The Gravesend Poisoning Case Part 1: Maria's Ghost

In September 1878 the ghost of a murdered woman electrified the little village of Gravesend in south Brooklyn (which is the perfect name for the place a ghost might wish to appear).

Gravesend was just north of Coney Island, and though the railroad had reached it by then, it was still a quiet, rural place. The Gravesend Poisoning Case of June 1878 had given the town press coverage that it did not need or like, though.

Maria Hubbard, wife of a wealthy Gravesend farmer, had died quickly and horribly from drinking a bottle of beer laced with strychnine. Though her husband Samuel was arrested twice for the crime, he was released both times, as was his cousin Jacob "Cabe" Stryker and Maria's niece/companion Elizabeth Lusk. The case was never solved.

Gravesend was one of the six original towns of Brooklyn. Founded by Lady Deborah Moody and a group of Anabaptists in 1643, it encompassed the whole of Coney Island, directly to the south. Coney Island and Gravesend were independent of the City of Brooklyn until 1894 (which itself did not join New York City until four years after that).

Until the last third of the nineteenth century, Gravesend was a quiet farming community. By 1878, however, three racetracks, the railroad, and the developing resort of Coney Island were just starting to bring more people, and change, to the little village.

The center of Gravesend (pictured at left in the 1950s) was a little square with a building at each corner, as you can see in the map detail above. At the crossroads in the center of the square stood the Town Hall, the Dutch Reformed Church, Sim Hoagland's hotel/tavern, and Samuel Hubbard's house (directly in front of the Dutch Reformed cemetery). Samuel's ancestors had been in Gravesend since the days of Lady Deborah. He was one of the biggest land owners in the town, a weather-beaten, short man about 60 years of age.*

Bartlett McGetrick was an Irish-born railroad flagman with a ragged silver beard and grey eyes, who spoke in a "rich brogue," though he had been in Gravesend for so long he recalled when "corn grew all the way down to the water." He was 63 years old in 1878, married with three children still at home. The J. McGetrick at the top of the map was probably his son (John McGetrick was in his early 30s, born in Ireland). He had often chatted with Maria and considered her a friend. McGettrick told a reporter that she had been kindly, church-going and a meticulous housekeeper.

On the night of August 30, 1878, at about 10pm, McGetrick was crossing the Prospect Park and Coney Island RR tracks, at the center of the square, near the Town Hall. This line had opened in 1875 and ran from Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn down to Coney Island.

It was completely dark except for the starlight. He heard a woman calling to him from the direction of the Hubbard house. He went over to the two-story cottage, which had a big front porch, and was buried in trees, vines and creepers. There was a woman on the porch and she looked just like Maria Hubbard, said McGetrick. She was wearing the same sort of calico wrapper Maria wore. And she had left what looked like grave clothes on the porch.

McGetrick was terrified and immediately fell on his knees and started praying. Maria called to him again. So he got up and went over - quite reluctantly, as you can imagine. Her face was pale, a little yellow on one side, he said. And her eyes were bright with "supernatural light." In a "hollow but kindly voice" she asked after McGetrick's health and after his dog, who had died recently. And then she hinted that she thought the dog had been poisoned, in a meaningful way. She had already accused a specific person of poisoning her, on the day she died.

Two men passing by heard and saw the ghost too, an ex-Justice of the Peace, Andrew McKibben, and a barber named either Sauer or Rosenthal (the Eagle man wasn't sure which). Their approach made Maria's ghost nervous. McGetrick said she "resumed the grave clothes" and "vanished in a cloud of blue smoke." He added that he was worried that she was going to return and take him away with her.

But Maria's ghost never came back. Most of the residents of Gravesend were not convinced by McGettrick's story, though the barber (Sauer or Rosenthal) confirmed it. McKibben, however, said that it was his son who was there, not him, and didn't want to discuss the matter.

In the next installment, we'll meet Maria and look at her complicated connections, including various relatives, stepchildren, either three or four husbands, and some hostile in-laws. We'll also examine what happened on the day she drank the wrong bottle of beer - and see who might have put something in it - and why.

[to be continued...]

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*Samuel Hubbard and I share the following ancestors: Anthony Van Salee (ca 1609-1676) who was living at Gravesend by 1639; Jacob Suydam (ca 1666-1738) an early settler in Flatbush; and Rev. Johannes Theodorus Polhemus (ca 1598-1676). Van Salee, the son of a pirate, is one of the most interesting characters to settle in New Amsterdam, and very much worthy of a separate post.

IMAGE SOURCES

Picture of a shadowed Gravesend cottage by Daniel Berry Austin, courtesy of the Brooklyn Public Library. The 1950s Gravesend village square photo is also courtesy of the Brooklyn Public Library. Map of center of Gravesend village (1873) from the Brooklyn Genealogy Information Page. The link will take you to a big version of the map where you can see all the names fairly clearly.


SOURCES AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON GRAVESEND

"Ghostly: The Awful Apparition that Startled a Gravesender," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sept. 3, 1878, p. 4.

"Mrs. Hubbard's Ghost," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sept. 3, 1878, p. 2.

"That Spook: The Apparition that Agitates the Town of Gravesend," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sept. 4, 1878, p. 4. [The article, dated Tuesday Sept. 3rd, states that the ghost appeared on the previous Friday night, i.e. August 30th.]

Bartlett McGet[t]rick household, 1880 US Census, Gravesend, Kings, NY; #325/563, Series T9, Roll 857, p. 348.

Samuel Hubbard household, 1880 US Census, Gravesend, Kings, NY; #151/163, Series T9, Roll 857, p. 328.

Frank Jump's photos of the Lady Deborah Moody House in Gravesend.

Gravesend at Forgotten New York. If you scroll down a bit, you'll see a photo of an earlier Samuel Hubbard's house, circa 1750. This isn't the cottage where the 1878 murder took place, though.

Gravesend at the Bridge and Tunnel Club.