Mary Margaret Lowell

Other Events:

• Interesting: murder, crime, life story
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-102483

Notes:

THE HOLLOWED CHOCOLATE

from Memoirs of a great detective:
incidents in the life of John Wilson Murray (1904)

compiled by Victor Speer

A CALL to Galt awaited Murray on his return from Thessalon and the search for Maud Gillespie. Great excitement prevailed in the county of Waterloo. Many people were terrified; others were infuriated. A fiend was among them spreading death and planning the extermination of whole families. No one had any clue to the mysterious one's identity. It might be a stranger, it might be a neighbour; it might be a person of high estate or it might be a creature of low degree. None knew, and there were myriad suspicions. It was as if an avenging angel or a deadly devil were abroad in the county, lurking to slay and escape unseen, leaving no trace of the manner of death. A victim arose in the morning well and happy, and fell lifeless before noon without a sign of sickness or an intimation of the end.

"The climax came when little Meta Cherry, the three-year-old daughter of John Cherry, a prominent mill-owner of Galt, died in a sudden and mysterious way," says Murray. "I went to Galt, a prosperous town near Berlin, in the county of Waterloo It was September 1888. Several persons were sick, as if a plague were upon them. I looked at the little child. She seemed startled, even in death, as if the hand that thrust her into eternity had seized her roughly and scared her. I talked with John Cherry, and he told me of a box of chocolate drops that had come through the mail. He showed me the box. A few of the chocolates were gone. Meta had eaten them. I took one out, and carefully scraped the chocolate off with a knife-blade. I found on the bottom of the chocolate a spot where a cavity had been bored, and this had been filled with a whitish substance, unlike the cream candy of the chocolate, and the hole then had been sealed deftly by glazing over the bottom with more chocolate. I took the contents of the box, and sent the chocolates to Professor Ellis for analysis.

"I examined the box minutely. It revealed no clue, simply an ordinary pasteboard box. The wrapper in which it came showed a label pasted over an old address. The address on this label was printed with a soft lead pencil. I steamed the label to get at the address underneath it, but it had been washed out and scraped away, except for the one word 'Miss.' The package had been mailed in Galt. On inquiry I learned that similar packages had been received by the Rev. John Ridley, minister of the Church of England in Galt, and by Miss May Lowell and Mrs. Lowell, daughter and wife of Charles Lowell, proprietor of the Queen's Hotel in Galt. The boxes were quite small, and the inscriptions were alike as to the soft lead pencil. The packages had been dropped in the mail when no one was around, and the sender had vanished unseen.

"Professor Ellis reported that the cavities in the chocolate drops were filled with strychnine. This established clearly the intent of the poisoner to kill many people, and wipe out a number of families.

"I spent days gathering all the gossip of the town for generations back, hearing all the tales of trouble, and searching for some secret feud or some deadly hatred that would supply a motive for the deed. I ransacked ancestral closets for family skeletons, and I poked in all the after-dark affairs and twilight scandals since the days when the oldest inhabitants were gay young folk, fond of walking hand-in-hand through the gloaming. I ran down secrets that distressed dear old ladies, and left them in tears. I heard confessions of errors of youth that had lain locked in gentle bosoms for many kindly years; in fact, for a time I was an old Paul Pry Gadabout, poking my nose into other folk's business, until I felt I had sifted the lives and winnowed the chaff from the wheat in the collective career of the entire community. Every town has its chamber of horrors, where the sad episodes of indiscreet living are laid away to crumble in darkness, and the town of Galt has no more than its share of secrets of the passing generations. I found nothing in the long-gone years to throw light on the crime. There was no venerable hatred sufficient to inspire the murder of a little child. So I turned to later years, and for entanglements of recent months.

"In the meantime, about the middle of October, I arrested Hannah Boyd at Thorold. Hannah was a fine-looking girl, and had been living as a domestic in the Queen's Hotel, of which Mr. Lowell was proprietor. Later she removed to Thorold, and worked for a family there as Hannah Bond. Her home was in Hamilton. I kept her a week, and interviewed her thoroughly, particularly as to the family life of the Lowells, and whether she knew of the receipt of the package of chocolates by Mrs. Lowell and Miss Lowell, and whether she ever had heard of any trouble with the Ridleys, the Cherrys, and the Lowells. I was satisfied after these interviews with Hannah that she had no guilty knowledge, and that she had nothing whatever to do with sending the packages.

"I did develop promptly a strong suspicion as to the person who did send the poison packages. I searched the drug-stores through Canada, and examined the poison-books in all of them, and went so far as to describe to some of the druggists the person I suspected; but I found no clue that would hold in a trial as sufficient evidence to convict anybody. It is one of the most aggravating cases of my entire experience, yet I hold steadfast to my first impression."

Other Events:

• Crime: Lowell, Charles; Charged with Inciting and attempting to induce J.C. McEwan to commit perjury; Subornation of perjury:
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-389126
• Residence: 1861, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Episcopalian
• Occupation: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Farmer
• Residence: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; English Church
• Occupation: 1881, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Hotel Keeper

Charles — Sarah Hearn. Sarah was born 1855, , Ontario, Canada; died 3 Jul 1907, Brantford, Brant Co., Ontario, Canada; was buried , Trinity Anglican Cemetery, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Sarah Lowell
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-389127

Notes:

Estimable Wife of Ex-Proprietor of Queen's Hotel Passes Away

The Reporter last night briefly recorded the death of Mrs. Lowell, of Brantford, wife of Mr. Chas. Lowell, an Old Galt Boy, who left town to reside in Brantford, fifteen years ago. The deceased lady had been an invalid for three years and her demise was not unexpected. It was immediately due to peritonitis. The late Mrs. Lowell was Sarah Hearn, of Seaforth, daughter of the late John Hearn, of Palmerston. She was married to Mr. Lowell 36 years ago. The couple resided in Waterloo, for seven years, afterwards removing to Galt, where Mr. Lowell took charge of the Queen's and later to Brantford. She was fifty-one years of age. One daughter is left. Mrs. Wm. Lahey, wife of the C. P. R. City Agent, Brantford. "There are many Galtonians to whom Mrs. Charlie Lowell, was well known and who cherished the most pleasant recollection of the amiable and estimable lady, whose personality did much to popularize the old Queen's, now Hotel Grand. She was kindly and gracious in manner, and her management of the departments of the hotel, which fell to her charge was marked by good business ability and a strict regard for the proprietors and the comfort of the guests of the house. Her death will be learned of with feelings of regret. The remains will be interred tomorrow, in Trinity cemetery.

Galt Daily Reporter 1907

Other Events:

• Interesting: business, mail, hotel, business
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-388567
• Occupation: 1851, North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Farmer and Innkeeper
• Residence: 1851, North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; RC
• Occupation: 1852, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; inn keeper
• Occupation: 1861, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Inn Keeper
• Residence: 1861, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Free Thinker
• Occupation: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Farmer
• Residence: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; English Church
• Retired: 1881, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
• Occupation: 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Gentleman
• Residence: 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Anglican

Notes:

Lowell, C., proprietor Queen's Hotel. Was born at Preston in this county.

Illustrated Atlas of the County of Waterloo, H. Parsel & Co., Toronto - 1881

___________________________

Francis Lowell was born near St. David's in Niagara Township on August 13, 1814 and served as an apprentice to a saddler and harness maker in Hamilton. He came to Preston in 1837 and set up his own harness shop and saddlery. Within three years of his arrival he purchased a local hotel which he operated until 1845. He then sold the hotel to Thomas McMillan and bought the Queen's Arms Hotel in Galt which he continued to own until his death in 1900. Along with a Mr. Hobson he secured the Government contract to carry the mail from Hamilton to Galt and from there to Goderich and Southampton. To fulfill his mail contract he built up an extensive stage coach system, which included the maintenance of up to one hundred and eight horses. With the coming of the Great Western Railway to Galt in 1854, stage coaches were no longer used to carry the mail to the town. However, Mr. Lowell's stages continued to operate from Galt to settlements in western Ontario until the rail lines finally reached there as well. In about 1865 Mr. Lowell retired from the direct operation of the Queen's Arms Hotel and purchased a large farm near Montrose where he raised sheep, cattle and race horses. He later sold his farm and livestock and retired to private life in Galt. Unable to remain entirely on the sidelines, Mr. Lowell took a renewed interest in the operation of the renamed Queen's Hotel. He had the hotel renovated and refurbished and then took to the sidelines again, leaving the management of the hotel to his son Charles Lowell. Francis Lowell died on February 18, 1900 and is buried in Trinity Anglican Cemetery.


Cambridge Mosaic, Jim Quantrell, 1998, City of Cambridge

Francis — Mary Terry. Mary (daughter of Capt. Richard Terry) was born CALC 10 Oct 1811; died 10 Sep 1889, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; was buried , Trinity Anglican Cemetery, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Mary Lowell
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-388568
• Birth: 1815
• Birth: Oct 1815, Whitby, Yorkshire Co., England
• Residence: 1861, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Episcopalian
• Residence: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; English Church

Notes:

In Galt, on the morning of Tuesday, the 10th inst., Mary Lowell, wife of Francis Lowell, aged 66 years and 11 months; daughter of the late Capt. Richard Terry, of Whitby, England. The death of this lady will occasion sincere regret to her many friends. It was not unexpected, for she had been a sufferer for some time. A very old resident of Galt, kind hearted and affectionate, she has left many friends, who most sincerely regret her removal from amongst us.

Galt Reporter - Sep 13, 1878, pg 3

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-406700