Drugged & Robbed In Dewart - 1877

 

On this day in local history, November 20 1877, Mrs. D.E. Weiss of Dewart, and her houseguest Miss Mollie Bennington of Maryland, both teachers at Williamsport, were drugged and robbed.

According to the Watsontown Record newspaper, Mrs Weiss retired to bed at approximately 9pm.  Miss Bennington followed, to the same room, some time later, and noticed a peculiar odor in the room, but did not think too much of it.

Both women slept late the following morning.  Before leaving for work, one of the women noticed that some of her money was missing.  Miss Bennington lost $30, and Mrs Weiss, $25.

$30 in 1877 is the equivalent of roughly $900 in 2024.

It was "supposed that the person who robbed them had been concealed in the room, and had drugged the ladies with some chemical."  Then, after stealing the money, the thief opened the window to allow air in to revive the women.

A quick search of local papers at the time show a variety of stories about women drugged and robbed throughout Pennsylvania in 1877, but none quite like this one.  I could find no other mention of a room being filled with a chemical while the victims slept.  That doesn't mean there were not other instances, I only performed a quick search.  I could find no indication that this was ever solved.

Mary, Daniel, with children "Mollie" [Mary] & Charles

Mrs Weiss (1857-1938)  was the former Mary Alice Shook.  The daughter of Henry & Rebecca (Garman) Shook, she  married Daniel Edkin Weiss in 1876, just a year before the robbery. 

Although the papers reported that Miss Mollie E. Bennington was from Maryland, she was in the Williamsport City Directory in 1875, listed as a teacher  In May of 1876, the school board notes show that she was approved to use the "room in which she was now teaching" for a summer school that year.   

Mary Eliza "Mollie" Bennington was born Nov 5 1855 in Maryland, the daughter of Samuel Dinsmore & Eliza Gault Bennington.  She married Charles Winfield Scott.  When she died in 1943, she was buried in Wildwood Cemetery in Williamsport.

Mrs. D.E. Weiss named their first daughter, born in 1878, Mollie.

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Find More Stories & History Of Dewart Here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/06/dewart-pennsylvania.html

And more local history from the Susquehanna Valley here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/p/history.html

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The Miltonian Reprinted the story 50 years later:

Alice Weiss Obituary

August 1938

Nov 23 1877 Miss Sarah Bestof Chilisquaue Twp was "roughly handled" by two thugs in the years of her home near Montandon.  They were frightened off by a boarder.

There's no indication the incdent was related to the robbery in Dewart 3 days prior.