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.
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.
Mrs. D.E. Weiss named their first daughter, born in 1878, Mollie.
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.
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| The Dewart Mill Before The Fire |
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| A hotel is shown on this 1857 map, at the location of what today is cabinet surplus. I believe that is where the Heckel Hotel building was located, and that once it burnt down, Charles Sheffer built his creamery on that location. That creamery burnt down in 1911, and was replaced with the larger creamery, that today is the Cabinet Surplus building. |
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The Dewart Train Station was located on the North Side of Main Street, West of the Tracks. The station in 1918 - building on the right. Note the Dewart Creamery building in the background  That area today. |
"When the Pennsylvania Railroad was built in 1846, Mr Pardee sold his grain market to a company known as Hull, Man & Nagle"
"The first business established, and the most important ever conducted at the place, was that of purchasing and forwarding grain. Hull, Marr, and Nagle erected the first warehouse for this purpose, a frame building twenty-eight by fifty feet, which, as enlarged by Arlo Pardee, the next owner, constitutes the present freight and passenger station of the Philadelphia and Erie railroad. Several other warehouses were also conducted, and at one time the shipments from this point amounted to two hundred thousand bushels annually, at a conservative estimate. Less attention is given to grain than formerly by the farmers of the adjacent region, and the opening of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad on the opposite side of the river has also reduced the shipments at this point. "
1861
In October of 1918, Mrs. Mattie A Cummings of Dewart received a verdict in her favor, awarding her $15,000, for a grade crossing accident resulting in the death of her husband two years prior.
In In 1928, Samuel Cummings, a bread distributor, was killed when he drove his wagon in the path of a train crossing near Dewart. The train had been rerouted from the main line due to a wreck, and witnesses stated that it was traveling at a high rate of speed.
The crossing was protected by a watchman during part of the day, but was unguarded when the accident occurred.
On Monday September 6th, Amos Ritter had purchased bread at Fry's bakery in Watsontown, tobacco in Messingers store, and a small load of phosphate from Rob Mckee, a dealer. When he left town, he had about $15 in his possession. The local papers reported that "he was also known to have had considerable money in his house".
According to Northumberland's Public Press newspaper, "On the afternoon of September 6th 1897, Amos Ritter aged 70 years, a well to do farmer of Delaware Twp, visited Watsontown and exhibited a large sum of money. At night fall he started home a foot, early the next morning he was found murdered in a field near his home, and the money gone." (Later estimates placed the amount missing as anywhere from $100 to $600.)
After his shopping trip in Watsontown, Amos had dinner at the home of Jacob Bets, a neighbor. At 8pm that night, he headed for his own home, "in good spirits".
At 11pm that same evening, both Mr Bets Mrs. D.N. McWilliams (wife of the postmaster) heard a muffled cry, and then a shot. As it had been a holiday week-end, and the roads had been busy with travelers, neither thought too much of the noises at the time.
In mid September of 1897, the County Commissioners offered a $200 reward for the arrest of the murderer. The Columbian, a Bloomsburg newspaper, reported: "Detective Dougherty and a posse of 20 men scoured the country round the home of Amos Ritter, in an effort to find the hatchet which which the old man Ritter was murdered a little over a week ago.
More than a week after the murder, a paper in which Ritter had wrapped his coins was found at the spot where he had been murdered. As the area had been searched thoroughly in September, and it was obvious the paper had not been exposed to rain or dew, it was certain the murderer had returned to the scene of the crime.
The Columbian reported "The arrest, if made as suspicion now directs, will reveal not only some very startling fact, but, if conviction follows, will expose one of the most deceitful and treacherous crimes ever committed in Central Pennsylvania."
However, no arrest was ever made.
Speculation & Theories
"Speculation is rife as to the identity of the aged recluses murderer. There is a well authenticated report out that the authorities suspect a woman, but the deed was so brutal that is a woman was guilty of it she must have been actuated by a cruel mania. A shrewd trick of the assassin was the covering of his or her tracks that led from the spot where the old man's body lay."
In late March of 1900, local papers theorized that Ritter may have been a victim of the recently convicted murderer William Hummel. Hummel was known to have been in the vicinity of "the old blacksmiths home" the night that Ritter was killed. Hummel, a rag peddlar, had left the home he was staying at early in the evening, and he did not return until Midnight. When asked where he had been, he replied "Oh, I was just calling".
Hummel however, adamantly denied any involvement, even as he faced the gallows for murdering his wife and children. "I can only die once" he said, "so what need I be afraid of it? If I did it, I would say so, but I didn't."
In July of 1900, half a dozen local citizens declared their willingness to subscribe to a fund to pay for a detective to be brought in on the Ritter case. According to the Columbian, a newspaper in Bloomsburg, " Within the last week or two there has been developments that are reported to point quite conclusively to several parties with certain proof believed to be indisputable. The people feel that the brutal murder of the old man, now three years ago, should be avenged."
By August of that year, the Northumberland County Commissioners had upped the reward to $1,000 for the arrest and conviction of the murderer.
Three years later, six years after the murder, no one had been arrested for the crime. Rumors flew through local communities in July 1903 that a man had confessed. "The report in circulation" was that the neighbor of the dead man was on his death bed and had made a confession. The story, given in detail, included the details about buying a cow and paying for it with dime and small silver pieces taken from the Ritter home. Although the story "tallied so well with the rumors that have been in circulation among the old man's neighbors", the confession could not be proven.
