday, December 5, 1938, 4:00–4:30 EST. The original script can be found in the WPA Radio Scripts collection at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts, box 40, file 1, “The Case of John C. Colt” (Collection ID# T-MSS 2000–005).
4.
See Bon Gaultier, “A Night at Peleg Longfellow’s,”
The New World: A Weekly Family Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and the Arts
, vol. 7 (August 26, 1843): p. 227.
5.
The Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1966), pp. 237–45.
6.
Warner Berthoff, ed.,
Great Short Works of Herman Melville
(Harper & Row/Perennial Library, 1969), pp. 63–64.
7.
Theodora De Wolf Colt,
Stray Fancies
(Boston: published for private circulation, 1872), pp. 118–22.
8.
Hosley,
American Legend
, pp. 30–31.
9.
Ibid., p. 138.
10.
Keating,
Flamboyant Mr. Colt
, p. 187.
11.
Hosley,
American Legend
, p. 145.
12.
Barnard,
Armsmear
, p. 295.
Aaron, Daniel.
Cincinnati, Queen City of the West: 1819–1838
. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1992.
Abbott, Mabel. “A Mystery of the Tombs.”
Detective Fiction Weekly
, February 1, 1930, pp. 683–91.
Adams, Charles, Jr.
A Genealogical Register of North Brookfield Families, Including the Records of Many Early Settlers of Brookfield
. Published by the Town of North Brookfield, 1887.
Bacon, Margaret Hope.
But One Race: The Life of Robert Purvis
. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2007.
Baker, George, ed.
The Works of William H. Seward
. Vol. 2. New York: Redfield, 1853.
Bancroft, Frederic.
The Life of William H. Seward
. Vol. 1. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1900.
Bancroft, Hubert Howe.
The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft
. Vol. 36. San Francisco: History Company, 1887.
Barnard, Henry.
Armsmear: The Home, the Arm, and the Armory of Samuel Colt: A Memorial
. New York: Alvord Printer, 1866.
Barnum, P. T.
The Life of P. T. Barnum, Written by Himself
. New York: Redfield, 1855.
Baxter, Maurice G.
One and Inseparable: Daniel Webster and the Union
. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984.
Beeghley, Leonard.
Homicide: A Sociological Explanation
. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.
Belcher, Hilary, and Erica Swale. “Catch a Falling Star.”
Folklore
, vol. 95 (1984): pp. 210–20.
Belden, E. Porter.
New-York: Past, Present, and Future: Comprising a History of the City of New York
. New York: G. P. Putnam, 1849.
Bell, Whitfield J., Jr., et al.
A Cabinet of Curiosities: Five Episodes in the Evolution of American Museums
. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1967.
Berger, Meyer. “That Was New York: The Tombs—I.”
New Yorker
, August 30, 1941, pp. 22–29.
Bergman, Herbert, ed.
The Collected Writings of Walt Whitman: The Journalism: Volume 2: 1846–1848
. New York: Peter Lang, 2003.
Bettelheim, Bruno.
The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales
. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976.
Bigelow, L. J.
Bench and Bar: A Complete Digest of the Wit, Humor, Asperities, and Amenities of the Law
. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1871.
Bressler, Ann Lee.
The Universalist Movement in America 1770–1880
. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Brockett, L. P.
The Silk Industry in America. A History: Prepared for the Centennial Exposition
. New York: George F. Nesbitt & Co., 1876.
Browder, Clifford.
The Wickedest Woman in New York: Madame Restell, the Abortionist
. Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1988.
Brown, H. Glenn, and Maude O. Brown.
A Directory of Printing, Publishing, Bookselling and Allied Trades in Rhode Island to 1865
. New York: New York Public Library, 1958.
Burlingame, Roger.
March of the Iron Men: A Social History of Union Through Invention
. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1938.
Burns, Ric, and James Sanders.
New York: An Illustrated History
. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.
Burrows, Edwin, and Mike Wallace.
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Butterbaugh, Grant I. “Dr. Stands for Debt.”
Accounting Review
, vol. 20, no. 3 (July 1945): pp. 340–44.
Caldwell, Mark.
New York Night: The Mystique and Its History
. New York: Scribner, 2005.
Carman, W. Y.
A History of Firearms: From Earliest Times to 1914
. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1955.
Carpenter, Edward Wilton, and Charles Frederick Morehouse.
The History of the Town of Amherst, Massachusetts
. Amherst, MA: Carpenter & Morehouse, 1896.
Chase, Arthur.
History of Ware, Massachusetts
. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1911.
Child, Lydia Maria.
Letters from New-York
. Edited by Bruce Mills. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1998.
———.
Selected Letters, 1817–1880
. Edited by Milton Meltzer and Patricia G. Holland. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1982.
Chiles, Rosa Pendleton.
John Howard Payne: American Poet, Actor, Playwright, Consul and the Author of “Home, Sweet Home.”
Washington, DC: Columbia Historical Society, 1930.
Chinoy, Helen Krich, and Linda Walsh Jenkins, eds.
Women in American Theatre
. New York: Crown Publishing, 1980.
Cist, Charles.
Cincinnati in 1841: Its Early Annals and Future Prospects
. Cincinnati, OH: E. Morgan & Co., 1841.
Clark, Howard.
The Mill on Mad River
. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1948.
Cohen, Patricia Cline.
The Murder of Helen Jewett: The Life and Death of a Prostitute in Nineteenth-Century New York
. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.
Colt, John C.
The Science of Double Entry Book-Keeping: Simplified, Arranged, and Methodized, After the Forms of Grammar and Arithmetic; Explained by Definite Rules, and Illustrated by Entries Classed, in a Manner Materially Different from Any Work Ever Before Offered to the Public. Containing Also, a Key, Explaining the Manner of Journalizing, and the Nature of the Business Transaction of Each of the Day-Book Entries, Together with Practical Forms for Keeping Books, as Circumstances May Require in Different Commercial Houses
. 10th ed. New York: Nafis & Cornish, 1844.
Colt, Miriam Davis.
Went to Kansas; Being a Thrilling Account of an Ill-Fated
Expedition to That Fairy Land, and Its Sad Results; Together with a Sketch of the Life of the Author, and How the World Goes with Her
. Watertown, MA: L. Ingalls & Co., 1862.
Conrad, Earl.
The Governor and His Lady: The Story of William Henry Seward and His Wife Frances
. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1960.
Cooke, D. B. “My Memories of the Book Trade.”
Publisher’s Weekly
, no. 217 (March 11, 1876): pp. 321–22.
Costello, Augustine.
Our Police Protectors: History of the New York Police
. New York: Augustine Costello, 1885.
Cowdry, Mary Bartlett.
American Academy of Fine Arts and American Art-Union: Introduction 1816–1852
. New York: New York Historical Society, 1953.
Crouthamel, James L.
Bennett’s New York Herald and the Rise of the Popular Press
. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1989.
Cushing, Luther S.
Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Massachusetts
. Vol. 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1865.
Delano, Sterling F.
Brook Farm: The Dark Side of Utopia
. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
Dennett, Andrea Stulman.
Weird and Wonderful: The Dime Museum in America
. New York: New York University Press, 1997.
Dent, John Charles.
The Last Forty Years: Canada Since the Union of 1841
. Vol. 1. Toronto: George Virtue, 1881.
Dickens, Charles.
American Notes for General Circulation
. New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1863.
Disturnell, J.
The Classified Mercantile Directory for the Cities of New-York and Brooklyn
. New York: J. Disturnell, 1837.
———.
New-York as It Is in 1837
. New York: J. Disturnell, 1837.
Dizard, Jan E., Robert Merrill Muth, and Stephen P. Andrews, Jr.
Guns in America: A Reader
. New York: New York University Press, 1999.
Dormandy, Thomas.
The White Death: A History of Tuberculosis
. New York: New York University Press, 1999.
Duke, Thomas S.
Celebrated Criminal Cases of America
. San Francisco: James H. Barry Company, 1910. Reprint, Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith, 1991.
Dunlop. M. H. “Curiosities Too Numerous to Mention: Early Regionalism and Cincinnati’s Western Museum.”
American Quarterly
, vol. 36, no. 4 (Autumn 1984): pp. 524–48.
Dunphy, Thomas, and Thomas J. Cummins.
Remarkable Trials of All Countries
. New York: Dossy & Company, 1870.
Dunshee, Kenneth Holcomb.
As You Pass By
. New York: Hastings House, 1952.
Eaton, Amos.
Chemical Instructor: Presenting a Familiar Method of Teaching the Chemical Principles and Operations of the Most Practical Utility to Farmers, Mechanics, Housekeepers and Physicians; and Most Interesting to Clergymen and Lawyers. Intended for Academies and for the Popular Class-Room
. Albany, NY: Websters and Skinners, 1822.
Edgerly, James H.
The Revolving-Cylinder Colt Pistol Story from 1839 to 1847
. Topeka, KS: F. Theodore Dexter, 1937.
Edwards, Charles.
Pleasantries About Courts and Lawyers of the State of New York
. New York: Richardson & Company, 1867.
Edwards, William B.
The Story of Colt’s Revolver: The Biography of Col. Samuel Colt
. New York: Castle Books, 1957.
Elbert, Monika.
Enterprising Youth: Social Values and Acculturation in Nineteenth-Century American Children’s Literature
. London: Routledge, 2008.
Evans, Harold.
They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators
. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2004.
Fitzgerald, P. A.
The Exhibition Speaker: Containing Farces, Dialogues, and Tableaux, with Exercises for Declamation in Prose and Verse. Also a Treatise on Oratory and Elocution, Hints on Dramatic Characters, Costumes, Position on the Stage, Making Up, Etc., Etc
. New York: Sheldon, Lamport & Blakeman, 1856.
Fowler, Nathaniel C.
Getting a Start: First Aids to Success
. New York: Sully and Kleintech, 1915.
Fuess, Claude Moore.
Amherst: The Story of a New England College
. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1935.
Fulton, Robert.
Torpedo War, and Submarine Explosions
. New York: William Elliot, 1810.
Gilfoyle, Timothy. “ ‘America’s Greatest Criminal Barracks’: The Tombs and the Experience of Criminal Justice in New York City, 1838–1897.”
Journal of Urban History
, vol. 29, no. 5 (July 2003): pp. 525–54.
Golan, Tal.
The Laws of Men and the Laws of Nature: The History of Scientific Expert Testimony in England and America
. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
Goodman, Matthew.
The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York
. New York: Basic Books, 2008.
Goss, Charles Frederic.
Cincinnati the Queen City: 1788–1912
. Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1912.
Grant, Ellsworth S.
The Colt Legacy: The Colt Armory in Hartford, 1855–1980
. Providence, RI: Mowbray Company, 1982.
Greve, Charles Theodore.
Centennial History of Cincinnati and Representative Citizens
. Vol. 1. Chicago: Biographical Publishing Company, 1904.
Guttridge, Leonard F.
Our Country, Right or Wrong: The Life of Stephen Decatur, the U.S. Navy’s Most Illustrious Commander
. New York: Forge Books, 2007.
Hall, Mary.
Report of the Celebration of the Incorporation of the Town of Marlborough
. Hartford, CT: Hartford Press, 1904.
Harris, Neil.
Humbug: The Art of P. T. Barnum
. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973.
Harrison, Gabriel.
John Howard Payne, Dramatist, Poet, Actor, and Author of Home Sweet Home!
Boston: Lippincott, 1885.
Haswell, Charles H.
Reminiscences of an Octogenarian of the City of New York (1816 to 1860)
. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1897.
Haven, Charles T., and Frank A. Belden.
A History of the Colt Revolver: And Other Arms Made by Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company from 1836 to 1940
. New York: Bonanza Books, 1940.
Heier, Jan R. “A Critical Look at the Thoughts and Theories of the Early Accounting Educator John C. Colt.”
Accounting, Business and Financial History
, vol. 3, no. 1 (1993): pp. 21–36.
History of the Hopkins Fund, Grammar School and Academy, in Hadley, Mass.:
Prepared and Published Under the Direction and Authority of the Trustees of Hopkins Academy
. Amherst, MA: Amherst Record Press, 1890.
Hodges, Graham Russell.
New York City Cartmen, 1667–1850
. New York: New York University Press, 1986.
Holland, Josiah Gilbert.
History of Western Massachusetts
. Springfield, MA: Samuel Bowles and Company, 1855.
Homans and Ellis.
A Picture of New York in 1846; with a Short Account of Places in Its Vicinity
. New York: C. S. Francis & Co., 1846.
Hosley, William.
Colt: The Making of an American Legend
. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1996.
Houze, Herbert G.
Samuel Colt: Arms, Art, and Invention
. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press and the Wadsworth Museum of Art, 2006.
Howe, Daniel Walker.
What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848
. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Hudson, Frederic.
Journalism in the United States, from 1690 to 1872
. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1873.
Hughes, Helen McGill.
News and the Human Interest Story
. Somerset, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1980.
Hutchinson, Reverend Enoch, and Reverend Stephen Remington, eds.
The Baptist Memorial and Monthly Record: Devoted to the History, Biography, Literature & Statistics of the Denomination
. Vol. 8. New York: Z. P. Hatch, 1849.
Isenberg, Nancy.
Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum America
. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
Jeffers, H. Paul.
With an Axe
. New York: Kensington/Pinnacle Books, 2000.