Troy’s 1894 Election Day Riot Killing of Robert Ross

Access to voting rights in New York State was generally limited to male property owners until 1821, when that requirement was removed for white men in an effort led by Tammany Hall Democrats.

New Yorkers rejected referendums extending voting rights to African-American men without property in 1846 and 1860, so it wasn’t until the U.S. Constitution was amended in 1870, that black men were guaranteed the right to vote regardless of their status as property owners. (Women did not win the right to vote until New York voters passed an amendment to the New York State Constitution in 1917.)

Throughout the 19th century, New York State was a shining example of both election reform and egregious abuse. In 1894, James Fenimore Cooper, grandson of the famous author by the same name, headed a “Committee of Fifty” which was established in a bi-partisan state law. Empowered to select the election inspectors for that year’s elections in key cities in which election violence was common, it was considered by white men in power a significant reform measure. It’s implementation was stalled by the Republican dominated Legislature.

That year in Troy, NY, battles over voting access were unfolding during the city’s 79th charter election, set for Tuesday, March 6th. A State Senate Election Investigating Committee conducting inquiry into Troy elections described a long list of election law violations.

Topping the list was “repeat voters,” those who were alleged to have voted multiple times. Ballot boxes were said to be forcefully removed and stuffed with bogus ballots as bribed police officers looking the other way. Poll-lists were said to include more men a given district contained. Election inspectors were frequently ignored, harassed, or threatened.

Local newspapers often exacerbated conflicts at polling places, as they did following Troy’s February 3rd caucus in the 13th Ward (in North Troy), which newspapers dubbed “The Revolver Caucus.”

For example,newspapers published the hearsay that Troy Mayor Whelan had told his followers in a 13th Ward polling place speech: “Boys, go home and get your guns and billies and stand up for your rights at whatever cost!”

A strongly worded warning against election day violence was issued by Democratic Senator Edward Murphy and published in Troy papers, but it was largely ignored. Political operatives from both parties planned to visit the 13th Ward polling place on Orr Street packing concealed weapons.

Among them was Democrat Bat Shea and the district’s Republican leader John H. Boland, who was accompanied by John Ross on the eve of the election to buy 32-caliber revolver in Bonesteel’s Troy Hardware Store on River Street. A handful of other Republican poll-watchers packed their weapons, too, creating a potentially explosive situation.

At 6 am Boland opened the doors to the Orr Street Polling Place, planning to be there until it closed. The Rosses – Robert, John, Adam, and William – arrived shortly thereafter, having already secretly passed out clubs turned on their company lathes.

Poll-watchers were present for the Republican and Democratic parties, neither represented the Socialist-Labor and Prohibition party members who would also use this polling place.

Two police officers showed for duty: A Captain Murphy and Martin Kane (then actually off-duty).

At 10 am, as Bat Shea and others arrived, a poll-watcher was said to have called out: “Here come the repeaters.”

Will Ross allegedly protested claiming they pushed their way into the line to vote. Kane intervened, persuading Shea and his friends to leave. With Shea were Jack McGough, Jerry Cleary, Owen Judge, Stanley O’Keefe, and a handful of other men. They retreated to Dunlop’s saloon around the corner.

In later trial testimony it was claimed that they were repeaters, and it was the third time that morning they were casting ballots with forged names taken from voter lists.

Around noon Robert Ross left for lunch, just before Shea and company returned. A William Armstrong later swore at trial that a man tried to vote using his name. The man was denied by poll-watchers. There was after all, no way to prove he was or wasn’t another William Armstrong (the 1900 Census listed at least two).

Around 12:15, stuck in the line outside, Ellis Hayner protested to Officer Murphy. Hayner had recently help break a foundry strike where Shea’s father worked and was a supporter of the Prohibition party.According to witnesses at trial, Hayner pushed his way into the polling place and was met with epithets, including “scab,” by Shea and Cleary.

It’s alleged that Hayner pulled out a steamfitter’s wrench and Shea produced a revolver. Hayner cracked him over the head with the wrench. As Shea reeled, Cleary shoved Hayner out of the building while drawing his own pistol. A misplaced shot was fired that electrified the crowd.

As more revolvers were pulled, shots came rapidly, like firecrackers. One witness later said “it was like the wild west.” Some of those present claimed at least twenty gunshots werw exchanged. Superintendent of Police Willard and Chief Detective Markham later reported over a hundred people at the scene and “four of these shots took effect… Will Ross, John McGough, and Bat Shea were dangerously wounded, so that it is evident that no one man did all the shooting.”

Wounded in the abdomen, McGough  staggered home, having his wounds dressed by Dr. Phalen. Shea fled the scene, too, led by O’Keefe down Douw Street, and was attended by a doctor in Dunlop’s saloon around the corner.

William Ross was carried to the residence of Rev. Joseph Zweifel, pastor of Grace Methodist-Episcopal Church of Troy. There Dr. Webster examined the wound just below his skull. The fourth shot mentioned by the chief of police was the one that struck Robert Ross in the head. His lifeless body was carried by his brother John to a home opposite the Polling Place.

Police Superintendent Willard and Detective Markham arrived at the scene and began their investigation, interviewing witnesses near Robert Ross when he was shot. By three o’clock, warrants were sworn out for the arrest of Shea and McGough on first degree murder charges.

Boland faced the same charge in police court, because of his proximity to the murder. Hayner was charged with a felony for carrying a deadly weapon on election day. Others were held in custody overnight in Rensselaer County Jail for questioning.

Five days later The Albany Argus reported: “The case is more complicated than any that [Willard] had ever before come under his notice. Over fifty witnesses have already been questioned, most of whom tell conflicting stories. The trouble has been traced back to the caucus held in the Thirteenth ward several weeks ago. The evidence, Superintendent Willard says implicates to a greater or less degree everyone who was engaged in the fight during which the crime was committed.”

On the evening of the riot, news spread quickly, triggering public outrage. Esek Bussey firefighters covered the front of their engine house in drapes of black and purple, grieving the loss of their newest and youngest member Robert Ross. It was later alleged that it was only with great difficulty that the firemen were “dissuaded from taking summary revenge.”

On Thursday, evening tandem mass meetings were called in Troy’s largest auditoriums to name a “Committee of One Hundred for Public Safety” and mount a protest against the claimed tyranny and corruption of “one-man power centralized in a political boss, and from a horde of illiterate, cheap, and crafty officials who had become lodged in the various branches of city government.”

Rev. Haynes of First Baptist was the keynote speaker, describing Robert Ross not as a victim of political violence but as “a blessed martyr” who sacrificed his life for a sacred cause. Besides demanding prompt justice for the murder, the Committee drafted a bill to fire the whole Troy police force, top to bottom, for alleged inaction on election abuses. Passed by the State Legislature, it was vetoed by Governor Roswell P. Flower. Its claim contradicted the facts of the case.

That Friday, the funeral address memorializing Robert Ross’s life was delivered by his pastor, the Rev. William Sybrandt. At 2 pm his church bell tolled along with those of the other Protestant Churches of Troy.

Robert Ross’s biographer would say “The tolling of the church bell could be heard by the murderer confined in the Troy jail.” It was a very presumptuous statement, weeks before the official inquest. There was still no answer as to who had actually shot Robert Ross.

After being waked in his family home on Oakwood Avenue, Robert Ross’s body was laid to rest in Oakwood Cemetery. A wreath placed by his bride-to-be, Miss Nellie May Patton, included the ribbon proclaiming “He Stood for His Rights.”

A couple weeks after the riot 27 Protestant women from United Presbyterian met in Troy’s Music Hall to form the “Robert Ross Memorial Association.” Their bronze memorial still stands stands above the cemetery’s 101st Street entrance, larger than life, guarding a ballot box and grasping an American flag.

Engraved on the base are four lines, “The Crowning Fact, The Kingliest Act, Of Freedom Is, The Freeman’s Vote.”

The results of this 1894 election in Troy? Senator Murphy’s choice for mayor, Francis Molloy, edged out incumbent Whelan by just over 900 votes. The bloody 13th ward contest for alderman was a squeaker, Dunlop’s 605 votes to 587 for Hancox, clinching his seat on the 26-member board. But at a terrible price.

Murphy called the killing “deplorable” and Dunlop was said to mourn his victory.

With a pending Inquest and multiple trials, the ripples would circle on for months and years to come. The first trial was fought in the press, Republicans scoring early with their New York Times jab, “Citizens of Troy Aroused: Determined to Avenge the Murder of Robert Ross”:

“The ruffian who shot Robert Ross because he protested against corruption at the ballot box Tuesday will meet swift justice if the decent men in Troy can secure that end. If his blood can make so hideous a stain on the Murphy system of carrying an election that it is forever wiped out, all that is decent and honest in Troy will rejoice.”

The Democratic-leaning Albany Argus countered in a series of damning editorials, pointing out that this outraged response of Troy’s “good citizens” overlooked a few uncomfortable facts, including the legislature’s Republican majority stone-walling of election reform.

“Because the Republicans wanted to wait until after they had profited at the spring elections by their control of the election machinery in the interior of the State,” the Argus argued, “the blood of Ross, of Troy, is on the head of these criminally negligent Republicans… They try to use a murder for political purpose. They seek to encourage riot to partisan advantage.”

Next: “Who killed Robert Ross.”

Illustrations, from, above: Illustration of the riot by Noel Sherry; “Mayor Whelan’s Advice” printed on the front page of The Albany Argus, March 7, 1894; Google Map of North Troy with seven key locations in the Robert Ross story added by Noel Sherry; an 1890s era Polling Place (courtesy Jack Casey’s The Trial of Bat Shea); a steamfitter’s wrench manufactured in 1895 by L. Coes & Co., Worcester, MA; Esek Busey Fire Engine Company draped in mourning banners, (from Rev. James Ross’ Life of Robert Ross); Rensselaer County Jail, where the rioters were held (from The Trial of Bat Shea); the Robert Ross Monument near the entrance to Oakwood Cemetery, erected in 1894.