"HURRIED INTO ETERNITY.
"As early as 1791, Jesse Benham was living in a small wooden dwelling house situated a little east of the southeast corner of First and Ferry streets. He was well-known to everybody living in Troy and its vicinity, for he had been for many years the accommodating and affable ferryman who transferred people across the river from the Ferry street landing to West Troy. John F. Tillman, or Jack Tillman, as he was more frequently called, was the son of Capt. Christopher Tillman, who, in 1777, had command of the Lansingburgh company which served for a time in Col. Stephen I. Schuyler’s regiment of infantry during the first years of the revolutionary struggle. The circumstances which launched them both hurriedly into eternity are given in the Lansingburgh Gazette, July 1, 1800:
"The following melancholy accident happened in Troy, on Friday last, [June 27]: a person having dropped his shoe into a well near Mr. Ashley’s tavern, which had been covered and unused for some time, persuaded Master Jack Tillman, a young lad about fourteen years of age, son of the late Christopher Tillman, Esq., of this village, to descend into the well to fetch it up. A stick was tied on the end of a rope for the purpose, on which he placed his feet, and was lowered down; but as he approached the bottom, he was almost instantaneously suffocated with the dead air, and dropped from the rope. A Mr. Jesse Benham, who has attended the ferry at Troy, inconsiderately went down after him and met with a like fate. The water in the well not being more than a foot deep in depth, the bodies were soon taken up, but every attempt to animate them proved ineffectual."
“Troy's Tombs.” Troy Daily Times. November 12, 1879: 1 cols 1-5.
"HURRIED INTO ETERNITY.
"As early as 1791, Jesse Benham was living in a small wooden dwelling house situated a little east of the southeast corner of First and Ferry streets. He was well-known to everybody living in Troy and its vicinity, for he had been for many years the accommodating and affable ferryman who transferred people across the river from the Ferry street landing to West Troy. John F. Tillman, or Jack Tillman, as he was more frequently called, was the son of Capt. Christopher Tillman, who, in 1777, had command of the Lansingburgh company which served for a time in Col. Stephen I. Schuyler’s regiment of infantry during the first years of the revolutionary struggle. The circumstances which launched them both hurriedly into eternity are given in the Lansingburgh Gazette, July 1, 1800:
"The following melancholy accident happened in Troy, on Friday last, [June 27]: a person having dropped his shoe into a well near Mr. Ashley’s tavern, which had been covered and unused for some time, persuaded Master Jack Tillman, a young lad about fourteen years of age, son of the late Christopher Tillman, Esq., of this village, to descend into the well to fetch it up. A stick was tied on the end of a rope for the purpose, on which he placed his feet, and was lowered down; but as he approached the bottom, he was almost instantaneously suffocated with the dead air, and dropped from the rope. A Mr. Jesse Benham, who has attended the ferry at Troy, inconsiderately went down after him and met with a like fate. The water in the well not being more than a foot deep in depth, the bodies were soon taken up, but every attempt to animate them proved ineffectual."
“Troy's Tombs.” Troy Daily Times. November 12, 1879: 1 cols 1-5.
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