A Tragic Ending
William seemed like the answer to my prayers. I had married Henry Knapp partly to get away from a large and grasping family. When our baby Frankie arrived, he was such a delight. He was a beautiful and happy child. I could not believe it when he got ill this spring, and I felt my world collapsing when he died. And Henry, who had become such a good husband and father, was stricken with that horrible disease...consumption. He got more and more ill, then was unable to work, leaving our finances in a horrible state. On top of my grief from the loss of Frank, I now faced an impoverished and lonely widowhood. I could not go back to my mother’s home, where I would just be a burden.
When I met William, he seemed such a vital and attractive person. I took to him immediately. He was so persuasive. He made me see that we should run away together, but when we did, I realized that in fact what we shared was a deep dissatisfaction with life. Though he had been released from prison, the charges against him dismissed, his family had disowned him and his prospects were few. And what did I have to live for — child dead, husband dying….
We will never know what was really in the mind of Louisa VanWinkle Knapp when she ran away from her marriage and home in New York City with William A. Caldwell on July 24, 1850. But we can read about their ensuing suicide pact, which came to fruition on August 19 in a room at the St. Charles Hotel, at the corner of First and Ferry Streets in Troy.
This story was uncovered in the process of transcribing the death records donated to the Dean P. Taylor Research Library by the city of Troy last year. The first enormous volume begins in January 1850, with deaths recorded with names, places, cause of death, witnesses, parents, location of interment, and age of the deceased. The record of the deaths of Louisa and William was bracketed, with the note that she had been murdered and he was a suicide at the St. Charles Hotel.
A newspaper ad for the St. Charles Hotel in Troy, NY.
A newspaper account, published by the Troy Post and repeated in the Salem, NY Press gave a graphic description. As described in the introduction above, Louisa VanWinkle had married Henry Knapp in New York City in 1844. She was the daughter of widow “E. VanWinkle.” The couple had one son, Frank, who died May 1, 1850. Henry was dying from consumption (tuberculosis), now unable to work. About the same time, Louisa met William A. Caldwell, described in the news article as a “reprobate,” just released from prison, having been pardoned from crimes of burglary and arson. He was the son of a “respectable citizen of Whitehall, NY,” but apparently was living in New York City, as was a brother.
Of course, Henry was unhappy with another man’s attentions to his wife. William had “cultivated an intimacy with Louisa that was considered objectionable.” He agreed to go out riding with William on July 24, perhaps planning to warn him off. Instead, this ride was part of a plot by William and Louisa to give her time to pack a trunk and escape to the steamship landing. William met her there and they headed up the Hudson River.
From notes found in the hotel room after the deaths, we know that William and Louisa had planned their suicides for at least a week. They had been staying in Williamstown, Massachusetts, but traveled to Troy around August 6. A note in William’s hat indicated that they had first planned to drown themselves in the Hudson River. Then they turned to opium and chloroform, taken in their hotel room. That failed, acting instead as an emetic. William’s final note stated that though his “health is perfect…the years before me are many…I find life a burden.” “We die by the sword.” Apparently he slit Louisa’s throat “from ear to ear,” then cut his own throat.
The employees at the St. Charles had not heard from the guests in Caldwell’s room for a couple of days, so finally opened the door to what could only have been a horrific scene. There would have been evidence of the failure of the opium poisoning, and then the blood from the final murder/suicide.
A daguerreotype of the kind that Louisa had with her at her death.
William’s notes indicated that his belongings were at their previous hotel in Williamstown. He only asked that they be buried together in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. (They were not.) Louisa, dressed in mourning, left a box of “trinkets and jewelry” with a note as to which pieces should go to her mother, sister, and friends. She also had a daguerreotype of her son Frank. She ended the note she wrote addressed to “Dear Ma” with “I hope you are as well prepared to die as I am.”
Relatives of both came to Troy to deal with the horrible event. William’s relatives retrieved his belongings from Williamstown. Perhaps they had as many unanswered questions as we do as to the motivation of the couple. William and Louisa certainly seemed united in their desire to end their lives, but it seems a bizarre basis for a relationship.
For the researcher, it is one more example of how the smallest detail can reveal such a big story, and how our own times do not have a monopoly on sensational and tragic events.
Blog post and research by Schaghticoke Town Historian and HCM Volunteer, Christina S. Kelly.