My great-great grandmother was murdered in the late 1800’s; how much detail should I provide?

Question

I have given the cause of my gr-gr-grandmother’s death in her profile.  I have a copy of a newspaper account of the home invasion attack she did not survive.  It describes her violent murder.  I have the article posted in the sidebar for now, because this IS what happened.  But I’m wondering if it’s too graphic.

Comments

I have not looked at the article. But as they say, "it is what it is". Leave the article and refer to it in the biography. For me it is important to see the ʻrealʻ details as they were recorded at the time.  If you know more you should probably add that.

I now read the article and stand by what I said.

It seems to me, showing how news of an "indian attack" without any ʻrealʻ evidences is important. It is a well written article that is of itʻs time. We all need to have this sort of contemporaneous reporting about our ancestors. Unfortunately, most of us do not have that luxury.

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I didn't think that the article was all that bad either.  It was not sensational and, as Kristina said, was well-written and an interesting example of reporting from that period.  I would attach the article and say in her biography that she was murdered.

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Thanks for the feedback

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Mattie, I'd be inclined to add a lot more detail, and be sure to include the information noted by Roger Strong in the answer below.  I think he's right about it being an interesting bit of frontier history.

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Thanks Julie, I had written the biography some time time ago, and was thinking about re-working it.  I really appreciate your comments.

Answer 1

Maggie:

     It is also interesting in how that article was reprinted in newspapers across the country.

    Do you have access to newspapers.com?  I found subsequent article - "Planning a Lynching," Courier Democrat (Langdon, North Dakota), December 9, 1897, p. 10.  It talks about Indian prisoners named Black Hawk and Defender that were arrested for the murder and rumors of a possible effort to lynch them.  

https://www.newspapers.com/image/606571390/?terms=Thomas%20Spicer&match=1

    There's another article - "The Crime Confessed: Murder of the Spicer Family Near Winona Cleared Up at Last," The Washburn Leader (Washburn, North Dakota), May 1, 1897, p. 1.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/466359255/?terms=Thomas%20Spicer&match=1

   It seems to be a really interesting piece of frontier history, with reporting almost as interesting as the crime.

                                          Roger

P.S.  My wife's family has a story about a young girl murdered by a local boy enamored with her older sister and, in that, case, the local community committed an act of frontier justice.  Your family seems better mannered that hers (grin).

Comments

Roger, Yes, the story was picked up by a lot of newspapers.  The attack would have pushed buttons : 4 generations of family members killed in one rampage;  white settlers vs. “Indians”; the head of the household was a reverend.  I don’t have access to newspapers.com but I was able to open the links you attached.  Thanks for that.  Re: Your wife’s family and frontier justice—yes, pretty wild lives some of them led in the past.  

In an odd twist in my heritage I am also a descendant of an “Indian woman from Missour” who was purchased or traded and brought to Quebec as a slave.  And I actually have the Quebec birth record of the child she gave birth to who was my 7th g-grandmother.

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Mattie:

    Another wonderful story.

                             Roger