"Pitchfork" Sanford and the Murder of Samuel Lee
The murder of Samuel Lee by David Sanford provides an interesting comparison to the case of Moses Paul. On July 23, 1807, Samuel Lee of Middletown came up to David Sanford’s blacksmith shop in Seymour, on what then known as the Rimmon Falls Turnpike (Maple Street/ route 313 today), asking for the road to Danbury. Sanford pointed south, saying “that’s the way.” Then Lee said, “I don’t know what the matter is with me today; I believe the devil is in me.” To which Sanford replied: “God-damn you, what are you here drunk for?” Lee stepped back into the road and clapped his hands. “You have God-damned me, now come out here if you want anything of me. Them that swear will lie, and them that lie will steal.” Sanford then took up a broken pitchfork, grasping it with both hands and striking Lee a heavy blow, using all his might. Lee “sallied away toward the ground; Sanford struck Lee again across the back, Lee laying there on the ground. Sanford then grabbed Lee by the hair and dragged him. A witness, Belina Clark, who lived nearby and looking out her window, exclaimed, “God, he has killed him!” Sanford then said, “Get up you damn rascal and go along, not come here charging me with lying.” Lee got up and said “Look here and see the blood.” Blood was steaming down Lee’s face. Sanford said, “I don’t care for you or your blood neither; get up and go about your business; walk straight, God-damn you, none of your crooked work.” Lee walked to the corner, and asked which way to go. Sanford said, “Go to hell, God-damn you!” Lee said, “What did you strike me for?, you damn rascal? And Sanford replied “Hold. Don’t let me hear any more of your sauce.”
Lee actually managed to walk a ways down the road before he collapsed. Captain Ira Smith found him and brought him to Mrs. Dayton’s house (a tavern) nearby, where he died two days later. The exchange between the victim and the killer is somewhat puzzling, but it seems that Lee thought that Sanford was giving him false directions. Sanford pointed south, when Danbury lies to the west and somewhat north of Bethany. But Sanford would have been correct; there was no easy way to get to Danbury, and the Housatonic River would have to be crossed. But Lee thought he was lying, and told him so. Alcohol seems to have played a part; Sanford accused Lee of being drunk, and who knows but that Sanford had been drinking as well. It was late in the day, and Sanford was likely finished with his work.
Doctor Abiram Stoddard was called in to see Lee, and after examining him, said to call in Dr. Spalding from Derby. But it was one or two o’clock in the morning, and they knew that Spalding wouldn’t travel in the dark, so they waited till morning. The next morning, a local magistrate named Tomlinson was there, and David Beach, a lawyer and the author of the pamphlet which tells this story was there. Later, David Sanford showed up, anxious about what might happen to him should Lee die; Dr. Stoddard told him branding and whipping, citing the statute. Sanford seemed shocked. When Dr. Spalding arrived, he cut away the scalp from Lee’s head, and some of his brains gushed out. He extracted eleven pieces of bone that had been driven into Lee’s brain. Tomlinson allowed Sanford to leave, saying that he wouldn’t run away. This was on a Friday.
The next day, Saturday July 25, a number of people gathered at Beach’s house, including Ammi Rogers, who, according to Beach, “styles himself the Reverend Ammi Rogers.” Rogers had an unsavory reputation, and Beach was well aware of it. Rogers said, what a horrible thing it was, that men should “arrive at such depravity as to kill one another.” Rogers seemed interested in the statute, and Beach handed him the statute book, which Rogers studied carefully. Again, someone said that Sanford should be arrested and jailed, but Rogers assured them that Sanford wouldn’t think of running away, and in fact had gone to Joel Chatfield’s farm to help with the harvest.
Later, around noontime, Beach went to Mrs. Dayton’s to check on Lee, and Ammi Rogers was there. Beach had the impression that Rogers was there to spy for Sanford rather than to give comfort to a dying man. Rogers repeated that Sanford wouldn’t run away, and could very easily be apprehended should it become necessary. Finally a warrant was issued by a different magistrate on a complaint of breach of the peace, and deputy sheriff Francis French, accompanied by Truman Hawkins, went out to find Sanford. Beach, with three or four other men, met French near Chatfield’s farm, relying on Roger’s statement that Sanford would be there. But he wasn’t. Men were sent to his brother Elihu’s house in Bethany, but he wasn’t there either. Sanford later confessed that when he saw the men coming for him, he fled, first to Plymouth, where his horse was later found, and then to “Gun-town.” Gunntown was located in what is now Naugatuck, the local parish was Episcopalian, and was an area known for Tory sympathies during the Revolution.
Meanwhile, Samuel Lee died on Saturday night around 11 p.m. A jury of inquest was held and Ammi Rogers was questioned as to where Sanford might be, but swore he hadn’t seen him. David Beach felt sure he was lying. On Monday, it was learned that Sanford was in Oxford, at John Wooster’s place, and he was apprehended there and brought to the jail in New Haven. Sanford had his day in court on August 2, 1807, and was found guilty of manslaughter. His sentence was thirty lashes and an “M” to be branded on his hand, and ordered to wear a cord around his neck for the rest of his life.
Sanford in 1820 opened a store at the "four corners" where Maple and Pearl streets crossed, where he was known as "Pitchfork Sanford."
David Sanford was born in Bethany on October 20, 1765, and had a twin brother, Samuel. David came from a well-respected Bethany family. His father, Col. Elihu Sanford, had fought in the French and Indian War, and along with his two eldest sons, had fought in the Revolutionary War. That Sanford was a friend of Ammi Rogers is a clue to his character; they say that birds of a feather flock together, and that a man is known by the company he keeps.
***
For further reading:
Click on the thumbnail above to read the pamplet: "Statement of Facts Concerning the Death of Samuel Lee and the Prosecution of David Sanford for Murder," printed in New Haven, for the author, 1807.
Rev. Hollis A. Campbell. “Old Landmarks of Seymour” Connecticut Magazine. (Nov-Dec 1900) Vol. VI, number 7: pp 498-501. https://archive.org/details/connecticutmagazv6hart/page/n599/mode/2up?q=brewster
W. C. Sharpe. History of Seymour Connecticut, Seymour, CT: Record Print, 1879. https://archive.org/details/historyofseymour79shar/page/n9/mode/2up?q=dayton p. 174.