An interesting group of individuals could be seen hanging around the Grafton Town Hall on Wednesday evening waiting to be part of the Historical Society’s presentation on the Anti-Rent Wars of the mid 1800s. The program included the re-hanging of anti-rent war flag on the wall in the vestibule of the Town Hall. This past year the flag was carefully restored and placed in a display case.
The gentleman on the right of the Town Hall entrance is Elijah Smith. He was “killt” in 1845. Shot. He was harassed because he supported the patroon. “Pay up your rent I say. It is the lawful thing to do.” He was taken to the Widow West’s house (now the home of Nelson Darling) where he died.
On the left is Norman Goyer. He was arrested more than once for Elijah’s murder, but they couldn’t prove anything. He admitted he was a down-renter and there was bad blood between the two, but he said he didn’t kill that up-renter!
Also outside with them was Plumb Martin who was with Elijah when he was shot. He believed someone had it in for the man and that the murder was not rent related.
The day he was to be ordained a Baptist Minister JHS Lewis was presented with a warrant for his arrest for Elijah’s murder, more than five years after the fact! The charges were found to be false, and Lewis believed the incident had something to do with his religious calling.
