Lena Miller: The Pioneer Murderess of Clearfield County

Clearfield County Courthouse

Of the hundreds of murderers who have hanged for their crimes in Pennsylvania, only a handful have been women. Lena Miller, who was one of these women, also holds the distinction of being the first person sentenced to death in Clearfield County.

While the first recorded murder in Clearfield County occurred in the fall of 1817, when James Monks shot Reuben Giles during a gambling dispute, Monks was hanged for the crime at Bellefonte (because of its sparse population, Clearfield County was still a part of Centre County for judicial purposes). It wasn't until a half a century later when the scaffold at Clearfield was first put to use.

Lena Miller, who went to her death in 1867, was a pioneer; she was the first woman to commit murder in the county, the first person to be tried for murder in the county, the first person to be convicted of murder in the county, and the first person to hang in the county. Lena was described as a "large, strong, well-developed woman" of about forty years with dark, deep-set eyes and a sullen, brooding demeanor. One newspaper account of her trial states that Lena was known as "a person who used intoxicating liquors to a noticeable degree and consumed considerable amounts of tobacco", while testimony from neighbors describe her as a "vulgar" and "blasphemous" woman who was given to bouts of sudden, violent rages.

The man she murdered was also sturdy and strong, but, unlike Lena, he was a quiet, soft-spoken sort of fellow. Perhaps it was this contrast in personalities which made them fall in love and get married.

Xavier Miller, who owned a small farm in Covington Township, near Frenchville, was known as a vigorous and active man who had always enjoyed excellent health. For this reason it seemed strange when, on July 10, 1866, he was plagued by a sudden bout of severe nausea and general weakness that attracted the attention of the crew of lumbermen he had been cutting timber with that afternoon. Xavier's condition worsened the next day and a doctor, Dr. Jefferson Litz, was summoned to the Miller farm. The medicine seemed to help initially, but on the following day, July 12, Xavier passed away in a state of extreme agony.

Xavier had been cutting timber in the area known as the "Horse Shoe" when he first fell ill, and it was the lumbermen who suspected foul play and demanded an inquest into their colleague's unexpected death. Finally, on July 23, the body of Xavier Miller was exhumed at the order of the county coroner, and a post-mortem examination was conducted by Dr. James P. Burchfield and Dr. John G. Hartswick. The cause of death was easily discernible to the two physicians: Xavier Miller had been poisoned with a large quantity of arsenic.

Lena Miller was charged with first-degree murder on the same day, although she was not tried for the crime until January 23, 1867. The reason for the delay was purely political; 1866 was an election year and the gubernatorial race was shaping up to be critically important and hotly-contested. The citizens of Clearfield County were strong supporters of the Republican candidate, General John W. Geary, who was a hero of both the Mexican-American War and the Civil War. The Democrat candidate for governor was Hiester Clymer, the racist state senator who was running on a white supremacy platform. Although Clymer narrowly lost the 1866 election his political career continued for many years, but he is perhaps best remembered for committing suicide in 1884 after losing all of his money in bad business deals.

One of Clymer's racist campaign ads

With so much on the line, every lawyer and politician in Clearfield County was too busy campaigning for Geary to worry about a murder trial, and so the trial of Lena Miller didn't get under way until Geary had been sworn in as the 16th governor of Pennsylvania. The presiding judge was Samuel Linn of Bellefonte. Under state law, a county was required to have a minimum population of 40,000 in order to have its own president judge, and for this reason Clearfield, Centre and Clinton counties were all lumped into one judicial district. However, unlike the 1817 murder trial of James Monks, the trial of Lena Miller was held in Clearfield, which now boasted its own newly-constructed courthouse.



The Indian Turnip Theory


The district attorney representing the Commonwealth was William McCullough, who was assisted by H.B. Swope. Lena Miller was represented by J.B. McEnally, William Wallace, William Bigler and Thomas J. McCullough. The defense built its case around the "Indian Turnip Theory", which held that Xavier Miller had died as the result of eating the tasty-but-deadly arisaema triphyllum plant, which is poisonous if not cooked properly.

When the prosecution presented evidence showing that Xavier's death had been caused by arsenic, Lena confessed that she had purchased the poison in order to kill rats, but that she had no idea the substance also had the ability to kill humans. The jury was not fooled, and a guilty verdict was reached in less time than it takes to boil the root of an Indian turnip.

After the verdict, Lena's lawyers moved for a new trial, but the state Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's ruling. With all other options exhausted, the defense requested a delay in sentencing. This was a shrewd legal maneuver, since, at the time, the state legislature was debating a bill that would authorize the governor to reduce the penalty from death to life imprisonment. At the time of Lena Miller's trial, a first-degree murder conviction automatically resulted in capital punishment. Miller's attorneys argued that sentencing should be delayed until the proposed bill was voted upon in Harrisburg.

In June of 1867, Gov. Geary vetoed the bill that would have granted him the authority to reduce the sentence for first-degree murder. According to Geary, a governor would not be able to adequately determine whether or not leniency should be justified. Judge Linn had no choice but to uphold the law, and November 13, 1867, was set as the execution date.



Lena Miller's Confession



While in jail awaiting her execution, Lena wrote a long and detailed confession to S.B. Row, editor of the Raftsman's Journal. She explained her conduct by detailing her early life as Lena Fadden, an orphan in Germany, where she was mistreated and forced to perform hard labor. At the age of fifteen she ran away with a lover and set sail for America, arriving in New York and discovering that her lover was an abusive alcoholic. She left him and wandered from place to place until arriving at Bellefonte, where she met Xavier Miller. They lived together for fifteen years, and together they had three children.

It was during the summer of 1835 when she first decided to murder her husband because of his brutal treatment; according to Lena, he would frequently knock her to the ground, kick her, and force her to work in the fields. She began to put her plan into action by making Xavier tea from poisonous laurel leaves. When that didn't work, she filed a brass buckle and hid the metal filings in his food. And when that didn't do the trick, she broke a thermometer and fed him the mercury.

Much to Lena's dismay, it seemed that her husband was indestructible. In the years that followed, she did everything from dosing his food and drink with laudanum to catching a venomous rattlesnake, boiling it, and using the snake boilings for tea. Just when she was about to give up hope, she overheard a conversation in Frenchville about the best way to get rid of rats. When one of the locals mentioned arsenic, she immediately ran to the drugstore and purchased some.

Lena stated in her confession that she felt sorry for killing her husband, and her feelings of guilt forced her to skip the funeral and move out of the house after Xavier's death. She believed these actions were what had aroused suspicion, and she seemed to suggest that she might have gotten away with the crime if only she hadn't given in to her feelings of guilt.



The Execution of Lena Miller


At one o'clock in the afternoon of November 13, 1867, the prisoner was removed from her cell and led to the gallows by Sheriff Jacob A. Faust. Wearing a black dress and smoking a cigarette, she appeared perfectly calm, though her face presented a slight expression of sadness.

Lena was seated on a chair on the platform of the scaffold as Rev. J.G. Archer read a prayer and issued a statement on the prisoner's behalf, thanking the sheriff and his wife for their kind treatment during her imprisonment. "She confesses the great sin for which she suffers, and trusting in the forgiveness of God she is willing to die," concluded Rev. Archer.

The sheriff, after pinioning Lena's feet, ordered her to stand. He then tied her hands behind her back, adjusted the noose, and drew a black cap over her face. After descending the steps he tripped the switch and Lena Miller swung into eternity.



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