A Gruesome Affair

[Editor's Note: Thanks Paul for giving us this Gruesome Affair. It is longer than many articles, but you have given us a picture in the history of Gananoque, that we would not get from other documents. We appreciate your research and your willingness to share.]

A Gruesome Affair

The following events took place in 1907 on a farm at the east end of Gananoque. The farm house was located on the now vacant lot between the current McDonalds and the House of Dragon Restaurant. The lot is vacant except in the summer when it is the location of the popular Abby Hill Farms corn stand. It was one of those spectacular events that made the newspapers across North America. Newspapers of the day included details that one would never see in reports today. Those who have no appetite for this type of reporting should skip this article.

Triple Murder and Suicide - Wife and Children the Innocent Victims of Deranged Mind

Gananoque and all the country near it was shocked as never before last Monday afternoon by the news, which spread rapidly in all directions, that William James Waldie, a farmer well known to nearly everyone, had killed his wife and two children, and then himself, thus destroying his whole family. It could hardly be credited at first, as he was one of the last men who would be suspected of such a horrible act. But it was soon proved to be too true. And the following note, written by him on a half sheet of note paper, and left on the kitchen table, tells the story:

“Upstairs will be found the work of a mental and physical wreck, a maniac for the last two years, unknown to anyone but myself, I suspect. Would to God I had never been born. I have killed the dearest woman and unborn babe and two of the sweetest of children. I had intended to kill only myself, but I could not at the last leave them to the scoff of the world. I had been hoodwinked by those who should have been my friends and could see no future, as I am utterly unable to manage or accomplish my work. Will Waldie”

Mr Waldie had arisen early in the morning, while his wife and two children were still sleeping. Mrs Waldie was lying on a double bed, in which with her, no doubt, Mr. Waldie had past the night. In a crib, placed between the bed and the east wall of the room, were the two little girls, Elsie and Marie, one nearly five years of age and the other nearly three. While they slept, or at least unconscious of the fate awaiting them, Mr. Waldie killed them all, one after the other, with a hammer, striking each one on the left temple; which he evidently knew to be a vital spot, and the one most likely to cause instant death.

It is not probable that either of the victims knew what happened to her, though Mrs Waldie was struck more than once and continued a faint respiration for an hour or more. Having satisfied himself that his fearful deed was accomplished Mr Waldie came down to the yard, where his hired man, Charles Shipman, soon appeared and they both proceeded to milk the cows and do the morning chores.

When the cows were milked and the milk put into cans Mr Shipman started to drive it to the milk factory. As he was driving off Mr Waldie told him not to leave the place when he returned until he got directions about the day’s work. This was, apparently, said in order to make sure that Shipman would look for him when he came back, and so discover the tragedy.

When he was left alone Mr Waldie re-entered the house, wrote the note, which he left on the table in the kitchen and went upstairs to the bedroom, where he cut his throat with a razor. When found he was lying partly across the bed in which his wife was with his head and hands on the floor in front of the bed. From the appearance of the blood on the floor, some who saw it think he stood up in front of a mirror when he cut himself, and then threw himself on the bed in the position in which he was found. This view is partly confirmed by the fact that the razor he used was found in one of his pockets, and that it is thought he could hardly have placed it there if he had not been standing up. At the same time, others are convinced that he got unto the bed and laid down with his feet towards the wall and his head over the side at the front before using the razor.

When Mr Shipman returned from the factory, and not seeing anyone around, he went into the kitchen and so on into the dwelling part of the house. The absence of the usual indications of morning life and work, and a profound stillness, broken only by a faint sigh or sob, made him apprehensive that something was wrong, and he cautiously went up the stairway to the bedroom above.

There the sight that met his view sent him back horrified. He ran out and called to people passing and quickly the alarm was taken up. Hurried messengers came up the street for the chief constable and doctors. Drs Sinclair and Bird went at once but found that all four of the victims were beyond help. The only one who showed any signs of life was Mrs Waldie, and she, too, ceased to breathe within a few minutes. Chief Constable Ryan took charge of the place, and notified Coroner Dr Shaw, Lansdowne. The Coroner came up about noon and after learning all that could be shown or told him, decided that an inquest was not necessary.
There are, in fact, two farms, the other lying in rear, and a little to the east of the first one mentioned. Mr Shipman, the hired man mentioned, lives in the house on the rear farm.

So far as was known to the outsiders and from testimony of those more intimate with him, there was nothing in his financial or domestic circumstances to cause him unhappiness or even discomfort. Nor did anyone suspect the mental suffering which, according to his letter, he was undergoing.

At the same time there must have been something seriously wrong with his brain or nervous system to enable him to coolly and methodically carry out his terrible design. He describes himself as a maniac, but that definition is hardly consistent with the fact that he does all along transact his business affairs and managed his farm with good judgement and foresight.

Even the day before, on Sunday, he with his wife and children drove down to Mr Peck’s, and spent the day till 4 o’clock in the afternoon visiting Mrs Waldie’s parents. They returned home by milking time, and the usual work was done in the ordinary routine manner with nothing occurring to excite alarm or in any way disturb the serenity of the happy family.

It is said, though, that Mr and Mrs Herbert Waldie called at the house Sunday evening and spent a short time there; and they noticed that William was abstracted in his manner and not inclined to social conversation. Probably that fact would not have been remembered or commented upon if nothing sensational had followed. He purchased a hammer at Mr James Donevan’s hardware store on Saturday, but that he intended it for the purpose used can only be surmised.

The Funeral

The families of Waldie and Peck are extensively connected in Gananoque and throughout the townships of Leeds and Lansdowne, and among the most respected and esteemed. Mr Noah Peck holds the office of Deputy Reeve, and has for some years been prominent in public affairs. His father, Mr George Peck, now a resident in town, was for many years a township councillor and later a member of town council, and county commissioner. The Waldies, also, have many relations by blood and marriage, and are widely known in business matters.

These facts, together with the personal regard entertained towards Mrs Waldie, who was in every way a woman to be admired; and the shocking details of the death of a whole family at one fell stroke, combined to bring out the whole community to the funeral, which took place Tuesday afternoon. All day Monday after the affair became known, nearly all through the night and Tuesday morning the house and yard were filled with people looking over the premises and discussing the event. Shortly after noon Tuesday a steady stream of people on foot and carriages of all description, set in, and by 1:30 o’clock the vacant space near the house was filled with people, and the roadway and fields in every direction was covered with carriages.

Messrs Isaac Cole & Son and Mr SA McKenzie, undertakers, had charge of the proceedings. Rev H Gracey, Pastor of St Andrew’s (Presbyterian) Church and Rev. Jos Cornell (Methodist) conducted the religious services. The Ministers stood on the steps at the front door, west side of the house, and addressed the large congregation standing in the yards and filling the space from the gate at the roadway back to the barn. Hundreds were unable to get within hearing distance of the speakers and hundreds of others made no attempt to do so, but sat in their buggies out in the fields.

In his remarks (Rev. Mr Gracey) dwelt upon the fact that Mr. Waldie had left a letter of explanation . . . in which Mr Waldie assumed the whole responsibility of his act. Not only that, but specifically declaring the innocence of others, and giving his reasons, such as they were, for doing what he did; reasons that originated with himself, and impelled him, without reference to any acts of others, to the course he took. Mr. Waldie stated that it was his intention at first to take his own life only; and then the love he bore his wife and children induced him to remove them from the unhappiness sure to be their lot if they survived him. So the matter ends. The letter must be taken as conclusive, and leaves no ground for after comment or speculation.

At the conclusion of Mr Cornell’s address, three hearses were brought up in front of the door. The body of Mr Waldie was placed in the first, that of Mrs Waldie in the second and the two children in the third, and the procession moved off to the Halstead’s Bay Cemetery, five miles down the river. Between 200 and 300 carriages were in line, besides the scores of others that departed in other directions to their homes. Every section of the township for a distance of 15 miles or more were represented.

The Daily British Whig of Kingston, in their 15 May 1907 issue covered the funeral and added a few more details.

Buried in One Grave
The funeral of Mr and Mrs William Waldie and two daughters, Elsie and Marie, took place from their late home just east of town, yesterday afternoon. Long before the appointed hour the surrounding fields were thronged with men, women and children, while the road was blocked with buggies, cabs and other vehicles. Rev Henry Gracey, pastor of St Andrew’s Church and Rev Jos Cornell, Pastor of Gananoque East Circuit, conducted the service after which the funeral cortege wound slowly down to Halstead’s Bay burying ground. Never in these parts has been known such a funeral. Even the hardest-hearted could not look on unmoved. The hearse containing the remains of Mr Waldie went first, Mrs Waldie’s remains next and the third hearse bearing the children following, while behind were about 200 vehicles, stretching over a distance of upwards of two miles followed. All four bodies were interred in one large grave, on one side the father’s remains, on the other the mother, between them their babies. The scene was one never to be forgotten. The pallbearers were Messrs C W McNeill, Clark Loney, ex-Mayor WJ Wilson, Wesley Keating, George Webb and FT Latimer.

There were many reports in newspapers far and wide. Most were rather generic but the 21 May 1907 issue of the Commercial Advertiser of Canton, NY, had a rather lengthy report which added some more information. In a couple of places, it contradicts the words in the Gananoque Reporter article as spoken by the Rev Henry Gracey and shows that there were signs of his difficulties.

“Waldie was always a man of temperate habits and genial disposition, had recently been treated by Dr Sinclair for nervous prostration.” And “Waldie was known to be deeply in debt and is thought he worried a great deal over this.”

Other contradictory reports surfaced in other papers. A Kingston paper wrote this on the 13th:

“He is supposed to have awakened early, as he had been a great sufferer from nervous affection. He tried on Saturday last to sell his farm to a neighbour.”

The Aftermath

On the 17th of May the Daily British Whig, apparently citing a Toronto paper, wrote that:

“Waldie’s father-in-law says that the dead man ‘moped’ as far back as a year and a half ago, leaving his work in the middle of the afternoon, complaining of loss of appetite, and then eating almost to excess. Waldie’s insomnia was not of an ordinary type, in as much as he insisted his wife and children should remain awake with him.”

Whether this was true or not there was a rebuttal of this story on the 27th of May. In this short item Noah Peck stated that he never said the above and that it was a lie. After this long it is difficult to know what the truth might have been.

There was one other report that cast an even more macabre shadow on this already horrific story. There was a short item on the 25th of May that draws in the spectre of grave robbing. This story doesn’t appear to have been followed up on but does implicate the Queen’s University medical students.

“Ghouls are reported to have robbed the grave of William J Waldie, who murdered his wife and two children at Gananoque recently. He was buried at Halstead’s Bay some distance from the town.”

Did William Waldie end up on an autopsy table at Queen’s Medical School in Kingston and dissected? These medical schools were perennially short of cadavers to experiment on and to teach anatomy. Medical students were blamed for many of the grave robberies around the area.

There is also an obvious question that arises. Did one or more of the doctors in the town, all of whom had connections to the Medical School, arrange the robbery? Would the school be interested in examining the brain of a mass murderer? A local must have been involved, as a stranger wouldn’t have known the location of Waldie’s body. All four were buried in the same grave, and only his body was taken. As for the Pecks, would Noah and his family be upset that the corpse of the murderer of their daughter and their grandchildren was now gone from their common grave? And given the notoriety of Waldie’s actions, and the status of the would-be perpetrators, would the authorities have been diligent in investigating this crime? Even the Gananoque paper showed a lack of interest in the grave robbery. It was not mentioned in the paper.

When the monument was erected, William was not mentioned as being buried there. He had been neatly erased. The monument at the cemetery reads:

Gertrude W Peck/ wife of W J Waldie/ died May 13 1907/ aged 28 years, 10 months, 15 days/ Their children Elsie A and Marie W died May 13 1907/ Elsie A, aged 5 years, 4 months and 24 days/ Marie W, aged 2 years, 3 months, 19 days// (Footstones : Marie, Elsie, and Gertrude).

Almost one hundred and twenty years have now passed and this tragedy has been long forgotten. But this now quiet rural cemetery has one dark secret.

By Paul Coté

Paul Coté is a resident of Gananoque. He has socialized and worked on the River for most of his life. History has always been a passion, and he is a self-confessed genealogy addict. Recently retired from contracting on the River, he now has time to pursue and write about his research. "Paul has recently published "The Shaping of Gananoque, 1792-1880"--and is working on a follow-up tentatively titled "The Dark Side of Gananoque"--of which-this article is an abbreviated version of the complete chapter.

He has also published two more books: one titled "One Room Schools in the Rear of Yonge and Escott Township", and another one on "The Early Water Powered Mills and the Evolution of the Roads", concerning the same township. His book, "Sheatown: A Vanished Irish Catholic Community in Protestant Yonge Township, Leeds Count", was reviewed in TI Life December 2019 issue. You can view all of Paul's articles on the TI Life site, here and here. Paul's books are available at Beggars Banquet Book shop, the thousand Islands Museum and the Visitor's Centre in Gananoque.