Trial of Mrs. Nancy W. Hufford

Dr. John H. Patterson — He was called to see Mrs. Engle on Sunday the 21st September 1851. Her labor commenced about 11 o'clock and lasted until about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. He left instructions for purgative medicine on Monday. He did not see her again until Wednesday the 24th, and on Saturday the 28th found Mrs. Engle salivated tremendously; her gums were almost detached from her teeth, very black, her tongue very dry. She complained of a great burning from her mouth to her stomach. Her skin was very hot; she was sallow and delirious. Her stools were black.

He gave her calomel mixed with rhubarb. On the morning of the 29th she was improving. The Monday following her confinement he had given her a dose of salts, which was supposed to have had arsenic in it. Mrs. Engle told him the salts would not stay on her stomach and made her vomit. On Tuesday the 1st of October she was much better. The next he heard of Mrs. Engle she was dead, and he remarked there had been foul play.

He called on Drs. Bruce, Harman, and Carr to conduct a post mortem examination. The husband objected. On Friday Drs. Carr, Bruce, and Patterson made the examination. He extracted the stomach and tied both orifices. He found the viscera all inflamed. The mucous lining was perforated in many places, and the villous membranes had splotches resembling a burn. A portion of the stomach and other viscera were sealed and sent to Professor Aiken of Baltimore.

Cross-examined: The physicians concluded from the garlicky smell that arsenic had been administered. Dr. Patterson noted a contrariety of opinion among medical men on whether the heat of the stomach alone could emit a garlic odor from arsenic.

Peter Baker — The prisoner bought arsenic from him about ten days before Mrs. Engle's death, along with calomel. She said she had a sore leg and a doctor in Pennsylvania had advised her to use it as a salve. She came to his store after Mrs. Engle's death and said she might be censured but had applied the medicine to her own use. She said she had been persuaded by Mr. Engle to nurse Mrs. Engle and had not wronged anyone.

Samuel Engle — Mrs. Hufford was his wife's nurse and gave all the medicine. He never asked Mrs. Hufford to come to his house. She came four days before his wife's confinement, unexpectedly. Before his wife took the salts she was pretty well and cheerful; after she took them she became very unwell and vomited continuously all week. She complained of a burning from her mouth to her stomach. She vomited some blood; her spittle was thick and slimy; she became very delirious. His wife was a stout healthy woman and was doing well until she took the salts. In the night, when his wife was so ill, he found her in a great sweat and said she would get better. Mrs. Hufford then said it would be her last sweat.

Cross-examined: He acknowledged he had carried on a courtship with Mrs. Hufford once. She had been very kind to him and his wife.

Rev. Mr. Knepper — First saw Mrs. Engle on Friday the 26th of September. Her pulse was quick, her skin dry, her tongue much furred. Saw her again on Friday the 30th; her mouth was very sore, her tongue of a brownish color, her breath of a peculiar metallic smell. She was somewhat delirious. Mrs. Hufford was in the room and seemed uneasy, walking backwards and forwards more than necessary, repeating that it was the medicine which made Mrs. Engle so sick, as the doctor said.

He was present at the post mortem examination and smelled garlic as soon as the knife came in contact with the entrails. Afterward in Mr. Engle's kitchen, Mrs. Hufford asked if the doctors had found anything in the stomach and said if anything was there, the doctor put it there.

Dr. Carr — Was at the first examination of the body and concluded the next day that Mrs. Engle had died from the effects of arsenic. The most peculiar thing which attracted his attention was a very strong, garlicky smell emitted from the body, which he stated is evidence of the presence of arsenic. Several medical books were cited in support of this principle.

Mrs. Hetty Garlitz — Mrs. Hufford told her she was going to nurse Mrs. Engle. She was with Mrs. Engle at the time of the birth. Mrs. Engle told her she had been vomiting ever since she took the salts on Monday morning and that her stomach seemed full of slime. On the 1st of October Mrs. Engle was very bad. The next morning she was sent for to see Mrs. Engle die. After the corpse was laid out, Mrs. Hufford said she would offer to live with Mr. Engle all winter and take care of the child.

Mrs. Knepper — Mrs. Hufford told her some time before the confinement that she was going to be Mrs. Engle's nurse; that she did not want to do so but Mr. Engle insisted. On the fifth day after the confinement Mrs. Engle was very sick. Mrs. Hufford told her that Mrs. Engle had suffered like a brute, and if Dr. Patterson, "the drunken hog," had attended to his business, it would not have turned out so. Mrs. Hufford denied buying ratsbane when directly asked, saying she had gotten some the previous winter for rats but it was gone. When told that Knepper, Engle, and Patterson believed Mrs. Engle had been poisoned, Mrs. Hufford threatened to sue them.

By State: The summer before Mrs. Engle was sick, Mrs. Hufford told her she could never bear Mrs. Engle and never liked any of her family.

Miss Knepper — Was present at a conversation at Mrs. Miller's. Mrs. Hufford said she had no friends but she had money which would make her friends. Miss Knepper directly asked Mrs. Hufford if she had bought ratsbane at Peter Baker's. Mrs. Hufford said no, that she had gotten some the previous winter to kill rats but it was gone.

Mrs. Perry Long (Savilla, daughter of Samuel Engle) — Had a conversation with Mrs. Hufford on the 9th of September; Mrs. Hufford said she was going to nurse Mrs. Engle and that "the devil was not in her as big then as it is now, or she would have come if the devil stood under the door." She was present when Mrs. Hufford gave Mrs. Engle some medicine in molasses; after that she thought Mrs. Engle got worse and more restless. On the Wednesday before Mrs. Engle's death Mrs. Engle was much better in the morning before she took the medicine, then became very worse.

Mrs. Brown — Mrs. Hufford came to her house in August and said that Dr. Patterson swore Mrs. Engle would die that fall, and that several women in the neighborhood would die that fall.

Mrs. Florence Yeast (daughter of Samuel Engle) — Had a conversation with Mrs. Hufford about Mrs. Engle's confinement. She said Dr. Patterson told her that Mrs. Engle would never get over this sickness. Her father told her to tell Mrs. Hufford to come up to nurse Mrs. Engle; she did so and Mrs. Hufford went up that day, the Tuesday before Mrs. Engle's confinement.

Mrs. Ridgely (Catherine, possibly 3rd wife of Samuel Engle) — Saw Mrs. Engle the day before she died, arriving at 11 or 12 o'clock in the evening. Mrs. Hufford gave her a roast apple first, then some milk. She seemed to get better a little while after, then in about two hours got worse. When Mrs. Hufford gave Mrs. Engle a spoonful of milk and asked if it was good, Mrs. Engle only murmured, and Mrs. Hufford smiled. Mrs. Engle's bosom was broken out with little white blisters; when scratched they became purple.

Miss Duirst (hired help, possibly a Durst relative) — Had lived with Mrs. Engle since the 22nd of June. Mr. Engle always treated his wife well. Mrs. Engle did not work more than common.

Dr. Patterson (recalled) — Never told anyone that several women would die that fall. Never said Mrs. Engle would die or have a hard time of it. At the second examination of the body there was a strong garlic smell, fully as strong as the first day.

Dr. Bruce — Was requested by Dr. Patterson the day Mrs. Engle died to assist in a post mortem examination. At the examination he took the stomach to Grantsville and placed it on Dr. Harman's table. When the stomach was opened there was a strong garlicky smell emitted. From the appearance and smell he concluded she had been poisoned.

Dr. Harman — A physician of sixteen years' experience, educated in Germany, residing in Grantsville. He conducted the post mortem examination of the stomach. He found the inner coat very much reddened; after scraping off the reddened coloration the tunic presented a healthy appearance with the exception of two round spots near the upper part. None of the chemical tests he applied detected arsenic. He proposed sending part of the stomach and contents to Professor Aiken of Baltimore. At the second examination of the body, putrefaction was well advanced; he felt it was unnecessary to open the body further. He found no garlic smell when the body was opened, only the smell of far advanced putrefaction.

Cross-examined by State: Dr. Patterson stated that Dr. Harman had the stomach in warm water, moistening it with his hands, and that Harman contended at the second examination that it was unnecessary to open the body.

Professor Aiken — A chemist of twenty-one years' experience in Baltimore. He received the sealed jar and compared the seal on the letter with that on the jar; they matched and the seals were unbroken. He employed Marsh's Experiment and considered it capable of detecting as little as one-thousandth part of a small grain of arsenic. He put the entire contents of the jar to the test. His opinion: there could have been no arsenic in these substances. He further explained that white arsenic cannot emit a garlic smell unless the metal is extracted from it and set free as vapor; the smell of garlic is only peculiar to metallic arsenic in vapor form.

Dr. Samuel Smith — Practicing since 1817. From the testimony as to the symptoms and the post mortem appearances, his positive conclusion was that Mrs. Engle did not die from arsenic. His reasons: if arsenic had been given in the salts on Monday, the irritability of the stomach would have been so severe she could not have retained soup or roasted apples; the pulse as described was quick and full, whereas with arsenic it would have been thread-like; the skin was described as very hot and dry, whereas with arsenic it would be moist and cool. He believed she died of a malignant typhus fever. He also noted that if arsenic had been given in sufficient doses to cause death in a few days, it would be found by chemical analysis — and it was not.

Dr. Thomas A. Healy — From the symptoms before Mrs. Engle's death and the post mortem appearances, his opinion was that she did not die from the effects of poison but from typhoid fever.

John Yeast — Previous to Mrs. Engle's confinement, Dr. Patterson told him that her case would be dangerous.

Mrs. Yeast (sister of the prisoner) — Mrs. Hufford had lived with her since July. Mrs. Hufford had a sore leg and was in the habit of putting cream of tartar, arsenic, and white lead on it as a wash.