The 1857 unsolved murder of Adeline Baver is one that has echoed through time in the area of Mohrsville, Berks County. Her gravestone stands in the old Belleman’s Church graveyard. Written in stone is: Adeline Baver, born 15th of May, 1838, and murdered on 7th of October, 1857. Many have attempted at retelling the tale with noticeable changes in details emerging over the 168 years since her death. Time always has a way of obscuring the facts, but lets go back and see what we can find.

There is very little documented about Adeline’s life. The only paper trail I could find was an 1855 Orphan’s court order giving full custody of then 17-year-old Adeline to a man named Solomon Fisher. This indicates that she had been either orphaned or abandoned by her parents. I am unable to find records of parents or siblings. Adeline lived on Solomon’s farm with his wife and daughters who were of similar age.

The very first article regarding the murder that I have access to in searchable archives published in the Harrisburg Telegraph a few weeks after the murder. It mentions that the Berks County Commissioners had offered a reward of $500 for information leading to the perpetrator of Adeline’s murder. It also mentions an interesting coincidence – that Adeline’s aunt, Esther Fisher, met a similar fate. In 1833, Esther left Manayunk in Philadelphia where she lived and worked to head back to Reading to visit family on a canal boat. Her body was found in the vicinity of Norristown, never reaching her destination. The article mentioned Esther was Adeline’s mother’s sister. The common last name with Solomon leads me to believe he was her uncle, which explains his guardianship. Esther’s killer was also never found.

The first detailed account of Adeline’s murder was published via the Reading Eagle in 1906, a full half-century after it occurred. I was initially skeptical of this account because this article lists the date of murder as October 14th, 1845, which is profoundly incorrect. However, it was given by a first-hand witness and one the first people to come across the murder scene. The following account was given by a woman named Catherine Seaman, who lived in Leesport:

“I was then a young woman and was employed at the Mohrsville Hotel. It was early in October and the Berks County Fair was in progress. Many people from the surrounding country drove to Mohrsville, put up their teams in hotel and proceed to Reading by train. They returned in the evening and we prepared supper for a number of them. While the preparations for supper were going on it was necessary for me to go into the cellar to get some victuals. We used the outside cellar door and when I passed through the yard and neared the cellar steps I heard sounds as though some person were moaning. I called the hostler’s attention to the sounds and he gave it as his opinion that it came from the canal and was likely caused by fighting boat men.“

Catherine went on to describe the next morning, “a deaf mute tramp came up the railroad and tried to tell us by signs that a body was lying in the water down the road, but we could not understand him. A few hours later a gang of repair men came up the road and told us that the body of a girl was lying in the water near Dauberville. We at once proceeded down the road to see whether we could not identify the body. In those days it was supposed that when a body was found no one had the right to move it until the coroner arrived.“

She was one of the first to observe the body, “When we arrived at the scene the corpse was still lying in the water near the breast of the mill dam. Up to this time the body had not been identified and it was supposed that the young woman had been drowned. I asked an old man who stood by to let me have his umbrella. With this I moved the body slightly and discovered a gash in the young woman’s throat.“

Soon after the coroner arrived to the scene and identified the body as that of Adeline Baver’s. Adeline had planned to attend the fair the prior evening and it was theorized she was on her way to or from when she was murdered closer to Mohrsville than where her body was found. Later reports also mentioned that she had been stabbed around her chest in addition to the slit throat. I was able to verify that Catherine Seaman was a real person, born in 1836, making her just two years older than Adeline. She also met an unfortunate demise about a decade after being interviewed for this article. In 1917 the kerosene stove she was cooking at exploded at her home in West Leesport, igniting her clothing and engulfing her in flames. Her screams were heard by neighbors who tried to help, but she succumbed to her injuries hours later at the Reading Hospital. I found another interesting coincidence – according to Google Maps the business less than 500 feet away from where Adeline’s body was found is currently owned by a Clarence Seaman. Almost certainly related in some way to Catherine just based on proximity.

A May 30th, 1889 Reading Time’s article mentions that a small patch of woods in the Schuylkill known as Heffner’s Island was the scene of the murder, as blood had been found on and around a fallen tree, along with Adeline’s earrings which were lying on the ground. It was speculated that her body was moved on a railroad hand cart back south toward Dauberville, and thrown over the railroad bridge at its crossing over the Irish Creek to make it appear she had been hit by a train. I did find a deed record of a John Heffner selling the land just south of Mohrsville off to the P&R railroad in 1848, so it is likely that this is the property described as “Heffner’s Island” on which she was murdered.

Many men were arrested for the crime in the following weeks. All of them were thoroughly questioned but ultimately let go due to a lack of evidence. The trail turned cold.

Eventually many of the true details were forgotten and legends took over. Newer published accounts have her murdered by an axe to her head, the weapon of which taken from her uncle’s farm. These details gave birth to the theory that her murderer was someone that knew her and her family well, but they aren’t based in fact. Solomon Fisher’s farm was miles from the crime scene, and it was quite well established that she had been cut and stabbed in the early accounts of her murder. Due to the growth of the railroad during that time, many transients were in the area working on its construction; largely unknown and theoretically able to get away with murder in a time long before forensic science and DNA evidence.

Whatever the truth may be, it is said that around dusk during the crisp fall weeks in October, Adeline’s ghost can sometimes be seen walking the railroad tracks between Mohrsville and Dauberville where she most certainly met her demise.

“Adeline Baver, she was born on the 15th of May 1839 and murdered on the 7th of October 1857. Aged 19 years, 4 months and 22 days. Epitaph; Psalm 90, verse 12“. That verse is “teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom“, essentially recognizing the brevity of life and encouraging the reader to not waste time or take it for granted.