The McFarland Murders

By Isabel Morse Maresh

January 31, 1991

Every so often a story from the past gives such detail and raises questions that one would like to have known more about it. The newspapers of old are not much different from today, and they would send reporters to the scene. But back then, it might take hours or even overnight to reach a back part of Waldo County.

An account in the Republican Journal in January of 1879 arouses interest even today. My father remembered his stepmother telling the story.

The tragedy happened on a Saturday evening at 7 p.m. in Montville, and the Journal reporter left for the scene on the 3 p.m. train Monday, after the news had reached Belfast, also via the train. The reporter arrived at Thorndike Station, hired a wagon and driver to go the seven miles "over the worst road imaginable, with the snow even with the fence tops" to arrive at the scene of the murder, which was a quiet, peaceful neighborhood three miles from Freedom Village in the north part of Montville near Ranlett's Corner.

John McFarland, aged 70, and his 65-year-old wife, Selena, had been beaten to death in the snow. The night had been dark and the area had been battered by a cold, blustering raging storm of driving snow.

The McFarlands had been prosperous farm people and well known in the community. Their son, Henry McFarland, had married a young woman named Abbie Bailey, and they had a daughter, Cora. Henry had become sickly and despondent, and one Sunday, after he had persuaded the family to go to church, he remained home alone. When the family returned, Henry was not to be found, and a search discovered him in the meadow where he had committed suicide by drowning himself in a pond.

Abbie and Cora continued to live with their in-laws, and no doubt the older McFarlands enjoyed having their granddaughter with them. About three years before the murder, Abbie had married a Mr. Rowell, who had spent 17 years in California and where he had reportedly acquired some wealth. They had a daughter and continued to live with Cora's grandparents.

Rowell, at age 42, was a large man and it became apparent that the family was afraid of him. One afternoon he said that he needed some rum to cure a cold and rode his horse at tremendous speed so that his horse was white with foam when he reached the city. He spent three days there before returning to the farm.

Mr. McFarland asked his neighbor, Alonzo Raynes, to spend the night with them for protection. Rowell was up at 4 a.m. and built a fire, but appeared calm. Raynes went home and the next night sent a young man named Bennett to spend the night. Rowell went to bed at 6 p.m. but soon arose and dressed. All knives and weapons had supposedly been hidden from him.

Rowell then took Cora and the baby and locked himself in the parlor. Mr. McFarland and his wife broke in to save the children, and Rowell beat them to the floor. Cora took the baby and fled the house, while Bennett ran for help. As Rowell went upstairs, the McFarlands crawled out of the house. As the neighbors came back, Rowell fired a gun at them through the door. He then ran down the drive, striking both McFarland and his wife with the gun with such blows as to kill them both,

Abbie, Cora, and the baby got to Alonzo Raynes' house and they all got inside, but Rowell began beating down the door. Raynes, at the urging of his wife, got his gun and shot through the door, thinking to wound Rowell in the legs, but the bullet killed him.

The neighborhood was highly excited and large numbers came out to view the scene, but fresh-fallen snow had obliterated it.

The authorities were called and on Tuesday, Coroner Elisha H. Carter summoned a jury for an inquest. Cora testified that she had seen her stepfather kill her grandfather and grandmother in the snow. The neighbors also testified. The jury concluded that John and Selena McFarland died from blows from a gun in the hands of Rowell and that Raynes had acted in defense of himself and his family in shooting Rowell.

It is interesting to note that just 20 years later, Rowell's brother attacked his wife and family with a flatiron. When his son heard the commotion, he struck his father with a club of wood, and the injured man begged his family to get him help. He was taken to an asylum in Augusta, where he died the next day. It was written that he was a farmer and Millman, and a good citizen, but business problems were thought to unsettle his reason.