Paul Puehler.com

Middletown, New York, September 5th, 1895

Paul Halliday was for many years employed in the saw factory.

His first wife made him a good home and was a good

mother to his children. About 20 years ago, Halliday sold his little property in the city

and bought a wild place on the mountain above Burlingham, where he engaged in burning charcoal.

After a few years, the family removed a Providence, Rhode

Island, where Halliday was employed as an engineer in the office of the Providence Journal.

After a number of years, he returned to his old place on the mountain. His wife died some

six or seven years ago, and after remaining a widower for a short time,

he married a woman said to be a gypsy, who has made his old age as wretched as that of any man could be.

About three years ago, while Holliday was in the city with a load of charcoal, his house on the mountains was destroyed by fire.

His youngest son, a half-witted fellow, perished in the flames.

There were those who said that his devil of a wife had made away with the boy and burned the house to conceal her crime,

but there was no positive proof to sustain the charge.

About two years ago, Mrs. Halliday disappeared from her mountain home, and when next

heard of was in Newburgh under arrest for stealing a horse. While in jail, she displayed

symptoms of violent insanity, and though some thought she was shamming, she was sent to an insane

asylum from which she was released last May. The story that Halliday has been put out of the way is strengthened by the fact that his best

suit of clothes, his best hat and shoes, and also his old hat and boots that he wore at his

work were all found in the house.

T.R. Hart, a young lawyer from New York, tendered his services to Mrs. Halliday as

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