Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/218

 194 HISTORY OF each oue furnishing material of some kind, such as hewn timber, boards, shingles, &c., being so very poor at the time, but few could furnish any money. The same year a place was built called stocks, and a whipping-post prepared by Isaac Pierce, for the purpose of inflicting punishment on any who had been charged with crime, and found guilty of the same by a jury. A good deal of curiosity was exhibited, especially among the fair sex, to get a glimpse of the ordeal, and after they were com- pleted, Alexander Harper, who was fond of an innocent joke, invited his wife to accompany him and examine the stocks, which were so arranged, that by placing the criminal's foot in and making it fast, he could not escape. He therefore r-equested his wife to put her foot in, telling her that That fool of a Pierce had made them, and theywoidd not hold any one.^' She put in her foot and he let down the block, locked the same fast, and walked off amid the hearty laugh of the spectators and her own earnest entreaties, but soon returned and released her. It was however, regarded as a rich joke for many years afterwards. But one person was ever whipped at the post, and he soon left the county. It may be remarked in this place, that three whipping-posts were erected in Delaware County at about the same period; the one already mentioned in Harpersfield, one on the place now owned by ex-sheriff Thomas, but then in pos- session of Silas Knapp, who kept a grocery there for several years, and the other near Col. Dimmick's, in Middletown. There was but one person whipped, as I have been able to learn, at either of the last named whipping-posts. This per- son was one Turner, a carpenter by trade. The charge which was brought against him, and which he finally confessed, was stealing some fifty pounds of flour belonging to Ezra Hait, from Esq. Rose's mill. After sentence was passed, he was fastened in the stocks, which were constructed of heavy plank, hollowed out above and below sufficiently to contain a man's legs when the planks were shut together, They were secured