A One-Name Study for the BARNUM/BARNHAM Surname
The New York Times, February 26, 1927: Mother Stabs Boy, But He Shields Her.
Beacon Lad, 13, Admits Truth When Officials Promise Not to Lock Her Up. Said He Fell on Knife. Woman Carries Son Three Miles to Doctor—Made Gesture of Reproof, Blade in Hand. Special to the New York Times.
Beacon, N. Y., Feb. 25.—Lying on what he was told would be his deathbed, after being stabbed in the back with a breadknife by his widowed mother, Joseph Barnum, 13 years old, told county officials who questioned him in the Highland Hospital today that he had accidentally fallen on the knife and injured himself. He was brought to the hospital yesterday by Dr. E. S. Keating, to whose home Mrs. Barnum had tramped three miles in the snow from her own place with her wounded son in her arms.
When the boy's questioners insisted that they knew his mother had stabbed him and after he had exacted a promise from them that they would not lock his mother up, he admitted that she had done it, though, he said, he had aggravated her until she was in a nervous frenzy.
Mrs. Barnum was then charged with assault and released on her own recognizance pending a hearing next week. Late tonight physicians at the hospital held little hope for the recovery of the boy.
Left With Five Children.
Mrs. Ellen Barnum was widowed two years ago. Her husband, formerly employed as a keeper at the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminal Insane, left her with five small children, the youngest now three years old, and Joseph, the eldest, now 13 years old.
She established herself and the children on a small farm in an isolated section about three miles from Beacon and endeavored to make a living by raising pigs.
On Thursday, Margaret, who is 9 years old, took a few pennies from her mother's purse. She did not spend them but hid them in the snow. Some boys saw her and told Joseph. Last evening when the children were in the kitchen as the mother was preparing the evening meal, Joseph commenced teasing his sister. Mrs. Barnum, with her back to the children as she was slicing bread for their supper, told him several times to stop teasing the child, but the boy continued his remarks.
Suddenly the mother turned, and evidently oblivious of the bread knife in her hand, reached for the boy as if to slap him. Instead the knife plunged into his back.
The distracted mother knelt by his side and endeavored to stanch the gaping wound. Then she picked him up in her arms and carried him through the snow and slush over three miles of roads and fields to the home of Dr. Keating. After first aid treatment there the doctor brought the boy to the hospital.
Today Allen S. Reynolds, District Attorney of Dutchess County, was notified of the case, and he sent John R. Schwartz, an Assistant District Attorney, Sheriff C. Fred Close and the Coroner, Dr. John A. Carr, to the hospital to question Joseph. On the way the three officials picked up Justice of the Peace J. Gordon Flannery.
Slight Chance to Recover.
At the hospital they were told the boy was very low, and that his chance to pull through was slight. They explained this to young Joseph and told him that because he might die he must tell the truth.
The boy said his mother was not to blame, but that he had fallen on the knife and hurt himself. The officials knew this was not true and questioned the lad further.
Finally the boy asked, "If I tell you all about it will you promise not to arrest my mother?"
The promise was given and the lad told, not sparing his own part in being disobedient to his mother's order.
Mrs. Barnum was then arraigned before the Justice of the Peace on a charge of assault and in the spirit of the promise to the child was paroled for a hearing next week.
The New York Times, March 1, 1927: Stabbed Boy Gains, Now Out of Danger. Money, Fruit and Flowers Are Sent to Beacon Lad, Wounded by His Mother. She Sees Him in Hospital. Charge to Be Dropped if He Recovers—Harry Thaw Reported to Have Promised Check for $500. Special to The New York Times.
Beacon, N. Y., Feb. 28.—Joseph Barnum, the thirteen-year-old boy who was stabbed in the back by his distracted mother last Thursday, was reported by Dr. C. V. Keating as "practically out of danger" this evening. The boy, who still insists that his mother be forgiven, passed a comfortable night at the Highland Hospital.
Meanwhile sympathy for the Barnum family spread throughout the countryside. Persons who had read that Mrs. Ellen Barnum, the mother, was compelled to support five children, all under thirteen, by working a tiny pig farm in a desolate strip of country to the north of Beacon, hastened to send money, and the inhabitants of the town filled Joseph's room in the hospital with baskets of fruits and flowers.
Reports were circulated that Harry Thaw, who escaped from Matteawan when Mrs. Barnum's husband was a keeper there in 1914, had promised to send a check for $500 to aid the family, but Dr. Keating, the hospital authorities and District Attorney Allen S. Reynolds said this afternoon that the sum had not been received as yet.
Mr. Thaw was not reached at the Hotel Belmont in New York City, so the report that he was mailing a check for $500 could not be verified.
An unknown person who lives "back of Nyack" promised over the telephone to mail $50 to District Attorney Reynolds for Mrs. Barnum. Other contributions ranged from $1 notes to $10.
The mother visited her son at the hospital in the afternoon, leaving the farm in charge of Margaret, 9 years old. She talked for a while with Joseph and neither she nor her son mentioned the stabbing.
Homer Barnum, the boy's father, who died more than a year ago, lost his job at Matteawan when Thaw escaped. He supported his family by farm work and odd jobs for the years between that time and 1925.
District Attorney Reynolds said he would not press the charge of assault against the mother if the boy recovers.
Social Security Death Index (SSDI). Name: Joseph J. Barnum Sr.; SSN: 073-01-6214; Last Residence: 12601 Poughkeepsie, Dutchess, New York, United States of America; Born: 10 Aug 1913; Died: 15 May 1997; State (Year) SSN issued: New York (Before 1951).
A Research Guide to the Genealogy of the Barnum/Barnam/Barnham Family Worldwide
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