The Salisbury Hotel

The Salisbury Hotel

Salisbury Hotel circa 1882

   Opening originally as the New Road Inn, the Salisbury Hotel was built by John Harvey the founder of Salisbury Township. It was the first hotel in the township and was situated on the only road that led to a bridge over the Para River. Harvey had designed his new town, and a new road to lead people away from the Main North Road, back through Salisbury.

 This hotel was used for meetings that decided much of Salisbury’s future. Local laws and legislation were decided here, local council formation, the location of Mills, Post Offices and even how the train line would pass through the township were all decided in this hotel.

 Usually, I write about spooky stuff, ghosts, hauntings, etc, but in this case, I couldn’t find any local legends or ghost stories associated with this hotel. I spoke to the current publican of the hotel very recently, and she assures me this hotel Is not haunted, however, it has some interesting history, including the story of an inquest into the suicide death of Scottish immigrant James Carstairs.

Salisbury Hotel 2019 - Allen Tiller

   On the 14th of Oct 1854, James Carstairs, known locally as ‘Scotch James’, hung himself a bedroom of the Birchall family home. Evidence at trial indicated that Carstairs had been overseeing the kitchen of the Birchall farm. During that time, he had gotten Fanny, the 16-year daughter of Mr Birchall pregnant. When Fanny’s father heard of her condition, he left the vowing never to return. This, it is claimed led to Carstairs suicide.

 On the day in questions. Carstairs woke at 6am went into the kitchen, lit the fire and set the kettle on the stove. He then left and went back to his room.
 At 7am, Elizabeth Birchall (Fanny’s sister) and another staff member, Elizabeth Symes awoke. For whatever reason, the girls peered through Carstairs window and could see him standing motionless behind the door. The two women called out to him, but he did not react or reply. They called over My Symes and Mr Munday who went to check on Carstairs. They found he had hung himself with a very thick rope.
 

Salisbury Hotel circa 1890

Fanny Evett, during the inquest, claimed she had only ever had consensual sex with Carstairs, however, she had been raped in her fathers front garden, but stated in court, she was already pregnant at the time. She was unmarried, and had never told Carstairs the child was his, nor pressured him for marriage.

 Carstairs body was cut down by Mr Webb and placed on a couch until a doctor arrived to examine it. Carstairs body was then moved to the New Road Inn for an inquest. No Judge could be found in the area to preside over the inquest.
  It took two full days for a mounted constable to search for someone to hold the inquest. Otto Schomburgk J.P. eventually presided over the inquest, but, in the meantime, Carstairs body had come to decompose.

 The inquest into the suicide of Scotch James was the first held in the New Road Inn. Later the same year, 1854, the hotel changed its name to the Salisbury Hotel.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2019

Sources:

 'CORONER'S INQUEST AT SALISBURY.', Adelaide Observer, (28 October 1854), p. 11.

'CORONER'S INQUEST AT SALISBURY. —SUICIDE.', Adelaide Times. (26 October 1854), p. 3.

Shields, Brian P 1983, History of Salisbury, Salisbury Public Library Service, Salisbury

'SOMETHING DISGRACEFUL.', Adelaide Times, (18 October 1854), p. 2

 'CORONER'S INQUEST AT SALISBURY.', South Australian Register, (26 October 1854), p. 3.

The Tragedy at Towitta (Part 6) –What the Inquest Found

 Towitta could not handle the influx of people who had come to hear the slightest bit of news from the inquest, Sedan was overrun, and even Angaston’s overnight lodgings were full.

 August was the first to be called to the inquest, which was being overseen by Coroner Mulligan, with Detective Fraser taking the depositions and Detective Priest acting as Clerk. Wilhelm followed August – as the boys gave their statements, Mary and her Mother, Johanne, waited in the kitchen of the family home.
 The boys stories differed slightly from that of Mary’s original story, they stated, they had come home and the girls were already in bed, so they helped themselves to cake, before retiring themselves, Mary’s statement said she had cut the cut for the boys, before they had retired to bed.

 Dr Steel was next to be questioned, and his statements proved to be quite damning for Mary. After describing his initial examination of Bertha’s body as she lay dead on the floor, he then described the port-mortem examination and the findings there, but, it was his examination of Mary, on the morning after the murder that proved most news-worthy.

 Dr Steel stated that some the strips of clothing found near Bertha’s bod were missing from Mary’s night clothing, Mary also had scratched on her arms, bruising on her knees and upper thighs, but perhaps the most damning was Mary had complained of a sore neck, Dr Steel discovered Mary’s hair had not been pulled or was even out of place, and that the back of her neck had been recently washed.

 Matthes and Johanne were called upon next, but offered no new clues, or a clear motive for the attack. The inquest went on well into the night and was only adjourned until the next day because there was enough light to allow the clerk to take notes.

The next day the inquest began again at 8am. Mary was called to the witness chair at 10:20am. She wore a brown dress and white apron and was sworn in, something that wasn’t normally done at an inquest.
 An argument then broke out between the two solicitors over Mary giving evidence that may or may not incriminate her, and both men argued the point to the Coroner. Detective Fraser then told Mary she does not need to say anything she thinks may incriminate her.

 Mary answered all the questions asked of her for the next four and half hours, never wavering and never showing much emotion. Her story had not changed, but one piece of evidence was about to be brought forward that would change the case, and cause the biggest media sensation South Australia had ever seen at the time.

 Mary revealed she had been having relations with a man named “Gustave Nitschke”. The Police Solicitor jumped on this as a possible motive for the killing of Bertha, who, as it turned out, had known of Mary’s Trist with then older man.
 Gustave Nitschke was called to the inquest to give evidence, and spoke of having sex with Mary on a t least three occasions, one time on the Schippans parents bed, with Bertha in the room next door, possible watching through the cracks in the door. This of course in 1902 would have been scandalous, an unwed woman and man having sex and secret meetings.

 During Nitschke’s evidence he stated he had previously “spooned with Bertha, whilst another man spooned with Mary, and had often joked with Bertha about whisking her away to the city with him.
 It came to light that Nitschke had had sex with Mary on the night her parents had left for Flaxman’s Valley, December 17^th 1901, just a few days before Bertha’s murder, but he had witnesses to prove he had been in Adelaide at the time of the murder.

 More witnesses were called during the afternoon, including Mary’s Mother and Dr Smith, the jury retired at 5 to 6pm and returned an hour later with their verdict on the matter.

At about 7pm that night the Jury’s verdict was read aloud by Coroner Mulligan:

 “We, the Jury, are all of the opinion that Johanne “Bertha” Elizabeth Schippan met her death on the first night of January, 1902, by having her throat cut by Mary Augusta Schippan.”

The room was silent.

Mary was called before Mr Mulligan and the murder charge was read out loud to her, and everyone present. She was then ordered to be arrested and to be transported to the Adelaide Gaol, where she would await trial for murder, a sentence that carried the weight of being hung if found guilty.

 Mary’s Mother embraced her daughter, and refused the police to take her away, all the while Mary pleaded with her mother that she had not done the crime.

 The Police put Mary in a horse trap, and took her to the Angaston police cells where she was kept until the next morning, they then took her to Freeling train station and awaited the Kapunda train.

 The Police officer knew word was travelling, and a crowd had gathered at Gawler to get sight of Mary, a larger crowd was now gathering at the Adelaide Railway Station as the news of the young girl who had killed her sister made its way into Adelaide.
 The officer in charge of transporting Mary had other ideas to beat the crowd, and he disembarked from the train at North Adelaide, taking Mary straight to Adelaide Gaol.

NEXT WEEK: The Tragedy at Towitta (Part 7) –The Trial of Mary Schippan

The Tragedy at Towitta (Part 5) –The Inquest Begins

 News travels fast in the country and the tragic circumstance around the Towitta murder spread like wildfire through South Australia. Mounted Constable Mowbray secured the crime scene and started documenting the evidence, only to have Matthes and Johanne return home at 1pm that day from Flaxman’s Valley. Heinrich, one of the other brothers also made his way home from where he was working as soon as heard what had happened.

 Dr Steel had arrived from Angaston and had dutifully recorded the cause of death, assisted by Mounted Constable Mowbray and Police Constable Rumble. Matthes was soon approached to identify his daughter’s body, and did so with little outward emotion.
 Soon the Coroner arrived, Mr William Mulligan who almost immediately set in motion an inquest into the event gathering known facts and assessing the situation.
 

 The night, as neighbours gathered to console the grieving Schippans, two other neighbours prepared Bertha’s body for burial – It was a hot summer, and unlike today there were not electric refrigerated morgues, so a quick turnaround time to burial was considered essential.

Mary Schippan

 On Friday the 3^rd of January 1902, families gathered at the Schippan family home and sang hymns as they mourned over the body of Bertha. After the short service, the families of mourners followed the body of Bertha to the Sedan Cemetery where she was laid to rest.

 On the same day a number of Police Troopers, Detectives, and Aboriginal Tracker and a Sergeant descended on lonely Towitta, bringing the investigate force to 15 men. Detective Priest ran the investigation and set up an office in the family kitchen. Meanwhile, the Schippans began to live their lives in the shed the boys shared, using another outbuilding for their kitchen and food preparation.
 Soon the media arrived in the town, and began enquiring of the Schippans, who answered every question thrown at them, and allowed numerous photographs to be taken. The Media also asked questions of every single person they encountered in the town of Sedan, looking for that one important scoop. In fact, as the inquest really took hold, and the publics greed for news about the Schippan story took centre stage, three people had to be added to the Angaston telegram exchange to get the news back to the newspapers.

  Soon the real inquest into the matter begun, and the Adelaide City Coroner, Dr William Smith came to Towitta as a witness, this was because he had been asked, as a Doctor to assist in the identification of bloodstains on the girls' clothes. Two Solicitors arrived, MR J Sinclair from Adelaide, acting for the Police, and MR A Foster of Kapunda acting on behalf of the Schippans.
 A jury soon arrived consisting of 8 men. The entire consort of people, and the Schippans all went into one of the outbuildings of which would become the main place for the inquest to be held. Just outside of the building a number of photographers and journalist’s waited for information, and behind them, in the field, were families, some with picnic baskets, waiting for sort of information they could get about the gruesome goings-on at the Schippan House

NEXT WEEK: The Tragedy at Towitta (Part 6) –What the Inquest Found

A Mysterious Letter - The Torrens Drowning Case

A Mysterious Letter

Mysterious letters began to turn up at the local Adelaide police station in December 1931 and the home of the Lawson family in Hilton, after the body of 17-year-old James Charles Lawson was found at the bottom of the Torrens Weir in Adelaide.
The letters, sent anonymously, appeared to be made by someone lacking in literacy or trying to disguise themselves as appearing so.
The letter received by James' Mother, was signed “I am one who knows” and contained a number of insinuations toward the Mother that she may have had a hand in the boy's death. The letter also alluded to the boy running away from home regularly, and that the reason for this was known by the letter writer, insinuating it was caused by harsh treatment of James by his Mother.

One line in the letter stated “If an inquest is going to be held, I am going to make myself known”, a thinly veiled threat that this anonymous writer knew something more about the boys death and would come forward as a witness to provide possible evidence that could lead to a murder trial – the letter was signed by “A Mother”.



The police issued a statement urging this Mother to come forward and state the facts she knew. They assigned an officer, one they thought would be approachable, for the anonymous writer to come forward too. Constable E. J. Davis, a plainclothes officer.  'Mother' never came forward.

As is law, an inquest was held into the death of young James, and hoping that the anonymous writer would be brave enough to come forth, a young court orderly was sent into the hallway and doorways of the building and told to announce in his loudest voice “That if anyone wished to give further evidence, he, or she, should come forward now and be heard!”
No-one stepped forward.

It was found by the inquest that James died from drowning, Dr. A F Lynch, who conducted the post mortem examination added to the testimony stating that James had eaten a very heavy meal shortly before he entered the water and that, due to this, it was probable that a sudden chill on top of a full stomach had resulted in his losing consciousness and drowning.

Do you believe the verdict of the inquest, or do you think something more sinister happened to young James?

© 2013 Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au