The Execution of George Traviss

Murder can raise its ugly head anyplace, from the largest city to the smallest village. In 1883, murder paid a visit to Catlin Hollow in rural Tioga County. This is the story of Martha Sylvia, who was set on fire by her killer, and George Traviss, who became the first person hanged in the county.

Life was a constant struggle for Martha Sylvia. Though she was a middle-aged woman blessed a kind heart, she was also cursed with a simple mind and frail body. After being deserted by her husband, Martha was left to fend for herself. Living alone in a tiny shack in Charleston Township, the sum total of Sylvia's earthly possessions consisted of three skinny cows, a dog, and a few acres of land.

It was April 3, 1883, when Martha Sylvia was last seen alive, leaving Wellsboro at dusk after running some errands and embarking on her lonesome nine mile journey home on foot. On the night of her disappearance, a fire was reported at the barn belonging to Charles Austin, two and a half miles from the borough limits. Austin and several neighbors were able to extinguish the fire with buckets of snow, but while sifting through the damage they discovered the charred remains of some unknown animal amid the cinders. Austin dragged the remains to his granary and locked them up, and in the morning he sent for Dr. Webb to examine the strange find. The farmer was horrified when Dr. Webb informed him that the remains were those of a human being.

Later that morning a thorough search was made of the barn, and Austin found several things that did not belong to him: a woman's locket, hairpins, buttons and a ring of keys. This led District Attorney Foote to believe the victim had been a woman, and after learning that Martha Sylvia never returned home from her trip to Wellsboro, he decided to take the keys to Martha's house and try them in the door. Sure enough, the keys unlocked the door.

Foote, accompanied by a handful of honest locals, explored the house and found everything in perfect order, which suggested that Martha's death had come suddenly and unexpectedly. The District Attorney now realized that the unfortunate woman had come to her death by some foul means.

Since Catlin Hollow is the sort of place where secrets are harder to keep buried than a devout Christian on the day of the Rapture, it didn't take long before an arrest was made. The day after the fire, a resident of Catlin Hollow named Andrew J. Elphart stormed into the office of Justice Brewster and demanded that George Traviss be arrested for the heinous crime. According to Elphart, he had seen Traviss walking with Martha Sylvia along the road from Wellsboro on the night of her death. Traviss was apprehended on the streets of Wellsboro and locked up.

Martha's grave, Catlin Hollow Cemetery

George Traviss was born in Shippen Township on April 12, 1853, but moved to Michigan with his family as a child. When he turned sixteen he found a job cutting timber in the woods of Michigan, but never made much money. At the age of 27 he took a bride, but soon discovered that he was not suited for the life of a family man. And so, in November of 1882, he deserted his wife and returned to Tioga County with his young daughter and found a home with a relative named Alexander Reese, who lived three quarters of a mile from Mrs. Sylvia.

The preliminary hearing was held before Justice Brewster on April 5, 1883. Several witnesses were called, and their testimony strongly pointed the finger of blame at George Traviss. As for the accused, he could provide no alibi. He was returned to jail and held for trial.

The murder trial got under way on Tuesday, July 10, 1883, with Judge Williams presiding. District Attorney Foote and M.F. Elliott appeared for the Commonwealth, while the defendant was represented by two capable lawyers, H.B. Packer and a former judge named Wilson. A jury was chosen on the first day of the proceedings, consisting of eight farmers, two miners, a music teacher and an insurance salesman.

Foote's opening statement was a punch to the gut of the defense. In his statement, the district attorney described how Traviss was the last person seen with the victim before her disappearance, and that the defendant had visited the home of Chauncey Howard on the evening of the fire and borrowed matches. As for a motive, Foote described how Traviss has paid Mrs. Sylvia $58 for her cows the day before the fire was set, and how the authorities had been unable to locate the money. Furthermore, Foote revealed that bloodstains had been found on clothing obtained from the home where the accused killer had been living.

On the witness stand, George Traviss did very little to help his case. He claimed that the stains on his clothing were due to the fact that he suffered from chronic bloody noses. Other witnesses for the defense fumbled through their testimony, such as Alice Swope, who testified under cross-examination that Martha Sylvia had paid a visit to her house in Wellsboro on the day of her death and told her about the sale of her cattle to Traviss. Even more damning to the defense's case was Mrs. Swope's testimony that Martha had told her that she and the defendant were planning on running away to Michigan to get married. Upon leaving Mrs. Swope's home, Martha had told her friend that she may never see her again, because George wanted to leave for Michigan as soon as possible.

George Traviss was found guilty, but his defense team immediately fileda motion for a new trial, claiming that one of the jurors, Edward Copp, was a cousin of the deceased. The motion was denied by Judge Williams. On November 14, Governor Pattison signed Traviss' death warrant, setting the date of the execution for January 15, 1885.

The old jail as it appears today

The Execution, Aftermath and Strange Rumors


The execution of George Traviss was carried out at 12:25 on the afternoon of Thursday, January 15, under unusual circumstances. Because of the cold weather, the hanging took place inside the hallway of the Wellsboro jail, in a corridor just a few feet away from Traviss' cell, and, because of the constrained space, Traviss was not hanged in the traditional method. Instead, after the flagstone floor had been dug up so that posts could be erected, he was seated with a rope around his neck, and a 300-pound iron weight was dropped from the crossbar of the gallows, launching him two feet off the ground.

Traviss refused to make any statement before his execution. Unlike a successful hanging, in which the prisoner's neck is snapped, Traviss died of strangulation. After hanging for twenty-eight minutes, the physician in attendance examined Traviss and found that his heart was still beating. He was left to hang for another seven minutes until life was extinct-- supposedly.

For months after the execution, rumors circulated throughout Tioga County that George Traviss had been resuscitated after his strangulation. He was purportedly seen palling around with old friends in Middlebury after his death, none the worse for wear. Others claimed that they had seen him working as a brakeman on the Pine Creek Railway. As for his young daughter, she was sent to live with her grandparents in Michigan.

Map showing location where murder was committed, inside Charles Austin's barn on Austin Road, as well as location of victim's home and burial site.

The grave of George Traviss can still be visited at Losey-Day Cemetery in Middlebury Center, although, if rumors of his resuscitation are any indication, the grave may be empty. Martha Sylvia's gravemarker can be seen at the cemetery on Catlin Hollow Road, which is within walking distance of where her home once stood. As for Isaac Sylvia, the husband who deserted her, he wound up living at the Tioga County Almshouse. He died in October of 1913 after accidentally drowning in Charleston Creek, adjacent to the almshouse.

There is also a fascinating post-script attached to story of the hanging of George Traviss. It appears that, when the deed of the courthouse and jail was made, the man who granted the land to the county included one very specific provision-- that no one should ever be executed on the grounds and that, if this condition was violated, the land was to revert to the grantor's heirs. Needless to say, the county still holds the deed to the land.



Sources:
Philadelphia Times, Jan. 16, 1885.
Wellsboro Gazette, Jan. 20, 1885.
Mansfield Advertiser, Jan. 21, 1885.
Philadelphia Times, Jan. 24, 1885.
Tunkhannock Republican, Jan. 30, 1885.