After the sale of their land to the State of New York in 1789, almost all the remaining Indians moved out of the ancestral lands bordering the north shore of Cayuga Lake. One who did not was Delaware John. He lived in a small hut in what is now the town of Tyre, across the lake from Aurora, and subsisted by hunting the hardwood forests for game he sold to the new settlers in the area.

In the fall of 1803, Delaware John and one George Phodoc formed a primitive partnership to hunt together, with each keeping his own kill. Phodoc proved to be highly successful, but his partner missed shot after shot. John was soon convinced that Phodoc had put a spell on his gun and thus made a kill impossible. The only way to remove the spell was to eliminate Phodoc. He hid near Phodoc's cabin and when his victim arrived, a deer over his shoulder, he fired. As in previous hunts, his aim was faulty and his shot only wounded Phodoc, who quickly escaped to raise an alarm. Undaunted, John remianed at the scene and soon saw someone he thought was Phodoc in his sight again. This time the bullet's flight was true, but the man turned out to be Ezekiel Crane, a new settler trying to buy venison.

Delaware John was arrested and brought to trial in Aurora, the county seat, before Judge John Ambrose Spencer and within the walls of Cayuga Academy (later Cayuga Lake Academy). His plea was guilty, and it was said that he showed real regret at having killed an innocent person -- but even greater regret at missing the true target. The foreman of the jury, Elijah Price, delivered the verdict, "Guilty." Although John requested that he be shot, Judge Spencer ordered that he be hanged. The order was expeditiously carried out. He was hanged in a ravine south of the village, next to which Glen Park was later built.

Through information supplied by the man from the State of Washington, noted at the beginning, the story continues and comes down to much more recent times.

Before the hanging, the local physician, Dr. Frederick Delano, offered Delaware John a jug of whisky in exchange for his lifeless body. The deal was struck and Dr. Delano secured the corpse immediately after the hanging. He then proceeded to reduce it to a dried skeleton which was properly mounted in his office. The skeleton passed on through a series of local physicians and was always displayed in a prominent place in their offices. Finally, Dr. Elijah Price Baker inherited the remains when he arrived in Aurora in 1869. In the spring of 1870, Dr. Baker had Delaware John's skeleton, along with some other bones used for medical instruction, buried in Oak Glen Cemetary. The only mourner was the doctor's son, Fred Baker, the man from Washington who wrote Professor Hollcroft in 1952.

Dr. Baker's home and office was the house where Floyd Gifford used to live, which has recently been restored by the Higgins. Fred Baker moved from Aurora around 1900 but retained an excellent memory of places, people and events associated with the village and surrounding area. His letters to Hollcroft treat a wide variety of subjects, all fascinating. It was through this correspondence that it was learned that the jury foreman, Elijah Price, after whom Dr. Baker was named, was Fred Baker's grandfather. Mr. Baker died in 1957 at the age of 96.

From The History of Cayuga County New York by Elliot G. Starke. 1879. p. 397

In one of the upper rooms of the Patrick Tavern, located on the Southeast corner of Main Street and Dublin Hill Road, "the early courts were held, including one, in 1804, which tried the Delaware Indian named John, for the murder, the previous year, hear Seneca Falls, of Ezekiel Crane, one of the earliest settlers in Seneca county. John was captured after a hard struggle, and convicted before Judge Ambrose Spencer, who sentenced him to be hung. When the time for the execution arrived, he expressed his wish to be shot like a warrior, with his rifle in his hand. This being denied him, he submitted to his fate with the stoicism characteristic of his race. He was hung in the revine in the rear of the college. Dr. Frederick Delano, who, in company with others, dissected him, preserved the skeleton and kept it until his death, when it passed into the possession of Dr. Morgan, and susequently into that of Drs Alex Thompson and Baker, the latter of whom had it buried. This was the first case of capital punishment in Cayuga County.

From Historical and Statistical Gazetteer of New York State. 1860. p.198

...the first courthouse was located at Aurora, on the E. shore of Cayuga Lake. It was built of poles and covered with brush. In 1803 a circuit court and court of Oyer and Terminer was held at this place by Daniel D. Tompkins, at which a man by the name of John was tried and convicted of the murder of Ezekiel Crane, jr., and sentenced to be hung. He urgently requested that he might be shot -- a priveledge, of course, not granted by ourlaws.

There are no further documents in the Wells College Archives to either prove or disprove the accuracy of the stories presented here.

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