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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2089"John Nighswander: Another Victim of the Markham Gang The Trial of Oliver Badgero and William Vanzant John Nighswander was another of the Pickering Township victims of the Markham Gang. We published an earlier account of the trial of John Fleming for the robbery of Casper Willson’s grain.1 Both Willson and Nighswander have descendants who still live in this area. But the story of the Nighswander theft is a bit puzzling and gives us an indication of how little we really know about our past. For one thing, there is no record of a John Nighswander living in Pickering Township in the 1840s. The story of the immigration of the Nighswanders to Upper Canada has been pieced together by a descendant, Joe Nighswander. His great, great, great grandfather, Abraham Neiswander (1773-1825), came to the Markham-Pickering area in 1824, with his wife and ten children.2 Abraham had been married previously and that marriage produced three sons, the eldest of whom was named John, born in 1798. However, there is no record thus far discovered that indicates any of these children came to Upper Canada. Oral tradition traces the beginning of the Nighswander Mill, on Lot 31, Concession 9, to Samuel Nighswander, who is said to have built a woolen mill sometime in the mid-1850s.3 The lot on which the mill stood was originally a Clergy Reserve lot. It was purchased (patented) by Martin Neighswander in 1838.4 In 1841, Martin’s brother Samuel purchased the south half of the lot—that portion on which the mill was built. And according to the family history, it was Samuel who erected the mill, and not until the 1850s. Now, however, we have evidence that there was a fulling mill at least a decade earlier, having been built before 1845, and the operator’s name was John Nicewinder (Nighswander). There is no further record of John Nighswander after the event of the robbery. In this case two men, Oliver Badgero and William Vanzant, were tried for stealing fulled cloth from Mr. Nighswander.5 Badgerow was the son of Justin Badgerow and Elizabeth Austin. In 1839, Justin Badgerow purchased the south half of Lot 13, Concession 4, Pickering Township, land that is now part of the Greenwood Conservation Area. It was heavily wooden then, and still heavily wooded in parts today. Several traditions have come down to us that the forests on this lot were used by members of the Markham Gang as a hideout or meeting place. According to one story, on Sundays members of the gang “would meet on ‘Hell’s Half Acre,’ a pleasant stretch of level land rising from Duffin’s Creek, so named because of their association with it. There they would plan their raids.”6 Considering the number of known crimes Badgerow was involved in, this assessment appears to be quite plausible. Oliver Badgerow, himself, who died in 1861, lies buried in a lonely grave on the property. Vanzant (or Van Zant) lived just north of the hamlet of Altona, Lot 2, Concession 1, Uxbridge Township.7 This was, as Nighswander testified, about one mile (1.6 km) from the fulling mill. At the time of the robbery he had eight children; he would later have another son, born in 1852.8 In the meanwhile both he and Badgerow were found guilty of this crime and others and were sentenced to seven years of hard labour in the provincial penitentiary. Two other men were implicated in the Nighswander theft, Casper Stotts and Lorenzo White. Stotts we have encountered before; he was the chief witness against Fleming in the Casper Willson case. A gang member himself, he was persuaded to turn Queen’s evidence and testified in more than a dozen cases against gang members, including several times against Badgerow. Lorenzo White was alleged to have been involved in numerous robberies, but he was never arrested, never tried, and never served time.9 This episode is taken from the British Colonist Supplement published in 1846, which contained a summary of the arrests and trials of various gang members.10 Home District Assizes Before his Honour the Chief Justice [John Beverley Robinson] Oliver Badgero and William Vanzant were then placed at the bar, charged with stealing 150 yards of cloth, the property of John Nicewinder. Mr. Hagarty appeared for Vanzant. The prosecutor deposed to having lost from his fulling mill, this quantity, in January of last year. It was in rolls, and were greys, browns, and plaids. The robbery took place while he was at a sale, three or four miles off. He noticed on his return, the track of another sleigh on the side line. Cross examined.—Vanzant raised wool. I fulled cloth for him every year. The robbery was committed while I was at the auction. Saw Vanzant’s family there. Don’t know the time they left. I met a sleigh on my return. I think the parties in it committed the robbery. Vanzant lives a mile from me. (By a juror)—I have no private mark. Re-examined.—I did not see who was in the sleigh, as they turned right out, and gave us all the road. Caspar Stotts.—About three months after the robbery, Badgero told me that Vanzant and his wife had parted, and that she had told all about Nicewinder’s cloth. While travelling in a sleigh with White, Vanzant got into the cutter. Conversation turned on the cloth, and Vanzant said he had never received his portion of the proceeds. White replied, he was overpaid. Vanzant retorted “he had not had a copper.” Badgero told me he held the horses while Vanzant and White fetched the cloth, and told me that in passing Nicewinder, they drove into the ditch, and nearly upset the whole. The pantaloons I have on, were made from the cloth. I got it from Lorenzo White. Cross-examined by Mr. Hagarty.—I suppose they told me this because we belonged to one club. Some pieces of the cloth were hid at my house. I have had no conversation with Rachel Baker about my evidence. The rules of the club were, that we were to share and share alike, and it was understood that if any man turned, death should be his portion. I did not swear; nor was there any oath or form. His Lordship.—Did you suppose they were allotted for on admission Mr. Hagarty? Mr. Hagarty.—No, my Lord.—Call Rachael Baker. Rachael Baker deposed to being in the service of the prisoner, Vanzant, when the robbery occurred. She recollected the prisoner bringing home some rolls of cloth, about ten at night. They were of various colours. Mrs. Vanzant said that was not their cloth, and asked where he got it; but Vanzant would not say. Other evidence was offered in corroboration and Mr. Hagarty addressed the jury at length; who returned a verdict of “guilty.” Notes: 1 Pathmaster 5, 3&4 (2003), p. 31. 2 The names of the children were: Samuel, Isaac, Martin, David, Michael, Joseph, Daniel, Otilia, Elizabeth, and Manuel. The name Nighswander is spelled in each case as found in the particular document. 3 Joseph M. Nighswander, “The Altona Apple Butter Mill,” Pathmaster 1, 4 (1998), p. 29. Edwin Cliff who purchased the mill property in 1858 was already described as carder and fuller in Lovell (1857). 4 Martin was already living on the property in 1837, according to Walton (1837). 5 The case is reviewed in Paul Arculus, Mayhem to Murder: The History of the Markham Gang (Port Perry: Observer Publishing, 2003), pp. 27-28, 111-112. 6 Unidentified news clipping (c1959?) in the Brougham Tweedsmuir History. See also our original query about the “Stoutenburgh Gang,” which we later learned was, in fact, the Markham Gang: Pathmaster 3, 1 (1999), p. 7. 7 Walton (1837). 8 Arculus (2003), pp. 65, 176. 9 All of his known larceny appears to have been committed against people of Pickering Township: Nighswander, Asa Post, Casper Willson, John Haight, and John Lumsden. Arculus (2003), pp. 27-28, 111-113, 120, 172. 10 “An Interesting Account of the Organization and Mode of Operations of the Celebrated Horde of Robbers Known as the Markham Gang ….” Toronto, Canada, 1846. Pp. 4-5. "