Stephentown Town Historian Pat Flint will tell of 18th and 19th Century murders in Stephentown, at the Stephentown Historical Society meeting on Monday, October 6, at 7:30 pm. The meeting will be at the Stephentown Heritage Center on Garfield Road (County Route 26), Stephentown. The program is free and open to the public. The building is handicapped accessible. For directions or information, phone 518-733-0010.
Pat Flint is a Past President of the Historical Society. She will recount several of the recorded murders of past centuries and then introduce a skit performed by prominent local men. The skit will be based on the reported facts of the 1791 trial of Whiting Sweeting of Stephentown, who was accused of murdering Deputy Constable Darius Quimby, the first New York State law enforcement officer to be killed in the line of duty. It is the earliest of Stephentown murders that is recorded. Quimby’s name is on the Albany wall memorializing officers killed in the line of duty. Whiting Sweeting was the son of Dr. Lewis Sweeting, a physician in Stephentown. The narrative will demonstrate the differences in the law as it was back then and now.